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Originally Posted by demonrail666

If that's the same as the Paleo diet, I have a friend who swears by it and suggested it to me (I also have high cholesterol) but, when I read up on it, it seemed to come with a load of conservative/libertarian ideological shit that made it feel more like a cult than a diet.

there is an aspect of that growing around it, in part because it goes against government dietary prescriptions like food pyramids and the like, and it also rejects corporately produced chemical sludge sold as food; but not all of it is that way or based on antigovernment/anticorporate principles-- e.g., if you read lauren cordain's books, he's a nutrition prof. in a state university, and interested in the science and in athletic performance (i get his newsletter and have never read a word of politics in it. then again everything is political, right?)

but cordain is not the only guy doing this, there are others (e.g., mark sisson, which i like, or some dude named jimmy moore, who does cheesy ads), so there is no single formula--- they all try to approach a certain hypothetical ideal and each of them has taboos and holy grails of their own. like with everything, you gotta look around and decide your own approach to the thing. last spring i bought a "paleo" magazine at a whole foods and it seemed written by a lot of back-to-earth hippies that have switched from granola to grass-fed beef jerky. so there are a lot of currents converging on this i suppose.

paleo/primal can be very satisfying but expensive. i get into/out of it depending on my personal economy-- i'll eat "antinutrient" beans with factory eggs and industrial pork and frozen pesticide spinach when i'm low on cash; i'll buy pastured meats and fresh organic produce and wild blueberries when things are better; but i just bought a freezer so i can butcher & store my own semi-wild meats starting this winter (viva los goats). a little planning makes things affordable.

lastly, i just read the review of a book by an md who links gluten to alzheimers and dementia and says cholesterol is good-- david perlmutter is the guy, look him up. (the irish have a high incidence of celiac, btw).