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What about a broader definition of what can constitute a paleolithic diet beyond individual lists of allowed and banned foods. I quite like Loren Cordain's ideas from some of his papers on this based on surviving hunter-gatherer groups. No doubt people will disagree about details. High, moderate and low are relative to the modern western diet.

Protein - High (19-35%)

Carbohydrate - Moderate (22-40%)

Total fat - Moderate (28-47%)

Total fibre - High

Vegetables and fruit - High

Nuts - Moderate

Salt - Low

Refined sugars - Low

Glycemic load - Low

Feel free to argue about the details but what do you think about the concept of a definition like this? How would you define it?

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What about specifying that the fibre is plant based and not grain based? – henny May 6 2010 at 22:13

3 Answers

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A definition should not focus on macro-nutrient content. If you want a very broad definition just go with "Eat real food, avoid things with poison in 'em." Then you can argue about what exactly is real food and what contains poison ^^

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Combine Michael Pollan's rules (Eat real food; 5 or less ingredients; etc), with "don't eat things that cause allergic reactions in people - even if YOU don't have the reaction" (peanuts, wheat, dairy, etc), and add in a dash of "don't eat things you wouldn't eat raw" (grains, beans, etc).

Tada! Algorithmic definition of paleo

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Guess you are referring to dried beans here. I sure eat green ones raw. – henny May 6 2010 at 22:14
You eat green beans raw? Even when canned they're usually pre-steamed to make them more pliable. Here's a raw-food link indicating that raw green beans DO contain toxins: rawfoodinfo.com/real letters/ltr_greenbeans.html – Aaron Griffin May 7 2010 at 16:37
Crap, [here][1] is a better link. [1]: rawfoodinfo.com/real%20letters/… – Aaron Griffin May 7 2010 at 16:44
Well, so far so good. I've been eating a few green pole beans every year for a long time and nothing has made me sick. I knew I was tough- just didn't know how tough! – henny May 8 2010 at 5:27
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I personally like the numbers but most people who don't know what food is what will have a hard time figuring out their daily percentages so it ends up not being broad to the normal population.

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