Read A Fucking Book, Already: Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf

Few facets of our daily lives are dominated so wholly by trends than dieting and nutrition.  Diets seemingly go through rapid shifts in popularity throughout the years, and without question one of the biggest trends in nutrition today is the paleolithic/ancestral/caveman diet.  I've blogged at some length about the history of the paleo diet and its apparent efficacy, utilizing a variety of texts on the subject, all of which seemed to be at odds with one another.  Though all of them provided some manner of anecdotal evidence to support their claims, and in some cases described the deleterious effects of certain modern foods on the body in some detail, none of them offered the comprehensive, heavily cited, and engaging and well written-but-denser-than-a-fucking-black hole Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf.  Thus, I present to you what I consider to be the seminal work on paleolithic dieting.

Short Synopsis
Pros:

• heavily cites archaeology, nutritional texts, and anecdotal evidence.
• he explains that paleolithic man was healthier because of his lifestyle, not just due to food choices.
• explicitly states that this should not become some sort of idiotic life-defining, quasi-religious excuse for people to whine like bitches and proselytize about their food choices.
• his writing style is both intelligent and conversational, making it far easier to read than most nutritional texts, while providing ample support for his suppositions.
• he adapts the paleolithic lifestyle to that of modern man- i.e. he takes into account people are going to party and their jobs consist of sitting around all day doing nothing, and explains how to work a paleo lifestyle into that. 

Cons:

• the workout section's more or less worthless- it's designed for your average coach-potato shitbag, not people who have a vested interest in being awesome.
• he fails to get into the wildly impressive physical feats of paleolithic man, outside of a short bit lifted pretty much directly from Manthropology.

The John Holmes (i.e. Long) Treatment

Given that I could find fault with nearly anything anyone but Teddy Roosevelt has done, that's a pretty short list of cons.  I loved this book and ate it up.  As such, I'll give you guys some of the highlights from the book, and then you can read it for yourself:

• he started out as a competitive athlete, then became a vegan because he (like I, which I thoroughly enjoyed) loved fucking dirty hippies.  Though I'd never take it to that extreme, I appreciated the fact that he go so into veganism that he was seeking semi-spiritual advice from vegetarian gurus at one point.  That story's actually pretty amusing.
• After he stared death right in the fucking eye due to his idiotic foray into herbavorism, he spat in the Grim Reaper's face, got a degree in nutrition, and took a steaming shit on conventional nutritional wisdom, as any intelligent, free-thinking person should do as a matter of course.
• He explains in great detail, the reasons why grains are particularly bad for you, but gives interesting and scientific reasoning for why rice and corn are ok to eat on occasion, which is something no other paleo writer has done.  To sum up his stance against grains, all grains contain lectins and protease inhibitors, which means that giant protein molecules end up punching holes through your intestinal walls and contribute to a wide array of literally shitty GI problems after you eat them.
• He describes in great detail the metabolism of carbohydrates and explains how its the combination of sugars and fats that leads to arteriosclerosis.  Additionally, he scientifically ascribes virtually every medical problem plaguing modern humans on excessive carbohydrate consumption.  Excessive carbs force your body to flood itself with insulin, and hyperinsulinism is a factor in or the root of most prevalent diseases, including cancer.  It contributes to cancer by blocking the natural process by which your body regulates growth of abnormal cells, by the way.  
• Though he glosses over the deleterious effects of legumes and dairy (presumably to prevent losing his readers by providing too much information, he gives some citations that offer answers to why those foods are also off the table, pun fucking intended.
• He explains the negative effects of modern living on our cortisol levels, which contributes to a variety of metabolic problems.  He pointed out a couple of stressors that wouldn't immediately pop into one's head, like having a healthy and rich social life.  He also gives a decent, Paul Chek-esque explanation for how and why sleep is so important, which I found enlightening.
• He gives the recipe for the infamous NorCal margarita, and explains why all of the included ingredients are there.  Curious?  

The Infamous NorCal Margarita

2 shots of gold tequila

Juice of 1 lime (the whole damn thing)

Splash of soda water

" There is some chemistry behind the recommendations.  The lime juice blunts insulin release and the CO2 bubbles in the soda water act as what's called a "nonpolar solvent." This actually lextracts the alcohol from the drink and delivers it to your system faster.  Better living through chemistry!" (139)

• He goes on to mention that alcohol isn't paleo, but au contraire, my friends- being the nerd I am, I have evidence that disproves this:  studies of the Bertram palm show that it contains "alcohol concentrations in the nectar , and found that nectar inside the bud contained up to 3.8% alcohol (roughly equivalent to beer)."(Hodge)
• Finally, Wolf rounds out the book with a treatment on protein choices and a list of decent recipes.

Did I mention Sarah B is a paleo dieter?

Think what you will about paleo dieting, but the shit seems to work, and Wolf's arguments supporting it are definitely compelling.  If you're at all interested in this type of diet, and you've no plans to purchase this book, you've failed at life. Get this book and caveman it the fuck up. 

Sources:

Hodge, Anne-Marie.  "Boozing Treeshrews:  Heavyweight drinkers in Small Packages."  Nature.com.  http://blogs.nature.com/amch/2010/05/02/anthropological-studies-suggest-that-low-level
Wolf, Robb.  Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet.  2010