As a young black child growing up in the Bronx, I developed a taste for danger, blood, and grass-fed liver.

For me, that last question in your final paragraph is an important one. Sadly, I have to answer "no," at least as far my body is concerned. I grew up eating fairly healthy food, at least compared to the SAD. My mom cooked, and although she became a low-fat, whole-grain kind of person at some point, I always had meat and veggies for dinner. But I loved -- loved -- pasta and bread, and mashed potatoes and rice, and if I'd had my way, all I would have eaten was starch.

I've heard anecdotally that kids on the autism spectrum, and those with other neurological disorders, seem to be more attached to macaroni-and-cheese type foods than other kids. Which is sad, since ketogenic diets look promising as an intervention in neuro-disorders. I'm not on the spectrum, but I had seizures as a child, and the anecdotal observation holds true in my case.

So I think in an environment where unhealthy food is available and considered "normal" to eat, we can't listen to our bodies to know what's good, if by "listen" you mean "trust your cravings." I do listen to my body in the sense that I've seen my health improve miraculously by eating the way I do, but if I paid attention to cravings, I'd be indulging in unhealthy addictions.

I totally get what you mean. 6 years ago I already had fantasies about juicy steaks. I liked the taste of broccoli, carrots, ... But my mother always prepared the same veggies. When I first heard about paleo I immediately though "this is the kind of food I've always wanted to eat".

That's what makes it so easy for me to continue preparing meals, day after day : I love the food, so I'm prepared to work for it.

This is such an excellent question! I have thought about this over the years. I was raised in an environment where people did a lot of hunting and fishing, so I'm comfortable with that. I was introduced to vegetarianism as a teenager and that was the perfect act of rebellion. I would be the healthy one! Fast forward many years and several eating styles later (the Zone, raw foods, slow carb), Paleo was like a breath of fresh air! Eating meat and vegetables makes so much sense. Eating FAT makes sense. I find it very easy to reach for Paleo foods. It has taken time, but now I'm listening to my body and getting some great feedback! I also have a newfound respect for the hunting and fishing practices I saw growing up.

My natural inclination is towards dairy products like cheese and ice cream. Not a big step from there to Mac n cheese. My love for seafood of all kinds developed later, more learned than instinctive, maybe slow to develop because of a childhood hatred of bad tuna sandwiches and fish sticks. I always wanted a steak but there were none around.

Great question! I've always loved meat and vegetables - even as a kid when I'd cook up pots and pots of veggies smothered in butter with lamb chops and gravy - My mum always encouraged this too, so maybe she was a little more intuned to Paleo than I was!

I grew up eating a standard 1950's suburban American diet - Wonder Bread and all. I didn't really CRAVE bread until I got older and discovered how wonderful it could really be when made well. Sometimes I still sigh over a loaf of real French sourdough with olives and sun-dried tomatoes at the green market on Saturdays before I move on.

I WAS however a serious sugar junkie - would eat brown sugar straight off a spoon and loved candy and cookies and cake.

But, I was also a serious little carnivore right from the get-go and I think I have always instinctively known that I just FEEL better when I eat a goodly portion of meat - especially red meat. Of course I flirted with vegetarianism in college - it was the 70's after all - but I think that may have lasted a whole week before I ran screaming for a burger.

As for the second part of your question though - veggies - I am still in the "I eat 'em 'cause I know I probably should" camp and don't know that I will ever choose them first over a good hunka steak.

I've always been very fond of dairy products and sugary foods, I really liked meat as well but it was also somewhat repulsive for some reason. Vegetables never appealed to me unless they were drowned in fatty sauces.

I generally think we should trust our cravings, I was pretty damn healthy through out my childhood till my teen years when I started eating lots of burgers and junk. My diet has somewhat come full circle and I eat very close to what I craved as a child, my brother jokes that this is the way he has always wanted to eat since he can remeber.

I had been vegetarian since I was a kid, since my dad was and I wanted his approval. It wasn't hard, since I never much liked meat anyway. I still don't crave it, but I have noticed that I feel so much better since I've been eating lots of salmon and beef so perhaps I'll learn to crave it.

Good question, now that you mention it, it's true my food preferences parallel my mom's to a large degree - she hates organ meat and seafood so we never ate it and I somehow internalized that it was all gross and disgusting. I'm slowly getting over that.

She is a firm believer in the calories in = calories out paradigm, the low-fat healthy grains thing, and we got the message that being fat was like the ultimate sin. But she, herself, would regularly forgo real food and spend hours doing chronic cardio so she could eat cookies and ice cream and still stay thin. None of us were overweight, (until one of my brothers, recently), we're more the ectomorph types, but sweets (cookies, candy, ice cream in particular, not sodas) were always front and center, the forbidden, favored foodstuff.

In the past, my whole diet also revolved around sugar, and that basically meant minimizing everything else. I ate vegetables, not because I liked them, but because they're low in calories, and that made more room for sugary stuff on the balance sheet. Since giving up sugar, I have begun to appreciate the taste of real food and I'm getting more in tune with how my body responds to different kinds of calories (fat, protein, etc). Wow. what a trip. I might have appeared plenty fit and healthy on a crap diet, but somewhere deep down I knew it was just a ticking time bomb.

That's a big YES for me. My mother usually had the full SAD spread on the table, and I hit the meat and some veggies hard, ignoring bread (but graciously accepting cookies when available, which was only occasionally.)

I buttered the veggies and also the meat if not fatty, such as in boiled dinners. I wasn't a big eater of sandwiches or spaghetti, although I learned to eat those things as I grew up. It's highly ironic that if I'd had full control of what I ate I would probably have been lean and healthy throughout my adult life.

The SAD food that was the primary driver of my later-to-appear binge disorder was potato chips, which back then were coated with lard and very salty (Wise Owl.) I only had them available once or twice per month but I would eat as many as I was allowed because they were so shockingly high reward in comparison to daily food including baked goods.

Yeah, it amazes me sometimes how much my current diet mimics my childhood preferences. Years and years spent conditioning myself to eat low-fat, crackers, hummus sandwiches, lean chicken, and tons of soy made me fat, sad and sick. Turns out that instinct I had to snatch the butter from the table and make a run for it would have been my best option.