Nice read about the Paleo diet

“Look at that British girl who lived off of chicken nuggets for almost eighteen years, ” Wenkel continued. “The fact that her body was able to utilize the meager nutritional value of those things and get her to reproductive age is an incredible feat. It shows exactly how effective our versatility has been in human development. In a strict evolutionary framework, all your body needs to do is keep you alive until you breed. After that, you’re just living on borrowed time.”

 Yay she survived to reproductive age.  Really, that is the argument?  So we should be more like other species that merely live to reproduce and then die shortly after. 

The "real" problem is people don't understand what they are eating. They don't read the ingredients, are completely unaware that syrup with the maple leaf on the label is really corn syrup and that their crops are treated with things like Agent Orange. In the end we seem to have an increasingly unhealthy over weight population and we don't seem to grasp why that may be. 

Yeah I've been eating so-called paleo for over a year now, but the "caveman" angle never really resonated with me.  For example, I rely heavily on my three favorite sources of fat: coconut milk & oil, avocados, olives & olive oil.  Those come from totally different parts of the world, none even remotely near me.  So the thought that any pre-agricultural ancestor was eating like me seemed... silly.

 I've read, "never buy anything with more than five ingredients."  But 95% of what I buy has just one ingredient: bison. mustard greens. egg. olive oil. sweet potato. carrot. blueberries. mahi mahi. cilantro. almonds. onion. avocado. etc.  Very few people alive now or in history have enjoyed the luxury of access to such a wide selection of nutritionally-dense foods.

Do you think paleolithic man lived significantly past reproductive age? Nearly all species live longer in captivity than they do in the wild. Humans are no exception - as we become more "domesticated" and have better medicine, science, and nutrition, our life spans grew significantly. From an evolutionary standpoint, all the matters is reaching an age to pass on genes. After that, it's all gravy. So, yeah, it's a perfectly reasonable argument.

Umm - care to back that one up? I am fairly certain that commercial farming does not use military grade defoliants on crops for human consumption. For someone calling out the scientists for an accurate (from a biological/evolutionary POV) statement, that is a pretty far out claim.

I don't think the Neanderthals ever read the nutrition labels...

An interesting point of view, but I do not agree that it justifies a poor diet.?

?

Sure: Google is your friend in this case. 

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=agent+orange+use+in+american+farming&oq=agent+orange+use+in+american+farming&gs_l=hp.3...241213.251417.0.251937.47.33.5.8.8.0.172.3288.18j15.33.0...0.0...1c.J5KvaI7u_yo&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=2be968eb0807f393&biw=1024&bih=643

The artical I was referencing is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/agent-orange-corn-biotech_b_1291295.html

I never said it was military grade, I only said the chemical was used in farming. 

I was not disputing their research as to what "Cave Man" ate.  They win, the diet is incorrectly named.  Call it the "eating healthy and be aware of what you are really eating" diet.  

We have a growing number of people in our population that are not healthy which is directly related to their diets and life style. Supporting a poor diet, because you can reach the reproduction age regardless of what you eat does a disservice to the well being of our society. 

A little more in-depth reading of your sources shows the problem with the terminology. 2,4-D is only one part of the chemicals used in Agent Orange. The other part (2,4,5-T) was actually contaminated with dioxin, which is what probably led to all the cancers and birth defects associated with Agent Orange. Calling the crops "agent orange crops) is extremely misleading to say the least. You might as well claim that the household bleach you use when doing your laundry is mustard gas (or more technically close to the truth, chlorine gas), since it comprises half the deadly product produced when you mix chlorine and ammonia.

I think (surprise) that the media was hyping the issue, using loaded terminology to alarm people and move paper ("if it bleeds, it leads")