Sunday, February 16, 2014

too paleo or not too paleo

(that is one of the questions.)

Between Wooo's recent slap at the "paleo-blogosphere," the comments after it, the asshole I chastised yesterday, and a current experiment, I've thought quite a bit about the lifestyle and dietary framework we label "Paleo."  Complex subject!  Some people deplore how this promising concept has gone downhill (i'm in that camp), others say it was just a fad to begin with.  People like Sisson will surely say that it's as firm and valid as it ever was, and I hope that twenty years down the line, they'll be shown to be correct.

What the best writers have always agreed about -- it's not meant to be a reenactment, but a template.  We cannot replicate the foods available to our ancestors any more than we can replicate their societies.  What we can do is mull over what their lifestyles must have included, deduce what must have ameliorated the threats against health, wellbeing, successful reproduction, and so on, and then see what we might learn from this and profit thereby.

I see this learning and profiting process somewhat like I do that of my reenacting hobby.  The EXACT replication of everything is NOT POSSIBLE.  Yes, I wear garments my great-grandmother would not find unusual, from the skin to the outermost layer.  But I did not grow up wearing a corset EVERY SINGLE DAY from my earliest adolescence, and as a result my trunk is a modern "construction" with ribs a little constricted halfway up (from a bra capable of supporting my double-Ds), but NOT constricted at the waist, which they would have been if i'd been born a century earlier.  My feet are "healthy" by modern standards, not narrowed by decades of wearing shoes that were fashionable by nineteenth-century dicta.

When I show school-children the rations that an American Civil War Union laundress would have been issued, they're seeing modern flour (cleaner and whiter than it should be), modern salt-pork (leaner than it should be), and modern beans (more uniform than they should be), ... among other things.  We can show generic examples, but we cannot show exactly what there WAS.

Paleolithic-era people in different parts of the world had a gigantic difference, from one to the next, in what flora and fauna were available to them for consumption.  GIGANTIC.  Then, from one year to the next there might have been large differences in weather-contingent foodstuffs.  When one source is scarce, another would have been made-use-of, even if it was less desirable -- better Top Ramen than no food at all, a struggling student of today might say!  Much as a paleo-idealist might like to imagine the bounty of nature when there were fewer of us to compete, those of us who read a goodly amount of HISTORY know that droughts, disease, wildfire, excessive rain, and other such catastrophes were fatal to man, animal, and plant-life alike.  Famine HAPPENED.

So when we get people who say "those people ALWAYS ..." or "those people NEVER ..." -- it's just nonsense!  Those people DID when they COULD, but when they couldn't, they "made do."  They DID eat high-cellulose vegetables, because they filled an achingly hungry belly.  They ate bugs.  They ate slightly-toxic things, which they learned to treat in such ways that they became at least a little nutritious ... like acorns and pokeweed and grass-seeds.

When they could get it, they lapped up honey -- you know, that "sugar" which Bill the Asshole said we MUST NOT be apologists for ... whatever that means.  They boiled down tree sap to make more sugar.  They ate rotting fruit, which is loaded with sugar (and alcohol). 

Are we being less "paleo" or more so, when we make excursions from deer-liver and a starchy tuber for dinner?  Does it really matter?  Do we have to work out with rocks and branches, or sprint a lot to be true to the ancestral fitness template that SOMEBODY has speculated on?  I kinda suspect that digging clams and climbing trees is equally legitimate, exercise-wise.  As a correlation, carrying your day's groceries in a large city from the store to your house is probably very similar.  In the 'burbs we may have to carry a backpack when we walk the dog to be comparable.  But crossfit ... I doubt that a large proportion of the population had that kind of workout on an everyday basis!

A concept like primal/paleo, taken reasonably, can result in some really helpful behaviors.  Taken like prairie fundamentalists take protestant Christianity -- ignorantly, with no historic insight, and the "more is better" mindset of fanaticism -- the paleo template becomes burlesque.  NO GRAINS (despite Native Americans' use of wild rice)!  NO DAIRY (despite the fact that we all start life on "dairy").  Lots of plants and tubers (despite the fact that many of them are loaded with toxins and antinutrients).  Are shellfish really paleo?  Are fruits legitimate, despite the fact that the fruits available to us now are artificially cultivated to be high-sugar?  Given the desirability of real versus processed food, WHAT IS "REAL FOOD"?

Using science as well as REAL HISTORY (as opposed to ignorantly-imagined old-fashioned-ness), we can construct credible concepts of how our ancestors survived the harsh world in which they lived.  The harsh world in which we live now is very different, but still perilous.  We have tools that our forebears didn't, though -- we can see how our genes predispose us to disease, whereas they could only see what weaknesses ran in families and to only ally themselves with the most hardy (at least, the higher social classes, who had choice but not the pressure to mate with only others of their own caste).  We have scientists who are/were interested enough to pass us GOOD recommendations for overriding our shortcomings -- as opposed to their fellows who only care(d) about promoting their own fame or wealth.

We have a lot of advantages now.  Some are context-related in their beneficence (like antibiotics), and some are mixed blessings (blood- and image-based-screenings in search of disease in the "healthy" population).  Some are life-saving concepts carried to extreme (caesarian-section delivery where not always indicated).  Some are "pure" beneficent intervention (appendectomy and other surgeries), where survival would be impossible in its absence.  We also now have genetic sequencing, which allows us to know how our own SNPs predispose us to ruin.  We have SOME information to help us ameliorate it.

Longer lifespans now?  POPPYCOCK.  We have less infant mortality, less infection-based death, and surgically-sourced lifesaving, that's all.  We also have a toxic, stress-exacerbated, advertising-misled society and lifestyle.  We have a food system which is nothing less than HORRIFIC -- CAFO meats and GMO plant matter!  It's a testament to human resilience that we survived the industrial revolution.  Will we survive the technical revolution?  Time will tell -- but a paleo TEMPLATE could help.

29 comments:

  1. Wonderful post, Tess!
    I think paleo comes into its own exactly as a framework and template, not a diet or a reenactment or whatever. A good way to think about what might work and what might work less well. The Paleo blogosphere I find by and large vapid. You recently mentioned Harris, and his is one template that would seem, on the whole, quite helpful to most people. I think it helps he has stopped blogging. God knows where his website would be at in today's LC-bashing climate. (He, too, was heading in that direction before he stopped.)
    And I like your idea of carrying groceries as being "Paleo" to some extent. I've never driven a car in my life, and even though my wife does, I always make a point of carrying all groceries home without ever "cheating". I have never been inside a gym either. I kinda like it that way.
    Having "seen the light", and "converted" to a Paleo (or evolutionary) perspective and way of thinking, I do think this will help us to make better choices and prosper beyond what we might otherwise achieve in our modern environment.

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    1. thank you, Michael! I'm still very attached to the paleo concept -- it's done me a lot of good, and holds a lot of logic which can potentially capture the imagination of more people who could benefit too. but when hijacked by rigid people of more fanaticism than insight ... it becomes significantly damaged. :-( I think I might restore Mark's Daily Apple to my blog list, simply because Mark is one of our best ambassadors.

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    2. Mark Sisson wrote in The Primal Connection just a year ago too much carbohydrate and insulin was a problem for many people.

      Sisson and Eenfeldt stick to basic messages, which is fine, but it tends to attract readers with only a basic knowledge and a lack of awareness of how much they don't know.

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    3. Sisson's is one site where it's best not to read the comments, as opposed to Petro's, where the comments help me to understand his content. :-)

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  2. I like paleo when it first started out: it put things into perspective. We, as humans, are really no different than other organisms in this great life cycle on earth. I am weary of people who takes pride on how humans have "dominated" the food chain. Yes, we don't have to worry about running from predators anymore. But now we have to worry about unemployment, pollution, work stress, cancer... etc, that the average "wild animal" don't have to trouble themselves with.

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  3. It really leads me to question why and how people turn to agriculture in the first place. I read somewhere that people turned to farming because with mass production of grains, they could finally mass produce alcohol....

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    1. now, THAT is an advance! ;-) ...really, life today IS so different from the world in which we evolved, it's depressing. our grandparents would have thought Orwell and Huxley were true prophets. i'm more inclined to think "The Time Machine" is going to be right.

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    2. Brian Fagan, an evolutionary biologist, suspects agriculture started due to climate change in the fertile crescent. See Cro Magnon by Brian Fagan for further reading.

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  4. Also check out www.paleo99diet.com

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  5. After a death from hunger stopped being a real issue due to more modern technologies, people run into another problem - too much technology and agriculture was not healthy as well, but if you remove it, you would have a very expensive food again and more people occupied with food production not modern jobs.
    I think it will be just a new line to divide people on poor and well-of ones - poor eat cheap conventional food, live in their cars to be able to handle their two minimal wage jobs, rise their children on box foods in order to avoid time spending on cleaning and cooking, popping pills in order to be able to go to job despite having a fewer or pain; while well-off people will try to recreate more natural life-style and foods while having access to wonders of super-modern medicine like new organs grown with their own stem-sells and individually compounded medicine.

    Nowadays a person who is not poore nor wealthy(like me) can live healthy on a budget, but only if he/she has a luxury in the form of having an extra time to do some additional effort, so it is a luxury in some form.

    Paleo bloggers are trying to sell new emerging luxury - healthy living in a modern environment, my guess their market would grow .

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    1. I find it sad realizing that "healthy living" is now a luxury.

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    2. After I'd been on a LC diet for a few months, I figured out that I was spending only $13 more per month on groceries.

      People who are truly struggling have my sympathy, but I live in a working class neighborhood and see not a few people with carts filled to the top with boxed food, chips, liter bottles of soda, cakes, etc. The only green thing in their cart is Mountain Dew. Some of them get lottery tickets and a carton of cigarettes. Then there's a liquor store on the corner where people are *constantly* going in and out.

      I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to buy whatever they want, but gambling, smoking and junk food are just as luxurious, if not more so, than nutrient-rich pate or smoked salmon; certainly more so than a roasted chicken and cole slaw from the deli.

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    3. I am a new-comer to US from Russia (through Canada), and I keep observing people from different levels of income who were not born in US like me. My comment was inspired by my observations over the people from Russia and Ukraine who live in US now. The ones who work two jobs at a minimal wage have the worst diet, some even smoke. Actually I personally know no one financially secure person who smokes, only the people who have trouble making ends meet do it, I am sure I observe a very little pool to draw 100% accurate conclusion. My guess they are just dead tired all the time to have an extra energy to care about anything else besides how to to get some minimal boost and to do necessary things like getting food on a table in a least tiring way.

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    4. Yes, it seems to me too that people self-medicate with junk-food, cigarettes, alcohol and dopamine(?)-boosting activities to make up for the fact that they're stressed by their lives. We eat nutrient-rich foods (which aren't necessarily expensive), take pleasure in books and web-based writings, and do other inexpensive things to lead a "rich" life.... How I wish basic education helped people make the best of what they have!

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  6. Foods made from scratch from pasture-raised animals are best, but I wish there were more LC convenience foods available for people who work long hours or can't cook much due to disability, like my parents. Once in a while, I'd love to just throw a frozen dinner in the microwave, but they're all too carby.

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    1. the best thing we can do, I think, is to make large batches of things that freeze well. there really isn't much that we can buy ready-made that doesn't have objectionable ingredients in it!

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  7. In my opinion frozen vegetables are the next best thing after a frozen dinner . After minutes in a microwave in order to remove most moisture it goes to a skillet which was heating up while veggies were cooking, after a quick tossing of veggies on a skillet, eggs could be added, or cheese, or stewed meat, reduced cream could be a quick sauce.
    Foreman grill speeds-up cooking great deal as well, especially chicken pieces and slices of eggplants.

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    1. fortunately, being fat/keto-adapted, we don't get that "food ... NOW" urgency that glucose burners seem to! even if we can't throw a "lean cuisine" in the microwave we can stand the few minutes it takes to throw together an egg dish, if nothing more hearty. a tin of sardines, a couple of ounces of cheese or a handful of nuts, and we can be satisfied for a long time.

      that said, sometimes nothing less than a real MEAL will do the job, that's when a frozen stew or meatloaf with (as you say) some frozen vegetables save the day!

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    2. I also have a habit from the time when I was working, going to school and running a household in a fast-free food environment (I married first time at 20 years old) to cook in big amounts and preserve most of the food. My freezer is not that big, but use it to freeze small portions, however my main way to store food is reusable mason jars. I sterilize it in a microwave for 2 minutes with small amount of boiling water, lids are in a pot with a boiling water on a stove. When a stew or a soup or a pasta sauce is still boiling, I ladle it in a hot jars, screw on a lid and then turn it upside-down for cooling on a counter-top. I keep it in a refrigerator anyway just in case for up to three months. Rules require to sterilize meat for real canning only in a pressure cooker, so I consider my canning to be a refrigerator grade.

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    3. canning jars really are great for this kind of storage, because they're designed to resist contamination! I do similar things -- make my own catsup and store it as you describe, sugar-free fruit preparations, etc.

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  8. Pasta sauce shouldn't take much besides a boiling water bath and the right level in the jar to make it shelf-stable, as long as it's acid enough.

    Maybe I should just make and can some LC paleo gravy and freeze some rice-a-phony. (Most of the meat I get has been frozen, and freezing it again makes it terrible.) The frozen dinner I fantasize about is the Marie Callendar salisbury steak and gravy with mashed potatoes. I doubt anyone is going to come out with a Fat Cuisine version anytime soon.

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    1. "Fat Cuisine" -- :-D sounds like a good idea to me....

      if meat has been frozen before we get it (shrimp and fish are the worst things to me), we can always cook it and freeze it again. every time I hear of people who have lost their power for a couple of days THROWING OUT EVERYTHING IN THEIR FREEZERS it makes me want to scream! if it really has "come unfrozen" just COOK the damned stuff!

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  9. I even skip boiling water part. Never had any problems for the last 30 years. Paleo gravy is a great idea! Add it to just about anything and it will be a great meal! I am thinking in line of spaghetti squash and quickly cooked ground meat.
    I am afraid LCarbing is not very good for generating profit.

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    1. think about Stouffers and Boston Market "meals" -- some of those things would be easy enough to replicate. like stuffed peppers that don't have msg and rice in them. lasagna that's made with zucchini instead of wheat noodles. meatloaf and mashed cauliflower. chicken parmagiana with sautéed vegetables. swiss steak. even paleo pizzas could work.

      :-) somebody with more energy than I have could build an empire!

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    2. There are Atkins meals http://www.atkins.com/Products/Frozen-Meals/Atkins-Frozen-Meals.aspx.

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    3. Thanks! I just bought some Atkins dinners at Safeway, where I hadn't been in ages. My kitchen sink is clogged and I can't wash dishes, so this is perfect.

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    4. that's interesting -- didn't know they branched out to actual meals! what does the ingredient list look like, Lori?

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    5. A few mildly objectionable ingredients like canola oil and some preservatives, and the teriyaki (I think it is) is made with wheat-based soy sauce, but mostly it's meat, vegetables, butter, cream, chicken or beef stock, etc. Really low-carb, too, so it's truly Fat Cuisine. I've had a couple and the chicken was a little tough, but they were very tasty. I realize it's the sauce I was craving.

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    6. could be a lot worse.... I imagine that as a "once in awhile" fallback food, it's okay!

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