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Ancestral Health Symposium Thoughts, Paleo Vegetarianism, and Other Fun Thingshttp://rawfoodsos.com/2011/08/13/ancestral-health-symposium/Diversity. I was pleasantly surprised by the range of ancestrally-inspired diets represented there. If you’ve read much of this blog, you probably know that my own diet is an unconventional blend of raw foods, paleo, and Weston A. Price principles—and up until now, I was never quite sure there was room for me within the “ancestral health” umbrella. This symposium changed my mind about that. Some speakers (and attendees) were of the low-carb persuasion, like Michael Eades and Gary Taubes. Others were either macronutrient-agnostic or welcomed a higher-carbohydrate approach, like Stephan Guyenet and Don Matesz. I shared a fructoselicious grapefruit lunch with Danny Roddy, whose own diet experiments led him to an eating style much like mine. I met an intriguing fellow named Lex Rooker who’s been eating but nothing but raw meat for the past decade, and on the other end of the spectrum, a “lacto-ovo paleo” dieter who eats no meat or fish (more on him in a moment).All in all, the symposium reflected a major element of the ancestral health community, which is that there is no single ‘paleo’ diet. I’m confident in saying that the symposium would be a great experience for anyone interested in using an ancestral framework to improve their health, whether or not you consider yourself “paleo” by the popular definition. There was very little of the unchallenged groupthink sometimes infusing this type of event, and plenty of encouragement to question convictions about diet and fitness. Some intellectual dueling even occurred between two well-respected figures, Stephan Guyenet and Gary Taubes. The overall vibe was more “tribe” than “cult.” And that is a very good thing indeed....for sailing my China Study critique all over the ‘net (also, his wife is one foxy lady);Danny Roddy, lover of raw fish and tropical fruit, who stole my diet but is so cool that I won’t even consider suing him over it... As Robb Wolf commented at the end of my speech, it’s better to spend your time helping people who are already receptive to change—otherwise, you can waste a lot of time shouting into deaf ears.I had the pleasure of meeting a bona-fide meat-free, lacto-ovo paleo dieter. For real. This brave soul (let’s call him Aravind, because that’s his name) came to the symposium not because he wanted to freeload off beef jerky samples, but because he tailors what most people would consider a “vegetarian” diet into an ancestral framework. No grains except white rice for him. No excess fructose. No industrial seed oils. No soy—only small amounts of traditionally-prepared legumes. The only thing that separates him from the rest of the crowd is that his sole animal products are eggs and high-quality, grass-fed dairy.And indeed, Aravind appeared to be in mighty fine health. ....
"Dr. Pelouze is a french cardiovascular surgeon who strongly supports the food reward/palatability concept of obesity. We had a conversation the evening before the conference, during which he basically made the same points I was going to make in my talk. He is particularly familiar with the research of Dr. Michel Cabanac, who is central to the food reward idea. He eats an interesting diet: mostly raw, omnivorous, and extremely simple. If I understood correctly, he mostly eats raw meat, fish, fruit and vegetables with little or no preparation. He sometimes cooks food if he wants to, but most of it is raw. He believes simple, raw food allows the body's satiety systems to work more effectively. He has been eating this way for more than twenty years, and his son was raised this way and is now about my age (if I recall correctly, Alexandre has a masters and is studying for an MD, and ultimately wants to become an MD/PhD). Both of them look very good, are full of energy and have a remarkably positive mental state. Alexandre told me that he never felt deprived growing up around other children who ate pastries, candy et cetera. They woke up early and ran six miles before the conference began at 8 am." --Stephan Guyenet, http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/ancestral-health-symposium.html
I strongly disliked most of Boyd Eaton's talk. It came across, especially at the end, as more of a pro-social engineering talk rather than a health oriented talk about paleo diet and lifestyle. It was very strange.