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can the community spitball a "beginner's" guide to the common nutrition ideas of PHD, robb wolf, chris kresser, jack kruse, kurt harris and ray peat? (i also think someone like david wolfe might be an expert, only because he arrived at health via a totally different methodology and still produced results)

i think for starters they all recommend no grains (except white rice) and legumes and Low PUFA, and everyone agrees that gut health is the most important thing.

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6 Answers

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  1. Eat whole clean food (going organic when possible, and for protein going with animal protein that from grass fed/pastured sources favoring ruminants over poultry)
  2. Eliminate grains and legumes (some are okay with rice, and soaking legumes)
  3. Remove vegetable/seed oils from your diet as much as possible (replace w/ healthy saturated/mono-unsaturated fats instead)
  4. Get a hold on your stress
  5. Get good quality sleep
  6. Be active (try to move as much as possible, not exercise necessarily)
  7. Some sort of resistance training aka "Lift Heavy Things"

Once you have those down, you can tinker w/ macro ratio's. In terms of carbs, you will cut back on a lot of processed carbs, and extra sugar by sticking to mostly whole clean food. No reason you HAVE to be very low carb to be paleo.

Hopefully that helps.

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 +1 for the only person to mention whole foods, that's the key right there. – Matt Jan 4 2012 at 22:46
i think there's discrepancy with the definition of whole foods. considering that ancient people's probably never at much muscle meat by itself and we do, muscle meat could be considered a processed or refined food. likewise for brown rice syrup, however that is the only sugar source that doesn't give me terrible back pains. so i think "whole foods" is too vague and meaningless at this level of discussion. – dsohei Jan 5 2012 at 3:50
I hear your point and the definition is vague, but at the same time for a beginner the idea is to stop eating processed food. Once you implement or at least start, then you can tinker with other food that are safe for you (like white rice or rice syrup). I don't think any one would call muscle meat processed (unless you are talking about eating sausage, bologna, etc). I better argument is that we are eating too much muscle meat compared to the rest of the animal. Eating offal and some bone broth shoudl compliment your muscle meat eating IMHO. – pbo Jan 5 2012 at 13:32
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Ideas I have found to be undisputed:

  • The average person eats way too much PUFA
  • Gluten grains are harmful, or at the very least offer no unique nutritional value
  • Some amount of animal protein is essential (emphasis on bone broth/gelatin)
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Agree with the first two. For the third idea, I would suggest that it's more some amount of animal-based food, given that animal protein specifically is not biologically essential. – Mscott Jan 4 2012 at 19:01
What part of an animal could be more biologically essential than the protein? – Kasra Jan 4 2012 at 19:20
@Kasra, I agree that the "experts" agree it's natural for us to eat animal protein and the "nose to tail, head to foot" animal. – Nance Jan 4 2012 at 20:47
pray tell why gelatin should be emphasized, cause Kasra if you're gonna go around throwing stones I'm gonna call out every ridiculous statement you make. – conciliator Jan 4 2012 at 21:39
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 Did I totally miss the chapter on the importance of bone broth in Robb Wolf's book? And what's so great about gelatin? It contains just non-essential amino acids, nothing in there you absolutely need! – Matt Jan 4 2012 at 22:45
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Seed-oil PUFA.

That seems to be the ground common to most within the Ancestral/Paleo camp.

Some of the various "experts" don't have problems with nuts (PUFA), some are okay with white rice (a grain), a few like Kresser have questioned whether non-peanut non-soy legumes are that big of a deal, and I am not sure everybody would say gut-health is most important (some might say brain health or liver health or whatever, or some might say inflammation in general is most important.)

I don't think anybody is fan of man-made trans-fats or high-fructose corn syrup either, but that is kind of a given.

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 Not many people are totally against HFCS, either. The majority opinion as of now seems to be that it behaves fairly similarly to sucrose, which itself is not toxic in moderation. – Kasra Jan 4 2012 at 18:42
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 I think most people agree that excess fructose is harmful, whether in the form of HFCS or sugar. The question is whether sugar fructose is addictive and therefore a hepatotoxin. I think sugar is addictive to most people. Perhaps 25% of the population can exercise control, but I know that I can't once I start ingesting sugar. – Namby Pamby Jan 4 2012 at 18:59
Again, the point is being made to "added sugar or HFCS ingredients", not endogenous sugar, which would be fruits and vegetables. – Namby Pamby Jan 4 2012 at 19:00
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 People can say whatever they want about HFCS...I will never ever eat it again. – Henny Jan 5 2012 at 0:08
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Well, rice is a grain and PHD and Chris Kresser generally see no problem with white rice.

I think low PUFAs and no legumes is generally accepted, as is the importance of gut health.

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 Legume-hate is falling out. The word legume is no longer even mentioned on Kurt Harris' diet outline page. – Kasra Jan 4 2012 at 18:44
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 yup, this is why i mentioned in my response that legumes probably are fine if you prepare them properly (which most people wont). it all comes down to effort vs reward. to me, it's not worth the effort to soak the legumes for their nutritional profile. that being said, once in a blue moon, it might be nice for a chance and have a cup of lentils, just not part of my regular routine. – pbo Jan 4 2012 at 22:55
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 i think lentils might be okay for most people as they don't require much if any soaking? – dsohei Jan 5 2012 at 3:59
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I think all of them think some amount of animal protein is necessary. Ray Peat recommends gelatin, and Bone Broth is widely recommended.

Stress management is in common, but ray peat is probably an outlier in the recommendations.

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1 
 Bone broth seems to be a paleo rallying cry. I still can't get over how silly it sounds to say "bone" broth! As someone who grew up with real broths, it just sounds hokey. We're all talking about the same thing - why not say broth? Ok, useless aside concluded! – syrahna Jan 5 2012 at 2:29
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 i think because in the 21st century most 1st worlders think broth is something you make from bullion cubes. – dsohei Jan 5 2012 at 3:51
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IMHO, Stress management (good sleep, walking, loving, etc...) are in the TOP 3

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