The terms "paleo diet", "primal diet", and Crossfit have been exploding in hit volume this year, easily surpassing competing terms like Ornish, "Zone diet", Taubes, Atkins, "vegetarian diet" and "vegan diet". The media and Internet companies have started to take notice and I think that some are trying to figure out if there's any way to make a profit off this trend.

Part of the reason for the explosion in interest is reportedly the Crossfit franchise (with Robb Wolf apparently being the main force behind the spreading of the Paleo diet within Crossfit), as I guessed some time ago:

No one can say exactly why the diet has spiked in popularity recently, but internet searches of the phrase “Paleo Diet” have increased tenfold since 2007 and doubled in 2010, according to Google.

Many link the rise in interest to the explosion of more than 1,200 Crossfit gyms across the country advocating the diet. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bthesite/blog/2011/01/the_caveman_diet.html

I've been following David Lewis' vision correction experiment with interest, and his latest results are intriguing:

How To Reverse Nearsightedness Without Surgery, Lasers, Or Minus Lenses Part 2
By David Lewis
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2010
http://blog.modernpaleo.com/2010/12/how-to-reverse-nearsightedness-without.html

On August 31st of this year I wrote about how I was able to reverse my nearsightedness (myopia) using special plano (non-prescription) contact lenses. This therapy, called Ortho C, is a treatment developed by John Yee.

Since making my original post, I've received many emails requesting an update as well as inquiries from friends and strangers alike, all wondering if what I claim is true. Well, of course it's true! With that said, it's hard to demonstrate that it works because I can't show you what I am actually seeing. This kind of thing necessarily requires personal experimentation.

I've seen vegans and fruitarians claim that their "shit doesn't smell," if you'll pardon the expression, and that they fart less since going vegan. Yet I've found pretty much the opposite--that my feces smell less when I eat just meat and animal fat than when I eat veg and I hardly fart at all when I'm eating just meat and fat. When I eat too much veg my feces smell like rotting vegetation from a swamp and I don't think this is just due to decreased ability to digest plant foods after going VLC, as my feces used to smell more when I was on SAD and moderate-carb Paleo too.

There's also this--the feces of folivorous howler monkeys are reportedly "extremely odorous." Howler monkeys eat mostly leaves, fruits and flowers according to http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/black-howler-monkey, and "They are reported to eat more leaves than any other New World monkey." (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CB0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.honoluluzoo.org%2Fhowler_monkey.htm&ei=--MbTfW7GYG8sQPsi7ncAg&usg=AFQjCNEASO5-gj_VxsTPhaHpkqUwe9TxAA).

On the other hand the Innu Eskimos have a "Fart Man" spirit (Matshishkapeu). So the overall picture is puzzlingly contradictory. Anyone have any explanations that might resolve these seeming contradictions?

Here is a study showing cooked foods are more antigenic than raw, Tyler. Feel free to put it wherever you want.

Detection of IgE, IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies against raw and processed food antigens
Published online 2009 May 12
Aristo Vojdani
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2685801/

I'm re-reading this after quickly skimming it the first time. Here's a good quote from the book:

"People have been conditioned, in the name of 'advanced' technological living, that anything 'raw' or 'primitive' is bad, and that technology at any price is good. The words 'raw' and 'primitive' have been propagandized to mean unclean, gross and disease-causing."

"What I need to find are things that I can order over the internet that are preserved meats that are soft and tender. Like the [raw smoked prosciutto]- I'm going to order that. "melts in your mouth" - sold me. I have to find some pickled herring in a jar because she likes that. Some pate in a jar. Some raw pastrami that maybe I can cut up into itsy bitsy pieces that she can put on my non- cracker crackers."

"She will not eat sashimi, but she will eat lox. She will eat smoked, salted, pickled etc. meats because she grew up with these things but the idea of eating plain raw fish is foreign to her..."


A friend is looking for foods like these for her mother who's sick with cancer and has trouble digesting. She won't eat foods that are labeled "raw" but she will eat foods that are labeled "smoked" (even if they are cold-smoked and therefore raw).

First Cannibals Ate Each Other for Extra Nutrition
Why did our ancestors eat each other? Simple: They were hungry.
By Jennifer Viegas | Thu Aug 26, 2010 05:20 AM ET
http://news.discovery.com/human/first-cannibals-nutrition.html

These practices were conducted by Homo antecessor, who inhabited Europe one million years ago," according to the research team, led by Eudald Carbonell. ....

They added that the butchery techniques identified at the site "show the primordial intention of obtaining meat and marrow and maximally exploiting nutrients. Once consumed, human and nonhuman remains were dumped, mixing them together with lithic tools."

This research offers an interesting contrast to that of Mary Doria Russell, although she studied the remains of Croatian Neanderthals rather than H. antecessor. As additional evidence is uncovered it will be interesting to see what scientists claim it reveals about various of our ancestors and whether it helps resolve the controversy (and maybe it will turn out that both Russell and Carbonell are right). As I stated in the past, my guess is that cannibalism was done for a variety of reasons. I think that food was probably a more important motivation early on and other reasons gradually assumed more importance over time (at least in the minds of the cannibals)--for example, the desire for mana (strength, power, social standing, etc.) by the Maori warriors of much more recent times.

By ZC I mean you consistently try to get your carbs down to as close to zero as possible and regard any carb eating as cheating.

I'm curious about how many actual ZCers we have here and how their numbers compare to the rest of us. I figured an anonymous poll might maximize the number of responses. Some non-ZCers probably don't read this section of the forum, so the numbers may be skewed toward ZCers.

I'm not a ZCer myself. See my avatar description for my current approach.

"Zero carb" (ZC) as a term can be confusing, misleading, and divisive, but it remains popular, so I'll try to explain the term in an effort to minimize future confusion.

It's impossible to achieve literally zero carbs, because even meats contain trace amounts of carbs. Most ZCers know this, so ZC is really shorthand for a diet that tries to minimize carbs. However, different people have different definitions of ZC and some people's definitions, or at least the explanations of them, have changed in the past, so it's best to think of this as a rough label and not get too hung up on its meaning. For example, milk and yoghurt used to be prohibited at the ZIOH zero-carb-diet-promoting forum per Bear Stanley's dietary principles and because milk contains significant carbs. Liver and eggs used to be frowned upon at ZIOH, though I don't think they were prohibited, because they tend to contain significant amounts of carbs. [Update on 4.19.11: people at the Dirty Carnivore forum informed me that Charles W. and the ZIOH forum have reverted back to the original definition of ZC that excludes carb-containing dairy products like milk and yoghurt.]

Bear's original 7 milk-and-yoghurt-free rules that were still listed on ZIOH as of at least 07-20-2010:
http://forum.dirtycarnivore.com/index.php/topic,358.msg11532.html#msg11532
3) On diary (sic): avoid milk and yoghurt (heavy carbs- lactose), use only pure (not 'thickened'- heavy) cream (read the label), cheese and unsalted butter.

% of calories as carbs, per Nutritiondata:
Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat: 30%
Beef, variety meats and by-products, liver, raw: 12%
Egg, whole, raw, fresh: 2%

Other less confusing related terms for rawists that do not imply that it's possible to eat literally zero carbs but do suggest an attempt to minimize them include:
- raw pure carnivore; raw 100% carnivore (RPC)
- raw obligate carnivore (ROC)
- raw meat diet (RMD); if this is meant to include liver, then it would fall into the category below

These could include more than 1% carbs, so they aren't technically exact alternatives to ZC, but come pretty close:
- raw carnivore (RC)
- raw facultative carnivore (RFC)
- raw animal foods (RAF)
- raw very low carb (RVLC)
- raw zero plant foods (RZPF)
- raw meat/organ diet (RMO)
- and others...

Descriptions:

Raw Carnivore = what a carnivore would eat--meat, fat, organs, fish, shellfish, eggs, insects and some fruits, greens, seaweeds or honey if they are facultative (a carnivore that does not depend solely on animal foods). For example, the polar bear will eat kelp or berries if meat/fish is not available. A small amount of raw milk or kefir might fit too, since a carnivore/hunter might happen to kill and eat a lactating female animal, but dairy wouldn't typically be a staple (although some folks who call themselves carnivores or Zero Carbers eat dairy fat, such as butter). Technically, some carnivores like the Giant Panda and other bears eat omnivorous or herbivorous diets despite being classified as carnivores due to carnivorous taxonomy and morphology, but for the purposes of human diets people generally mean a diet heavy in animal flesh, with plant foods seen as a nonessential, medicinal or very minor aspect.
> facultative carnivore: a carnivore that may consume non-animal foods (but non-animal foods are not essential for its survival; examples: canids, lorids, most bears--some prefer to call facultatively carnivorous bears "omnivores," though "omnivore" is not a truly scientific term). "When other food is unavailable, polar bears sometimes eat muskox, reindeer, small rodents, seabirds, shellfish, fish, eggs, kelp, berries, ...." http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/arctic/area/species/polarbear/diet/
> obligate carnivore: a carnivore that depends solely on the nutrients found in animal flesh for its survival (it may consume some plants, but only for medicinal or other non-nutritive purposes; example: the big cats)

Raw Dirty Carnivore = raw carnivore plus a small amount of foods that are acknowledged as not carnivorous (ex: dairy fat as a staple); very similar to raw facultative carnivore, with a somewhat looser definition

Raw Animal Foods = meat, fat, organs, fish, shellfish, eggs, insects + dairy is often a staple; generally no or negligible plant foods; I would think that honey could be included; seaweeds are are a sort of combination of plant and animal, so I'm guessing that they're not included; I'm also guessing that fungi are not included, which are neither plants nor animals

Raw Zero Plant Foods = literally what it says (everything but plant foods); add fungi to RAF and add seaweeds if RAF is not considered to include them; this term was just recently invented at this forum, I think, so I doubt that many are using it

[Post edited to make it more of an information post suitable to a sticky]

I have a deformity in one tooth that's like a dent into it. It's not a cavity, but some plaque does accumulate there. The dentist wants to even it out by adding a filling. I said OK without thinking about it much. Does anyone know if there's a "holistic dentistry" type alternative to filling in the dent? If not, what sort of filling material should I get?

She started eating raw eggs and then raw marinated and lightly cooked meat after developing problems like memory issues and her muscles getting smaller after 5 years of raw veganism. She also met a dozen fruitarians who lost their teeth or "developed scads of cavities." She also tried raw dairy but didn't do well on it.

Susan Schenck Explains Generational Studies Done on the Vegan Diet (Part 4) : The Renegade Health Show Episode #653
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E274v0ue0T4&feature=player_embedded

Here's how I'm defining the options:

1. Raw* Facultative Carnivore (faunivore**): eats some plant foods, but they're not a major or necessarily essential part of the diet (examples: PaleoPhil; some indigenous Arctic peoples like Inuits and Chukchis; lorids; wolves, foxes, wild and domestic dogs); around 90+% of the diet is carnivorous; little or no dairy
2. Raw Obligate Carnivore (faunivore): only nondairy animal foods with maybe the occasional exception as a treat (examples: Lex--though he has said he may add back some plant foods in the future and doesn't see obligate carnivory as necessary for humans; maybe Katelyn; the traditional Greenland Inuit and coastal Chukchi came close at 99% carnivorous, but would probably have eaten more plant foods if they could have; tarsiers; big cats like lions and domestic cats)
3. Raw Zero Carb: tries to avoid all carbs as much as possible, including liver, shellfish, eggs and milk (examples: Katelyn comes close, but I think she eats some liver and eggs now)
4. Raw Animal Foods: includes dairy products; under 10% or so of diet as plant foods (I believe at least several people here; traditional pastoral peoples like Evenks and Masai)

* I'm defining raw as more than 90% raw foods, including the majority of animal foods eaten raw
** I'm assuming that it's not necessary to use the lesser-known term faunivore instead of carnivore in the actual voting options list, because I doubt anyone here regularly eats a lot of insects or small invertebrates like sponges, but if you do then please select the option that comes closest to your diet and post that you're actually a faunivore and mention what you eat.

Calistro California Bistro introduces Paleolithic menu
http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/dining/articles/2010/08/05/20100805calistro-california-bistro-paleolithic-menu.html
"Some chefs try to predict future trends for their cooking inspiration. Calistro California Bistro chef-owner Devin Walsh is looking back. By about 2.5 million years.
…."

[However, menu items like gluten-free tortillas is what I refer to as “fake Paleo” or “fooling-yourself Paleo”—the sorts of foods people eat when they refuse to give up modern foods but fool themselves into thinking they’re still doing Paleo. They’re the sort of crap that dominated the Paleofood forum in the early days until most folks discovered they still had cravings if they ate them and felt a hell of a lot better if they gave them up.]