Going Primal

A few months ago I touched on something called "The Caveman Diet". Finding it nearly impossible to follow over the holidays I put it on hiatus until the new year. Then the new year presented some difficult situations, namely my girlfriend's brother's birthday party, that made it difficult to adhere to any sort of diet.

Luckily, Stephen Colbert had a guest on this week who was living the caveman lifestyle claiming he had "gone primal". I say luckily because this was a tipping point for my girlfriend to give it a try for 30 days. Needless to say, I knew this would make my own ability to practice this lifestyle a lot easier. So, at her behest I started digging online to find out practical ways to live like our ancestors lived for the majority of human existence (within reason)

After much research, I found out that a considerable amount of human beings have "gone primal". Not only had they themselves gone primal, they're motivated to help others do the same. Before I begin citing these sources I want to elaborate on what exactly "going primal" is all about.

Simply put, going primal is about eating food. Sounds simple right? Well, only if you define food as everything you'd find in your local grocery store. Let's back up a little.

Human beings have been walking the earth for approximately 200,000 years. This is a very important thing to remember. So people, just like you and me, have been around for a long, long time. Agriculture, on the other hand, has only been around for about 10,000 years. Now, as I've said in previous posts I'm not nearly articulate enough to explain the science behind all of this (stay tuned for the sources). However, do you honestly think that your body is designed to eat Pringles, or bananas? So, when I say that going primal is about eating food, I'm not kidding around.

Alright I'll admit, the Pringles comparison is a cheap shot. How about potatoes, or corn perhaps? Surely corn is good for you, it's one of the cornerstones of the American diet. Well, it's not. Corn has next to no nutritional value. Oh and if you ever hear someone calling corn a vegetable, smack them. It's a grain, and it's the worst grain of all.

The thing to remember is that just because your body recognizes something a food and can digest it as such, doesn't make it fuel... and fuel is exactly what we are hunting for. Sure you can survive on things at your local grocery store, but I'm done surviving. I'm ready to start THRIVING. I won't be going it alone, and it may not be easy, but I am going primal.

I know I mentioned sources, but it turns out that there is a source that ties all this good stuff together. Here's your one stop shop to going primal.

www.marksdailyapple.com

Update: A commenter Don Wiss has written this definition of Paleo living. I find it to be very concise.

http://paleodiet.com/definition.htm