For those among us who like to read, as my family does, we’re going to be posting quick recommendations and reviews of books that we’ve read, studied, and enjoyed along our own health and wellness journey.
We’ll be looking at newer publications as well as come of the classics in this particular health space, as well as some of my personal favorite cookbooks interspersed here and there.
The Paleo Diet was written by one of the longtime thought leaders in the paleo world, Loren Cordain, PhD, now Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University’s Department of Health and Exercise Science in their College of Applied Human Sciences. The book was originally published in 2002 (revised in 2011), making it almost an historical text given how rapidly the science related to ancestrally-focused nutrition plans has evolved over the intervening two decades, though when I stumbled across a used copy at my favorite second-hand book store a few weeks back I couldn’t pass it by.
Cordain’s work in this seminal paleo book was one of the first presentations to the lay public of what we’ve all come to recognize as core paleo principles, and he laid out a very logical and thoughtful presentation of the key historical presumptions upon which the movement was built. You’ll note in reading that further research has refined and modified many of the principles “around the edges”, for example tweaking protein requirements and targets pending specific metabolic conditions, though his framework presented in this book still informs the eating habits of hundreds of thousands of people today.
The Paleo Diet isn’t the final word on eating, and living, ancestrally today, but is a fascinating and informative read, particularly for those interested in taking a deep dive into ancestrally-guided health and wellness. Though it’s not a very popular principle these days, it’s critical to understand history to interpret our world today, and this is book is unquestionably part of the ancestral health movement’s history.
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