About

FAQ:

What is this blog about?

Well, originally I blogged about the paleolithic diet because I used that diet to help myself heal from IBS, GERD, asthma, and fatigue. I was already studying agriculture at the time I started this blog and I intensified my study in ecology, nutrition, and anthropology. I finished my Bachelor's of Science in 2009 and have since done some grad work in evolutionary biology and anthropology. I would like to do more. This blog is about my life, the food I like, but also about scientific and dietary topics I'm interested in.

What diet do you follow?

The diet that works for me. I don't follow a "paleolithic diet" anymore. I do follow some principles of evolutionary diets, as well as traditional agrarian nutrition. I have narrowed down many of my issues to specific carbohydrate malabsorption with the FODMAPs theory. I eat some grass-fed meats, some starches, some pseudograins, some dairy, and some seafood I eat seasonally, so the composition varies pretty hugely. 

So you think all hunter-gatherers/paleolithic people all just ate a bunch of meat?

Um, no? I don't know where people get this. The world is big and humans are an adaptable species. We ate what was available and that included all kinds of things, even things you wouldn't think to eat as a modern human. I would say my own beliefs on the matter is

• Nutritional science is young and there is a lot we don't know. 
• There is a lot we don't know about the specifics of paleolithic people's lives and human evolution. 
• But there is enough evidence on a precautionary basis to eat animals at least occasionally for nutritional purposes. 
• Human physical variation is real, so not everyone does well on the same diet. 

What evidence is out there for what our ancestors ate?

• Diets of nearest great ape relatives (very inaccurate, they are not our ancestors and are products of their own evolutionary lines)
• Diets of living hunter-gatherers (also not our ancestors and not very representative of paleolithic peoples, some have considerable contact and trade with agrarian cultures anyway)
• Bones, teeth, and other fossils (very interesting, but there is only so much we can glean from them, but overall the most accurate)

Didn't they only live to be 30?

Infant mortality was high, but people lived longer healthier lives than you might think. Links on the subject:

Life Expectancy in the Paleolithic