That’s enough info, but for more, see Taubes and Riptoe. Especially if you haven’t lifted weights.

Hence curry. The spiciness was designed to hide the flavor of meat that had gone off. Curry is one of those cuisines you definitely don’t want too authentic.

Both my boyfriend and I lose weight on Paleo. We’ve been off diet a few months, because I’ve been sick. When we add back grains and legumes, the weight loss stops. And he even notices that he feels better on Paleo. The biggest problem is that it requires a lot of prep and cooking time. That’s hard to do when you are sick.

I’ve made some of the bread and desserts using almond flour from Honeyville Farms and I like it a lot. It’s more satisfying and filling than using regular flour. Some of the Paleo folks object to trying to replicate regular foods like bread. I don’t buy into that. People want to eat the foods they grew up with. They will not look forward to a big bowl of braised kale 😉

I think we can all agree, cashews are to be snarfed down as soon as encountered.

Cashews are good, just not good for you; I like them in my stir-frys. But give me macadamia nuts for sheer soft, fatty, tasty goodness. Macadamia nuts are the asparagus of the nut world.

Oh, and peanuts go great in cooking as well, not to mention as a snack right out of the shell. So if you open peanut shells as you eat the nuts, does the physical activity cancel out any calories? That’s my story and I sticking with it.

I don’t happen to be looking to diet — I keep incredibly active with gardening and relandscaping our property and that seems to solve any weight problems I might have. But if I were, I could NEVER deal with the biochem studies required for maintaining this Paleo stuff.

I agree with those who point out the ever-changing proclamations of what’s good and bad to eat and the neuroses this can cause. I love red meat so I wasn’t going to give it up even when the doctors and dieticians, magazine articles and foodies pronounced that is was the equivalent of poison. And, ta dah! now it’s not! Then there were eggs — or rather, egg whites vs. those horrid yokes. I’m not a big egg eater except when cooked into food, so I could take’em or leave ’em. But again, ta dah! now they are good for you again! Then there’s debate about coffee, colas, salt, drinking booze, saturated fats vs. unsaturated fats (I’m not even sure which transfats allude to, but I really don’t care enough to look it up!) And why should I? Wait long enough and Mayor Bloomfield of NY tell you what you are no longer permitted to eat legally!

I realize there have always been the “in” diets and not only were you cool if you were on such, it made for great cocktail party talk. (But who wants to talk diets, when we have so many derogative things to discuss about our fool of a President?)

Fortunes have been made creating diets and managing the P.R. for them is akin to launching almost any new company. Dr. Arthur Agatson & his wife (from where I grew up) successfully created & promoted “The South Beach Diet” — which was based on proteins and the chemical interaction of different foods vs. simple calorie counting as in Weight Watchers. His use of the words “South Beach” latched on to the craze of South Beach as a hot destination (which happened to be another made up name for the Southern part of Miami Beach which had never before used any special reference. (Interestingly enough, “the moniker “South Beach” was thought up by the same developer who developed “Soho” in New York city to add to the neighborhood’s caché. Marketing tools that worked big time!)
And, of course, Jean Nidetch, creator of Weight Watcher’s had almost a lock on the diet industry for decades, until others realized how lucrative it could be. Ironically enough, I went to high school with her niece, Barbara Nidetch who was a pudge ball. Nice and smart but very chubby, and eager to announce her relation to her aunt of Weight Watcher fame.

Out of Weight Watchers came the basic understanding that dieting need not be a strict list from a restricted food list, but rather the common sense concept of eating moderately and maintain some physical activity. In other words, the more fatty foods one consumes in great quantities, the fatter you’ll become!.

Then there was that Susan something-or-other….was it Powder? She had short platinum blonde hair, always wore pink leotards and yelled a lot on her own TV show warning of the danger of FAT in foods.

And can’t forget Richard Simmons — the workout king (little prince?) who still remains popular with certain populations. He stressed working out and moving ad the secret to losing weight and didn’t even talk about food.

Bottom line: every successful diet creator has some “shtick” (=gimmick) to peddle their concept and if it takes in the marketplace, there’s lots of money to be made.

Now the current craze seems to be the delivery of food service. The dieter just has to pay & eat; all the figuring of number of calories, fats, proteins or whatever is done for you. I laugh when they all claim the food is so fresh and good, and then they tell you
the meals are delivered once a week. You just remove them from the freezer and warm up!

This “Paleo” stuff is way too complicated not to mention, depriving of lots of good stuff (like nuts, for one!). Who wants to return to college science chemistry to understand and follow a diet? Is not the thought of a diet and commitment thereto hard enough?

And, as for the concept that “the diet is grounded on evolutionary biology,” that isn’t too good a sign for living a long life, since life spans back in the time were a heck of a lot shorter! (Heck! they were less than 1/2 the current lifespan in colonial times. Can’t imagine what they were millions of years ago! But then, there wasn’t nearly so much to do without computers, Gameboys, and Google to fill the hours!)

Put your chicken, at least 1 day dead of course, in the road.

http://tinyurl.com/afqtbnl

Tire pounded squirrel with apricot-almond chutney and roasted parsnips.

A couple of the chicken recipes I use involve pounding the chicken breast flat so that it cooks evenly. This could be a labor-saving alternative.