Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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You might check out the NetFlix movie Pururambo. There are also youtube videos like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aV_850nzv4 which I have not actually watched. (Unfortunately the youtube version of Pururambo is in a language that I do not speak.)

My point: My point is that modern people have gone way too far with the modernization garbage and have lost touch with their ancient roots, especially in diet. This is not a good reason to swing to the opposite extreme and embrace all things from the paleolithic era without some discriminative thinking. The folks in the NetFlix movie Pururambo lived a most miserable and narrow and short and brutish existence. I won't be running around stark naked in a malarial infested swamp anytime soon, at least not voluntarily.

And before you jump all over me, notice that the women in the NetFlix Pururambo are treated like shit.

There are many wonderful things about our society. Our music peaked in the late 1700's, well after the paleolithic era. Our technology is astonishing and getting better. Our race relations are doing good and getting better. Despite all the headlines, war is becoming a thing of the past; even the US Navy is trying to promote security by way of openness. Our population will plateau at 10 billion, which, given time, we can adjust to. LENR will put an end to our energy problems. The world is becoming a better place, even if Americans have the worse diet in the history of the world.

flag	asked Aug 4 at 20:03 bachcole 1,434●3●10

	Our music peaked in the late 1700's - you mean the 1990s right? – HuntingBears Aug 21 at 21:44
	I meant what I typed, you goof. – bachcole Sep 17 at 0:38

Varelse · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-04 20:34:20Z UTC

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I agree with most of that. Some people take Paleo TOO FAR when they start talking about not bathing and all. I use commercial soaps, makeups and things (mostly Lush, Tom's of Maine, and Bare Minerals, so a little better than conventional but it sure isn't 100% natural). There are a lot more changes I'd like to make (no more nasty city water, only buy local grass-fed etc) and when I'm in a position to do them, I will, but in the meantime life goes on.

All this Paleo re-enactment talk reminds me of Ishmael. We can't go back to those days, nor should we want to, but we can learn from them and adapt the concepts to our current society.

answered Aug 4 at 20:34

Varelse
8,843●3●27

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Upvote for the Ishmael reference and for and overall excellent comment. – FED at LiveCaveman.com Aug 5 at 0:09

Luckie gets the check mark, but all of the answers were good. What I am most concerned about is brutish and unspiritual behavior and anti-spiritual attitudes. But the bathing thingie is also important. We are living better than we were 10,000 years ago. Even a card carrying Luddite like me can see that. But there are somethings, like diet, that we need to revisit and adjust in light of the Theory of Evolution. You-all might want to check out "contrast showers". I am bathing more now than ever thanks to "contrast showers". – bachcole Aug 6 at 14:57

Not so sure we'd quite agree on all that then, Bachcole. Most of the brutish behavior I run across seems to be religiously motivated or at least religiously justified, though I do recognize that for a lot of people there's a difference in religious and spiritual. If we can combine/balance the best of the intellectual and the best of spiritual (computer programmer meets medicine man, perhaps?) I think society as a whole would be better off. People like me sure aren't the solution, but I find the other extreme worse. – Varelse Aug 6 at 16:49

Poop Master MC · Answer 2 · 2012-08-04 21:21:53Z UTC

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I embrace paleo with the passion of a thousand suns going supernova at the exact same instant.

answered Aug 4 at 21:21

Poop Master MC
2,773●1●6

FED at LiveCaveman.com · Answer 3 · 2012-08-05 00:39:50Z UTC

It seems like we are discussing where along the Paleo continuum each of us resides.

If this continuum (assuming that we can all agree on what is truly "paleo") runs from total reenactment to the Standard American Diet then I probably hang out somewhere in the middle.

For me, the "middle" is the where I am able to reach my goals (which include not just physical goals, but emotional, social, and psychological needs) and in general this involves eating things that I can identify by sight and, if it has an ingredients label, the label reads like a recipe rather than a science experiment.

Of course, there are wild swings from time to time, and this can manifest as cracking open bones for their marrow to cracking open a Rockstar "lo-carb" energy drink.

Note: I watched Pururambo and enjoyed it. The documentarian has done a few other movies as well, visiting other isolated HG tribes.

I think that there are things that we can learn from our ancestors and those who live in the closest modern approximation of our ancestral lifestyle, but we (as in Westernized/Industrialized humans) are like the domesticated cow. It's lot in life can be made better or worse, but it wouldn't last a second in the wild.

meta · Answer 4 · 2012-08-05 00:43:41Z UTC

For me paleo is about genetics.

The human genescape - with a few small exceptions - evolves very slowly and certainly far slower than the industrialisation of our civilization, including food production. There are many benefits that technology has brought us as well as many dangers - many still unknown (i.e. decomposing plastics that mimic oestrogen).

Whilst knowledge on the functioning of the body evolves at an ever increasing pace, there is still no clear consensus on why the obesity epidemic and metabolic syndrome continues to spread in Westernised societies - and therefore no precise solution (my hypothesis: epigenetics and altered gut bacteria populations).

Paleo is a way of referring back to a reliable template of genes shaped by environment - albeit a template that may be imperfect and somewhat out of date but still superior to what is currently on offer.

Diane · Answer 5 · 2012-08-05 00:01:13Z UTC

Well, my favorite activity is backpacking. The longer the trail the better. Being miserable in the rain with my rain gear forgotten at home and being bitten up by mosquitoes doesn't seem to stop me. Sitting in the dirt or on rocks or logs instead of chairs and sofas is not a bother. I sleep better on the ground sometimes than in my bed at home. Foraging wild foods is really fun. Scaring myself to tears climbing scary snowfields seems fun after it's over. I don't know, I guess I must be strange, but comfort, security and status aren't always what they're cracked up to be. Sometimes it helps to suffer to feel truly alive, in the moment, grateful and joyous. As far as paleo goes, I eat fairly close to paleo but except for backpacking, which in my case is heavily reliant on fossil fuel and high tech fabrics/materials, I don't do a whole lot else that is similar to the paleolithic era or hunter-gatherer people.

Just how paleo is your paleo? Just how stridently do you embrace paleo.

5 Answers