“Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Paleo”

An alternative-diet enthusiast explains why he isn’t ‘paleo’.  (HT: Ray Sawhill)

He had me at #1.

1. I Really Like Cheese

Which is why I named this blog CHEESESLAVE. But cheese is verboten on the paleo diet.

Yes, I know some paleo people eat cheese, but many of them think that eating a chunk of cheddar is equivalent to making a pact with the devil. You see, according to their logic, cheese is a “neolithic” food, and therefore not paleolithic. At best, it’s considered a compromise food for most paleo folks.

It’s true, cheese is neolithic. And yet it has been a staple food among humans for over 10,000 years.

Of course, as a Biblical creationist, I don’t believe we’ve been around for 10,000 years - nor, for that matter, that all humans started out as hunter-gatherers rather than many practicing agriculture from the get-go, according to Genesis.

And so I therefore also agree with other arguments he makes against slavish adherence to a ‘hunter-gatherer’ diet, even if for slightly different reasons than him.

Though I love cheese, too.

Anyway, I just found it an interesting read.

Yes to Berries, No to Salt: Aboriginal Man Goes Back to His Dietary Roots to Lose Weight

(Yes, yet another alternative-diet-related post, like all the others I’ve recently done here and at Patriactionary.  Oh well.)

An interesting piece about a Toronto man who returns to the diet of his ancestors to lose weight and improve his health; seems to have worked for him.  (HT: Ray Sawhill)

For 18 months, Bossy Ducharme has eaten the same 15 basic foods, day in and day out. A strict diet, including wild rice, raw pumpkin seeds, berries, and elk. No salt, pepper or sugar. If his aboriginal ancestors wouldn’t have eaten it, neither will he.

“I’m not going to put anything in my body that was not here before the Europeans arrived, because there is something wrong here,” said Mr. Ducharme, a Métis from Duck Bay, Man. “Ever since colonization, my people went from being a fit, athletic race of people to the most sickly and lame. The most obese. The highest diabetes rate… We went from eating our natural food to a diet completely different from 100 years ago.”

More than a third of Canadian aboriginals are obese, and about a fifth told the 2011 First Nations Regional Health Survey they had diabetes, according to its preliminary results.

Mr. Ducharme himself was 223 pounds, and managed to drop to 145 pounds, without exercising. He has more energy, and both a clearer complexion and mind, he says.

Not a vegetarian or vegan, filled with hate for ‘non-believers’; not trying to force others to do as he does; just someone advocating a different way.  I may not agree, but more power to him.