Broken Record

So, I'm getting the sense that the paleo approach to eating is still somewhat confusing for some people, so let me try again to restate things as simply as I can:

1: The basic idea behind paleo is that you should found your diet on quality meats and vegetables, with the veggies being the bulk of your food intake. I don't think this is a very controversial notion.

2: The secondary notion behind paleo is that grains and many legumes (beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts) are nutritionally inferior and in many cases anti-nutritive for humans. We are the only animal besides birds that eats the seeds of grasses, which is what grains are. Not even cows eat grain unless we force them to (and boy do we force them, which is why their meat is unhealthy for us - meat is not inherently unhealthy). Whether or not grains should be demonized isn't the point - the point is that they don't provide anything that meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts can't provide better. We should also avoid the oils derived from grains and legumes.

3: Wheat and wheat-related grains such as rye and barley are particularly bad because of the protein found in them called gluten. Gluten is ONLY found in wheat and wheat-related grains. Gluten is an irritant much like poison ivy. The more exposure people have to it, the more they have a reaction to it. It literally causes a poison ivy-like rash in your digestive system. This leads to all kinds of awful things in the body. We are more exposed to gluten than ever before because of the types of high-gluten industrial wheat being developed and also because it's added into processed foods as wheat-derived chemicals and food additives. It's in almost everything that comes from a factory, not just bread and pasta.

4: Sugar is bad. It's highly addictive and causes diabetes, acidity in the body, feeds tumors, and makes you crazy. High fructose corn syrup is even worse, and it makes you fat. Agave nectar is as bad as HFCS. Don't eat sugar. Eat a tiny amount of honey or maple syrup like once a week, but not every day. Please. Pretty please? I'm really serious about this. I don't want to see you die.

5: I know I said dairy is ok, but dairy has to be eaten very moderately. It has a lot of sugar in it (lactose) and the primary protein in it, casein, can have bad effects on the body. We're the only animal that eats the milk of another animal, and we are the only animal that eats milk past infancy. Please limit dairy, or even eliminate it if you feel you might have a problem with it.

6: The idea behind all this is to try to approximate what cavemen were eating, because our genetic makeup, which dictates what we're best adapted to eat, was formed in the millions of years before we developed agriculture. We have not had time to adapt to our rapidly changing industrial food system, which is why we are all sick. I mean that literally. Every single one of us is sick because of our food. Pie might be tasty, but it absolutely is killing you slowly. Sandwiches sound simple, but they're not, and even if you assemble one yourself, you're still eating highly processed food.

7: If you can't abide 100% by paleo, just try your best to avoid sugar and gluten, and don't make grain the central part of your meal.

8: Ok, fine, I'll demonize grains - they're horrible for the environment, horrible for your health, kill more animals than the entire meat industry because of the habitats they destroy, they're heavily subsidized by the government, and they're more vulnerable than any other crop to the tampering of agribusiness and chemical companies.

9: EAT YOUR VEGGIES