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So, we all love (or soon will love) the paleo lifestyle. The question is remains where is the line you have drawn in the sand between pursuing optimal health and fitness, and being a crazy person who romanticizes the stone-age. I am all for being of optimal health, but I for one am not prepared to dissect all of the non paleo aspects of my life until I have my diet, exercise, body-composition, and sleep dialed in. Once I have those aspects of my life the best they can be. Maybe I will be prepared to obsess over the details.

What's your line in the sand?
And what's the most extreme act of following paleo you have taken?

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What does "tards" mean? – gilliebean♦ Jun 10 2010 at 20:34
Was suppose to say paleotards, in reference to people who take it way to far. Not sure how to edit the tag, I'll work on it. – Captain Paleo Jun 10 2010 at 20:38
Like leotards - ie. caveman dance wear. Okay, I'm not gonna stop and pick up the dead deer at the side of the road - I did think about it though. – Dave S. Nov 1 2010 at 19:03
i kinda want to retag this. sort of offensive to certain groups of people other than paleo who really don't need to be picked on. – MikeD Nov 1 2010 at 21:24
Dave S - in some states with a strong hunting tradition, if you hit a deer the police will give you the option to take it home and, if you don't want it, they will deliver it to the local soup kitchen. And I will say, we came across a good-sized buck once that we KNEW had only been there less than 30 minutes; seemed a shame to let all that fresh vension go to waste! So, maybe next time you see one ... – JCB Nov 1 2010 at 22:45

8 Answers

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Line in the sand: The point where I actually try to emulate anything paleo on the basis of my belief that it's paleo.

Paleo is a heuristic. You use it to generate hypotheses and to figure out what to eat for dinner. Then, crucially, you test the hypothesis (and eat the dinner) and see if it actually works for you.

You become a "paleotard" when you start pretending like you actually know how paleo people lived and begin trying to emulate it. We don't know to any degree of certainty and emulation on the basis of "they did it" is not well founded, especially given the massive variety in human behaviors across populations. I've noticed that this reasoning is often used as a way to justify any random bias a person might have (Melissa's answer about polygamy highlights a perfect example), which is just bad philosophy. Test those ideas, don't blindly follow them because you think they're paleo!

Most paleorific thing I've done: Dunno. Since the above is my philosophy around the whole thing, I guess I haven't done much on the basis of "following paleo". To date, my paleo interventions are:

1) Wearing moccasins. Appears to have solved a weak arch thing I've had since puberty. Win.

2) Stopped using soap except in extreme cases. Appears to have had zero effect on cleanliness/body odor/etc. Removal of unnecessary activity = win.

3) Zero carb/VLC/no starch/no fiber. Appears to have successfully controlled Crohn's. Ongoing experiment, though. Not ready to declare a win, although I'm excited with the results. It's also an extreme variation of paleo which you wouldn't settle on unless you limited your paleo research to Stefansson and the Alaskan Arctic Inuit; it took modern feedback to justify it in my mind.

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Oooh, my sister-in-law has just been diagnosed with Crohn's and I've been searching for anecdotal and scientific evidence to support my assumptions that cutting the grains and possibly other fibre would help her find a solution to her pain and problems. Do you have your story written anywhere? What else helped you find your control tactics? – Girl Gone Primal Jun 11 2010 at 0:29
his very interesting blog is here: crohnscarnivore.blogspot.com – rht Jun 11 2010 at 2:59
Yep, that's the blog and the story. I've been meaning to write a post explaining the scientific basis for the experiment for months now but I always get lazy and fail. You're the sixth person to ask about it in the past month though so maybe I should get off my ass and just do it. – pfw Jun 11 2010 at 11:43
@Girl Gone Primal Have your sister-in-law look into the book "Breaking the Viscous Cycle." It's a diet similar to paleo (no grains, only sugar allowed is honey) but encourages eating homemade yogurt with probiotics. There are probably thousands of testimonials of Crohn's patients who have used the diet successfully to control their disease. – Earache Jun 11 2010 at 14:53
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 My only caution with the SCD is that they seem overly complacent about nuts and nut flours. My angle is based on research done by Alan Ebringer, who found elevated levels of a specific bacterium in Crohn's patients, and further established that the auto-immune response might be related to a particular enzyme produced by that bacteria when it digests starch. The SCD also attempts to avoid starch but for whatever reason doesn't seem to exclude nuts, which also have a decent amount of starch in them. – pfw Jun 11 2010 at 15:25
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"What's your line in the sand?"

Polygamy. Some paleo men seem to think this is "natural," but I think it's just an excuse to get around.

I'm too territorial to tolerate that one.

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Wow, thats a good one. My mind never even went that direction. – Captain Paleo Jun 10 2010 at 20:36
From what ive read couples were monogamous, it was just serial monogamy and the women were the ones who moved on. I dont think polygamy came until we settled the land and could build resources that made us more attractive than other mates. I actually think that serial monogamy is still in our genes its just that in modern society it is indeed better to settle with and be faithful to one person. – Ryan Jun 10 2010 at 20:56
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 A real cave-man doesn't need an excuse to get around any way. People should be free to do what they want as long as they are honest and don't hurt anyone. – NomadicNeill Nov 1 2010 at 20:07
I think being too attached to a person can do more harm than good. Just my opinion, most relationships that get too "serious" become EGO struggles and neither person can actually make the other happy. Loving oneself is important. I think sex should be fun and not restricted, but perhaps in modern day culture this is something that's hard to digest. We have been conditioned by culture since our birth, so this plays a huge part in how we perceive the world and the society we live in. – justanotherhunt Feb 4 2011 at 20:39
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 lol I reviewed that book here huntgatherlove.com/content/sex-dawn – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Feb 6 2011 at 4:01
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"What's your line in the sand?"

Going barefoot all the time.

Creating my own stone tools.

Actual hunting and gathering (okay I might try it...)

Only living on:
A: Coconuts and Salmon
B: Whale blubber and Caribou
C: Cattle milk and blood

Eating Insects

Killing and eating other humans. (Soylent Green anyone?)

-- I really haven't done anything really extreme. I still get flak for my VFF's, eating meat, and telling people that all the nutrition is in the yolk...

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bugs covered in dark chocolate are actually pretty good. – MikeD Nov 1 2010 at 21:27
Yeah, but I can't get over the ick factor. I should probably add brains and rotting fish to the list. I don't really care how healthy they might be. Frankly, anything that is gross is off my list (very subjective). Not going to MovNat or PrimalCon either. – Dave S. Nov 2 2010 at 12:04
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This ties in very nicely with a recent blog post by John Durant. And I think that the point he's trying to make, that Paleo role-playing in the fantasy sense might get a little silly, needs to be balanced against the fact that there are some people who've come to the primitive living thing from an anthropological background, and who've been experimenting with primitive skills for scientific or personal-interest reasons, and who have arrived late at Paleo with a headpalm, asking ourselves why the hell didn't we think of that ages ago.

I'm one of those people. That being said, my line in the sand would probably be moving into a primitive shelter wearing primitive clothing for more than a few days. I'd miss my wife. So I gues I'm a Paleo-wuss.

There is no way that I am going deer hunting this fall without my Gore-Tex. Small game hunting in Utilikilt and Fivefingers? Been there, done that. The brambles were a bitch.

Bowhunting? Once I'm good enough with a bow. I already gave bowfishing a try; only downside is that the only legal game around here is carp. Spearhunting for feral pigs? I'd do that in a heartbeat. I'm saving up and I already have the spear. Foraging for wild foods? Occasionally. Mushrooming? Studying up for it. Flintknapping? For a N00b, I can make a pretty creditable projectile point, TYVM. Build primitive shelters in the woods? Been doing that since I was a kid.

But my outdoors/primitive skills shenanigans aren't an outgrowth of my interest in the Paleo diet; the Paleo diet is an accessory to my primitive skills interest (which motivated me to do my first degree in anthropology these many moons ago) that I stumbled upon by accident. So based on your question, I'm guessing that a lot of what I do for kicks might seem pretty odd to an urbanite who came to Paleo as a fad diet. And to answer it, there's not a lot that I wouldn't experiment with doing (except perhaps for polygamy; my wife is a very good shot), but the desire to do so is not driven by interest in the Paleo diet. It's driven by a larger constellation of interests.

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I'm interested in health and longevity, not regression and poorly-informed historical reenactment.

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line in the sand: squatting

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/squat-poop/

some things are just not worth the hassle!

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I was playing with going no-soap, but I guess I don't really see the value added in totally cutting it out (I am only shampooing once a week though, and my hair is looking pretty good!), so i guess that's my line in the sand.

Cutting down to one shampoo a week may be my most extreme thing; I'm a lightweight ;)

Ask my CW friends though, and they'd probably call me extreme on the following counts:
Wearing VFFs to the store
Using coconut oil as sunscreen (and I'm a pale girl!)
Making lard
Buying a cow heart

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Does the coconut oil actually work? I am very very pale so I need sunscreen of some sort – mari Feb 4 2011 at 20:52
I've only done it once, but it did work- I slathered on a couple layers & let it dry before going out (apparently you will fry if you don't let it absorb). I went to water country USA from I think about 2-5 in the afternoon, in full sun, and I was totally fine. I've read mixed reviews, so proceed cautiously! – Jules K Feb 5 2011 at 3:30
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Lines in the sand are negotiable depending on the situation. Example, hunting/gutting/cleaning for me. Can I do it? Yes. Well? No. Do I WANT to do it? Hell no... Hurrah for the modern age!

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