FAQ’s
I’m not sure about this whole Paleo thing, wasn’t that like caves and mammoths and whatnot? Yes, no, sorta. Not really. Loren Cordain really gets credit for the concept of the Paleo movement, because, well his research in the 70’s along with his book The Paleo Diet is what formed the basis of the idea. However, his book mainly focused on uncorrupted traditional groups of people. People who lived very similarly to the way their ancestors did many many generations previous. Although the title used the word Paleo to make the point of eating in such a way that truly only existed worldwide before the agricultural revolution some 7000 to 9000 years ago. The groups that he studied were hunter/gatherers just as all man was before the agricultural revolution. His thesis was in effect that modern farming and movement practices are what is killing us. Which is where I pick up. Cordain’s basic idea was to eat meat, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables and to move. Where I come in is taking that framework and laying it over the ways of traditional eating and then taking out the things that don’t fit. Think of it this way, in my native south biscuits are thought of a mainstay. However, in reality they aren’t. The south never grew much grain and the process of processing it into flour was expensive even if they did. Corn was plentiful, so if you go back more than a few generations, before Kroger, you realize corn meal was the mainstay of the southern diet. However, in general carbohydrates made up a much smaller percentage of daily calories. Most traditional cultures were not scared of fat and in fact derived much of their daily energy from it instead. Now before we get all hair splitty, different cultures across the world had completely different patterns of eating and moving, almost entirely dependent on what foodstuffs were available. Whereas the Intuit and Lapps/Sami both have traditional diets that consist almost entirely of animal products, both protein and fat due to their extreme northern locations, other groups closer to the equator have diets that are almost entirely plant based and extremely carbohydrate heavy. Just as there was no homogenous caveman diet, there is no one size fits all traditional diet.
The simple answer is, call it Paleo or Primal or Ancestral or Heritage the concepts remain the same, eat whole foods that are food, eat meat and fish, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables, use as much of all of the above as possible and avoid seeds of grasses, grains, sugar and processed foods. I add the idea of trying to eat locally and sustainably on top of that.
But I don’t live in a rural area, can I still use the site? Hell yes, you may find things that don’t exactly apply to you or that you can apply but all and you’ll find stuff of interest and you’ll be much more educated when you go to your local butcher, farmer or farmers market about your food. You might also find some stuff that’ll will come in handy in the event of a zombie apocalypse, if that is a concern of yours.
Is this a “diet” site? Nope, nada. The only time I use the word diet is when I am referring to the entire collection of food a person eats over a span of time. The concept of “diets” doesn’t work, that implies you can go back to the way you were eating before when you “finish” your diet or more realistically when you “fall off” your diet. Why the hell would you want to go back to eating in a way that was killing you and most people would say, most importantly, making you fat? This is a lifestyle site about changing your lifestyle in a way that reflects thousands of years of human experience.
Why did I start Country Boy Paleo? I live in a very rural community that has overall very poor health, mostly chronic modern diseases attributable to low quality food and modern environments. I looked around and realized the older people (70+) were generally in better health than their younger counterparts. Not just for their age but overall. I discovered Paleo years ago and realized the concepts linked up with my background and thoughts I had had for years previous. It just took the spark of talking to local farmers and people involved with farmers markets, getting run over by one too many Electric People movers at the grocery store and being involved with the CrossFit community all kinda crashing together on the same day. I realized none of the these three groups were really talking to each other. In some cases weren’t even aware they existed. In short, I want to make the rural population aware of the benefits of going back to a more traditional way of eating and living and also make other populations aware of the traditional ways in rural areas.
I see some hyperlinks, especially book titles, that take me to Amazon.com, what is that all about? Anytime I mention a book title, I’ll insert a link to that book on Amazon.com. This puts the book right at your finger tips instead of making you Evernote or, the horrors, actually get out a pen and write down the title. If you follow the link and buy the book, you get the lowest price available and Country Boy Paleo gets a commission. Simple as that. This is the currently the only revenue stream for the site, as we give away all our information for free in the hopes of creating healthier communities. So please use our hyperlinks. One last thing, I only link books I have read and think provide value.
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