All I can say is, take the time to read Stephan’s post.
It’s the most well-thought-out, thorough writing on the subject that I’ve ever seen.
The Fat/Carbohydrate Hypothesis…Myth, or Fact?
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Tag Archives: paleo
The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run!
It’s up and available for purchase!
The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run, written by Charlie Reid and yours truly, covers the history of the shoe and barefoot running, evolutionary considerations, foot function and health, strength training, and an 8-week running program.
The one thing we really tried to do was to focus on getting YOU the reader back into your body, and into your own experience of barefoot running.
Go buy the book and let me know what you think!
Exuberant Animal Video Sampler and Trainer Certification Path
Exuberant Animal released a Video Sampler yesterday, along with an announcement and outline of the EA Trainer Certification Path.
Having been part of EA for the past three years, and a member of the development team both for the video and trainer path, I’m incredibly excited for these first steps to be done.
Please go take a look, and buy the video! The EA games are fantastic games for many reasons (that I’ll be outlining in future posts) – but the best way to figure out their effect is to try them for yourself!
If you’re a movement specialist, and you’re interested in changing the paradigm of training in the world today, sign up for one of the two (one East Coast and one West Coast) trainer jams happening this October.
Most of all – HAVE FUN!
What’s Eating at You – Diet?
My recent post on the Paleo diet raised some great questions and comments from various sources.
I want to say something about diet here.
A “healthy” diet varies by region, by geography. YOU ARE NOT SEPARATE FROM YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
- Fukuoka. He was continuous with his environment…
Your physiology is determined to a great degree by your environment. The type of terrain you have to navigate, and how you navigate it. How frequently you have to move through that terrain, similarly, and what types of tasks you need to accomplish in what type of frequency, will also determine your physiology.
The weather in your geography – the barometric pressure in your area, the amount of rainfall every year, of sunlight – will determine how your body looks, feels, and can move.
The types of animals and plants available for consumption in your area represent natural energy that is in synchrony with the seasons your body is in. Eating outside of that synchrony (the old “I live in NYC, but eat strawberries from Brazil) creates metabolic discord in your system.
Yes, human beings need a certain amount of nutrients, but not as much as you’re told, or as you think, or from the sources you’ve been told (or think) that those nutrients are “supposed to” come from.
Before I go much further, consider the wide range of climates and geographies that human beings inhabit. From deserts to ice-packs, from coniferous and deciduous forests to rain forests, from tropics to temperate zones to the arctics.
In each of these places, human animals live just fine. They can, if times are good, live to the same ripe old ages that human animals in any other area live to (given the same good conditions).
It’s not about a specific diet.
- “Happiness, is a smile on a dog”
Consider This
Instead, I think it’s more important to consider the state of the physiology the diet is going into.
If you are happy, and feel safe and secure, things in your body tend to run smoothly. Homeostasis is achieved and maintained easily. Your body heals faster. Things correct themselves.
If you are unhappy, your body is constantly releasing stress-hormones that break things down. They tear your body up from the inside.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
In the happy state, the food you ingest, whatever it is, will flow through that smooth-running system. Your body is miraculous in its ability to take what it needs and discard what it does not (as long as you’re moderate in consumption).
In the unhappy state, the food you ingest will not be processed well. Your body won’t be capable of digesting, it will be busy constantly preparing to defend itself. Things won’t go right. You’ll have gastro-intestinal disorders – ulcers, heartburn, acid reflux, poor digestion.
In that unhappy state, it doesn’t matter what you eat.
Not only that, but what does get absorbed will simply be put to use continuing the bad state. That sounds like hell.
Eat What’s In Season, Where You Live, Now
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate eating McDonald’s. And I agree with Michael Pollan, to a point. Not every locale produces the same foodstuffs. Pollan’s dictum, to “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” is not actually how we evolved. Our brains got bigger from eating a lot of protein. Plants don’t have a lot of that. I have a different idea.
Eat as much organic, locally-grown food as possible. Reduce or eliminate processed foods (including breads) from your diet. Whatever is in season, is what is best for you at that point.
Part of the thing we Northern-European humans used to do was to rest more in the winter. It would be cold, it would snow. It wouldn’t be a good time to work. And there wouldn’t be much work to do. We could live off of dried goods for a while, till those ran out. Then we were stuck with whatever we could gather from the land. Pine needle tea. Hardy winter greens. Root vegetables. Animal meat.
It’s not hard to imagine.
- I can imagine that!
What Determines Your Happiness?
Your happiness is directly related to your feeling of safety and support in the world. A community of like-minded individuals, a “tribe” (a word/concept that’s catching on these days).
In the womb of the tribe, you are complete. Your worldview is reinforced and supported. You are cared for. You are able to do your work, and step back, without attachment.
You are able to be happy.
the exuberant animal tribe
Return of the Caveman
While I am an advocate for all things “natural,” I also am an advocate for thinking – using the brain.
A friend recently sent me the link to the site “Hunter-Gatherer.com.” I’m not providing a hot-link to you, because it’s a front-site, with a signup form if you’re “interested.” Put your email in the box and hit send, and Hunter-Gatherer will inform you when there’s something happening there.
The site was setup by John Durant, a 26-year old internet marketing professional.
Grog like SEO! Grog like Stumbleupon! Grog like Affiliate Marketing!
What Is This Paleo Stuff All About?
The “paleo” movement basically states that our species, homo sapiens, has not evolved very much over the past 200,000 years, since it branched off the tree of Homo (that sounds silly! tee hee!).
Anyway, these folks say that the diseases of modern civilization arise largely from us acting like a bunch of fat agriculturalists – eating too many and the wrong kinds of calories, not moving/exercising enough (and sucking at it when we do), and basically being too smart to realize how dumb we are.
This movement has been around for a long long time. Roughly 35 years now. It’s not new.
Not only is it not new. It’s not hard to understand. You can get any of a number of books on Amazon.com, used, for less than the price of your non-paleo mocha latte. If you want.
You can erect my homo anytime...wait...what? I mean, "Ug."
The Caveman Speaks!
You can watch John on the Colbert Report – here.
If you don’t have the time, let me sum it up for you – John says that “human beings have been around for a half or a million years in our current form,” (Which is technically incorrect. Homo Sapiens, which is what we are, is about 200,000 years old) and that it would behoove us to eat and move like we did during that part of our evolutionary history.
John also says that hunter gatherer societies live(d) to about the same ages that we do now. From everything I’ve ever read, this is completely untrue. Average maximum lifespan is usually listed between 35-55 years in anything I’ve read about pre-agricultural humans.
Further, life expectancy increased significantly after the advent of agriculture. Maximum lifespan increased significantly again after the advent of modern medicine.
Apparently, John has taken some notes from Art DeVany, an economist-turned-physiology-expert, who runs his own “paleo” blog and internet business. DeVany chapped my ass a few years ago when I posted a question about one of his (then free-to-all) workouts, and the rationale behind his set/rep scheme. He didn’t publish the post. I deleted his blog from my roll.
Wherefore Art Thou, Customer?
Internet marketers are savvy. They will often put up a “test” website (such as John’s) with a signup form (such as John’s) to see what size audience they can get, before investing time, money, and effort in building an actual site.
They also jump on popular bandwagons. I’m not saying that John Durant doesn’t live, eat, and breathe Paleo. I believe that he does. I’m just saying that this Caveman is no dummy. He’s a smart Caveman. He’s a Caveman with internet access. He’s a Caveman with deer in his apartment.
Beatrice de Gea's photo of John from the NYT article
What Do You Care, Josh?
I don’t care that much. I actually think it’s pretty cool. But I’d really like for people to be well-informed about this stuff, and be listening to people who know what they’re talking about, rather than internet marketers with a caveman fetish, or retired economics professors who like to boost their testosterone levels a lot.
The caveman thing, like all things, will come and go. In the meantime, many people will get caught up in the wave, and ride the diet rollercoaster for a while, messing their physiology up so bad that they’ll actually shave years off in the long run. But as long as it’s a fun ride, that’s all that matters!
Which reveals something about human nature. And about why you like to buy things.
Why You Like to Buy Things
Virginia Satir is said to have said (you like that?) – “The most basic instinct of human beings is not the instinct for survival, but the need to experience the familiar.”
Maybe she’s right. Maybe not.
But right around the same level of that instinct is the need for the unfamiliar. Human beings have a desperate, unquenchable thirst for what is novel. It’s like a drug. Start showing people one new thing, and they want another, then another, and then another…
This is your brain on advertising
The Bottom Line
Be critical. Death is lurking. In fact, you might die right now. I hope not, but you might!
If you are a caveman, or follow a caveman lifestyle, you might live longer. Maybe. Or you might not. The hope of longer life may be part of what John is selling to you. That and novelty. And “happiness.” The old hag in a new dress.
It’s catching, this “paleo” thing. I don’t think it’s entirely wrong, or misguided, but I want you to be sure that it is being sold to you.
The line just above the death one, the penultimate line, is your physiology – the way the human body functions. Knowing more about that is useful knowledge. Then you have a solid baseline by which to judge any diet, any exercise routine, or anything else in your life.
Beyond that, the Caveman movement should be seen for what it is – fun. It’s just play. Play Caveman if you want.
I’ll play Dinosaur, and come to your cave and eat your head.
GRRR!! Now THIS IS REAL!! GRRRR!! snarfsnarf