First, my thoughts on Paleo. I think we agree that the heart of Paleo is in a good place. Modern
society has been blindsided by obesity and disease, and we don’t really know why. Many get
the feeling our diet is somehow deficient, and I think most of us here still believe that. The
health of primitive humans (or even those in more recent history) seems like it was better, so it
makes sense to try and figure out what they did right and we did wrong. I’m inclined to think
people do get more of the stuff we need doing Paleo– vitamins, minerals, and maybe even
fiber.
But waiting for people who want to investigate this idea are all sorts of traps: the low-carb
trap, the no-sugar trap, the low-calorie trap, the raw trap, the anti-nutrient trap, the “fat’s not
bad so now it’s the best thing ever” trap… these are the real dangers, specifically for those
who are already sick.
I truly empathize with people getting freaked out by the availability of food items that were
almost certainly not available to our ancestors. Can any of us seriously imagine going our
entire lives without soda, milkshakes, or candy bars? Or even the wide array of fruit we have
these days? And yet, our ancestors seemed to have done just fine without it. When I started
thinking about changing my diet, I didn’t see why I should so desperately need something that
our species didn’t for millions of years (or even just hundreds of years). And so at the very
least, I didn’t think it would be harmful to completely abstain from such things. I thought maybe
I needed to toughen up.
And probably nothing will convince people that this is not the way to go unless they really try
it for themselves. Sure, we could expect that a period of adjustment would be necessary. But I
did very low carb for over a year, and no fructose for 3 months, and it never felt right. My
“enzymes” didn’t adjust. I felt deprived, was very gaunt, got gout on two occasions, spent way
too much time and energy worrying about food, and had chronically loose stools which I’ve
never had before or since. (I couldn’t even believe it was gout at the time, because I’m not fat
or middle-aged.) This went on way longer than it should have, and it was for two reasons: my
psychological circumstances, and the seemingly overwhelming scientific support and
testimony. It’s a nightmare to think of how long I may have continued my diet if it weren’t for
Matt Stone.
I know most people are not as extreme as I was. It’s good to know that not all Paleos are lowcarb.
But my hope for this book is that it helps people retain the ability to listen to their body
despite everything they think or have read.
Still, my story might be relevant because all low-carbers are in some sense Paleo. The biggest
supporting argument for low-carb is how you simply cannot get a lot of carbs without
agriculture, cooking, and widespread trade (at least for people of European ancestry). I don’t think the stuff about fructose and insulin would really sound plausible if it weren’t for this
background.
People can argue that we can’t really know what pre-humans did, but here’s the thing– I was
convinced that, at least at some point in our history, pre-humans were carnivorous. It seemed
that at some point our hominid lineage would be smart enough to spread all over the world, but
not smart enough to cook or grow food; and so the only significant thing around was meat.
Also, we appeared to be adapted to survive through repeated ice-ages. Again, at the very least,
I did not think it could possibly be harmful to eat a diet that we were at some point biologically adapted for. (Our small appendix was one of the things that convinced me.)
Yes, it seems really sick to me today, (and did even then), but here’s the other reason why I
went to a mostly meat diet: Meat was being touted by low-carb authors as the perfect food.
They said that fat is the body’s preferred fuel– that’s why it stores its energy as fat. They said
we need a lot of protein, and the body would make whatever glucose it needed from that,
keeping it at a stable level, instead of the dreaded spikes. As Michael Eades liked to say,
“There is no such thing as a necessary carbohydrate!” Also, meat had all the vitamins and
minerals in their most digestible form, and no anti-nutrients. One example that really impacted
me was how Stefansson said that a person could live for years in perfect health on pemmican
alone.
I decided that to get on the fast track to “healing”, or at least shock my body into the right
direction, it was easiest just to eliminate pretty much all plant foods entirely. I became afraid
of everything besides meat, even milk with its opiod-like casein. My influences were Gary
Taubes, Mike Eades, Barry Groves, Tom Naughton, and Natasha Campbell-McBride and the
whole GAPS theory, Lierre Keith, Nora Gedgaudas, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the “Fiber
Menace” guy, Ron Schmid, some lady from Poland, William Dufty’s “Sugar Blues”, and the
WAPF. Between all of them, their techniques seemed to be able to help or cure every disease
under the sun (even MS, as noted by Barry Groves). And eliminating carbs, fiber, and
antinutrients seemed to be the common thread. So it seemed my best bet would be to eliminate
all of them. (I had a vague idea that maybe I had blood sugar issues, or perhaps some other
unidentifiable cause for chronic fatigue.) Assurances that I would be getting enough calories
and be able to digest that much protein and fat were built on scanty evidence, but people who
are desperate don’t wait around to investigate. (Sadly, in the end, this probably WAS the
easiest way for me to find out whether or not those assurances were true.)
I expect that most people instinctively would not come to such an extreme conclusion. But I
was desperate, and if one takes the theories behind low-carb to their literal implications,
desperation may very well push you until you reach this extreme. It’s ridiculous, but this is the
low-carb trap. Most people will just lightly do low-carb (and live with constant guilt), but if
you truly believe that insulin and sugars are the bane of human biology, then you have to
conclude that this is the ideal diet– even if you personally find it impossible to follow.
As silly as it was, I really, really thought it was the truth, because the concurrence of all the
science and books just seemed unshakable. (–even DESPITE how psychologically messed up it was to think that “healthy” and “ideal” calls for an all-out animal bloodbath. I REALLY
regret trying to incorporate that idea into my entire worldview.) What really caught my
attention about Matt Stone is that he had read ALL of them, and still had the ability to say no to
the whole thing. I honestly didn’t think that was possible. I thought insulin separated the men
from the boys. Even the mainstream is tending against carbs and fructose these days, so I saw
that as confirmation of low-carb’s validity. And the fact that people DO lose weight on it.
Now, I wasn’t quite as extreme as some of those people, but they were really the example in
my mind of how people were actually DOING the diet I was advocating, and appeared to be
doing well. I had assumed they were all in agreement, and that this was the ideal diet for
everyone. But that turned out to be my own delusion! Also what was interesting about that
thread– I had posted it in the “Carnivorous / Zero Carb Approach” section, precisely because I
wanted it to reach people like me, who would only be browsing that section of the forum. That
subject line would have gotten my attention. But people got mad over it. Some had the attitude
of “What are you doing here?”, and just wanted me to leave. Eventually, a moderator moved it
to the “Hot Topics” section, a place where I never would have looked. It goes to show how
some people really don’t want to learn more, but only want a support group to encourage them
to continue doing their odd or strenuous activities. It reminded me a little of online anorexia
support groups.
Lastly, it’s always more convincing when there’s a conspiracy element attached to anything.
Most people will at least believe that corporations and institutions will put profits before the
people. The shock of learning that some aspect of mainstream health is wrong can too easily
lead us to champion the opposite, almost as an act of revenge, or defiance. And of course, with
all the other conspiracy stuff going on out there, one can begin to doubt the very fundamentals
of their upbringing and society. I can’t really say much about this other than, don’t lose your
head. And try not to fall for a story just because it’s sensational. Through all this, I’ve learned
that we just can’t know nearly as much as we think we can from reading books and listening to
“experts”. Even with competent scientists, the complexities of biology and chemistry usually
cannot be reduced to such simplicity. We have complex tastes and particularities for a reason.
And everyone’s unique.
Perhaps we can’t always trust our intuition and feelings, and occasionally need to reform
ourselves based on intellectual theory, but I would never mistrust my feelings and common
tradition that much again. This now common view of sugar (or even carbs) as an addictive “drug” instead of the easiest to use energy really makes me sad, as it is probably making life
unnecessarily harder for a lot of people.
society has been blindsided by obesity and disease, and we don’t really know why. Many get
the feeling our diet is somehow deficient, and I think most of us here still believe that. The
health of primitive humans (or even those in more recent history) seems like it was better, so it
makes sense to try and figure out what they did right and we did wrong. I’m inclined to think
people do get more of the stuff we need doing Paleo– vitamins, minerals, and maybe even
fiber.
But waiting for people who want to investigate this idea are all sorts of traps: the low-carb
trap, the no-sugar trap, the low-calorie trap, the raw trap, the anti-nutrient trap, the “fat’s not
bad so now it’s the best thing ever” trap… these are the real dangers, specifically for those
who are already sick.
I truly empathize with people getting freaked out by the availability of food items that were
almost certainly not available to our ancestors. Can any of us seriously imagine going our
entire lives without soda, milkshakes, or candy bars? Or even the wide array of fruit we have
these days? And yet, our ancestors seemed to have done just fine without it. When I started
thinking about changing my diet, I didn’t see why I should so desperately need something that
our species didn’t for millions of years (or even just hundreds of years). And so at the very
least, I didn’t think it would be harmful to completely abstain from such things. I thought maybe
I needed to toughen up.
And probably nothing will convince people that this is not the way to go unless they really try
it for themselves. Sure, we could expect that a period of adjustment would be necessary. But I
did very low carb for over a year, and no fructose for 3 months, and it never felt right. My
“enzymes” didn’t adjust. I felt deprived, was very gaunt, got gout on two occasions, spent way
too much time and energy worrying about food, and had chronically loose stools which I’ve
never had before or since. (I couldn’t even believe it was gout at the time, because I’m not fat
or middle-aged.) This went on way longer than it should have, and it was for two reasons: my
psychological circumstances, and the seemingly overwhelming scientific support and
testimony. It’s a nightmare to think of how long I may have continued my diet if it weren’t for
Matt Stone.
I know most people are not as extreme as I was. It’s good to know that not all Paleos are lowcarb.
But my hope for this book is that it helps people retain the ability to listen to their body
despite everything they think or have read.
Still, my story might be relevant because all low-carbers are in some sense Paleo. The biggest
supporting argument for low-carb is how you simply cannot get a lot of carbs without
agriculture, cooking, and widespread trade (at least for people of European ancestry). I don’t think the stuff about fructose and insulin would really sound plausible if it weren’t for this
background.
People can argue that we can’t really know what pre-humans did, but here’s the thing– I was
convinced that, at least at some point in our history, pre-humans were carnivorous. It seemed
that at some point our hominid lineage would be smart enough to spread all over the world, but
not smart enough to cook or grow food; and so the only significant thing around was meat.
Also, we appeared to be adapted to survive through repeated ice-ages. Again, at the very least,
I did not think it could possibly be harmful to eat a diet that we were at some point biologically adapted for. (Our small appendix was one of the things that convinced me.)
Yes, it seems really sick to me today, (and did even then), but here’s the other reason why I
went to a mostly meat diet: Meat was being touted by low-carb authors as the perfect food.
They said that fat is the body’s preferred fuel– that’s why it stores its energy as fat. They said
we need a lot of protein, and the body would make whatever glucose it needed from that,
keeping it at a stable level, instead of the dreaded spikes. As Michael Eades liked to say,
“There is no such thing as a necessary carbohydrate!” Also, meat had all the vitamins and
minerals in their most digestible form, and no anti-nutrients. One example that really impacted
me was how Stefansson said that a person could live for years in perfect health on pemmican
alone.
I decided that to get on the fast track to “healing”, or at least shock my body into the right
direction, it was easiest just to eliminate pretty much all plant foods entirely. I became afraid
of everything besides meat, even milk with its opiod-like casein. My influences were Gary
Taubes, Mike Eades, Barry Groves, Tom Naughton, and Natasha Campbell-McBride and the
whole GAPS theory, Lierre Keith, Nora Gedgaudas, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the “Fiber
Menace” guy, Ron Schmid, some lady from Poland, William Dufty’s “Sugar Blues”, and the
WAPF. Between all of them, their techniques seemed to be able to help or cure every disease
under the sun (even MS, as noted by Barry Groves). And eliminating carbs, fiber, and
antinutrients seemed to be the common thread. So it seemed my best bet would be to eliminate
all of them. (I had a vague idea that maybe I had blood sugar issues, or perhaps some other
unidentifiable cause for chronic fatigue.) Assurances that I would be getting enough calories
and be able to digest that much protein and fat were built on scanty evidence, but people who
are desperate don’t wait around to investigate. (Sadly, in the end, this probably WAS the
easiest way for me to find out whether or not those assurances were true.)
I expect that most people instinctively would not come to such an extreme conclusion. But I
was desperate, and if one takes the theories behind low-carb to their literal implications,
desperation may very well push you until you reach this extreme. It’s ridiculous, but this is the
low-carb trap. Most people will just lightly do low-carb (and live with constant guilt), but if
you truly believe that insulin and sugars are the bane of human biology, then you have to
conclude that this is the ideal diet– even if you personally find it impossible to follow.
As silly as it was, I really, really thought it was the truth, because the concurrence of all the
science and books just seemed unshakable. (–even DESPITE how psychologically messed up it was to think that “healthy” and “ideal” calls for an all-out animal bloodbath. I REALLY
regret trying to incorporate that idea into my entire worldview.) What really caught my
attention about Matt Stone is that he had read ALL of them, and still had the ability to say no to
the whole thing. I honestly didn’t think that was possible. I thought insulin separated the men
from the boys. Even the mainstream is tending against carbs and fructose these days, so I saw
that as confirmation of low-carb’s validity. And the fact that people DO lose weight on it.
Now, I wasn’t quite as extreme as some of those people, but they were really the example in
my mind of how people were actually DOING the diet I was advocating, and appeared to be
doing well. I had assumed they were all in agreement, and that this was the ideal diet for
everyone. But that turned out to be my own delusion! Also what was interesting about that
thread– I had posted it in the “Carnivorous / Zero Carb Approach” section, precisely because I
wanted it to reach people like me, who would only be browsing that section of the forum. That
subject line would have gotten my attention. But people got mad over it. Some had the attitude
of “What are you doing here?”, and just wanted me to leave. Eventually, a moderator moved it
to the “Hot Topics” section, a place where I never would have looked. It goes to show how
some people really don’t want to learn more, but only want a support group to encourage them
to continue doing their odd or strenuous activities. It reminded me a little of online anorexia
support groups.
Lastly, it’s always more convincing when there’s a conspiracy element attached to anything.
Most people will at least believe that corporations and institutions will put profits before the
people. The shock of learning that some aspect of mainstream health is wrong can too easily
lead us to champion the opposite, almost as an act of revenge, or defiance. And of course, with
all the other conspiracy stuff going on out there, one can begin to doubt the very fundamentals
of their upbringing and society. I can’t really say much about this other than, don’t lose your
head. And try not to fall for a story just because it’s sensational. Through all this, I’ve learned
that we just can’t know nearly as much as we think we can from reading books and listening to
“experts”. Even with competent scientists, the complexities of biology and chemistry usually
cannot be reduced to such simplicity. We have complex tastes and particularities for a reason.
And everyone’s unique.
Perhaps we can’t always trust our intuition and feelings, and occasionally need to reform
ourselves based on intellectual theory, but I would never mistrust my feelings and common
tradition that much again. This now common view of sugar (or even carbs) as an addictive “drug” instead of the easiest to use energy really makes me sad, as it is probably making life
unnecessarily harder for a lot of people.