The Paleo Answer: 7 Days to Lose Weight, Feel Great, Stay Young

Shhhhh. All of you who have never experienced intestinal gas (or worse) after beans, stop reading. All who have no arthritis, aren't overweight, don't have bad blood chemistry, sleep like a baby and wake up refreshed, go to the next review. For all of you who are in perfect health, feel great, and weigh what you should, 3 cheers, congratulations, and move along to lunch. Vegetarians probably want to move along too, as they're not going to like what they hear here, unless their primary reason is actually for health purposes, at which point they will likely repent right about page 63, the tenth page on homocysteine and vegetarianism deficiencies. And finally, those of you who have no friends or family with such afflictions, you can go back to the smorgasbord too. I hear the cheesecake is really to die for. Sorry. Now, for anyone who simply might want to feel better, sleep better, has those dang stiff joints, or think they may run into these things someday, and especially anyone who actually HAS ANY auto-immune disorder (AID here), from vitiligo and alopecia, right on through MS and Type 2 Diabetes, consider:All of these disorders, as disparate as they may seem, are manifestations of your own immune system becoming overworked, fooled, outright attacked, and generally gone funky, brought on largely, if not completely, by ingesting stuff that doesn't belong in your stomach, at least not in significant amounts, which has the ability to actively defeat your intestinal barriers and protections, and go (along with anything else in the stomach) straight into your bloodstream (every day) and from there, let the AID havoc begin. Yes, these 'foods' have lots of usable nutrition, but you should also know about all those other "phytochemicals" in there, like all the things (poisons) these plants have evolved way way back to deter (read: kill) anybody who tries to eat them. Guess why these particular plants are still around?I could simply tell you what the specific food items are and you wouldn't need to buy the book (on the level that matters, it really is that simple), but (a) you wouldn't believe me, (b) many of you, particularly the blind skeptics wouldn't have the gumption to actually put it into practice anyway, and (c) those of you who hurt, read on...Skepticism is good. I'm a big one. Grown up hippie, 2.8 kids (sorry Steph, until you sign on, you'll have to be the 0.8), 30 year self-employed, bearded ecologist in Northern California. Need I say more. The author, Dr. Loren Cordain, is not a medical doctor nor a nutritionist, thank goodness, because they don't 'get it' either. Yet. They will. I assure you of that. He is, however, obviously an uber-data-fiend (Amazon wouldn't let me say uber-data-slu..) having read, compiled, tested, assembled, synthesized his ideas from tens of thousands of studies and papers, and really, he has simply connected so many proverbial dots, that if you can't pick 10 random pages and read for 10 minutes, and not come away with an entirely new perspective on that cheeseburger you're about to send into your bloodstream, then perhaps you should consider that, just like in sports, THE DATA DON'T LIE. They may be misinterpreted, incomplete, nonsensical for numerous reasons, totally confounding and conflicting, maybe even all of the above, but taken in volume and over time, they point the way. What Dr. Cordain has done is merely a brilliant and incredibly exhaustive synthesis of bazillions of those dots. I would challenge you to take a look at how he assembles the dots, ask all those great skeptics' questions, etc. etc., but truly, that's not really the point of all this. The point is, he has spent 30 years looking at this stuff, with his own personal tummyache as partial motivation (long gone by now I'm sure), and if you or a loved one has ANY AID, isn't it worth a few days of easy trial and error? I bet you've already tried half a dozen others. What's one more crackpot idea? WHAT IF IT DOES WORK?? and that whole concept of "falling off the diet"? Its laughable to think, that after experiencing the incredible, indescribable (people do try though) feeling of goodness, wellness (not to mention energy, mental clarity...) that you feel when not eating poisons, that one would at all be tempted to go back eating the stuff that made you feel bad.For the blind skeptics, don't buy the book, don't give it a chance, go to the buffet and get some pizza, I hear its triple cheese today, and don't forget the fries and a milkshake. Curious folks should buy the book and prepare to have your life upended, in a good way. I'd be tempted to say right here for the record, that this discovery will change history, but you'd all think I was maybe exaggerating at least a little, so I won't. But don't expect the book to have ALL the answers or be neat and clean and totally lacking in inconsistencies. If you want it totally tidy, move away from the science. It can get messy. Even if you read it all and still have all those great questions, and muse about the apparent, and real contradictions, and what about this and that, that's all truly good and appropriate (but totally irrelevant once you take that step), but the ONLY way a blind skeptic is going to 'get it', is through personal experience, either themselves or a loved one. Folks who really hurt and really want to get better, should simply eat this way starting with your very next meal (and if you want the full effect, eliminate the key items completely; remember, it is all dose dependent, even a small dose has at least a small effect; larger perhaps if your system is already badly compromised), and then buy the book in a few days to get the details on why you feel so good, and as a thank you to Dr. Cordain. I'm only on Day 6, and I'll probably never actually finish reading the book. Don't need to.So, a most beautiful woman walks up to me, well, more like she floats out of the clouds, sidles on up and says, pssst, wanna sip from the "Fountain of Youth?" No hesitation, I drink. I stand (Day 6 for me) and I watch in total amazement and disbelief, as people stumble, stagger, crawl and hobble by and say "no thanks".........Then it really hit me. What a cool Darwinian mechanism Mother Nature has come up with to reduce the planet's human overpopulation by culling the ignorant, stubborn, uniformed, and other unbelievers by getting them to eat poison willingly. Absolutely, wickedly brilliant. Republicans, drink your milk. Rush, have another doughnut.and, to all of you.... sshhhhhh, I've got an unfair secret.

I want to say at the outset that this is a good book. Very good in some ways. I was immediately impressed by the sheer quantity of references to peer-reviewed scientific articles in the back (48 pp. in small type). And the book allows Cordain, in part the father of the modern Paleo diet, to update and refine his earlier discussion in light of this new research (and he mentions several places where he's changed his mind on something, pushing now for even greater restriction of some food groups.That said, I was surprised by some aspects of the things he emphasized or failed to mention in a more than passing way. He has whole chapters on the usual villains of Paleo diets: grains, legumes, and dairy. I was a bit surprised to see a whole chapter on potatoes. Many in the Paleo world include them, and there can be little doubt that many hunter-gatherer peoples were eating tubers as a substantial part of their diet (though usually sweet potatoes, yams, taro, etc.). But the glycemic load of potatoes came under esp. strong critique. That being the case, I was esp. surprised to see no separate chapter on sugar, easily the greatest change in the contemporary American diet--and very probably the most harmful. While Cordain returns again and again to evolutionary style arguments about our diet, other researchers have reminded us, rightly I think, that we need epidemiological arguments to confirm or refute the place of certain food groups in our diet. In this regard I found it surprising that Cordain didn't also draw upon the work of Gary Taubes whose indictment of refined carbohydrates and esp. sugar of late has been particularly damning . . . and convincing.Similarly, I found his sample one week diet strange in light of some of his recommendations earlier in the book. He includes rather ample quantities of fruit despite the high fructose content of some (esp. apples that show up frequently). Also includes raisins and dried fruits, which are esp. high in sugar; a strange choice if controlling one's glycemic load is the goal. The range of vegetables was narrower in some regards than I expected. And no attention to seasonality was payed--again, nothing could be more hunter-gatherer like than to eat veggies when they're in season. Thus recommendations to eat blueberries depends on WHEN you're reading this book. Green salads make sense in the summer. Root vegetables in the winter, etc. More talk about farmers' markets or even gardening might have been in order (and here Michael Pollan could have been invoked). Nor did he push people out of their protein comfort zone: organ meats were only occasionally mentioned and nowhere included in the sample diet, despite their huge concentration of B vitamins (and again, here the Weston Price ppl are esp. good). Fatty fish were mentioned but could have been better included in the diet (and salmon was particularly emphasized, but farmed Atlantic salmon is NOT the same as wild Pacific salmon. No mention).Again, I do think this is a good book and I'm glad I got it. But I do think Rob Wolff's The Paleo Solution is somewhat better. He explains the diet pros and cons in great detail with regard to types of problems rather than food groups. And he has a wonderful chapter on exercise that will get the neophyte going. And his sample diet I think is actually more diverse and more interesting. Just my two cents.

Absolutely fantastic and informative! I am a huge fan of Dr Cordain and his writing style so every time he publishes a book I am first in the queue! In this book, Dr Cordain honestly and bravely confronts some of his past beliefs and is not afraid to review his standpoint based on the latest scientific research, such as on saturated fats, for example. I am still reading it but can assure you that this is a first-class book on a subject that has become very dear to me. It has completely changed the way I feed myself and my family; has greatly improved my son's childhood acne; has made my energy levels soar and, in addition to all that, I look and feel at least 10 years younger, according to family and friends! What's not to like about all this?

This book actually has lots of useful information, but it is so NEGATIVE, restrictive and rule-driven that it drives you nuts - eating is just not that hard.Eat the Yolks : Discover Paleo, Fight Food Lies, and Reclaim Your Health Hardcover – 25 Feb 2014 by Liz Wolfe is a lot better - sensible, laid-back, informative and entertaining :https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1628600195/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is my 4th book on the Paleo Diet, I should say Healthy Lifestyle. I am so passionate about Paleo that I tell everyone I meet and highly recommend everyone gives it a try as it will change your life for the better...!!! I have been on it for six months now and lost two and a half stones without exercise.

Love this book. I am amazed at how just a few changes to my diet have actually 'cured' my painful arm with restricted movement. I had my arm on support for well...many years. Loren Cordain an amazing man.

This book is life changing. It informs, guides and enables the reader to understand how their life can be improved by simply following a few simple guidelines. Thank you Loren Cordain.