Entering the Cave

I'm not a chef.  I'm not even a cook.  I'm a writer.  One day while writing a screenplay, I had to do some research on what tribal people ate.  Tons of sites appeared in my Google search for something called The Caveman Diet (also called The Paleo Diet).  There were many books available, and tons of free information on the internet as well, and I was fascinated with what I found.

Did you know that cavemen didn't have cancer?  They didn't have heart disease.  They didn't have diabetes.  They didn't even have tooth decay!  Incredible, but true.  This healthy constitution was directly related to their diet.  "Yeah, jerk-wad, but Cavemen only lived until 30!"  Well, that's not because of what they ate, it's because they were constantly being chased by lions.  They died of things like infection, or even the common cold.  But their diet was perfect for their genetic makeup.  Well, turns out that our genetic makeup today is exactly the same.  That's right, we have not changed our genetic makeup in millions of years.  The things I read about were eye opening.  I'll let you read what I read (http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html), but it turns out that agriculture and cultivation is only about 10,000 years old, and it has helped form today's modern diet.  It has also brought a ton of health problems like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes because our bodies weren't built to eat things that are not edible raw, like legumes.  That's right, beans are not edible raw, they're toxic.  But around 10,000 years ago, they figured out how to expand our food supply by cooking out most toxins and making more things edible.  Things like beans and potatoes.  But the slow build up of toxins has also meant late life disease.

So basically the Caveman Diet consists of anything organic that is edible raw.  Unlike the Raw Diet, you can cook things on the Caveman Diet, but the rule is it has to be edible in its raw state.  So no beans, peanuts, wheat, potatoes, etc.  It's not a coincidence that the main food allergies of today are peanuts, wheat, and dairy.  Dairy is edible raw for many of us, but the Caveman would never have access to it.  We are the only animals that drink other animals' milk, which is why many people are lactose intolerant.  Here's another good link that explains things: http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Paleo-Diet

I was a thin kid, always in pretty good shape, and then age set in, and I started developing a gut, and the usual puffiness most of us go through with aging.  By the way, I'm 44.  A few years ago, I decided to go on camera for a web series I was producing, so I started exercising and dieting to lose weight.  I became low carb crazed and started looking for ways to replace all the pizza and pasta I love so much (I mean come on, I'm from Brooklyn, I gotta have pizza, fuhgeddaboudit!), with low carb substitutes.  I found all the good products and became quite a good low carb cook.  Even thought about opening a "Low Carb Cafe."  I started around 190 pounds and reached a plateau at about 175-170.  No one would look at me and say I was fat.  But I wasn't quite skinny either, more like normal for a guy in his late 30's early 40's.  And that was my diet for about three years.  Lots of low carb wraps, and tons of products with Splenda!

Then I accidentally found the Caveman Diet without even looking for a new diet plan.  I realized how many chemicals I was ingesting.  Tons!  The Caveman Diet plan promised so many things like clear skin (always had a pimple or two going at all times), and massive weight loss, including the stubborn gut, which low carb never made a dent in.  And LESS exercise!  What lazy bastard doesn't love that?!  I wasn't really concerned too much with weight loss though, because like I said, I was happy with my low carb weight. But what interested me the most was the promise of NO DIABETES.  I'm a Brooklyn Jew, diabetes comes with our birth certificate.  I have it on both sides of my family, and I was imagining it was only a matter of time for me to get it as well.  And when you have no health insurance through work like me (I'm an independent contractor, and most of my writing gigs fall through the cracks of the unions), the thought of preventative care through food was very appealing.  So I thought I'd give it a try for 2 weeks to a month.

Well, in one month of eating pure food, I lost about 15 pounds, my skin cleared up and people thought I had cancer.  They were worried for me because of the rapid weight loss.  But I had never felt or looked better in my life.  Not only that, I had always had high blood pressure.  I'm not a big medicine taker in general, so I never went on things like Lipitor, instead taking the approach of awaiting for the inevitable stroke.  Well, in one month, my blood pressure is better than normal, it's ideal!  And guys, better blood flow leads to other benefits too (maybe I should be saying this to the ladies instead).  Without getting into the gory details, let's just say if every man was on this diet, Viagra would be bankrupted over night.

In the weeks that followed I lost another 10 pounds or so, and I'm now around 150, which is what I weighed in high school!!!  My skin stayed clear, and I wish I would have known about this at 15, it would've saved me a lot of grief.  I have more energy than ever before, and despite the fact I exercise less, I have more muscle mass than ever before!  And the best news is, I EAT LIKE A KING!!!!  In an average week I eat glorious dishes like baby back ribs, fried chicken, burgers, shrimp scampi, and many others, where I've figured out how to cook without the use of salt, sugar, wheat, dairy, etc, and still make the food flavorful, delicious, and above all, HEALTHY!

I will be describing what I eat, and how I cook it over the course of this blog, but for now, read up on the actual diet plan I followed, and continue to follow.  I have no deal with these links, they have no idea who I am, but I wanted to give them credit for opening my eyes to a world that has changed my life drastically.  I am now a Caveman!!!  Ugga-bugga!!!!

http://www.cavemanpower.com/food/diet_and_eating.html

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