Samantha:

I'm glad you find it helpful!

Asclepius:

There's definitely some chasing numbers on Paleohacks, and there's definitely some denial..."please, someone tell me my favorite junk food is paleo or that I can make a paleo version of it".  It's a useful resource when used correctly -- but remember, what it's really telling you is "Here's the result of a popularity contest between what a bunch of random people on the Internet said."  

In other words, Paleohacks is great for presenting you with options you may not have previously considered -- but it's still your responsibility to investigate them, and the popularity of an answer doesn't necessarily predict its truth or usefulness.

Paul:

I believe yours is a much more healthy attitude than orthorexia or guilt.  The stress caused by "no, I can never touch that again, ever" or "oh no, I'm a failure, I drank a Red Bull" is most likely more damaging than the Red Bull itself!

That being said, there's a difference between cheating and giving up entirely.  At some point we're not 90/10 or even 80/20...we're just using "paleo" as an excuse to put more processed meat on a pizza.  But your metric of "close to the ground" is a good one: the closer we can get to the source of our food, which is the Earth, the more nutritious it's likely to be (all other things being equal).

Dave:

Thank you!  I'm reasonably sure it's a paraphrase or summary of something Richard Dawkins said, though I don't remember from where.

Dan:

Glad you enjoyed it!  If you checked the "Subscribe" box, make sure to click the link in the subscription email.  If you didn't get one, check your junk or spam folders.

eddie:

Though I doubt that alfalfa supplements or sprouts, or fava beans, are statistically a major contributor to lupus incidence, it's certainly worth avoiding foods that could easily exacerbate the problem -- especially when there's no reason to consume any of them in the first place!  (Even if you're too poor to afford meat, there are far less toxic beans than the fava.)

More soon!

JS

Stacy:

"If we have evolved with plants from the beginning, why haven't we evolved the means to eat them? Like we have with meat and fish, tubers and fruit?"

That's a great question, and the answer is: we have, to some extent.

For instance, avocados contain the fungicidal toxin persin, which is harmful or toxic to many animals (especially birds) but apparently harmless to humans in reasonable quantities.  Aspirin is toxic to cats, but a very effective pain reliever for us: it's very closely related to salicylic acid, a phenolic compound found in willow bark.  And so on throughout the plant kingdom: cruciferous vegetables are chock-full of glucosinolates which give them their bitter taste, and which we are reasonably well equipped to deal with (although large quantities do become goitrogenic).

The way to think about it is an arms race.  Each generation, the plants which aren't too bitter or poisonous to eat get eaten, and the survivors produce more plants.  Yet the animals that can eat those plants without being poisoned also survive...and the cycle continues.  

Every plant is full of anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, insecticidal, and digestion-inhibiting compounds!  The difference is that some animals eat that plant often enough to be competitive in the arms race with the plant, and some don't.  For instance, cats lost the ability to neutralize salicylic acid, because it's been tens of millions of years since their ancestors ate anything that contained salicylates.

The problem for humans is that there are plenty of plant toxins we can eat and still manage to reproduce...but they still shorten our lifespan or decrease our quality of life.

Yes, it's a complicated issue with no easy answers!

Pedro:

Thanks for the correction: I'll make a note of that in the article.

Note that I deliberately used the phrasing "...an example I've never seen mentioned" for exactly this reason.  Even if it doesn't appear in the paleo literature, I suspected I wasn't the only one to encounter L-canavanine and its leguminous relatives -- whether from Bell 2003 or elsewhere.

I greatly appreciate the vote of support!  It means a lot to know I've earned the respect of professionals such as yourself.

Marilyn:

Alfalfa sprouts are basically an object of religious devotion: anyone hardcore enough to choke them down is viewed somewhat akin to a saint of nutrition.  No, there is absolutely no reason to do so, and there are several good reasons not to.  I stick to baby greens.

Paul:

Add together thousands of N=1 and you get N=1000, which is a bit more interesting.

Far more importantly, though, the progress of diabetes is something that can be quantified and accurately measured, at home, with a blood glucose meter.  In that case, the data isn't "I feel fine", it's "My post-prandial blood sugar is no longer 280, it's 140."

Pete Ray:

I'm glad my work isn't going unnoticed!  

And no, you're not the only one who noticed that particular appeal to (imagined) authority.  Perhaps it's easier than getting the science right.

Alex:

I'll take that as a compliment, even though I don't know what the other nine are 🙂

I'm caught up (for now), so now it's time to catch up on sleep.  Thank you all for helping keep gnolls.org a civil, information-rich place!

JS