Dietary Concerns

A week ago or so I was introduced to the concept of Evolutionary Fitness, and what is commonly called the Paleo Diet. It's an interesting idea, and one I got on board with pretty fast. It's a bit odd to say, but I think that the paleo diet, properly managed, could save a lot of lives. It's odd to say that because I'm quitting it.

My motivation for quitting the diet can be broken down into two basic facets. The first has to do with the ephemeral feeling of healthiness. When I was eating right before, I could feel it. I felt genuinely healthier then I did otherwise. I didn't get that feeling from the paleo diet. Mostly I just felt hungry. That may have been a volumetric thing, the simple fact being that a diet that calls for you to refrain from eating any processed grain product cuts out a huge portion of my food, if measured by average volume consumed. I think it was more then that though. I could never quite get my fill from the nigh infinite stream of fruits nuts and vegetables. It was this effect that played into the real problem I have with the paleo diet.

Say what you want about rice being a technologically based food. Yes it's got a great deal more carbohydrates then any of the foods we ate during our evolutionary upbringing, and yes it's outside of the natural spectrum of foods, but rice is cheap. So are noodles. The health benefits probably do exist from eating the naturalistic foods that were available to us in the paleolithic age, but in the information age where I am not afforded the opportunity to hunt, or to gather, I am left only to purchase, and it all adds up pretty fast. I may go back to the paleo diet some time after I've moved on to a higher income bracket, but right now I'm pulling a bit of an evolutionary trick of my own, and incorporating the adaptive behavior of cooking with cheap staple starches.