Full spectrum hormetic therapy

Why wouldn't it make sense to use the full spectrum of hormetic therapies, rather than just one side or the other? For example:

 •  Eating pro-oxidants as well as antioxidants
 •  Gorging as well as fasting
 •  Heat therapy in addition to cold therapy
 •  Minus lens and plus lens therapy for overcoming nearsightedness
 •  Relaxation and high intensity exercise

Presumably both extremes of the spectrum would be practiced intermittently.

What is Ancestral Nutrition Really About?

The key concept of ancestral ("Paleo"/primal/evolutionary) nutrition is not to avoid foods that you thrive on just because they're on someone's list of "forbidden" foods, it's to eat what you thrive on--the foods your body is best adapted to within the context of your lifestyle, to maximize your overall health and fitness goals. Evidence from the archaeological record and observed hunter-gatherer and horticultural peoples are just clues in helping to form a basic template to start from, not final detailed answers for everyone.

It's not about blind nostalgic emulation for emulation's sake, nor is it about excessive reductionism or refusing to employ lessons from biomimicry because of rigid neomaniac ideology. Here are some terms used by proponents of various flavors of ancestral nutrition that give a sense of the basic overall concept:

> Weston Price: "living in accordance with inherited traditions" and "accumulated wisdom"

> Walter Voegtlin, MD: human ecology

> Boyd Eaton, MD: our ancient genome, biological discordance vs. adaptation, Paleolithic nutrition, evolutionary nutrition

> Loren Cordain, PhD: evolutionary template, Paleolithic nutrition, evolutionary nutrition
> Art DeVany: evolutionary fitness, new evolution diet

> Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser: Paleo template

> Mark Sisson: Primal Blueprint
> Kurt Harris, MD: evolutionary metabolic milieu (EM2)

Raw and Raw-Fermented Paleo Tubers

Before cooking there was fermenting. Human beings and pre-human ancestors have been eating raw Paleo starchy foods for many millions of years. This is something that most so-called "Paleo" dieters are not aware of. Most are also not aware of the fact that some traditional people bury their roots and tubers to ferment them, so as to make them more tasty and digestible. If someone tells you that a food must be cooked to be made edible, check into whether it can be made edible via fermenting (or bletting in the case of some fruits) before assuming they are correct. Here is some info on the topic:

RAW YAMS

> Raw Yam?, http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/omnivorous-raw-paleo/raw-yam/25/

African Species of Yam (Dioscorea) that are Edible Raw (these are not available in American supermarkets):
> Dioscorea bulbifera - the "air potato"/"potato yam" (native to Africa and Asia; apparently only certain varieties are edible raw per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_(vegetable); http://tiny.cc/t89pow)
> Dioscorea transversa - Long Yam or Parsnip Yam (native to Australia):
Women Hunters - Ray Mears Extreme Survival - BBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwklPPEDbWM#

> Dioscorea batata (opposita; nagaimo; Chinese yam; yamaimo) - Mountain Yam (native to China; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_(vegetable))

> Gbodo: Nigerian fermented and dried or parboiled yam
-> Effect of local preservatives on quality of traditional dry-yam slices 'gbodo' and its products, http://www.idosi.org/wjas/wjas2(3)/6.pdf

OTHER TUBERS EDIBLE RAW (FERMENTED) OR BRIEFLY COOKED

> Biochemical changes in micro-fungi fermented cassava flour produced from low- and medium-cyanide variety of cassava tubers. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18087867

Studies on bio-deterioration, aflatoxin contamination and food values of fermented, dried and stored ipomoea batatas [sweet potato] chips
http://www.sciencepub.net/nature/ns1011/018_11118ns1011_123_128.pdf

Tubers as Fallback Foods and Their Impact on Hadza
Hunter-Gatherers
Frank W. Marlowe* and Julia C. Berbesque
http://www.bioanth.cam.ac.uk/fwm23/tubers_and_fallback_foods_21040_ftp.pdf

The Annual January Spike in Paleo Diet Interest

In 2010, 2011 and 2012, there was a spike in interest in the Paleo diet online in January (when people make New Year's resolutions to lose weight), and 2013 was no exception. Each year the spike gets larger. You can see it at Google Trends:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=paleo%20diet&cmpt=q

You can also see that the "Paleo diet" search term eclipsed "vegan diet"

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=paleo%20diet%2C%20vegan%20diet&cmpt=q

and "vegetarian diet":

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=paleo%20diet%2C%20vegetarian%20diet&cmpt=q

and even "Atkins diet". There's still quite a ways to go before "Paleo diet" reaches the level that "Atkins diet" was at in January 2004, though:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=paleo%20diet%2C%20atkins%20diet&cmpt=q

Interestingly, the interest in "Paleo diet" doesn't drop off substantially after January like it does with most other diets and dieting in general:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=diet&cmpt=q

Could this suggest that people find that the diet works, stick with it, and continue to be interested in learning more about it for a long time afterwards? Is this one of the few diets that really does become a long-term way of eating instead of just a quick-fix fad?

CrossFit has contributed greatly to the growth in the Paleo diet trend and it too has experienced extraordinary growth in interest:

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=crossfit


1.24.13 update: "Paleo diet" was the top diet search term for the week ending January 5th, 2013: http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2013/01/08/the-paleo-diet-is-top-2013-diet-search/ "Gluten free diet" was also popular. The broad concept of the Paleo template is rapidly eclipsing all other diets.

Intelligent Tinkering

“If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” - Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1993, p. 146

The Coming Gluten-Free Craze

More Gluten-Free Sports Star Successes

The rapid rise of Novak Djokovic to #1 in the tennis world after he adopted a gluten-free diet shook up the tennis world (The Diet That Shook Up Tennis?), but a single case could be dismissed as a fluke. Now other tennis pros like Sabine Lisicki and Andy Murray and other prominent athletes like Steve Nash, Raul Ibanez, and Cedric Benson (http://edwardandsons.com/blogpages/?p=85, http://glutenfreeworks.com/blog/2011/08/08/gluten-free-spells-success-for-big-time-athletes/) have reported that they avoid gluten and experience benefits as a result. Jefferson Adams of Celiac.com rightly foresees where this is likely heading in the tennis world:

"After five months on a gluten-free diet, top professional tennis player Andy Murray has more energy than before, a faster recovery time, and a new-found ability to wake up early, according to comments Murray made when asked by reporters.

The Scot says that he is amazed by the energy he's gotten from his gluten-free diet. He also says that his change in eating habits is proving beneficial on the court. ….

[I]f Murray sees anything like benefits experienced by Novak Djokovic, who credits a string of big victories to his gluten-free diet, the tennis world is in for some gluten-free excitement!" (Gluten-free Diet Now Fuels Tennis Star Andy Murray)

Once other athletes realize that not just people with celiac disease or severe gluten intolerance, but most people, can experience performance benefits from eliminating gluten-rich processed foods from their diets, it will likely become a craze amongst athletes, and once most people's favorite sports stars are touting gluten-free, I expect it will become a societal craze.

Most people don't pay much attention to scientific studies, but many do pay attention to their sports idols. Sales of gluten-free foods will likely skyrocket, with resulting temporary shortages and increasing prices. Eventually many folks will figure out that processed gluten-free foods aren't all that great either and natural, whole foods like meats, seafood, fruits and veggies are better.

Richard Feynman on Science

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” - Richard Feynman

From: "What is Science?", presented at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, in New York City (1966) published inThe Physics Teacher Vol. 7, issue 6 (1969)

Ahem! Avoid Margarine

In Ireland there used to be a children's insult-rhyme with lyrics implying that people who eat margarine are no good and sickly (butter and lard were apparently the preferred fats):

Me Mother Is Gone to Church

Ahem! Ahem!
Me mother is gone to church.
She told me not to play with you
Because you're in the dirt.
It t'isn't because you're dirty,
It t'isn't because you're clean,
It's because you have the whoopin' cough
And eat margarine! [or "from eatin' margarine"]

The Clancy brothers tell a bit of the story and recite the rhyme here starting at 3:27 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDh7Ck1aF4

This poem was an oral folk news warning to not eat the new-fangled margarine because people had noticed that those who did were more likely to get the sometimes-deadly whooping cough that reached epidemic proportions in the early twentieth century. 

The Irish were right to link manufactured margarine to ill health:

Margarine Lung

Margarine Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Disease

You'd butter believe it: Margarine consumption is linked to lower IQs in children

People have forgotten this poem and its lesson and vaccination rates have been declining, so the whooping cough is slowly on the rise again:

Number of whooping cough cases doubles this year (Ireland)
http://www.thejournal.ie/whooping-cough-cases-double-ireland-714392-Dec2012

Whooping cough epidemic declared in Vermont (USA)
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2012/12/13/whooping-cough-epidemic-declared-in-vermont/1768527

The Procrustean Error: fitting humans to an unnatural world instead of restoring the natural order

Nassim Taleb, the philosophical and geographical flâneur (a stroller, physically and metaphorically, who has a "complete philosophical way of living and thinking" and a process of navigating erudition, that is, deep learning through experience, experimentation, socializing and self-directed reading, rather than through formal insitutional education) discussed in his The Bed of Procrustes the modern tendency to try to make life and the world fit our narrative notions instead of adapting our ideas to reality or admitting ignorance. Below are examples of modern variants of the Procrustean error supplied by Nassim and the Swedish "diet doctor," Aaron Eenfeldt, which involve medicating or even surgically altering our bodies to try to adapt them to modern diets and lifestyles instead of trying to restore the foods and environment we are naturally adapted to:

"Procrustes, in Greek mythology, was the cruel owner of a small estate in Corydalus in Attica on the way between Athens and Eleusis, where the  mystery rites were performed. Procrustes had a peculiar sense of hospitality; he  abducted  travelers, provided them  with a generous dinner, then invited them to spend the night in a rather special bed. He wanted the bed to fit the traveler to perfection. Those who were too tall had their legs chopped off with a sharp hatchet; those who were too short were stretched (his name was  said to be Damastes, or Polypemon, but he was nicknamed Procrustes, which meant "the stretcher").

[W]e humans, facing limits of knowledge, and things we do not observe, the unseen and the unknown, resolve the tension by squeezing life and the world into crisp commoditized ideas, reductive categories, specific vocabularies, and prepackaged narratives, which, on the occasion, has explosive consequences. Further, we seem unaware of this backward fitting, much like tailors who take great pride in delivering the perfectly fitting suit—but do so by surgically altering the limbs of their customers. For instance few realize that we are changing the brains of schoolchildren through medication in order to make them adjust to the curriculum, rather than the reverse." -Nassim Taleb, PhD, The Bed of Procrustes (see http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com for more info)

Regarding bariatric surgery: "It's like trying to surgically alter our bodies to adapt to industrial food." -Aaron Eenfeldt, MD, "Evolution of a Diet Revolution," 2011 Ancestral Health Symposium, http://vimeo.com/29464690 (see http://www.dietdoctor.com/ for more info)

Update on What I'm Eating

[Edit - Warning: Please don't take my diet info as a recommendation for you and do your own homework. 

2.2.14 The below diet was low in resistant starch and I think this contributed to gradually rising fasting blood glucose that peaked at 115 mg/dl and I started to also feel colder, after it had deceptively early on made me feel warmer and good. Adding more resistant starch into my diet helped reverse this within days. Other people are reporting serious illnesses from diets that were too chronically low in carbs and resistant starch and kept them in chronic ketosis, and also reporting other benefits from resistant starch. Please read up on resistant starch.

I'll leave this diet here as a warning to myself and others to not do this. Surprisingly, not even the carby foods were enough to prevent my FBG from rising and other issues. I suspect that resistant starch is particularly important.]

My description of what I've been eating is overdo for an update, as I've expanded my food selection significantly since the more heavily carnivore phase, which I had been hoping I could do some day. Eating almost no plant foods provided many benefits, but my past chronic constipation was worsening again after initial improvement, so I reintroduced some foods to my diet and I've been emphasizing softer animal foods like eggs and marrow.

I don't seem to have problems with root veggies that are edible raw, such as parsnips and carrots, and it's interesting that recent paleoanthropological research has led scientists to hypothesize that pre-human primates like Australopithecus and Ardepithecus consumed raw roots and tubers and nuts as staple foods, possibly more so than fruits (EARLY HUMANS SKIPPED FRUIT, WENT FOR NUTS).

My Current Staple Foods:

Fertile chicken eggs and duck eggs
Grassfed ground beef
Fats: Bone Marrow, Suet and Tallow, Lard (all grassfed or pastured)
Tuna, Yellowfin, wild, Hawaiian sushi grade or regular, frozen
Salmon, wild, sockeye, frozen or wild "fresh" (previously frozen) or sushi grade, wild clams, and other wild fish
Liver, GF beef/lamb
Heart, chicken
Carrots and Parsnips (edible raw, spicy, high potassium, a starch I can tolerate, one local farm grows excellent-tasting parsnips, but they're no longer sold at my local market)
Lemons (low sugar, alkaline, high vit C; I squeeze the juice out of them)
Blackberries (moderate sugar, high vit C)
Duck breast
Bone broth usually made with pastured marrow bones
Raw fermented cod liver oil, mint flavored (for the vitamins A and D)
Raw high vitamin butter oil (for the vitamin K2)
Water, mineral water, teas------

My Current Secondary Foods:

Really Raw brand fermented raw honey (does wonders for my hair and scalp flakes for some reason, though this didn't work for a friend of mine)
Fresh figs (not dried)
Strawberries (low sugar, high vit C), raspberries and some other fruits
Pastured ground bison or pork, pork loin, top round steak, ribeye steak, wild oysters and other meats/fish/organs
Celery and other nonstarchy, low-toxin veggies [edit: but starchy veggies also appear to be important]
Ginger, fresh or pickled
Wasabi mustard
Kelp
Sea salt, black pepper, spices

I try not to get carried away with fruit or raw fermented honey. If I eat too much of either, I start to develop skin and dental problems like chapped lips, dry skin, scalp flakes, increased dental plaque and loosening teeth. Tubers that require cooking, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, produce similar symptoms in me and little or no of the benefits from honey and fruits re: GI functioning, hair and scalp condition, or taste, so I only eat them occasionally. [Edit: But I now consider tubers especially important because of their resistant starch content when raw or cooked and cooled for 8-12 hours or so. I get around the problems by supplementing with potato starch and eating dried raw plantains and other foods rich in resistant starch that I appear to handle better than freshly cooked hot tubers. 2.2.14]

Lex Rooker interviewed at Joanne Unleashed

Don't miss this excellent interview of a brilliant and honest man who has had great success with a raw carnivorous diet (for example, his migraines and precancerous lesions disappeared with this diet) but does not hide the problems he runs into.

Paleo Goes Mainstream

Well, it's happening. Both the Washington Post and New York Times have reported on Paleo diets in short order. The Paleo diet is making the radar, becoming known to the media elites and the masses. This could have both bad and good consequences. I'm hoping for more of the latter.

Below is a link and a couple of excerpts from the NYT article, which is much better than the Post article, though it unfortunately pokes a little fun at raw Paleo (but it's amazing that it even mentioned it):

The New Age Cavemen and the City

...."Several identify themselves as libertarians." [I noted this interesting connection in a post at the RawPaleoForum. Granted, the fact that prominent early adopters and near-adopters like Art De Vany, Michael Eades, Nassim Taleb and Kurt Harris appear to be libertarian-oriented probably skews the current, still-early numbers.]

An Upper East Side physician, Grant Macaulay, said he has recommended the diet to hundreds of his patients, and sends them to Barnes & Noble to buy a copy of Mr. Cordain’s “Paleo Diet.” [It's good to see more and more physicians recommending various versions of it.]

Water Consumption Important for Carnivores

In addition to fat, water is very important for carnivores, including humans eating a carnivorous diet. Inuits still eating a meat/seafood-heavy diet reportedly drink large quantities of water:

[The Inuit drink] large quantities of water (5 to 6 litres per day), characteristic of the protein-rich diet that triggers renal elimination of the products of catabolism. Jeremy MacClancy, Consuming the Inedible: Neglected Dimensions, p. 123

There's also the example of wolves and other carnivores who drink copious amounts of water after feasting on flesh. This vid is not of an actual wolf, but you get the idea: Josie Wales Wolfdog Wolf Dog drinking Water

Five to six liters is about 10.5 to 12.5 pints of water a day. That sounds excessive to me, so if anyone has any information on how much water the Inuit drank, I'd appreciate it.

I drink mostly mineral water myself, as some studies indicate it provides additional benefits and I figure Stone Age water was probably more mineral-rich than most of today's tap or bottled water.

Update: Still Doing Great

I'm still doing great on my stricter version of a Paleo diet (raw carnivore, with only occasional plant foods--basically an Inuit-style diet). The recent relapse of symptoms disappeared within a couple of months and my health is once again better than it's been in decades--even better than it was at my peak during the more conventional Paleo diet.

I don't tell people what to eat. I think folks should work out for themselves what foods they do best on. However, if you don't even try a Paleo diet, how will you know whether it works for you or not?

Note: when eating near-zero-carb like I am currently, one needs to eat a lot of fat to avoid eating excess protein and potentially even risking "rabbit starvation" (which is "protein poisoning" and malnutrition that occurs when eating too little fat or carbs with protein). I seem to do best on around 75 - 85% calories as fat.

Carnivorous Raw Paleo Diet working for me

After experiencing some relapse of certain symptoms I re-investigated my health and diet and tried a stricter approach, which quickly generated positive benefits. A very restrictive diet seems to work best for me. This is unfortunate, because it means that healthy foods are even less available for me than I realized and my diet is much less socially acceptable. I'm hoping I'll be able to stick with it despite the obstacles, as my health benefits dramatically when I do.

I decided to eliminate all foods that are questionable from a Paleo perspective:

Nightshades: Nightshades (like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, though not black pepper) are mostly New World foods. Even those available in the Old World were inedible during the Stone Age and had to be selected for reduced toxicity over time to be made edible. Recent research by Dr. Loren Cordain and others has implicated nightshades in diseases of civilization ("How to Treat Multiple Sclerosis with Diet;" multiple videos; covers the role of tomatoes in MS, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhkmDHLCUEs). Nightshades had also been linked in the past to arthritis and other diseases of civilization by many the anecdotal accounts of many patients. They were viewed as toxic for many centuries in Europe. I had been skeptical of these accounts, but not any more.

Foods inedible unless cooked: This mainly meant winter squashes for me (I got to the point of eating them nearly every day), but also some potatoes and occasional french fries. I had been eating increasing amounts of these starchy foods that are indigestible raw in a vain effort to gain weight and increase social acceptance of my diet. I know, stupid mistake on my part and I've actually gained more weight since going carnivorous, as it has improved my health and appetite.

Cheats: I decided to end all cheats. Once I started cheating by eating a "natural" corn-sweetener-free fruit juice popsicle or other cheat, I found myself eating more and more of them almost unconsciously. Such sweet treats are just too addictive for me.

I eliminated nightshades, foods inedible raw, and cheating first and the health benefits were fairly dramatic within a month.

Sugary foods: No more fruit juices or sweetened drinks, no matter how natural. No more dried fruits, or even fresh, sugary fruits like tropical fruits. Eliminating these helped immensely. I appear to be very sensitive to carbs.

Tree nuts: This one surprised me, as I thought that eating lots of walnuts was actually helping me. Yet, when I eliminated nuts I did even better. They do contain antinutrients, as do all plants, and tree nuts are a fairly common allergen. Being a Paleo dieter I had of course already eliminated non-tree "nuts" like peanuts that aren't actually nuts at all, but legumes.

The remaining plant foods: All plants contain antinutrients. They have to in order to survive, because these antinutrients are natural insecticides that fend off predators. Therefore, eating plants every day may theoretically build up toxic levels of antinutrients. Even primates that have been eating lots of plants for millions of years, such as chimps, have to consume clay and other detoxicants in order to offset the accumulated antinutrients they absorb by eating wild plants nearly every day.

Plus, I decided to try a carnivorous, raw Paleo diet, as that was where my experience and research were leading me, and that is what Lex Rooker was doing with tremendous success. I discovered his story here: http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/lex%27s-journal/.

All beverages other than water: I don't stick to this one 100%, occasionally having some black coffee or tea, and I greatly resisted trying it, but I'm glad I did. Water was the only beverage of our early ancestors. I found that by not drinking sweetened or flavored beverages, water tastes much better to me. Whenever I'm the slightest bit dehydrated, water actually tastes rather sweet to me. People more experienced with this than me claim that it's the body's natural mechanism to keep my body properly hydrated.

So far, so good. I started going purely zero carb as of 8/5/2009, with only occasional spring greens or tea. As of 8/12/2009 I gave up those things and reached pure carnivory, eating only raw meats and fish (mostly pasture-fed or wild), low-heated beef jerky, low-heated tallow, raw bone marrow, raw suet and water. I know, it sounds weird and I never expected I would be eating this, but experience and research have led me here and the benefits have been marvelous: all remaining acne gone (and I no longer need to take zinc supplements to keep it under control), potassium-deficiency cramps gone and only return if I eat carbs, dental health dramatically improved (I actually have a hole in a tooth that is remineralizing--i.e. filling in--and my loose teeth no longer move when wiggled nor require a retainer to keep them standing straight), etc., etc.

Eating a mostly-raw carnivorous diet sounded impossible, even to me, but it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I especially love jerky with tallow, pemmican, and raw ground venison.

Paleo Nutrition explained in 5 minutes

This video is the best brief summary I've seen yet of Paleolithic nutrition. I can't imagine how it could be made any simpler, yet, astoundingly, some people still don't get it after viewing the vid.

Paleo/Primal in a Nutshell

Ancestral Way of Eating Basics

Here is some basic information about the ancestral way of eating, also called the Paleolithic diet, among other things (Paleolithic means "old stone," as in "Old Stone Age"):

The ancestral way of eating is not so much a weight loss program--although that is a positive common side effect--as it is a health optimizer. It's the only diet based upon a fundamental explanatory model--biological evolution (or intelligent design, depending on your perspective). It's the only diet that humans are designed to eat and the only one designed by nature (or nature's God). Rather than a single, narrow fad-diet, it's actually a whole category of diets that includes a wide range of indigenous diets that were consumed by all of humanity for the first two and half million years of human existence. It is the original and longest-lasting human diet.

Paleo-type Foods:
-Wild/Pastured Meats and Organs, Fat depots like bone marrow and perinephric fat (aka suet and pork leaf fat), Seafood and Eggs (eggs or egg whites can be a problem for sensitive individuals)
-Vegetables (especially leafy green veggies and those which can be eaten raw; [some Paleo dieters consider sweet potatoes and white potatoes Paleo, but most still don't, though even Dr. Cordain recommends sweet potatoes for elite athletes--as always, find out what works for you])
-Fruits (optional in limited quantities, focusing on the less sugary ones like berries and avoiding or minimizing fruit juices and dried fruits; some people apparently tolerate the sugars in fruits better than others)
-Teas, Spices and most Herbs

Controversial Foods (considered Paleo or near-Paleo by some, but not others, and may be problematic for some people): nuts, seeds, heated fats (tallow, lard, etc.), honey, [processed] commercial meats, African yams, sweet potatoes, beets, sea salt (added salt may be necessary for carnivorous-style dieters, according to Jay Wortman, MD), [low-lactose and low-casein fatty raw dairy products like raw butter and some raw cheeses, legume tubers that are edible raw, such as jicama, yacon, Jerusalem Artichoke and Chinese Artichoke], alcoholic beverages (like wine, champagne, mead, hard liquor)

Don’t Eat (or strictly minimize) the Agrarian/Processed Foods:
-Grains (wheat, rye, barley, corn, etc.)
-Dairy (bovine, goat, etc., especially pasteurized milk and pasteurized yogurt that has sugar/sweetener/jam added)
-Beans (a.k.a. legumes; includes soy, peas and peanuts)
-Starchy root vegetables that require thorough cooking, like [white] potatoes and tapioca [I learned that sweet potatoes MAY be edible raw if soaked--they certainly taste good that way anyway, though I'm not recommending it and don't know how healthy it is to eat them that way]
-Yeast ([grain] vinegar, foods pickled with [grain] vinegar, alcoholic beverages, etc. [note: natural fermenting without yeast or high heating is supposed to be superior to industrial fermenting])
-Artificial & processed additives like sweeteners, colorings, flavorings, preservatives, excessive salt, etc.
-Heavily processed oils
-Other foods you are sensitive to (at least not at first)

Some resources:
-http://www.paleodiet.com - includes many links
-http://www.paleonu.com - Kurt Harris, MD
-http://www.thepaleodiet.com - Loren Cordain, PhD (leading scientist in the field of Paleolithic nutrition)
-http://listserv.icors.org/ARCHIVES/PALEOFOOD.HTML - Paleofood email list archives (Paleo and near-Paleo dieters)
-http://www.beyondveg.com - includes many articles
-http://ancestrallifestyle.blogspot.com - My blog
-www.ctds.info - Sandy Simmons' Connective Tissue Disorder site--good info on diet, supplements, and some disorders that result from consumption of modern foods
-www.ms-diet.org - The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Center, with info on Ashton Embry's Best Bet Diet (very close to the Paleo Diet)
-http://gluten-free.org/hoggan/ - Ron Hoggan's articles on gluten intolerance and other subjects
-www.cup.org/books/kiple/introduction1.htm - The Cambridge World History of Food

For pets:
-http://dogtorj.com, website of a veterinarian who successfully treats dogs with a biologically appropriate diet
-http://www.barfworld.com, Dr. Billinghurst’s Biologically Appropriate Raw Food

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and studies on this and related subjects. If you have any special health issues, like diabetes or kidney dysfunction, make sure to check with your doctor to address your special needs.

Updates (Paleolithic nutrition is a new and evolving field and I incorporate new information into this summary post when warranted):

4.13.10 Divided controversial foods into a separate middle section; made fruits optional and emphasized less sugary fruits (some people seem to handle sugary fruits fine and others, like me, have difficulty handling any fruit); moved nuts and seeds into the controversial category (they contain mildly toxic compounds that plants use to discourage predation that may adversely affect some people); replaced "lean meats" with the better term "pastured meats"; added a link

[Note, 2009: it may seem strange that I didn't post a summary explanation of this diet until 2009, but the field was new and evolving, with controversies over what foods should be included, and I didn't feel it was sufficiently clear to me to post them until 2009. My views on what is Paleo have continued to evolve since as more information is provided by the field or my own experience. Maintain a healthy amount of skepticism and pay attention to what your own body tells you.

Update 6/20/11: I've moved mention of some foods up a level, such as sweet potatoes and raw fatty dairy products, because enough people do well on them to warrant it and the evidence against them is mixed, even though I don't tolerate some of them well myself]

Clayton's ADHD Success Story

Here is an uplifting ADHD success story to start off the new year on a positive note. It very vividly illustrates the benefits of nutritional treatment (which can benefit everyone, not just ADHD patients):

Recovering from ADHD


Watch for the change in Clayton's handwriting.

The basic diet this physician uses in his treatment program is very similar to the Ancestral Diet, and his findings match what I have found in my own research and observation of those who eat modern vs. ancestral foods.

The principles that helped this child can help adults as well, as Dr. Hyman explains in his other videos (be forewarned that Dr. Hyman laughs too much during his lectures--though maybe that's a sign of good mental and physical health).

Deviated Septum--Another Connective Tissue Disorder

While viewing an image of a deviated septum [here's an example: Deviated Septum] in a medical text I'm studying for a course I'm taking, I noticed that it reminded me of the exaggerated S-curve of scoliosis. I realized that the septum is composed of cartilage--a connective tissue--and that deviated septum can therefore be classed as yet another connective tissue disorder. I looked into it and found two sources that indicate that deviated septum is associated with Marfan syndrome (see below).

As Sandy Simmons has pointed out in her excellent website, Sandy Simmon's Connective Tissue Disorder Site, large amounts of accumulating evidence indicate that connective tissue disorders like Marfan syndrome are associated with modern foods, malabsorption and nutritional deficiencies. So deviated septum looks like yet another "disease of civilization" with diet as a likely cause, possibly the primary cause (with genetics being another factor).

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Ageing in Marfan Syndrome
“With the exception of deviated septum, ENT features were not significantly more prevalent in patients with MFS than our controls.”

Marfan Syndrome: Long-term Survival and Complications After Aortic Aneurysm Repair
“A complete review of systems was obtained and medical records were reviewed to identify other potential pleiotropic manifestations of Marfan syndrome related to aging. Twenty-two percent of patients had been diagnosed with arthritis by a physician, with the mean age of 33 years at diagnosis. Twenty-three percent of patients had varicose veins not associated with pregnancy (19 of 47 women and 14 of 51 men). Fourteen percent of patients had experienced a ruptured or herniated disc. Ten percent of the women had prolapse of the uterus, and 10% of women had prolapse of the bladder. Twenty-eight patients (15%) had gallstones. Twenty-two of the patients (11%) had a deviated nasal septum.”

Atkins Beats Ornish, Ornish Spinning

The results of a study that compared the Atkins, Zone, Ornish and Yale/LEARN diets are out and the Atkins diet beat out the others in terms of weight loss (though not by much) and--more importantly--health statistics. While I'm no fan of the Atkins diet (it includes lots of unhealthy dairy products), it is certainly closer to the optimal science-based diet (an ancestral/Paleo/biologically appropriate diet) than the Ornish diet, which was largely inspired by Ornish's conversion to Hinduism rather than science [if the reports are correct at "Sri Swami Satchidananda, founder of Integral Yoga," http://www.swamisatchidananda.org/docs2/health.htm and "A Matter of Lifestyle," Frontline magazine of India, http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1606/16060920.htm]. It didn't take long for the gurus of the losing diets to start spinning the results. Dr. Dean Ornish in particular tried to re-interpret the results in a more favorable light, but his words only further undermined his cause.

Ornish said, "It's a lot easier to follow a diet that tells you to eat bacon and brie than to eat predominantly fruits and vegetables." That's hardly a criticism, since a diet that's easier to follow is more likely to be maintained, and thus more likely to be successful in the long term. Given that the Atkins dieters lost a bit more weight than the Ornish dieters and had better health statistics, the fact that the Atkins diet is also "easier to follow" is a definite plus.

Professor Kelly Brownell of Yale University said the study "shows that nothing works very well." It's amazing that Brownell admits here that his LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition) diet doesn't work very well and is no better than the other major diets, despite also including an exercise program. If he believes that, then why is he still promoting LEARN?

Zone diet creator Dr. Barry Sears said the study "had a good concept and incredibly pathetic execution." Could the fact that the dieters who tried to follow his soy-promoting diet lost the least weight have anything to do with his response?

These sour-grape comments contrast sharply with those of some prominent scientists. Walter Willett, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health said, "This is the best study so far to compare popular diets," pointing to the size of the study population, the duration (a year) and the small number of subjects who dropped out. The study's findings "are pretty much in line with what all the other studies have shown comparing Atkins and low-fat diets," according to Bonnie Brehm, assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing.

It seems the diet guru's definition of a good study is one in which his diet comes out on top.

Here's a link to the study report:

Gardner CD et al, "Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN diets for change in weight and related risk factors among overweight premenopausal women: the A TO Z Weight Loss Study: a randomized trial." JAMA. 2007 Mar 7;297(9):969-77.