Paleo vs. Meditteranean

Of course I can't remember what author recently wrote about the "diseases of civilization," and how those diseases can be related back to cereal grains and agriculture. Make a projection in your head, and we are dying of obesity-related diseases at an alarming rate due to our reliance on cereal grains as our major source of calories. CORN. WHEAT. And now soy, of course, but that is a whole other story of easy protein and phytoestrogens.

So in the era of Atkins and low-carb diets, the high-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet and the low-carb, high-protein Paleolithic diet clash with each other. New trend, new trend! But then, hunting and foraging are very relative to location, no? In the Arctic, there are no trees for fuel, so you are going to preserve those dried musk oxen patties until the last possible moment. Indigenous people of the Arctic ate meat raw, sliced right off the carcass. Seal sushi. Whale sushi. Plus fish and berries and eggs, of course - easier to gather and cook those in summer time. But then, you had American Indians on the New England coast fishing, eating oysters, growing strawberries, corn, and squash, and simmering venison stew with wild rice and herbs. And then you had plains Indians subsisting on the famed "buffalo" - they're bison! Bison! And then there are people whose diets revolve around breadfruit, or manioc, or plantains, or RICE, or SOY, or vegetables. It just depends on the geographic and climatic dice you roll.

So a paleolithic diet is impossible to define. It all goes back to eating whole foods, simple foods, and not too much food. We should eat food, as Michael Pollan wrote, that our great great grandmothers would recognize as food. Or was that our Indian great grandmothers?

Poke, anyone? Ramps? How about a paw-paw. Purslane? Lamb's quarters, otherwise known as goosefoot. Sorrel. Lots of things to eat that have fallen out of favor or simply out of common knowledge. If you can get any of these greens without a liberal application of weedkiller, consider yourself lucky. And well-fed? I'm personally still looking for purslane that hasn't been peed on by a thousand dogs. The search could take a while. Meanwhile, I can eat cattails and day lilies.

A fine article on NutritionData.com, weighing the pro's and con's of Paleo vs. Meditteranean.