I saw this book mentioned on the google minimalist (running) list saying it was a bit more approachable than some other books on the paleo diet, though after reading this I don’t know how paleo it really is. Guess I’d have to read a paleo book after all. Or maybe it mentioned Weston Price and Price is not paleo?? I don’t know. I have read so few food/nutrition books in the past few years that maybe it has all passed me by. Guess I have become pretty comfortable with my diet!
This book touts moving back to the way food was before it was industrialized, including farm animals, milk, eggs, and produce. Getting away from grain fed beef and chicken when that is not their natural diet, not eating farm raised fish, getting back to locally grown produce, etc. And I’m all for that, though I don’t eat a lot of meat… She was very into using butter — which I never used a whole lot of margin but only went for the real thing — butter is better!; whole milk — I normally do skim or 2% but am now considering sticking with just 2%; eggs – i love ’em — but only pastured so they can be omnivorous as they were ment to be. She was against all industrial oils (which pretty much leaves olive oil as the only oil). And all in all getting away from as much process and pre-packaged food as possible, which I already try to do.
Just a few quotes:
- Is drinking milk unnatural? The critics say that cow milk was “designed” for newborn calves, not for humans. That’s true. But this observation does not prove that the human digestive system cannot, or should not, handle milk. After all, the tomato was designed to make more tomato plants, not pasta sauce. [ i’ve been guilty of saying this in the past, but I would still say we shouldn’t drink it constantly… everything in moderation!]
- Aren’t some fats unhealthy? Yes. It’s easy to remember the bad ones: they are the industrial fats recently added to our diet. The unhealthy fats are refined vegetable oils, including corn, safflower, sunflower, and soybean oil, and synthetic trans fats. Trans fats are formed by hydrogenation, in which unsaturated oils are pelted with hydrogen atoms to make an artificially saturated fat. That’s how they make firm margarine from liquid corn oil.
- To reap all the flavor and health benefits of olive oil, buy the best oil you can afford, ideally extra-virgin, cold-pressed, and organic.
- The sooner we ban trans fats— as Denmark has— the better.
2sparrows 
I haven’t read the book. It isn’t paleo. Paleo draws the line in the sand between the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras. Or about 10,000 years ago (less for Denmark). She draws the line between industrialization of food and natural food. Or quite recently.
We paleos consider coconut oil to paleo. In places like St. Lucia people make it themselves. I was to visit one of these people, but I lost too much time by not understanding the best way to use their bus system.
Her comment on milk is similar to the way many look at food. If there are no immediate problems then the food is okay. This completely ignores any long term consequences of eating that food. One of the reasons for eating paleo is to avoid the diseases of civilization later in life.
Here’s how I define the diet: http://paleodiet.com/definition.htm
Thanks for the comment and the link to the web page. I’ll read through it, but I’m curious if you were to recommend one book on paleo diet, what would it be?
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