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Episode-763- The Paleo Prepper Mindset — 107 Comments

  1. Awesome podcast! I’ve been a long time listener, and this is by far my favorite show. I am a personal trainer and have been eating a Paleo style diet for a few years now. I lost over 80 lbs. Lots of the long term food storage items are not exactly the best things in the world. Of course, in a SHTF scenario, who cares? But that doesn’t help with the “eat what you store, and store what you eat” lifestyle. Thank you very much for doing this show. I hope we get to meet sometime now that you live so close. Your show has changed my family’s lives. Thanks again!

    • @Grant if you are close just get with me and you are welcome at the homestead anytime. I keep saying that but I think many people think I don’t mean it or they are “bothering me” or what ever. If you are in the area and listen to my show I want to meet with you and you will be welcome at m;y place.

  2. Good show Jack,

    I myself have lost 70 lbs over a year and a half doing basically the same thing.

    It’s all about insulin and blood sugar levels……..

    Thanks,

    Jim

  3. My husband and I have been following the Paleo/primal lifestyle since December, 2010, at the recommendation of our son who was helping me overcome some health issues. At retirement age, our main exercise is hiking or bicycling. We enjoyed our summer and the physicality of helping to refurbish an older home and landscape. We moved naturally, not in excess.
    We have both lost almost 60 pounds feeling full and satisfied. The previous two years we had been on our doctor’s “low carb” diet of 1,000 calories for me and 1,500 calories for my husband. We measured and weighed and kept copious notes of everything we were eating because the doctor didn’t believe we were low carb because we did NOT loose weight. We were constantly starving and continuously suffering from food cravings.
    We had to rethink our survival provisions since most of the dehydrated food we’d purchased contains gluten and soy. If it doesn’t have gluten or soy, prepared dehydrated food is more expensive than we can handle on our retirement income. We are keeping it to barter with, or to sustain our neighbors.
    We’ve worn out one food dehydrator and now have the grapes we bought on sale sitting in the sun under cheesecloth as they dry into raisins which we love in our trail mix.
    Please consider the paleo/primal lifestyle which works because of it’s simplicity, affordability, and health benefits. And please, pay attention to how your body feels once you’ve passed through the cleansing or detox stage or how your body reacts if you eat something processed.

  4. Excellent show!

    You’re spot-on about the recipes thing too, BTW. Most folks feed their addictions and habits by making substitute foods that almost always lead to trouble. That being said, even though I hardly ever eat dairy myself, I do enjoy a “pizza” made on a zucchini-cheese crust rather than a wheat-based crust. My husband and I took one to a wedding so we could eat “pizza” too, and folks wanted our pizza moreso than the pizza that was there with the homemade crust!

    And regarding “trusting government”, it amazes me that some folks won’t trust government on anything EXCEPT what’s “healthy”. Ancel Keys started the madness in the 50s, and when he tried to get his low-fat, high-carb agenda through, there were still a lot of folks who opposed him. After he released his junk science chart that “proved” fat caused heart disease though, rather than being discredited by some peer scrutiny, he was rewarded! He became the head of the American Heart Association, and between him and the grain/sugar/veg ag lobbies, we were all fed a “big fat lie” (as Tom Naughton likes to say in his movie “Fat Head”.)

    You’re getting a standing ovation in this house, Jack. Keep it up!

    • Good observations. Fat, dumb, and dependent is likely how they want us. (sorry I replied with this on the above comment by accident – this is where I meant it to be)

  5. Hi Jack,

    I am a physical therapist and this year will mark my 30th year of working out almost continually. Through the years there has been a tour with the USMC, a stint as a police officer during which time I was a SWAt Team member, various forms of martial arts, weight lifting, etc. I’ve come to the point in my own life where while I love the results of exercise, I detest the process. Because of this, I have been on a quest to abbreviate my work out to the maximal extent possible while still maintaining some degree of fitness.

    Four years ago, I switched jobs which upset my by-then very abbreviated routine and without realizing it, went for about four months without doing much of anything. I work up one day and realized just how out of shape I had become. Since I was at that time so relatively unfit, I decided to do an experiment – start with one dip per day and see if so little excercise could induce muscle hypertrophy. So I started doing my one-dip-a-day experiment. That was four years ago. I have been so pleased with the results that to this day, I continue to perform that one dip per day and the only thing that has changed is that I also do single leg squats (one for each leg).

    One caveat and something you alluded to today on your show – when I perform these three movements, I follow the Super Slow Protocol which is as follows:
    1. 4 seconds on the eccentric portion
    2. Full stop at the bottom of the movement
    3. 10 seconds on the concentric portion

    On the rare occasion when I perform all three movements in sequence, total workout time is less than one minute, with a Rate of Perceived Exertion of 7/10.

    • @George, I would love to see a video of your exercises to get an idea for the flow a bit better. I would also suggest you try these on empty lungs for a few weeks and let me know how that goes. I do think this type of exercise is much better than the gerbil wheel crap sold to us by people that want to sell us what folks? Equipment, books and DVDs.

  6. Totally agree with most of this Jack… But I think there’s still a role for some aerobic activity for health – i use trail running. That’s not necessarily modern – people needed to run in the past. Running in the woods on rough trails is so varied, nothing even like dirt road repetitions.

  7. Losing 70 lbs is impressive, congratulations.

    I only lost 40 lbs eating paleo. However, I also:

    — had sleep apnea symptoms disappear
    — had SERIOUS heartburn disappear (to the point I was taking expensive medicine)
    — had skin psoriasis clear up
    — had continuous allergic symptoms clear up (i was always clearing my throat, etc)

    • @blueprint yep lots of other benefits I have gone from shaking the walls with snoring to a point where Dorothy woke me a up a few times because I sleep so quiet she thought I was dead. I no longer get skin rashes in the hot months of the year as well. I also just wake up now, no dragging ass for an hour of half awake and half asleep any more.

  8. Thank you so much for introducing me to the paleo lifestyle… I also read Robb wolf’s book after hearing bryans episode. I had a horrible gallstone attack about a year ago …did multiple liver/gallstone cleanses but still needed to address my diet. Robb offers the solution.. I have an intolerance to gluten ! I never knew. This actually causes gallstones. I have been on a paleo diet for about a month and feel better then ever before. I hope everyone will try paleo for 30 days so they can feel this good!

  9. Great topic Jack!

    I’ve been primal/paleo longer than I’ve been a prepper, but I try to harmonize the two as best I can. I think both come from the perspective of asking the question, “What actually works for the long term?”

    In prepping it means having redundancy and resiliency. In food it means eat things that don’t poison our bodies. So simple!

  10. The native Hawaiians have a huge problem with severe obesity and type II diabetes. There was a diet out there that went really well. It was going back to their ancient diet. So they gave up their rice and ate a lot of pork, fish and poi. It worked really well. Nearly everyone that held to that dies lost the weight and the diabetes came under control.

    They did the same thing for Asians (not a lot of overweght people but those that were are very motivated to lose the weight.) So they went to a lot of fish, rice, and veggies. Same effect.

    Think about us from Europe and you see the Paleo diet makes a ton of sense. Maybe the paleo diet is just one part of a larger theory. I’ll have to find some back up on the Hawaiian expirament.

  11. I have also lost a bunch of weight sticking to the Paleo plan. I don’t weigh myself, I figure cavemen didn’t have scales. I do know I have had to buy two new belts and going back to clothes I haven’t been able to wear in two years. Check out simplepaleocooking.com for some good recipes

  12. Just to clarify: does the ’empty-lung’ method consist of attempting to perform the entire ‘set’ with no breath? Does this mean your set is over when you run out of air?

    (I found nothing when I googled, so I’m asking about it.)

    Thanks

    • @westonian, it can be that way. Or you can just do five on empty lung, you can time them much slower so you get the same effect, etc. It is something you experiment with. My goal when I do any exercise like a push up or a dip is do as FEW as possible.

      Take a 30 seconds to do one push up empty lung, 15 seconds down and 15 up, the effect is huge. There are also some ways to do rapid breathing on a push up of say 60 seconds almost like the way women breath in child birth at the end.

      You can see the rapid breathing at the end of an long duration push up in this video.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAunUZD6yAs

      Val even taught me to work out simply with empty lung walking, walk normal, focus on breathing, take a full exhale and walk 5, 10 or what ever paces on empty lung. DO NOT speed up to try to get to 10 or what ever before you run out of air. It is as much a mental as it is physical, may be I should do some stuff on it and how I adopted it to a minimalist approach. To be clear Val works out a LOT.

  13. Regarding the concept of studies saying what the sponsors tell them to say versus what they actually say, I’m thinking more and more that a functional background in statistics might be a valuable tool for anybody that not only wants to filter the lies, but see the truth in the studies that get paraded. And by statistics, I’m not talking about learning the crap arithmetic you get forced to do 30 times per concept in college without ever learning the concept even though in any private corporation you won’t be allowed to do the arithmetic and you have to understand the concepts. I’m talking about understanding a handful of real simple concepts and tests and what they really show.

  14. Jack,
    Rabbit Starvation – Lack of fat on the rabbit, true, solution + Historically Doughnuts, which gave fat. Not sure if Paleo, but sensible for a dietary as in what you eat in relation to where you are living, practical.

    As to the rest, well No one food plan/ dietary plan is perfect. End of argument,
    what works for a particular person works for that person. As you eat and are healthy is what works for You. detractors can go to the peoples republic of Cali***** and seal the border. 🙂
    Good for you and thanks for sharing, as to Higher Protein foods/ diets Were there any issues with constipation? I only ask as this is a concern for some people. Raw Beef, if done raised and handled properly Yum, Not so sure about raw pork/ Bear due to and here I apologize for any mis spellings Trichinosis or worms in the liver. Thanks again and the Before and After pics are great!

  15. Jack, awesome show. Had a question about what you drink, beyond beer of course. Obviously no soda but what about coffee? Naturally decaf teas? Wine? Fruit juices? Or do you live on water and beer?

    Thanks!

    • I drink teas, herbal and normal, coffee and lots of water. I don’t drink fruit juices, too much sugar.

        • @metaforge not in my view. You end up doing away with all the fiber and concentrating all the sugars. Carrot juice has as much sugar as a soft drink but you will never eat enough carrots for that to matter due to their bulk and fiber.

  16. Jack, your paleo lifestyle is completely fresh and unprocessed. This fact undoubtedly contributes to your positive results. Years ago I got off wheat, dairy and sugar. I ate three large meals a day (no snacks) and included as much other non-wheat starch as I wished–potatoes, oatmeal, rice, even tortilla chips occasionally. The focus was on veggies and protein. I had a maximum of two fruits a day, and never any dried fruit. This food plan, combined with intense exercise, contributed to my being as slim as I have ever been in my life. Although my body fat was well within “normal” for my height and frame, I actually stopped menstruating, which is definitely not normal for a 29 year-old woman who isn’t pregnant. The month before I left for my Appalachian Trail hike, I radically decreased my exercise volume and frequency but kept my diet the same. Not surprisingly, I thickened ever so slightly. When I actually got out on the trail, all the healthy dried foods that I had made in my Excalibur tasted like dust. It was about a month before I started eating the nearly universal diet of the long-distance backpacker: junk food! Pizza and ice cream in town, Lipton noodles and Snickers on the trail. After 5 months of backpacking an average of 15 miles a day AND eating junk in large quantity I gained over 20 pounds. People don’t believe me when I tell them this, but it’s true. Maybe 5 pounds was muscle mass. And after 4 months of eating crap (and hiking) I did actually start menstruating again. I remember running into another hiker who I hadn’t seen for over three months and we both did double takes; he was a LOT thinner (and off his insulin!) and I was, well, fatter. The difference was the diet. How the “healthy” diet affected my hormones so that my reproductive system shut off for 9 months is still a mystery–the exercise was a constant, not variable, factor.

  17. Thanks Jack for the wonderful podcast, top notch as always. Rob Wolf has been on a few great podcast I listen to, The Healthy Skeptic Podcast and The Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show. Hours upon hours of information in those two.

    Chris

  18. Thanks Jack! I ‘m so thrilled you’re taking a paleo approach now. Food WAS the major thing I disagreed with you on. I’ve been paleo for about a year and experienced all of the benefits everyone mentions.

    Robb Wolf is the man and would definitely make a great guest. Mark Sisson is also really good. He takes a very balanced lifestyle approach. A fitness approach that may also be of interest is MovNat. It’s all about training natural movements, not muscles. Really good stuff.

    • @Dale I don’t know how you ever disagreed with me on food. I have always been heavy on protein and I have been living this way for over a year and a half just not talking that deeply about it.

    • I am just not into the whole wheat thing. The least bit of gluten tears me up. I’m with you 100% on the meat, vegetables and fruit!!! There have been several episodes where I said to myself that it sounded a lot like paleo. I’m still working on the food storage piece and this podcast was fantastic. I was stuck on “things you can put in a bucket” so to speak.

  19. One quick comment regarding Jesus drinkung fermented wine. Preserving unfermented grape juice for long periods of time was commonplace back them. The most common way was by boiling the juice down to a syrup. This was then placed in a pottery jar to the brim, and the lid placed on top w little airgap. (For longer term storage, the lid could be sealed w beeswax.)

    The juice would be enjoyed by reconstituting the syrup w a but of water.

    This was prevalent among the Jews, Romans, Greeks, etc.

  20. BTW, for readers who want to know more about how the early Romans, Greeks, and Jews, please feel free to go to this link. Note: just because ancient people regularly preserved unfermented grape juice does not in itself proove Jesus never drank alcohol (though i don’t believe He did).

    Also note that the link below discusses ancient preservation methods that may be of interest and use to us preppers.

    http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/books/wine_in_the_bible/3.html

    THE PRESERVATION OF GRAPE JUICE

    Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Andrews University

    A major objection to the view that Scripture approves the use of unfermented grape juice is the alleged impossibility in Bible times of preserving grape juice unfermented. Burton Scott states this objection most clearly in his article on “Wine” in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “Unfermented grape juice is a very difficult thing to keep without the aid of modern antiseptic precautions, and its preservation in the warm and not overly-cleanly conditions of ancient Palestine was impossible.”1

    Objective of This Chapter. This chapter aims at ascertaining whether the preservation of grape juice in its unfermented state was possible or impossible in Bible times. Our investigation will show that the ancients were far more knowledgeable in the art of preserving fruits and wines than generally presumed.

    This chapter is divided into two parts. The first considers the methods used by the ancients to preserve fruits and wines in general and the second, the methods used to prevent the fermentation of grape juice in particular.

  21. Jack Love the episode. Paleo is definitely a heather way to eat and live I have been doing paleo for a while now minus the last 6 months, Im currently deployed to Afghanistan with a month left till I get home. I do want to say that you don’t have to believe in evolution to do paleo. I my self am a young Earth Creationist and I think a Paleo Lifestyle is what adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. Farming could then be looked at a part of the curse where God Said “cursed is the ground for thy sake;
    in sorrow shalt thou eat (of) it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;” As far as carbon dating a other “evidence” they can readily be show to be false and misleading. The Bottom line is that two groups can look at the same evidence and come to two different conclusions about how it got that way. Speaking as a person that stated life as an atheist and am now just about the exact opposite I have seen both sides and I can tell you that although some bible thumping nit wits give us a bad rap, the truth is on our side. keep up the good work.

    Smeper Fi

  22. @Dale: I was listening to a “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” the other day, and I heard an expert talking about the fact that one little bite really does make a difference when we’re talking about foods to which we’re intolerant or allergic. She said that you’ll produce antibodies for up to SEVEN MONTHS from just one bite of something that causes an immune response.

    While my reaction to wheat isn’t as severe as some, one bite can leave me in pain for days, it can leave me craving carbs for literally weeks, and it can contribute to uncontrollable blood sugars. That’s why I’ve been doing my best to figure out how to “eat what I store and store what I eat” without relying on ANY of the foods that’ll make me sick. The last thing I want to do in a crisis is put stress on my immune and endocrine systems that’ll already be taxed. Yes, if there were truly nothing left in my world but wheat, I’d eat it, but I just can’t imagine a scenario that’d put me there. Maybe I’m naive, but even when all my preps are gone/destroyed and I’m being fed by others, there are always ways around wheat. I feel like it’s THAT important an issue for me and my health.

  23. Great podcast. My wife has mostly been into the Primal diet rather than Paleo, but it’s close enough. We’ve been wanting to store up about a year’s worth of food but we’ve had a hard time figuring out how. I’d like to hear more info on how to do this. I totally agree that Paleo can work. I lost a bunch of weight on it… and then gained most of it back again. It’s a struggle not to revert back to what I was raised on. Comfort food and junk food are plentiful and cheap. My wife says how if I eat good now, I’ll save money on the medical bills. I suppose if I eat bad enough, I could save money too — I’d die young. Anyway, I need to get back on the horse so to speak. Hey, and what’s this about what I “believe” being irrelevant? In one stroke of puzzling irony, you refute the knowledge given to us by government food scientists while saying you will only believe science. That makes no sense. I see what you mean that each person should believe/worship as they see fit. I’m Mormon and that’s a basic tenant of our beliefs — Article of Faith #11. I’ll proclaim what I believe but I won’t force you. (Now if you’re my kid, that’s a different story. You are Mormon. You are finishing high school. You are not drinking, smoking, or trying drugs! I digress.) Anyway, I believe science and religion can mesh pretty well. I see science as the systematic study of the world and laws that God made. If the two are in conflict, I am going to learn both views. My value system still remains based on the religious interpretation but it’s worthwhile to understand any other view. How does believing man came from a monkey improve or alter my way of living? IT DOESN’T. It makes for interesting conversation though. It may lead to other scientific discoveries which is wonderful. About the whole creation thing — Maybe this earth was used more than once. Maybe God put those fossils where they are so there would be plausible deniability of his existence. (Those ideas are not doctrinal, just speculation.) God, if he wanted to, could show all sorts of signs to everyone and appear for everyone to see. But that’s not the way it works. There’s a reason the way things are what they are. I could get into more if you like sometime. A believe in a higher being is one of those things that man needs ESPECIALLY it times of crisis. You ought to do a podcast on this sometime if you haven’t already.

    • A belief in a higher being is one of those things that man needs ESPECIALLY in times of crisis. You ought to do a podcast on this sometime if you haven’t already.

      • @Adam Y. I think that would be a podcast were almost everyone got mad. I try to stay out of the topic of religion. I myself have a deep belief in God, I classify myself a deist. Something tells me that going down that road won’t play well with many literalists. I figure if you want spirituality there are priests, ministers, reverends, witch doctors, etc for that.

    • I think the earth has definitely been used more than once, the book of Genesis starts at the beginning of OUR creation, not the beginning of all time. The earth itself is a lot older (and fossils contained there-in), than our human experience.
      I’ve never understood why people think spirituality and science can’t go together. They go hand and hand. (not talking about man’s religious books here, that’s another topic)
      The Creator is the ultimate scientist, builder, artist, etc…
      Creation is proof of that. The universe did not start with us. We’re but a blink of the eye in time.

  24. When I was in the Marines I hit a wall. Figuratively, of course, but a wall none the less. I was unable to increase my PFT(Physical Fitness Test) score. So, after I hurt my knees running I tried something different. I focused on stride, technique and then POW! like a bolt of lightening I started holding my breath while running. It’s amazing how holding your breath can change your running. It started with a sprint and then after a while I was able to hold my breath for a sprint of a mile. Needless to say this changed my outlook on exercise. Thanks for reminding me, Jack. I had completely forgotten why and how I trained! Can’t wait to try the paleo diet, too!

  25. Hold your breath for a sprint of a MILE? Holy cow! Assuming you’re a world-class sprinter, you’re holding your breath for over four minutes! While running no less!

    • @Jarrod J Williamson, just to be clear that IS NOT what I am saying. LOL. NOT AT ALL.

  26. Great show. I’m not against Paleo at all and look forward to getting Rob’s book.

    Some Questions and Observations in Random Order

    FERMENTATION
    We’re talking about paleo, not modern man, the last 10,000 years or so. Clearly fermentation has been around for at least that long. But is there any evidence fermentation significantly predated this period? Are there any modern hunter gatherers (there are still some) that practice fermentation. Dehydration seems to have been around as an intentional act just about forever, but that’s not the same as intentional fermentation.

    EXERCISE
    It’s true our paleo ancestors just lived, that was hard enough, and didn’t “exercise” in any intentional way. But intentional exercise is several thousand years old at least, not just 200 years old. The Greeks took it to high art for both practice for war and beautification of the body. Consider just the original Olympics. In fact, some speculate part of the reason for the dominance of Western civilizations is related to: physical discipline in practice for art of war and our ability to provide mass production of food to city populations and armies. That’s a whole other question.

    BIO-ADAPTATION
    It’s worth noting the Africans who practice endurance hunting (running sometimes for days) have been doing it quite possibly for hundreds of thousands of years. Their biology is highly specialized to that task. This is one problem with going to far with this line of thinking. We are one species, but the evolutionary differentiation is MASSIVE. Asians on the whole regularly consume rice as a staple just fine and have been for thousands of years, long before there was much government if hardly at all, and obviously no modern big pharma. Whereas many Europeans might blow up like a blimp if they ate as much, and on the flip side, many Asians (and Native Americans who are asiatic) have a very hard time processing alcohol. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a Japanese have A beer, turn red and get knocked out, or go kinda nuts.

    BODY TYPES
    I wonder if there might be some deeper association of body types to bio adaption. There are roughly three types of bodies. Ectomorph (tall, slender, lean, poll shaped) Mesomorph (Muscular, broad shouldered, sorta triangular shaped) Endomorph (Nice and plump, sorta pear shaped.) Of course, no one is perfectly one thing. I’m on the Mesomorph end, and I tend to think the Paleo might be very good for me. Definitely curious. My father and brother are clearly on the ectomorph end. They eat bread like it was going out of style, don’t get hungry immediately after, and stay quite lean. Maybe there’s some area of research here. NO. This is not the same as the statistical anomalies of guys who smoke and drink their whole lives and yet live to be an old age. They are statistical outliers; very rare. Most would not fare so well. Yet, there are in fact entire subsets of the population can and do fine on “gruel”. Whether they might do better on a paleo diet is a good and fair question.

    THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
    Our paleo ancestors often numbered no more than a few hundred thousand people on earth. Sometimes down to just 10s of thousands. There are literally more people within 100 hundred miles of my house living right now, than existed throught ALL OF HISTORY prior to 10,000 years. Probably by a lot. Since the paleo diet gets a substantial percentage of its caloric intake from meat, and almost all of its caloric intake from things that are not so easily mechanically harvested (the grains), there is an interesting open question of economic and enviornmental viability on a planet with 6.75 BILLION people. I don’t know this answer it’s just a question. I am saying there is a reason population exploded and civilization as we know it took off along with settling down into cities and practicing agriculture, including the cultivation of grain crops.

    BEANS: SOY and PEAS
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Edamame (soy beans) and some peas, perfectly edible in their raw or simply blanched states? In particular soy IS a complete protein and the yield per acre is much higher (in net protein) than equivalent grazing land transformed by ruminants into meat.

    WHAT’S NATURAL ANYWAY
    The very nature of man, if there is any substantive difference between us an all other creatures is our ability to observe and alter nature itself on a grand scale to whatever imagined ends we might dream up. I can understand the logic of our biology being evolutionarily optimized for what it spent doing the majority of time doing. But sometimes, certainly not you Jack, this line of thinking goes to crazy town . . to the point of where thinking is “unnatural”. Bill Mollison has nice curt way to put it about people who only want to eat things nature provides directly. Consider this all in regards to even our creation of heirlooms and hybrids . . . totally unnatural if we mean nature doesn’t do it by itself.

  27. Vettezuki, outstanding comment. Just a few more thoyghts. First, I bet that Jack’s diet is a great deal more varied than our paleo ancestors were able to manage. Second, evolutionary adaptation can be seen in juat rhe past few thousand years, if not hundreds of years. As you mentioned, asians etc with their rice diet with little meat and they have been exceptionally healthy, with low incidences of heart disease, cancer, etc … until recently when they started consuming more meat. Southern California Adventists are one of the longest lived people groups on the planet, with some diseases virtually non-existant among them, and they are largely vegetarian.

    It is more complex than just “our paleo ancestors ate x” as human adaptation to diet has continued since then, as seen in the aforementioned diet and health of Asians, as well as northern Europeans not being lactose intolerant which much of the rest of the world is.

    While Jack’s results are excellent (which diet is what works for me too!), the one size “our paleo ancestors” fits all approach is erroneous.

    Love you Jack!

  28. Oh, I might add that the Indians (i.e., from India) have been busy with formal exercise likely before the Greeks. Yoga and wrestling among the layperson go back as far as 3000 B.C.

    • @Jarrod J Williamson, so well into the world of agriculture right? Paleo existence is defined as about 200,000 BC up to about 10,000 BC.

      • Jack, yes, of course. I was just responding to your assertion that mankind wasnt involved in formal exercise until fairly recently (if I remember right, just a hundred years or so).

        Your basic premise, that we should eat the way our bodies evolved to eat (i.e., like our paleo ancestors) appears to ignore the significant evolutionary adaptations that have occured in the past 10,000 years or so, as seen in different racial groups across the globe.

        I am interested in seeing the actual archaeological evidence that, due to diet, suggests our paleo ancestors were actually healthier than human of the past 10,000.

        The paleo diet, which works well for me, appears to be a diet that puts the body into ketosis, i.e., metabolising fat for energy due to lack of carnal. However, it is not a one size fits all (or most) approach.

  29. You mentioned about being able to eat sweat potatoes. I haven’t grown any yet but want to. I read somewhere that you have to leave them stored for a few months before they get the sweat taste. If true then it wouldn’t be something you could just pick and eat right? I hope what I read was wrong on this because I love sweat potatoes.

  30. I found this podcast very interesting. I am playing with the idea of trying out the Paleo diet myself, even though right now I weigh 138 soaking wet. I live and work on a ranch, and a thought struck me while listening today. I eat whatever I feel like normally, a lot more processed food than I probably should, but I physically work more than many modern people probably do as well, and that lets me maintain my weight. I do know one thing though, if I were trying to do the amount of physical work that my Dad did at my age, and ate the same amount I eat now, I would probably starve to death within a week. He grew up on an actual homestead, where they only went to town after groceries in a horse drawn wagon, when he was a kid, once a month, and major purchases for the year were made after selling grain and steers in the fall. I know from his stories that basically the only fresh meat they had in summer was chicken, and maybe an occasional rabbit, the rest was all canned beef and pork, because that much meat wouldn’t last long enough to eat in the summer. What they would buy in the summer was hundreds of pounds of flour and sugar. And whatever little bit of fruit that might be available. My point is, working on and actual farm/ranch, expending God knows how many calories a day, especially during harvest and weaning/shipping cattle, without trucks, combines, augers, or any other electrical or mechanical convinces, my Father probably ate more wheat based carbohydrates than are available if you ordered the entire McDonalds number based menu at once, (we are German, dough figures heavily into our diet). My Dad was thin as hell well into his 40s, I have pictures to back this up. Finally, and thankfully, technology made life easier on a ranch, and I will admit he stuck to the same diet and gained weight, but I think he topped out at 210 at a height of 5’10.
    My over all thinking is, if something actually happens that requires you working, or at least being able to work like someone, from not 100, or 1000 years ago, but if you see yourself having to work like someone from, say, 50 years ago, ie, no large tractor, and trying to survive on your own, keep the wheat, keep the rice, and even keep the soy, because if you actually find yourself running what is equivalent too a 1930, 1940s, or 1950s farm, you are going to need all the calories you can get. Take them from what ever source you can get them. If you are really trying to do the 1930s model, I bet you could eat Lard by the spoonful and still lose weight.

  31. As most creationist know because they have studied it, the inventor of carbon dating said it was only acurate to 10,000 years. Freshly killed muskox have been carbon dated to be well over 10, 00 years old. Carbon dating is also based on the assumption that carbon levels have been fairly constant. The earth before pre-flood days (Noah) was thought to be enveloped with a water vapor in the atomosphere. This is why tropical fossils are found everywhere on earth. Under these conditons carbon levels would be vastly different (higher) than today. Please understand I know the only thing more committed than a creationist is a evolutionist and his or her science. I’m not trying to tick anybody off but for those who are willing to look at creation SCIENCE they will be amazed. Did you ever wonder why there are almost NO NEW DEBATES between evolutionist and creation scientist. There are creation scientist begging to debate the evolutionist, but no takers. There is a reason folks, the evolutions can’t answer the questions the creationist ask.
    http://www.drdino.com/
    For those who dare to question the experts there are many more great creation websites. Again I apologize to all who religion is evolution.

        • My facts are the history of mankind. The Founding Fathers knew the facts and like Jack said, constructed a secular system of government that didn’t favor any one religion over the other, least the system become as corrupt as the system they fled.

          “History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.” — Thomas Jefferson

    • @George okay now the 7 of 10 makes sense I was thinking more of a time based cadence. Like a 10 count in the rep down for 7 up in 3 or something, that was more balanced and makes a LOT of sense. I do like those movements because they do use most major muscles, require focus, concentration and control but with one rep a day they won’t do two things most modern exercises do.

      1. Cause repetitive motion injuries (which yes fitness heads you are doing to yourselves)

      2. Heat up and therefore damage internal organs (I really need to bring Val on to talk about this)

      • Actually, when I Oregon the movements, I am counting a cadence to myself. The timing of the movement is:
        4 seconds down
        Full stop
        10 seconds(ish) to return to the start position

        There is no magic to these numbers but for me having read them once as the rep speed suggested by the developer of the Super Slow Protocol. However, it just happens to be that do these movements at this speed represents an exertion that for me has an intensity of 7 out of 10. For others, this rep speed may be to fast to achieve a 7/10 so they may need to go even slower. For others this rep speed may represent something impossibly hard so they may need to speed up. For others still, they may need to select entirely different movements. The important thing to remember is to perform SOME multijoint movement through your full range of motion that for the individual participant represents an intensity level of 7/10 or greater.

        For ME, the Super Slow Protocol just happens to represent a 7/10 intensity when I perform these exercises.

  32. Here are a couple sources that make great reference material and which, at least in my opinion, go a long way towards settling the issue of the effects of consuming a paleo-style diet:

    http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm

    http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/item_record.cfm?Idno=9_96842&lang=eng&query=Natural%20history%20–%20Northwest,%20Canadian.&browsetype=Subject&startrow=1

    Also, Jared Diamond’s book The Third Chimpanzee has a chapter titled Agriculture’s Mixed Blessing (or something close to that) that is most illuminative of this subject matter. If you avail yourself to these three sources and aren’t already determined to be unimpressed, you will learn much.

  33. I discovered Paleo a year ago, and its sustainability in a homestead situation was immediately obvious. My only concern about the Paleo diet is that it focuses on short-term weight loss, anecdotal evidence, and theory. I’m not convinced of its long-term healthiness in terms of cardiovascular disease, especially when the participant eats large quantities of saturated fats.

    The only diet I know with published, medically peer-reviewed, and duplicated studies is Dean Ornish’s low-fat, nearly vegetarian diet which has been shown to reverse heart disease. Jack mentioned on the show that “political correctness” drives the results in many studies and that’s why the low-fat, high carb diets are promoted by main-stream medical / Big Pharma. This is not the case with Ornish, who spent years begging to get even a small study in place. (Amusingly, insurance companies objected because the lifestyle changes he wanted to test were “too radical”. Ornish’s response was, “I want people to eat better, you want to cut them open every few years, and *I’m* being radical?!”)

    I know Wolfe covers some of the health aspects in his book, stating that there’s a difference in types of cholesterol (e.g. “fluffy” vs “dense”) and short-term results look good so far, but there’s still no scientific evidence that a Paleo diet will or won’t increase atheriosclerosis, or is otherwise healthy in the long-term. I’ll definitely be watching for the results of a well-designed and properly executed scientific study of its impact on heart disease.

    • Occupationally, I get a lot of news and theories on vessel disease. Thing you have to keep in mind is the difference between cholesterol you consume and cholesterol you generate from starches (and then of course the cholesterol you fail to metabolize because your liver is too busy processing toxins). If a diet is driving your body to process fat, and you are feeling better after a year (especially for some of the older folks using the diet), I really doubt it is causing atherosclerosis. When you had over simplifications of this type of diet (:cough: Atkins :cough:), you had people loosing belly fat and having heart attacks after spending 6 months on salami diets. I don’t see that type of issue here. By dropping the starch levels, people on this type of diet actually seem to behave as though they are fat and cholesterol short which boosts the metabolism.

      I’ve been pushing myself (largely unsuccessfully) towards this type of diet for about a decade now. I don’t have issues with weight loss, but I grew up on a diet heavy in vegetables and fruit, with decent amounts of meat and whole grains. The whole grains may have been an issue or they may have been fine given that they were similar in quantity to the amount of meat I ate, and I didn’t eat much that was based on bleached flour. From my own experience, the diet isn’t all or none. The closer I’ve been to rejecting processed garbage and limiting grains, the better I’ve felt.

      I also find a lot of benefit in eating seasonally and allowing your body to follow natural cycles. I’ve long felt that different food cycles allow your body to build up areas and purge others in a rotating cycle where as using food imports and processed foods to maintain the same diet year round prevents your body from ever doing spring cleaning.

    • Some of the most life saving and top Nobel prizes EVER awarded include the medical discoveries of the X-Ray in 1901, insulin in 1923, and penicillin in 1945. However, the Nobel prize I’m about to mention most people have never heard of. Yet it is just as powerful and as life changing as the X-Ray, insulin and penicillin. It is aguably one of “the best of the best”. This discovery has the potential of saving approximately 2,500 American lives PER DAY and millions of lives worldwide each year.

      Isn’t it a bit odd that even most 5th graders can tell you how many people died on Sept. 11, 2001, but probably not 1 in 1,000,000 Americans can tell you how many Americans died of cardiovascular disease during the month of Sept. 2001.

      The answer is 75,000 That’s about 25 times as many dead Americans in that one month as was killed by terrorists.

      912,500 Americans died THAT YEAR ALONE (2001) MORE THAN the sum total of official US death counts for every war going all the way back to and including the American Revolution. This count covers the Revolution (4,435), War of 1812 (2,260), Mexican War (1,733), Civil War (214,938), Spanish-American War (385) World War I (53,402), World War II (291,557), Korean War (33,741), Vietnam War (47,424) Gulf War (147) War on Terror 2003 – Sept. 2008 (3,384) Grand total: 653,406

      Why have most never heard of this Nobel Prize / discovery??

      Why don’t most doctors even know about it?

      Why is this information all but ignored in the main stream??

      Do some research on your own!!!

      The Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 was awarded to

      Robert F. Furchgott

      Louis J Ignarro

      Ferid Murad

      for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

      I’m not here to promote anyone or a specific product, but there is a lot of life saving information out there if you look.

      One key factor in this is the natural element known as L-Arginine. It is a nitric oxide producer and high potency antioxidant that has the power to reverse the buildup of cholesterol in the arteries.

      BE VERY CAREFUL!! There are a couple good products on the market using L-Arginine, but MANY copycats and ripoffs.

      The benefits of this discovery WHEN APPLIED can be summed up in 4 words: NO MORE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.

      This is HUGE and you can be drop dead certain (pun intended) that big pharma does NOT want the world to know much about this topic.

      Do the reasearch, the information as well as natural healthy products that support this discovery ARE OUT THERE!!

      John P. Cooke M.D., Ph.D. and Head of Stanford Medical School’s vascular unit wrote a book called “The Cardiovascular Cure” The back cover of this book makes direct mention of this 1998 Nobel Prize.

      Dr. Louis J. Ignarro (one of the NP recipients) also wrote a book based on their discoveries. It’s called “No More Heart Disease”.

      INVESTIGATE THIS TOPIC AND SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT IT!!!

  34. Thanks for busting the rabbit starvation myth but I want to bust a myth you mentioned in a way that sounded like you were applying to Christian belief. The flat earth myth. Historian Rodney Stark said that people in ancient times didn’t believe in a flat earth. Thomas Jefferson would have never had heard of that theory. Ancient Greeks had calculated the earth’s circumference within 5%. Columbus wasn’t discouraged from his travels because people thought the earth was flat, rather they were pointing out it was A LOT farther to India than he thought it was. They were right and Columbus was lucky. Where did this flat earth belief come from? Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” wrote a story about Columbus and defamed the church in this book and that relatively modern legend stuck. It is just like the myth of the frog in the hot water but is convenient for those that want to bash Christians. I hope you weren’t meaning to bash Christians.

    Did I hear you had Amaranth on your list of foods? Does that fit Paleo? What about Quinoa? My wife found a delicious Quinoa chocolate cake recipe that beats all gluten free recipes hands down.

    • When Jack mentioned the flat earth analogy, I thought maybe he meant to use the belief held by the church that the universe / heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth. When a certain scientist disagreed, saying we revolved around the sun, he was thrown into prison. Not the nice, federal kind, either.

      • That’s another myth. I’m not Catholic but the church just held to the prevailing scientific theory of the time. The Pope then actually commissioned Galileo to publish his theory but had a couple requirements that I can’t remember. Galileo then published in such a way that he was calling the Pope an imbecile. So, he was put under house arrest for that, not for his scientific opinion. It isn’t smart to call the Pope an idiot.

        • Very interesting reading. Just an opening excerpt.

          The Galileo Affair
          http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

          “The Galileo affair was a sequence of events, beginning around 1610, during which Galileo Galilei came into conflict with the Aristotelian scientific view of the universe (supported by the Catholic Church), over his support of Copernican astronomy. [1]
          In 1610, Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), describing the surprising observations that he had made with the new telescope. These and other discoveries [vague] exposed severe difficulties with the scientific understanding of the universe that had existed since the beginning of science, and raised interest in new ideas such as the heliocentric theory of Copernicus (published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543).

          Many scientists attacked the theory because it disagreed with Aristotle’s model of the universe, as well as several passages of Scripture. Notable among these was Tycho Brahe, one of the most prominent astronomers of his day, who had pointed out what he saw as problems of physics and astronomy in the theory of Copernicus, as well as problems of religion. Galileo’s part in the controversies over theology, astronomy, and philosophy culminated in his trial and sentencing by the Roman Inquisition in 1633 on a grave suspicion of heresy.”

        • @Greg Harvey what you just stated shows the dangers of religious control of society. You said,

          “It isn’t smart to call the Pope an idiot.”

          Well I figure I should be able to call anyone I want to an idiot without being arrested. I am glad the days of the Church governing are over. The separation of Church and State is one of the greatest gifts in the constitution and my I add to that a gift to both sides.

        • @Jack. (I guess there are only reply links only so deep)
          Agreed, completely about Church/State separation as long as the State can’t tell me to shut up about my religious views either. Still, spreading myths, slander and lies are not the same as simply stating your opinion, hence my comments on a couple myths here.
          You made a distinction between anthropology and ideology. I think the Paleo diet mixes the two also. I believe in a literal Adam and Eve as a special creation of God but I also believe in an old earth and I don’t know how long ago Adam and Eve were created. I think macro evolution is bogus because of many problems like abiogenesis, information formation through DNA, and many other reasons. SO if prehistoric man was eating this diet because that was what was available then to make the argument that we evolved based on this diet is a non sequitor and irrelevant. If evolution didn’t occur on some macro scale then we may have adapted to whatever regional diet was available but that doesn’t mean we SHOULD be eating this way. That would be the Is-Ought fallacy. You’d have to prove it other than depending on the unproven presupposition of macro evolution.

          I’ve been successful on Atkins, and very successful on Doug Kaufmann’s Phase One anti-fungal diet. I had such great health results with that one that my eyesight improved and I got the super-preferred rate on my life insurance exam, top 10% of those my age. I’m also aware of several other diets that are similar and I think diets are often developed and then a rationale for why they work is developed later. Atkins would succeed for some of the same reasons that Phase One and Paleo works and vice versa in various ways. Cutting sugar and carbs reduces fungal overgrowths that make you crave carbs. Insulin is then moderated too. Ketosis takes place in all three. Grains have many problems, fungus, gluten, carbs, and even genetic problems. The Wheat Belly book makes a strong case that wheat has been hybridized to a form where we can’t tolerate it and that has happened in our lifetime. The staff of life of the Bible times is not what we eat today. What had 14 or 24 chromosomes now has 42 and has never been tested for human safety. So, ideology doesn’t just come from people with religious viewpoints as it seemed you were trying to play out. I have an ideology that is informed by my faith, sure, like everyone else, but it isn’t contrary to science just cause you say so.

    • Indeed, many ancient people figured out the earth was round from lunar eclipses and other forms of astronomical observations (particularly among the Babylonians).

      Despite ancient peoples and the Bible speaking in anthropomorphic terms (sun rising and setter, four corners of the earth), even the (very old) book of Job describes God as making the earth sphereical and suspending it in space, hanging on nothing.

  35. Jack

    What you say about caloric intake makes a lot of sense.

    The body can only take up so much protein so it will keep you full, you won’t take any in therefore you will stay deficient in calories but won’t know it!

    Jason

  36. Did any of you ever see “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” ? Dr Robert H. Lustig talks about the overabundance of sugar and a lack of fiber is the primary cause of obesity. You should really check it out because he talks about how fructose is presented in nature and how it differs from the modern diet.

    (Jack the YouTube link is probably worth the full hour of your time when you get a moment. He gives science to support just about everything you said.)

    http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM

  37. Great show Jack. You gave some great info to check out.

    Since I suffer from sleep apnea and being overweight I’ve been checking out the Russian “Buteyko” breathing system you mentioned. The following website “learnbuteyko.org” had the following information:

    “Destruction produced by deep breathing is aggravated by poisoning of the environment and food with chemicals, herbicides and medications. If it is so, then all of Western medicine’s main principles are based on methods of prevention and treatment, consisting of teaching people deep breathing techniques, that only assists in creating those diseases. At the same time, deep breathing exercises and broncho-vasodilatory medications that increase the rate of CO2 removal from the body do not improve but worsen the state of already ill patients. That is why the so called “diseases of civilization” are not yielding to treatment but spreading even further. The discovery of the fact that deep breathing is the main cause of those illnesses allows us to prove scientifically and experimentally that existing principles and methods of treatment are faulty.”

    Thanks for your lifesaving and life-changing info!

    • But systems like Xi-Gong involve lots of deep breathing and motions, and are supposed to be very beneficial – assuming one eats a natural/organic diet?

  38. Jack said:

    “The separation of Church and State is one of the greatest gifts in the constitution and my I add to that a gift to both sides.”

    Amen! Preach it brother!

    One of the greatest scourges of history was the State controlling the “church”, or vice versa.

    One if the greatest gifts to mankind was the Founding Fathers separating the two, effectively heeding Jesus’ admonition “Render unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

    (I know the Founders may not have had this quote consciously in mind, but I’m glad they in effect followed Jesus’ ancient instruction.)

  39. Does anyone have any thoughts on partial-paleo? ie 75% paleo, 25% grool? Is there still significant benefit, or must you get to > 90% paleo to see benefit?

    • I’ve listened to all of robb’s paleo solution podcasts available on iTunes or his site. His experience is that in order to see the benefits most people do not need to be 100% strict. If you have some autoimmune disease you are trying to cure you must be very strict til you are healed. With that said please understand everyones biochemistry is different so it’s best just to try removing grains, legumes, and dairy for 30 days and see how you look feel and preform. Then you can try to add some fermented dairy and some beans back in your diet then re evaluate

  40. Hey Jack,

    GRRRRREAT SHOW!! I totally love it. This is the first I’ve heard anything on this topic…ever I think. It just make so SO much sense when you think about.
    MORE info MORE info – – please please MORE MORE!!

    Also many many thanks for all your hard work and great topics and guests, and thanks WAY WAY much for playing Hank Jr.’s new song!!!!!!!!!!

    Boceifus R O C K S !!! Screw the NFL and their perverted TSA pat downs.

    BOYCOTT BOYCOTT BOYCOTT – – I’m NOT watching from home, I’m NOT listening on the radio, I’m NOT give’n the slightest bit of a damn ANYmore!!
    HEY HEY NFL, Fox, n ESPN… ALL y’all can just kiss my rowdy Boceifus lovin, freedom protect’n American ass!!

  41. Great Show Jack. Just a couple point I’d like to bring up.
    1) Comparing the benefits of the Paleo diet (particularly weigh loss) with our modern diet then condemning grains is an unfair comparison. We should rather compare hunter/gatherer diet with the early agrarian diet – after all the early farmers (and yes grain eaters) did ultimately conquer or at least win over the hunter/gatherers so that nearly all cultures became farmers/grain eaters.
    2) Grains improperly prepared are in fact unhealthy. That is why NO indigenous culture would ever eat grains the way they are commercially prepared today. All grain was soaked, fermented – leavening was through sourdough. As we know when foods are properly fermented they can become quite nutritious – look at the humble cabbage transforming into the nutrient powerhouse Sauerkraut. Likewise, wheat transformed through the sourdough process is not the same creature as wheat straight from the field. There are important evolutionary reasons grains, legumes, nuts and seeds all contain what is known as anti-nutrients.
    3) Physiologically man was designed or has evolved (you choose which) to be an Omnivore – we eat everything. We have canine teeth to rip and tear meat, but we also have molars to grind grain.
    4) I think most of us can agree that commercially prepared foods are not they way we should be eating. We should be eating the foods of our ancestors – prepared with tried and proven methods that ensure health.

    While the Paleo diet is a good program (especially if weight loss is your objective), I think there is more to the total dietary picture when it comes to grains and to throw them out wholesale without first examining how they were prepared is not good science.

    • Jack, If it’s only a belief then quit presenting 160,000 years or whatever as FACT on your podcast and expect us to deal with it. YOU don’t deal with people stating their beliefs as facts and neither do we!
      I love most of what you bring to the show just not all of it.
      Thanks

      • @MuddyFork based on my research it is fact. If you don’t like what I believe that is your choice, if you want to believe differently it won’t hurt my feelings. If you state your opinion and I state mine and you don’t like that, I really don’t know what to say.

        • There is no need to believe in or have an opinion about facts nor can facts be questioned. The age of the earth beyond recorded history can’t be anything but a theory or a belief.

        • @MuddyFork, and you believe that and I believe that the science in regard to the geology of the earth is fairly accurate and that the anthropological record is fairly well known and accurate as well.

          As no one is trying to institute a global policy or tax here, who the hell cares if I believe one thing and you another.

          WTF do you want from me, do you want me to concede that you could be right when it is 100% counter to what I believe based on my analysis of fact? For what purpose so you can feel validated or not insulted?

          Disagreeing with a person and stating your beliefs and your factual analysis is not insulting the other person. Again I state that I am sticking with 190,000 years of history (pre agriculture) and the reality is even in the last 10,000 years many humans were far more paleo than agriculture based.

          Jeez if this bugs you wait till I have Greg Ellis on in Nov, some of you may end up with blood squirting out of your eyes.

        • Jack, I respect your beliefs on how old the earth is. I have not stated what I believe, but I will respectably say that it is my faith and I have no scientifically proven facts that I can show you to prove it, but neither does someone that believes 100% counter to what I believe. A theory is only a belief no matter who or how many believe in it.
          Thanks

      • @ Jack and Muddy Fork.
        First of all, there isn’t 190,000 years of history, picking nits, but that would be pre-history and history. Also, even if it is 190,000 that humans have been around, what does that prove? What they ate is what we are supposed to eat? That would be the ‘Was-Ought’ fallacy. By that logical argument we should all sleep on the ground around a fire and poop in the woods and wipe our butts with leaves. Also, we shouldn’t eat any new foods that weren’t available earlier than what, a thousand years ago? ten thousand years ago? Scratch off 90% of your list of foods then Jack, they aren’t what we ‘evolved’ with.
        I’m glad the diet worked so great for you. I can think of several similar diets that would probably work equally well and not carry the evolutionary ideological baggage. “It worked.” is not proof. It supports the idea but I could give you many other reasons why it worked. Insulin regulation, starving fungus that creates carb cravings, you may have even dealt with a hidden H. Pylori problem by an increased usage of garlic and other anti-biotic foods that put it in check. Just cutting out wheat alone heals many health problems and incredible weight losses in many people.
        So, you haven’t provided any proof that an evolutionary theory is why it works when dozens of other reasons exist why that diet could work. There is more dogma in dietary claims than any religion or political party these days. Stick to ‘Worked for me, try it if you like.” and we have no conflict but you were the one that accused others that they are unscientific and using flat earth thinking and relying on ideology, not me. I’ve listened to tons of health and diet book authors on the UndergroundWellness.com podcast and the adage holds true that to a hammer everything looks like a nail. Paleo may work but the premises used to support it can still be false like many bad arguments where the conclusion is still true.

  42. Jack,

    Great show. After listening to epi-00746 with Bryan Davis concerning fermented foods and paleo, I did a little more research and decided to try this for myself. Week 1 was ROUGH, Week 2 was a little better especially toward the end. I am now on week 3 and I feel better than I have in years. It is great not to have those energy spikes or those sudden hunger pains. There is definitely something to this. I am liking it a lot. My midsection almost feels like a balloon with the air slowly seeping out as I go along. It’s great!

    As I entered week 2 I did begin to wonder how this was going to fit into the prepping and what can I do for long term storage. This episode confirmed many of my own thoughts and ideas and I am so glad to hear it from your mouth. Thank you again for what you do. Whatever you do, don’t get the big head, stay grounded. Thank you again!!

  43. Good show, I agree with you about sweet potatoes. They should be a fine paleo food, recommended for people with blood sugar problems. I see paleo sites almost all suggesting that they should be avoided. Again, agree with you, I use sweet potatoes instead of pasta, works and tastes great.

  44. Pima Indians of the Desert Southwest
    To Preserve Their Health and Heritage, Arizona Indians Reclaim Ancient Foods
    Desert’s bounty cuts overweight and diabetes
    http://www.manataka.org/page1885.html

    google search:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=arazona+indians+diabetics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=GCb&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&ei=rEKgTrL4A8KKsgKopcGIBQ&ved=0CCIQvwUoAQ&q=arizona+indians+diabetes&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=a4183349b9a276ea&biw=1600&bih=688

  45. Jack, the podcast was outstanding, I was curious if you’ve tried to or considering having Val on to talk about Systema and Russian Fitness?

    • @Cy, considered yes but the logistics are difficult. He is in the UAE and even a normal phone call for some reason has real sound problems. Next time he is in the US for a project I will see if we can arrange it.

  46. I figure this thread of comments is essentially dead, but here is a link to an article to one of the two longest-lived and healthiest people groups on Earth, the Japanese of Yuzuri Hara village. (The other group are the SoCal Seventh-day Adventists, who happen to be a mixed ethnic group.)

    Neither the Yuzuri Hara, nor the SDA’s, eat a paleo diet yet both easily live active lives well into their 90s, 100 is common, they have much less incidence of disease.

    http://www.appliedhealth.com/ABC_News_HA.html

    While they do not eat white rice but a sweet potato instead, they eat PLENTY of starches and not much meat, the opposite of the paleo diet:

    “Some medical researchers believe that Yuzuri Hara, known as “The Village of Long Life,” and its residents may hold the key to anti-aging secrets: the local diet that is unique to the village. Unlike other regions of Japan that grow rice, Yuzuri Hara’s hilly terrain is better suited to harvesting different carbohydrates that may prove healthier: things like satsumaimo, a type of sweet potato; satoimo, a sticky white potato; konyaku, a gelatinous root vegetable concoction; and imoji, a potato root.”

    • Ok several of y’all have posted you have been living the Paleo Lifestyle for sometime. So I drive a truck for a living and have limited cooking and food storage options. Basically one cooler and a microwave. So want are some food suggestions for me. For exercise it is driving roughly 11 hours per day, and I’m a flatbed driver so I tarp loads and stuff. Thanks for your help in advance.

      • @JasonTN, dude the answer is meat, veggies and fruit with 70% of your caloric intake coming from meat/fat. There is nothing remarkable about that or more difficult when you travel. In your cooler put meat and veggies, mostly meats. For some storables consider canned meats, I would bet you eat plenty of meat now, just leave out the rice, bread, pasta and rock on.

        • @JasonTN,

          No nuts and seeds are nuts and seeds. They are on the do eat list for me but they are a minor component of my caloric intake but something I do eat often.

        • @JasonTN oh and Almonds have about the lowest number of carbs of any nut out there that you don’t have to cut your leg off to be able to afford in quantity (um macadamian nuts cough cough hmm)

  47. Hey, have you ever checked out the blood type diet? I think the real answer is that we ALL need to be eating whole foods (things that you can conceivably find in nature and eat raw), however, due to our evolution on specific diets in specific regions, some of us can eat lots of red meat and others are great as vegetarians. Cro-magnon man are known to have Type-0 blood. More agrarian cultures began to develop the “A” antigen in their blood (vegetarians). People living in very cold environments developed the “B” antigen (dairy eaters) and the more recent “AB” antigen combination has happened most recently. I’ve had the same exact results with following the Type-0 blood type diet (lifestyle -way of eating) and have come down from 275lbs to 210! The Paleo diet is very much a Type-0 diet. The people who write books about being vegetarian are Type-As is my guess. We write about our own experiences and act as if they should apply to everyone. We are very much alike, but we are also very different in some ways. Let me know what you think.

    • @Sunshine Ax, bought the book and read it years ago. It intrigued me as I am a type O and that is by their view the most paleo of all. I think it might have some merit but I don’t think wheat is human food period. I would put barley in that classification too, and of course I drink beer, made from barley. I am not a purist but I do believe my view of,

      “If it is human food it will taste good in its raw natural form”

      Is the best way to make dietary choices. Foods in their raw form are also highly self limiting. Consider apples, make them into juice and they are pure concentrated fructose, highly damaging via glycation to the body. Eat whole apples though and you will only eat so many and as you will have to eat meat and fat to satisfy yourself along with the natural bulk (fiber) of the apple the effect on blood sugar is limited.

      I think you will enjoy the interview with Dr. Greg Ellis in Nov, he would tell you I am far to lenient with my stance on carbs.

  48. Jack,

    Since first hearing about the paleo diet on an earlier episode, I decided to try it myself. It has been 30 days and I decided to weigh myself this morning. I have lost 20 pounds! I stuck to the plan as best as I realistically could. I even ate out on occasion, this requires a little bit of discipline. By far this is the easiest 20 pounds I have ever lost.

    I did NOT do any repetitive motion exercise either. I’ve been doing the sloooow pushups, working around the property (clearing trees), and doing 20-100 yard sprints (playing tag and racing my little cousins (12 an 7)).

    I am enjoy this change. It is definitely something I believe I can stick with for the rest of my life. Now, to begin my paleo preps. Thanks again for bringing this to attention.