There is a drink I have heard of that is hot water, blackstrap molasses and apple cider vinegar. I believe it is called “quaker” and is commonly used as a morning tonic. You could also use honey instead of the molasses.

I surmise that the perennial debate between meat eaters and vegetarians may have this biological tension in the human genetic make-up as its cause.

Some people who try to become vegetarians end up becoming sick. A notable case is the Dalai Lama. It is always worthwhile to check with a physician regarding individual constitution before making the big decision of becoming a vegetarian. Yet it is also a fact that countless vegetarians are in excellent health: otherwise religious traditions like Buddhism and Jainism would not have survived. The warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple are vegetarians. (Tibetan Buddhism is an exception in that it includes meat in its rituals and diet.)

There are of course vegetarian Olympians!

I myself am not a vegetarian.

I’m not sure what you mean by unrefined sugar, but you should look into Blackstrap Molasses and Honey.

At least in the US, as I am a label reader (and have been for a while) it is rather shocking to think about all the things that have processed sweeteners added to it, now days mostly being processed corn syrup. It also made me look into unrefined sugar, and makes me wonder about how obtain that for use as a sweetener, instead of unrefined.

On the other hand, I do think it’s perfectly healthy to supplement your paleo staples with real whole grains, dairy products, the aforementioned fermented foods etc. as your individual metabolism allows.

If the paleo diet is mans natural Hunter/Gatherer Diet, then a supplemented paleo diet would be a traditional Farmer/Warrior Diet, something our ancestors have been doing pretty well on for thousands of years.

Most of the stuff developed in the last couple of hundred years is pretty bad for you.

Most of the stuff developed more than a couple of thousand years ago is probably pretty good for you.

Most of the stuff people have been eating for millions of years(or for as long as we’ve been fully human) is ideal.

The whole “slow food” thing to me is kind of amusing, as I have been slow fooding my whole life. My mom was chef, but she learned cooking from her mom, and myself and all my siblings are pretty capable in the kitchen because of that. I grew up on slow food, with my mom looking for locally grown seasonal food, so the that idea is so “new” or “radical” is rather alien to me.

Clint wrote an Elhaz Ablaze article about adopting the Paleo Diet which you can read here:

http://www.elhazablaze.com/2009/10/eat-like-your-ancestors/.

It is worth noting that the Paleo Diet falls down on a couple of things, firstly it neglects fermented foods, which are hugely nutritious even if they probably haven’t been around in an organised way for as long as meat and vegetables; and also I read somewhere that dairy actually _does_ go back way further than anyone realised…and if you combine fermentation with dairy you get more superb foods that are perfect for the human body…

I love all of these different ideas…they make so much more sense than the self-punishing BS of the old “low fat, synthetic food” craze that is ruining everybody’s health (and the environment often, given the ugly food manufacturing practices involved…)

H