Serious question- what does cult-like mean? Growing up Southern Baptist, for some reason my family had a big book of cults on our shelf that I loved to read. The point of it was to warn you that these "cults" aren't real Christianity and control people's lives, I just thought it was fun to read about all the crazy things people came up with. Later I realized that the Southern Baptist church probably also fit under crazy things people came up with and controlling people's lives, but I digress.

I think the word "cult" is a semantic weapon to use against people who are doing things that make people feel uncomfortable. I guess an example of this would be some people who are primativists and call into question civilization itself, but I've learned a lot from these people even if disagree with much of what they think. Lierre Keith comes to mind.

Once we start banishing people for eating grits or shunning non-paleo relatives we can call it a cult, but the fact that blogs like Whole Health Source or Mark's Daily Apple are some of the most popular shows we are opened minded to 20% or eating fermented grains or pretty much doing what's best for YOU. That's the crux of paleo- it's not about eating for other people or some cause, it's about making YOUR life better.

Me? I'll continue to have my weekly bowl of cheese grits and to date my boyfriend who eats narsty breakfast cereal every morning.

Edit: Yipes, right after I wrote this I saw the new Free The Animal post about Don from Thepaleodiet.com deleting his link to Richard's site because he endorsed eating potatoes! This is exactly what I don't want the paleo movement to become. Having now met hundreds of fellow paleo dieters in person, the ones that seem the healthiest are not the purists. In many ways I would like to not be associated with such a movement and would like my own philosophy to be called evolutionary eating or something, but paleo has kind of stuck.

It only risks becoming cult like when people begin following strong personalities rather than thinking about the ideas themselves. Especially when people learn about it through an authoritative individual. However a good diversity of opinion keeps people questioning, which is a good thing.

The principle of using evolutionary theory to understand diet, health, fitness and medicine is such a broad guiding philosophy that is can be applied to many different ideas and can result in a myriad of resulting thoughts and opinions.

A much bigger risk I see is people potentially isolating themselves from others through their food or lifestyle choices. Trying to convert people to anything or judging others on what they eat is a good way to push friends and family away be it paleo, vegan or anything else.

I will add two more things to this.

I do not really like the whole "Paleo" or "Primal" tags although I understand the necessity of having a shorthand word for ease of communication. I am not a Paleo person, for example in the same way a religious person is. I simply like to eat healthy food, not "Paleo" foods, if there is still such a thing. Evolutionary thinking is just a very useful guide.

Another risk is the belief that conventional = bad. While current food policy and nutrition is to influenced by ecognomics and politics and eating a paleodiet may turn this on its head it does not by any means mean that all conventional thinking is wrong.

You obviously haven't bought the Vibram FiveFin..., er, drunk the Kool-Aid yet, have you :)?

Seriously, though, I think that food is just as good an excuse for cultish behaviour as say, sex or religion. I hope, though, that the open-minded, experimental, logical, results-oriented approach of Paleo/Primal will keep us from getting too wrapped up in things. And the fact that Paleo is about eating as part of a sane healthy lifestyle as opposed to other concerns, such as not eating animals or eating as fuel for athletic endeavours or losing weight for your high school reunion will hopefully help too.

Scott - good question!

My personal feelings are simply this: anytime a group of people have a similar idea and are having fun with it as it gains momentum, it's then labelled as "a cult." From my personal perspective, our primal/paleo community may have many ideas, different at times such as the inclusion of dairy or not, but regardless as long as you express your ideas respectfully, others will respect you. For those non-paleo/primal, they label themselves as the outsiders and cement that name as they call us a cult.

Calling us a cult is the same as saying "THOSE people." The same has been said of the CrossFit community. I'm not a CrossFitter, but if I could afford it, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot. At the end of the day, people just like to belong. When people want to get leaner/thinner/healthier, but don't have the willpower and know it, they start downgrading the very thing that could actually help them if they only gave it a chance.

At least that is my perspective.

When will paleo stop seeming like a cult is a better question. I think dialling back the groking/reenactment will do heaps for that.

When they join CrossFit

Yeah, its a cult.

I find fault with two assertions.

1. Viral diseases arose out of animal domestication.
2. Prehistoric man was much healthier before the rise of agriculture.

These are silly and unprovable.

To Bill - please read from the following discussion:

http://www.thincs.org/discuss.cavemen.htm

Especially this:

Uffe Ravnskov Dear Stephen and all It is fascinating to speculate about the diet of man in prehistoric time. However, knowing how difficult it is to get reliable information about the diet of individuals living to-day, it seems a little absurd to guess what kind of food people ate 10,000 or more years ago, in particular which kind of fatty acids. And even if we knew, so what? Can we deduct anything about the influence of this diet on these peoples health, of which we know even less? Isn't it a subject much better suitable for a cosy after-dinner chat, than for creating scientific hypotheses? However, if you consider his recent papers good I would certainly like to read them.

The paper by Glew et al is a good example of another unfalsifiable hypothesis. Best wishes - and beware of electronic microorganisms! Uffe

Stephen Byrnes: Uffe: It really is not speculation about what people ate thousands of years ago as prehisotric remains and tooth analysis can reveal what the diet was. As far as health impacts, I think it is relevant: all you need to do is look at modern-day peoples who are, for all intents and purposes, the equivalents of our Ice Age ancestors. The field of nutritional anthropology is not as murky as some think. SCB

7 weeks ago. (I've been on paleo for 8 weeks) :-)

Mike

When people start asking what paleo/primal tattoo they should get. Wait a second....

The point that it becomes a cult is when it goes from, "Hey, this is a great diet! I feel good, I feel good, and I've lost a lot of weight," to, "You need to try this. Did you know people with (every disease) have been told to try Paleo and it totally cures them?!" This is when it goes from being a personal decision to personal quest to convert everyone else to your way of doing things. It's especially annoying coming from folks who've never been on ANY diet, so they're really just thrilled that anything "works" when they know damn well they never honestly tried anything else. It's also annoying for someone like me who has lost 60 lbs WITHOUT gimmicks. I know it will come as a total shock to many of you, but I just worked hard to not eat junky food and exercised more. I didn't totally eliminate ANY ONE THING.

BTW, anyone who says they've "examined the evidence that supports Paleo" is full of shit because it hasn't been specifically studied for long enough to prove anything. There are a lot of correlations that may be found at some point, but preaching them like they're fact does not make them facts. By looking at these things, you're not being "open minded," you're being faith based. It's the same kind of bullshit argument that "intelligent design" fukkerz use.

If Paleo works for you, fine, I'm happy for you that you're not a big fat fuck anymore, but you're not to tell me or anyone else that we "have to" try it and that it's a cure-all for eveerything that ails us.....because it's not.