Per:

Good point about the actual nutrient input of gorillas.  The Jaminets spend a lot of time on that subject in the Perfect Health Diet.

C:

My theory is that once we stop stuffing ourselves with grain-based junk, our bodies will tell us when we need plant matter in our diets.  I actually eat more plants now than I did before I started eating paleo!  But I don't force myself. 

JS

Michelle:

My sympathies on the pinworms: yuck!

First, pinworms don't come from meat: they come from another human who has pinworms, or occasionally their pets.  So you're not going to get reinfected by eating meat.

As far as "what happened to the steak", it was completely digested and absorbed by your body, which now has a bunch of protein and fat to build and repair itself, and to use for energy.  This is good: after all, the objective of eating food is to absorb its nutrients into your body, not to poop them back out.  (Note that corn isn't a vegetable: it's a grain.)

I've definitely found that I poop and fart less on a paleo diet, despite eating just as many calories: this is because the foods I am getting most of my calories from (meat, eggs) are completely absorbed by my body.

Remember that even a fasting person will poop!  This is because poop contains water (which is most of the weight), dead intestinal bacteria (which is much of the solid bulk), and dead blood cells (which turn it brown).  The rest of it will be things you ate but couldn't digest: "fiber", inorganic materials, and so on.

Most importantly, as I said in the article, it's not bad to eat vegetables!  The bacteria in your colon that break down some quantity of otherwise indigestible "fiber" are usually the good kind: we have them for a very good reason, which is to squeeze some nutrients out of plant matter that we couldn't otherwise digest at all.  It's ingestion of huge amounts of refined sugars and starches (and, especially, huge amounts of fructose) that can lead to bacterial overgrowth and SIBO, and it's ingestion of the indigestible sugars from legumes (and milk products, if you're lactose-intolerant) that make you fart.  Excessive farting is a good clue that you're eating something you're not digesting properly.

So absolutely keep eating and enjoying your veggies!  But don't be afraid of adding meat and eggs back to your diet, either.

Does that help?

JS

Jayne:

Most of that crew doesn't even understand how herbivore digestion works!  And don't even get me started on "colon cleansing".

JS

clemen:

See the last two paragraphs of my reply four comments up (link).  As I say in the article, "I'm not arguing that we should never eat vegetables: I'm just busting a silly myth."

As I've said before, I find myself eating more vegetables now that I've eliminated grains from my diet.  I don't have to force myself to eat them, either: the desire seems to come naturally.

JS

Honey is better than sugar, since a lot of the glucose and fructose is already free and it's not a zero-nutrition food.  But I would go easy on it.

Mustard brown means lighter in color and more yellowish than normal, right?  That probably means you're having a bit of fat malabsorption going on, though not terribly bad or it would be greasy.  Again, I'd gravitate towards coconut oil and MCTs rather than vegetable oils or animal fats.

A clarification to my earlier post: gas means that your enzymes aren't able to break down your food, and your intestinal bacteria are doing it instead. So recolonizing will help: but mainly you want to eat things that require little enzymatic digestion, are digested with stomach and saliva enzymes, or increase enzyme secretion.

In my opinion, the main thing is to stay away from complex plant proteins (found in grains), FODMAPs (found in a lot of beans and some vegetables), and other difficult-to-digest foods.  Fish and other soft/ground meats should help: meats increase stomach acidity, which will help break down whatever you eat with them.  Simple starches like rice and boiled/mashed potatoes are easy on the gut…and you might look into blending/juicing your vegetables, which will take a load off your digestive system and enzymes.

Again, please keep us posted on what you find out.

JS

LZ:

I can't say it any better than I've already said it above:

"And since population growth correlates directly with women's rights, the first thing we need to be doing is supporting women's basic right to self-determination around the world.  In South Africa, widely considered the most 'civilized' sub-Saharan country, approximately 1 in 3 men cheerfully admit to having raped a woman.  In many Islamic countries, women are not allowed to leave the house without the protection of a male relative – let alone drive a car, hold a job, or even learn to read and write.  This has nothing to do with 'feminism' or any other 'ism', just basic human rights."

As far as the Western disposable lifestyle, it's all relative to population growth.  If it weren't for immigration and the children of immigrants, US population would be decreasing right now…so in the long run, our consumption isn't the problem.  Recycling and driving a Prius is rounding error compared to the ecological impact of bringing another child into the world.  

JS