"In reality, the so-called 'paleolithic diet' followed by cavemen was not necessarily ideal for long-term health... Mother Nature didn't give a whit about eating for a long healthy life; she just wanted cavemen to make more baby cavemen." --The Rosedale Diet

Nice post. The word Paleo is bound to see a raft of definitions develop as more people jump on the train to see for themselves what it can do for them. These greater numbers will have a push/pull effect that stimulates discussions like this. For me, biochemistry is the datum form where we start and also the point we go back towards.
Generally the science is not challenged, so measuring any diet, eating plan, lifstyle influenced food choice should start from that place and over time, any modifications to that should go back there. I enjoy http://www.primalmeded.com as a reference for exactly this. The Blogger is a medical student who openly questions conventional wisdom and uses her strong knowledge of biochemistry as a measuring tool for most that she posts. I enjoyed reading this post and having it start and finish in a similar way. Well done.

[...] Paleo Identity Crisis: What Is The Paleo Diet, Anyway? http://www.gnolls.org/2226/the-paleo-identity-crisis-what-is-the-paleo-diet-anyway/ We call it “paleo” for the same reason that we call it “Latin”, even though we have [...]

love the post, was not expecting there to be a new one when i clicked on last night, very happy to be surprised though 😀

as for the killing animals and such forth, i think most people do care. however we are not going to stop the killing of animals, if we all turned vegetarian/vegan we'd have to kill all those cattle pigs and sheep that are currently reared by farmers as there'll be no further use for them. these species will then become extinct as we've removed their abilities to defend themselves too.

ethically reared animals is the way forward and to apply pressure to the foodchain providers you have to refuse to buy non-ethically reared animals and be willing to pay more for the ethically reared animals that are available.
in time this will lead to more ethically reared animals and, in time, an end to the battery farming methods utilised by some farmers.
(as an aside i live in UK where animals are typically reared in pasture and only fattened up on grains for 1-2 months)
this will take time, but it's better than attempting something that will simply fail and would in fact cause massive harm to the very animals you are alleged to care about. (i count extinction as massive harm)

worth noting that this is where egg rearing is heading now, free range eggs used to be expensive and rarely reared, now they are the norm and as a result prices have come down.

@JS:
Thanks for the feedback, by the way. Your insights are always thought-provoking, and I'm glad you write only once a week because I like to ponder them at length.

@Andrew:
I certainly agree with your approach. For low-protein days, I've just been fasting, because I was utterly convinced by JS' article on how snacking makes you fat and weak (i.e., an insulin spike from carbs in the absence of complete protein tears down lean mass). But using coconut oil is a very interesting idea, because it wouldn't affect insulin. I wonder if having some coconut oil during a 36-hour fast, rather than just eating nothing, would bring on ketosis faster... I'm going to give it a try.

As for the alcohol idea, it's really Martin Berkhan's insight over at leangains.com, and if you want the full scoop you should check out his article. But the basic idea is that you eat a full course of protein (1g per pound of lean body mass) and lots of vegetables, while keeping fat extremely low (about 1.5g per pound of lean mass). Then you hit the booze. For me, this means fasting until 2pm, and then:

Salad:
Three cans of tuna, one can of clams, one large prepacked salad (mostly kale with shredded carrots)

Shake:
50g whey protein, two raw pastured eggs, 1/4 cup raw cow milk kefir, 1/2 cup almond milk

Alcohol:
Smirnoff triple-filtered vodka

As a non-drinker, I learned the hard way that you should 1) drink gradually, because all that protein slows the alcohol absorption, making it easy to overdo it, and 2) stop drinking when you feel impaired. It's also good to have someone as your spotter. Fortunately my wife is extremely patient and understanding. 🙂

@JS
Thanks. (I'll have to read up on exactly what metabolic flexibility means, then...)
Yeah, I find fasting is definitely a whole lot easier than most people imagine. It's quite a liberating experience. I find although I enjoy food more after, food seems to loose its power over me.

@Timothy
I'll have to check out the artile at leangains. Never been much of a drinker other than a glass of wnie in the evening, but sounds interesing.

@js90
Hominids are one of the few animals that specializes in grandparental care. It sounds good to say that we are evolved to live long enough to reproduce but it might not be the case, We might be evolved to live long enough to help our children reproduce.
A 2% difference in reproductive success can mean the difference between species survival and extinction.

Interesting point: can Dr Harris still call himself "paleo"? I follow similar principles as him and have used this word to describe my diet. Like you, I am not interested in recreating our Paleolithic past. Instead I focus on the basics of human biochemistry and then apply evolutionary reasoning. I called this principle The Framework of Common Sense, mainly to avoid questions like: "is sweet potato Paleo?". Great minds think alike 😉

[...] J. Stanton – The Paleo Identity Crisis: What is the Paleo Diet, Anyway? [...]