Contents to Sections Below Product Page Sites by Individuals Books Cookbooks Web Books Footwear for Hunting & Gathering Educational Institutions Media Reports Associations/Organizations Commercial Sites Dehydrators Food Science Mailing Lists/Meetup Groups/Archives/Forums    Grass-Fed Beef Pemmican bars    PaleoFood Mall: Products/Snacks/Sellers Sub Pages Autism & Diet Multiple Sclerosis & Diet Rheumatoid Arthritis & Diet Also See    PaleoFood.com Recipe Collection    Foraging and Ethnobotany Links

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Sites by Individuals

• The Paleo Diet Defined is my concise definition of the core paleo diet and the many variations of it.
• Life Expectancy in the Paleolithic by Ron Hoggan was written to refute those that argue they died by age 30 and therefore the diet is unhealthy. His book: Dangerous Grains (Ron, though listed as co-author, wrote all but seven pages of the book).
• Introduction to the Paleolithic Diet written by Ben Balzer, a family physician in Australia, is probably the clearest introduction on the web. Also see other posts to his blog.
• Second Opinions is a site by Barry Groves, PhD. It includes many articles exposing dietary and medical misinformation. A selection of them:
  • The Naïve Vegetarian is a long article covering various diets with a focus on pointing out the fallacies of vegetarianism.
  • The Cholesterol Myth points out there is no evidence that eating cholesterol is bad.
  • Animal Fats Don’t Cause Breast Cancer points out that an examination of a couple of studies that came out in July 2003 does not support the claims that media is making for them.
  • Polyunsaturated Oils Increase Cancer Risk blames the rise of margarine for increased ills.
  • William Banting: author of the first low-carb diet book is a history of the first low carb diet, which was also paleo.
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Your Future Is In Your Dietary Past is an article Jack Challem wrote for Nutrition Science News: April 1997.
• An Interview with Ward Nicholson now has three parts on the web. Good overview of man’s diet over the past 65 million years. Long but highly recommended reading. First published in Chet Day’s “Health & Beyond” newsletter. Now part of a very comprehensive Beyond Vegetarianism site. Every argument that your vegetarian friends use to avoid meat for health reasons is debunked here.
• You won’t find many blogs listed here. Most are either chatter or the author is chronicling their paleo eating or attempts at it. But some are good and they often are the ones considering themselves as providing primal wisdom:
  • Mark Sisson has the popular and worthwhile Mark’s Daily Apple, though he is not a strict paleo. He is the author of The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy which has become the best selling paleo book.
  • Don Matesz has his Primal Wisdom blog. All of his posts are well researched. It is one of the few paleo diet blogs with interesting things you can learn. He is co-author of The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook which is excellent, if you cook. He also runs a Meetup Group in Phoenix, AZ. See his new article on Paleo Life Expectancy.
  • Methuselah uses his Pay Now, Live Later blog to recount his experiences eating and exercising paleo. He is best known for his videos. The best Paleo in a Nutshell Part 1: Food is worth watching. Part 2 is on exercise and Part 3 is on sunshine.
  • Stephan Guyenet, a Ph.D. in neurobiology who conducts bench research on body fat regulation, has Whole Health Source. He provides technical insight not often found in the blogs.
  • Loren Cordain in his blog The Paleo Diet mostly answers questions and promotes his products. His two books at Amazon.com: The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes are best selling paleo books.
  • Nell Stephenson's blog Nutrition & Fitness is mostly on preparing paleo foods, with some other paleo topics mixed in. She is a consultant in nutrition and fitness in the Los Angeles area. She lives the life of a Paleo endurance athlete, and practices what she preachs to the limit.
  • Kristy A. has the Feasting on Fitness blog. She is a paleo-afficionado that picks a topic and extensively researches it on the various paleo websites.
  • Sarah Fragoso has the everyday paleo blog. It is mostly recipes which are creative and very close to being paleo. Look for the egg cupcakes. She is writing a book that will include recipes as well as advice for paleo beginners and diehards alike.
• Jan Engvald has studied food and health thoroughly in the literature. In Unexpected facts on... food he shows that today’s health advice (more or less unchanged for more than 30 years) is a direct cause to the increase in national diseases like coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, adult-onset diabetes, allergy, eye diseases, etc. His findings are low-carb and high-fat, close to paleo, though he allows high fat dairy.
• Sweden’s Staffan Lindeberg has a home page Paleolithic Diet in Medical Nutrition. A recent study of Staffan’s has A Paleolithic diet improving glucose tolerance more than a Mediterranean-like diet in individuals with ischemic heart disease. Also see his first web page, an overview of his Kitava study: On the Benefits of Ancient Diets. Now he has a book Food and Western Disease: Health and nutrition from an evolutionary perspective. Here's a book review: Easy to Read, Informative, Packed with Footnotes on Studies.
• Tamir Katz MD’s Diet Information has a paleo orientation, though he doesn’t call it that. He has a knack of clearly and directly explaning things. Excellent for friends and relatives of paleo eaters who are wondering why you eat weirdly. He also sells the book TBK Fitness Program.
• Neanderthin (Paleo) eating is Vad’s page where he tries to sum up, super concentrated, what this whole thing is about. Includes menus, weight loss, and more.
• Vitamin D is the one supplement that would be paleo. At least it would be for those of us that don’t live outside year round. You can have your D level measured. The low RDAs only prevent definable deficiences, not problems that take a long time to develop. Michael Holick, MD is a leading writer on this subject. This is a 10 page PDF: Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis and its companion Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease [change PDF to 100% to read]. Or if you prefer, there is an hour video on YouTube.
• Regimen to promote neuroprotection and encourage nerve repair by Dr. Anthony G. Payne pushes the paleo diet. Especially see his links on turmeric.
• A diet high in phytic acid, which can be found in whole grains (it’s in the bran) and beans like soy, is very detrimental for mineral absorption. Phytic acid strongly binds to minerals like calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium to form insoluble salts, phytates, which precipitate from the body and are not absorbed. Staffan Lindeberg has written a summary on phytic acid.
• Two common foods clearly are Neolithic and avoiding them is key to a paleo diet. Here are link pages for avoiding them: Gluten-Free Page and No-Milk Page.
• Dr. Brett Hill, a chiropractor, has written a few paleo sympathetic articles. He’s a strong advocate of the Paleo Diet and has found it to be very effective for himself and his practice members/subscribers. His Is Milk Good For Us?.
• Optimal Diet is a dietary model of human nutrition devised and implemented by Dr. Jan Kwasniewski. Lots of fat and low in carbs. Lots and lots of articles collected from various places. He has an out-of-print book: Optimal Nutrition. The book is explained at the Australian Homo Optimus Association website. A thorough analysis is the first post here: Dr. Kwasniewski's Optimal Diet: Sanity, Clarity, Facts.
• Meet Your Inner Mole Rat is a summary of Wrangham’s hypothesis, which argues that humans became tuber eaters when we moved from the rain forest to the savanna.
• Lutein/Zeaxanthin and Macular Health is an article discussing antioxidents and protection against the oxidizing ultraviolet radiation of the sun. The best dietary sources of antioxidants in general, and carotenoids specifically, are fruits and vegetables ­ and the more brightly colored, the better. Lutein and zeaxanthin are yellow pigments found in high concentrations in yellow fruits and vegetables as well as in dark green, leafy vegetables. In particular, spinach, kale and collard greens contain high levels of these two carotenoids.
• JoAnn Betten of the PaleoFood mailing list and I have collected many recipes at PaleoFood.com. All have no grains, no gluten, no dairy, no beans/legumes, no refined sugar, or other Neolithic foods.
• Ashton Embry has an essay Paleolithic Nutrition. He’s a leading proponent for using dietary intervention to control MS.
• Chris Masterjohn has Cholesterol: Your Life Depends on It!, another web site pointing out that the war on cholesterol and the push to put people on statins is misguided. The site argues it is actually polyunsaturated fats, not saturated fats or cholesterol, that contribute to heart disease, cancer, liver damage, and aging.
• The Evolution of Human Nutrition by Barry Bogin is interesting reading which covers themes like homo erectus and up to date findings, and the relation to nutrition.
• In William Calvin’s The Ascent of Mind, Chapter 8 he discusses why he thinks that the Acheulian hand-ax (the oldest of the fancy stone tools of Homo erectus) was really a “killer frisbee.” He argues that natural selection for throwing accuracy, which requires brain machinery, is the evolutionary scenario for bootstrapping higher intellectual functions. There are many more articles about evolution and human development throughout William’s extensive site, though much of it these days is on climate change.
• Matt Emery has The Caveman Power Diet has you in stages go through a detox diet eating only paleo foods.
• Pemmican: Recipes, Stories and Stores is a link page with more on this than you've seen before.
• Lex Rooker has written The Pemmican Manual. It is the most complete description of making pemmican that I've seen.
• Lynne Olver at the Morris County Library has assembled The food timeline, which gives you the history of Neolithic foods. Includes paleo foods, like animal domestication and when some foods where first noted in the literature.
• Eating is an essay by Todd Moody.
• Dental Microwear Web Site is on the study of the microscopic scratches and pits that form on a tooth’s surface as the result of its use. See the page on references. Some are evidences of past diet.
• Factors that Inhibit Calcium Absorption is an article pointing out the non-paleo things we do, mostly food related, that are negative for calcium absorption.
• The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D. argues that too much animal fat being dangerous is a myth. This is a collection of essays, complete with the critical references. He has two books which are below in the book section.
• Dr. Joseph Mercola has an extensive web site on alternatives to traditional medicine. A hodge podge of different things. A small selection:
  • Low Grain Guide To Health has a few links that are relevant to paleo eating. At bottom take link to his Sugar Index Page.
  • Why Grassfed Animal Products Are Better For You.
  • Low Grain and Carbohydrate Diets Treat Hypoglycemia, Heart Disease, Diabetes Cancer and Nearly ALL Chronic Illness.
  • Caveman Cuisine by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD.
  • Coconut: In Support of Good Health in the 21st Century by Mary Enig is an address she gave to a Cocotech meeting. Long and gets into coconut oil’s competition. Many references at the end.
  • The Paleolithic Diet and Its Modern Implications is an interview with Loren Cordain, PhD done by Robert Crayhon, MS.
• There is ample evidence that grain consumption is behind many cancers. Here is a quick analysis of the connection.
• A comparison of Loren Cordain's Food Pyramid and the UDSA Pyramid.
• Jack Challem has written Alpha-Lipoic acid: Quite Possibly the “Universal” Antioxidant and meat is the best source.
• To Crack a Coconut tells how this is done in Thailand, without fancy tools, then gets into pressing milk, and some recipes.
• Cooking Clan of the Cave Bear Style! is a student experiment in boiling water in a skin pot over a fire (or not...)
• Aris Stathakis has a page How To Make Real South African Biltong - a traditional South African dried meat.
• Chet Day's website has Interview with Loren Cordain by Robert Crayhon and The Myths of Vegetarianism by Stephen Byrnes. It goes through many of the arguments that vegetarians use and explains why they are myths. A must read for all vegetarians.
• Blindness, Mad Cow Disease and Canola Oil by John Thomas points out the negatives of canola oil.
• The Venison Processing FAQ covers everything from choosing your target to recipes.
• What is the Paleolithic Diet? is Bob Hodgen’s basic summary. He had a story of his experiences on NeanderThin, but it is no longer on the web.
• Krispin Sullivan has written The Lectin Report. It explains the background on lectins and their connection to health problems. A good place to start to learn about these toxic proteins in Neolithic foods.
• Aquatic Ape Hypothesis The theory argues that humans evolved along the water’s edge, but such evidence is now covered by the oceans. Another explantion is here: Aquatic Ape Theory.
• Buried in the middle of The Revised Metabolic Oncolytic Regimen for Effecting Lysis in Solid Tumors one can find their diet recommendations for tumor control. It has a paleo diet orientation. Protein is 35%, preferably Omega 3 rich. Carbohydrates (also 35%) are only vegetables and fruit, no beans, bread, potatoes, or any grain. Then dietary and supplemental forms of fat should provide 20-30% of (daily) calories.
• PaleoTube is a site by Mario Antoci, a fellow into traditional bow making and primitive skills. It is a resource for videos, photos, events, Live Video Chat.
• EATING BUGS! is a summary page by Aletheia Price. She used to have the comprehensive eatbug.com.
• Weird & Different Recipes is a page by Bert Christensen that includes several insect recipes and other foods that a Paleolithic dieter may have eaten.
• Zachary Huang has put up his Zack’s Bug-Feasting Page. Mostly pictures of people eating giant silkworms and mealworms. Also see his other links.

Clicking on a thumbnail image will get you a larger image. To open a book in a new tab (easier for comparisons) hold down the Ctrl key when you click the link.

The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat is Loren Cordain’s first paleo book. This is the best selling book on the paleo diet. His publisher’s page. [Kindle edition available.]

The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel was the best selling paleo book, but now Cordain’s first is back on top.

The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy by Mark Sisson is a journey through human evolution, comparing the life and robust health of our hunter-gatherer ancestors with a day in the life of a modern family. The author offers a solution in 10 empowering Blueprint Lifestyle Laws: eat lots of plants and animals, avoid poisonous things, move frequently at a slow pace, lift heavy things, sprint once in a while, get adequate sleep, play, get adequate sunlight, avoid stupid mistakes, and use your brain. The reader learns how the right high-fat diet can actually help one lose weight and how popular low-fat, grain-based diets might trigger illness, disease, and lifelong weight gain. The author presents a comprehensive, well thought out paleo style eating plan in a humorous and organized manner. He backs up all his work with research, natural wisdom, and historical timelines. He disputes the role of dietary saturated fat in causation of arteriosclerosis, the role of cholesterol in promotion of heart disease, and the costly over-promotion of expensive, potentially toxic statin drugs. He criticizes our massive overeating of refined carbohydrates and urges avoidance of grains, cereals, bread and sugar. There is specific recommendation for “primal” food including more natural healthy fats and meats, fruits, veggies, and nuts. Some reviewers consider this to be the best of the various paleo books. The many Amazon reviews average to 5 stars. The author’s popular and worthwhile web site: Mark’s Daily Apple.

The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf, a research biochemist. Readers will understand digestion, how protein, carbohydrate and fat influence hormones, and how this plays into fat loss, health or disease. They’ll understand the significance of dietary fats whether the concern is performance, health, longevity, or making your fanny look good in a bikini. The book goes into how lifestyle factors such as sleep and stress influence the hormone cortisol. It gets into basic blood work and what things people should ask their doctor to include to better assess inflammation and health. It also includes a detailed 30-day meal plan and a beginner exercise program. The exercise program is geared to the beginner or someone who is quite de-conditioned but the nutritional info would be helpful for anyone regardless of background. The author’s website is Robb Wolf. He likes to pass out the information via weekly podcasts. Here’s a video Introduction to the book. To be published September 10, 2010.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan gives a guided tour of 20th century food science, a history of “nutritionism” in America and a look at the marriage of government and the food industry. Then the book presents a commonsense shopping-and-eating guide, which like the paleo diet focuses on shopping the perimeter of the supermarket. The Introduction in on the web. [Kindle edition available.] He also now has a much shorter Food Rules: An Eater's Manual.

Peter D'Adamo’s serotype diet book Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight is in sympathy with the paleo diet approach, at least if you are Type O. Buy at Amazon. [Kindle edition available.]

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes expounds on his 2002 article in the NY Times (What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?) and then in Science Magazine (see below). He shows how public health data has been misinterpreted to mark dietary fat and cholesterol as the primary causes of coronary heart disease. Deeper examination, he says, shows that heart disease and other diseases of civilization appear to result from increased consumption of refined carbohydrates: sugar, white flour and white rice. Or in other words, without using the word Paleolithic, he justifies the paleo diet. Here is an excellent chapter by chapter summary of the book. [Kindle edition available.]

Bruce Fife also has a newly revised The Coconut Oil Miracle. The book describes the therapeutic properties of coconut oil. It offers a nutrition plan with dozens of recipes. [Kindle edition available.]

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability by Lierre Keith is against industrial farming. She spent 20 years as a vegan, and now reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms. And as all the neolithic foods we avoid are produced on industrial farms, she is against the foods we avoid. Here's a well thought out review by Eric Wargo: Clubbing Vegetarians Over the Head With the Truth. [Kindle edition available.]

Sally Fallon and Mary Enig have a new Coconut Diet book called Eat Fat, Lose Fat: Lose Weight And Feel Great With The Delicious, Science-based Coconut Diet. [Kindle edition available.]

Nutrition & Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price’s book puts to rest a lot of myths about diet, dental, physical, and emotional health, and presents the strongest case for a super-nutritious Native (or Paleo) Diet. His book outlines the conditions/causes for exceptional health. A classic that was first published in 1938. The Soil and Health Library has a Book Review by Steve Solomon. If you don’t buy the book at least read the review. [Kindle edition available.] N.B. If you live in one of the countries where this book is now in the public domain, you can read it online. But not if you live in a country where it is still under copyright protection.

The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program by Kathleen DesMaisons. While this isn’t really a paleo book, it does point out issues with the foods we aren’t eating. The books claims the excessive processed sugar consumed is responsible for “mood swings, depression, fatigue, fuzzy thinking, PMS, impulsivity ... [and] unpredictable temper.” She says her research shows indulging in sugar highs should be treated much more seriously, akin to heroin or alcohol dependency, because sugar causes spikes in the neurotransmitters serotonin and beta-dopamine just like those drugs. [Kindle edition available.]

Diana Schwarzbein is another M.D. that has come to realize that low carb is what works. See reviews at The Schwarzbein Principle. The book is based on her work with insulin-resistant patients with Type II diabetes. She concludes that low-fat diets cause heart attacks, eating fat makes you lose body fat, and it’s important to eat high-cholesterol foods every day. [Kindle edition available.]

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham. This book argues that the ease of digestion and the added nutritional value available in cooked food was the key behind the explosion of human intelligence. (Cooking gelatinizes starch, denatures protein, and softens all foods, permitting more complete digestion and energy extraction. As a result, the food processing apparatus shrinks, freeing energy to support a larger brain.) He then suggests that cooking led to what eventually became marriage and the sexual division of labor. The two most helpful reviews at Amazon get into great detail. The reviews average to 4+ stars. [Kindle edition available.]

Primal Body-Primal Mind by Nora Gedgaudas advocates a diet that our paleo ancestors ate. Meat, lots of fat, and seasonal fruits and berries when available. Basically, sugar and starchy carbs are discouraged. You can download a chapter from the author’s site. She has a Primal Body – Primal Mind Radio weekly show on Voice of America. It started May 20, 2009, so there are many shows you can listen to.

Cereal Killer: The Unintended Consequences of the Low Fat Diet by Alan L. Watson. The book is in two parts: Part 1, the test of time, documents the unintended consequences of the low fat diet, describing how food pyramid schemes and sugary cereals are directly associated with insulin resistance, high blood sugar, and widespread diabetes. Part 2, life in the fat lane, combats decades of extreme fat-bashing by providing a definitive analysis of the value and wholesome nature of saturated fat and foods rich in cholesterol. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival recommends a very paleo-like diet, and they also make a good argument for electric lighting as a major contributor to modern health problems. It’s written in a very magazinish, overblown style, but the reasoning is overall sound. [Kindle edition available.]

Paleonutrition by Mark Q. Sutton, Kristin D. Sobolik, and Jill K. Gardner is the analysis of prehistoric human diets and the interpretation of dietary intake in relation to health and nutrition. This is a substantial text that combines background to paleonutrition, an extensive bibliography, a discussion on methods, and case studies. Published February 23, 2010.

Protein Power: The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate Way to Lose Weight, Feel Fit, and Boost Your Health--in Just Weeks! by Eades and Eades was a best seller for over a year. It uses many paleo arguments for their diet recommendations. All easy to understand. The hundreds and hundreds of reviews at Amazon average to 4+ stars. [Kindle edition available.]

The No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for Life by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Alison Rose Levy argues that the secret to lasting weight loss is to cut out starches, sweets and grains entirely. (Dieters on the maintenance program are allowed “healthy” grains-buckwheat, quinoa, etc.) [Kindle edition available.]

Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You by Uffe Ravnskov is a new book which includes updated and simplified sections from his previous one (The Cholesterol Myths). Ravnskov also presents his own idea about the cause of heart disease, an idea that explains all the findings that do not fit with the present view. It is a powerful book. The Amazon.com reviews average to 5 stars.

The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick reveals that high cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease; that high-fat diets–saturated or otherwise–do not affect blood cholesterol levels; and that for most men and all women the benefits offered by statins are negligible at best. Other data is also provided that shows that statins have many more side affects than is often acknowledged.

The Carnitine Miracle by Robert Crayhon, M.S. The nutrient carnitine is abundant in red meat. According to Crayhon carnitine helps balance blood lipids and blood sugar levels, maximizes energy levels, increases endurance, eliminates discomfort in ketosis, promotes burning of fat and building of muscle and increases overall well-being. See reviews at Amazon.

Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life by Christian B. Allan, Wolfgang Lutz. It is based on Dr. Lutz’s work with thousands of patients in Austria. It deals with the health issues connected to high carb consumption. It is basically an English version and update of Dr. Lutz’s 1967 book with the same title: Leben ohne Brot. He recommends eating only 72 grams of carbohydrates, and an unlimited amount of fat. And provides evidence as to why this is the healthiest diet. Read the review at Amazon by Todd Moody (it will be first!). See excerpts from his earlier edition: Dismantling a Myth: The Role of Fat and Carbohydrates in our Diet

Going Against the Grain: How Reducing and Avoiding Grains Can Revitalize Your Health by Melissa Diane Smith deals with a much broader range of health problems associated with grains and one Amazon reviewer argues is better than the Mercola book. [Kindle edition available.]

Deadly Harvest: The Intimate Relationship Between Our Health and Our Food by Geoff Bond. The author is a nutritional anthropologist who has for years investigated both foods of the past and our prehistoric eating habits. Using the latest scientific research and studies of primitive tribal lifestyles, Bond first explains the actual diet that our ancestors followed--a diet that was and still is in harmony with the human species. He then describes how the foods in today's diets disrupt our biochemistry and digestive system, leading to health disorders such as allergies, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, and more. Most important, he explains the appropriate measures we can take to avoid these diseases--and even beat them back--through healthy eating. The conclusions of Deadly Harvest are that disease control happens by eating a strict low-glycemic diet, lowering the percentage of body fat you carry around, eat a diet consisting of mostly non-starchy plant-based foods, eat a low-fat diet with ample amounts of omega-3 fats, maintain good colon health, engage in regular physical activity, get some daily sunshine, and reduce chronic stress. If you do this, then diseases like cancer, heart disease, digestive problems, allergies, autoimmune diseases, brain diseases, diabetes, and obesity can be avoided. The Amazon reviews average to 5 stars.

Dangerous Grains by James Braly and Ron Hoggan is the most comprehensive book ever written about the effects of gluten containing grains on the body. Includes a list of almost 200 diseases at the back of the book. [Kindle edition available.]

Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol by Mary G. Enig presents a thorough, in-depth, and understandable look at the world of lipids. There are several very thorough Amazon reviews, especially the review by Stephen Byrnes. The numerous Amazon ratings average to 4+ stars.

Trick And Treat - how 'healthy eating' is making us ill by Barry Groves. The author is one of the world’s most outspoken proponents of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. This book is an account of how and why the health-care establishment has got the concept of 'healthy eating' so wrong. Whereas Taubes work (see above) is a fairly straight forward review of the existing science, Groves expands into the politics of medical research and treatment to a much greater extent. “Trick and Treat” is divided into two parts. Part One describes the corruption in the health industry, points out the problems inherent in a high-carb, low-fat diet, and then prescribes a diet that leads to good health. The prescribed diet is high in fat - specifically animal fat, not polyunsaturated vegetable fat - and low in carbohydrates, with 60-70% of calories from fat, 15-25% of calories from protein, and a mere 10-15% of calories from carbohydrates. Part Two describes numerous diseases the author claims are the result of high carbohydrate consumption. These range from life-threatening disorders such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer to less serious problems such as acne, near-sightedness and dental problems. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

The Evolution Diet: What and How We Were Designed to Eat, Second Edition by Joseph Morse. This book is a cop-out version of the Paleolithic Diet. He recommends eating wheat products and grains and beans, which are not paleo. [Kindle edition available.]

The Evolution Diet: All-Natural and Allergy Free by Joseph SB Morse. Included in this edition is a detailed section on the most common food allergies and intolerances: dairy, egg, peanut, seafood, shellfish, soy, tree nut, and wheat (including celiac). [Kindle edition available.]

The Great Cholesterol Con by Anthony Colpo. The definitive book on the non-dangers of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat was The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, 2000. This book is six years newer. Its forward is by Uffe Ravnskov. To get a wonderful description of the book read the leading review at Amazon. The many reviews there average to 5 stars.

Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition by Francis Marion Pottenger, Jr. MD is a classic in the science of nutrition. Dr. Pottenger discovered that cats degenerated unless they were fed raw food.

Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio gets laudatory reviews at Amazon.

Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable by Peter S. Ungar. Diet is key to understanding the ecology and evolution of our distant ancestors and their kin, the early hominins. A study of the range of foods eaten by our progenitors underscores just how unhealthy many of our diets are today. This volume brings together authorities from disparate fields to offer new insights into the diets of our ancestors. Paleontologists, archaeologists, primatologists, nutritionists and other researchers all contribute pieces to the puzzle. The book has four sections: Reconstructed diets based on hominin fossils--tooth size, shape, structure, wear, and chemistry, mandibular biomechanics. Archaeological evidence of subsistence--stone tools and modified bones. Models of early hominin diets based on the diets of living primates--both human and non-human, paleoecology, and energetics. Nutritional analyses and their implications for evolutionary medicine. [Kindle edition available.]

Food and Western Disease: Health and nutrition from an evolutionary perspective by Staffan Lindeberg (MD at Lund University in Sweden) is the newest book promoting the paleo diet. It covers the link between diet and disease in the Western world (all major diseases, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, stroke and dementia) and towards a greater knowledge of what can be defined as the optimal human diet. Benefits and risks are detailed. The Amazon reviews are all 5 stars. Especially read Susan Schenck's detailed review. You can read a preview at Google Books

TBK Fitness Program by Tamir Katz shows how to achieve fitness through a healthy, natural hunter-gatherer diet along with a comprehensive exercise program with over 60 different bodyweight exercises of varying difficulty targeting all of the muscles in the body. Also included is a detailed discussion of nutrition and the diseases of civilization based on scientific research, information on stress management and preventive medicine, recommendations on vitamin and supplement use, tips on how to make your fitness program succeed where others have failed, tips on food shopping and preparation, sample meals, and more. The author’s page is TBK Fitness. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

The Cambridge World History of Food encapsulates much of what is known of food and nutrition throughout the span of human life on earth. Selected chapters are online. You can buy from Amazon for a lot less than that site, but still high.

Health Secrets of the Stone Age, Second Edition by Philip J. Goscienski MD. He suggests getting some exercise, eating more fruit and veggies, and cutting way back on the sugars/refined carbs. He suggests a Mediterranean diet and lifestyle that has grains at the bottom of its food pyramid. He uses the research of Alan Keys, research that was discredited by Gary Taubes in his much better and more scientifically researched book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”.

Paul Burke's Neo-Dieter's Handbook: When We Lost Our Nutritional Roots; Where to Find These Foods Today by Paul Burke M. Ed. The book focuses on nutrition, the right nutrition to enhance health, exercise, weight training, and fitness. The diet consists of lean protein, vegetables, nuts, and fruit. He is opposed to grains. He wants you to stay away from grain-fed meat. The single review at Amazon.com gives the book 5 stars. Published August 21, 2009.

Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution edited by Peter S. Ungar & Mark F. Teaford. This volume brings together experts in human and primate ecology, paleontology, and evolutionary medicine. Authors offer their unique perspectives on the evolution of the human diet and the implications of recent changes in diet for health and nutrition today. [Kindle edition available.]

Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples (Expanded Edition) by Don R. Brothwell and Patricia Brothwell is a survey of what is known archaeologically about food and drink in pre-modern times. The chapter on insects includes their food value. In beverages it covers what happens to a neglected jar of fruit juice. Under cannibalism it shows evidence of this being done in paleo times, thought most of the work focuses on the classical and near-eastern civilizations, but occasional mention is made of the mesoamerican cultures as well. There is taxonomic and anatomical information.

The Prehistoric Diet: For the Modern Man and Woman by J. Alexander. A story of how the author journeyed from a chubby, unhappy, and unaccepted child to a lean, healthy man through conscious eating of good, natural, unadulterated food. He shares recipes, nutritional information, and information on what foods to avoid. It is unknown how authentic his diet recommendations are. Published November 25, 2009.

Meat-Eating and Human Evolution (Human Evolution Series) is a an expensive book that address the questions surrounding when, how, and why early humans began to eat meat. See and read the sample pages. [Kindle edition available.]

Survival of the Fittest: The Darwinian Diet and Exercise Program by Del Thiessen providing nutritional and activity strategies. Notes our “Stone-Age” relatives were free of the most common diseases of civilization.

Starch Madness: Paleolithic Nutrition for Today by Richard L. Heinrich. Has a foreword by Barry Sears of Zone fame. For Publishers Weekly and author’s review see Amazon.

Evolutionary Aspects of Nutrition and Health: Diet, Exercise, Genetics and Chronic Diseases is a compilation of articles showing how humanity’s genetic makeup has been directly influenced by nutritional selective pressures and how our present day diet may be discordant with our stone age genome. The book is rather expensive, but the description on the page is worth reading. One section is now entirely online! See Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double-Edged Sword by Loren Cordain. Can buy at Amazon.

The following books are not shipped by Amazon:

NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body (Hardcover) by Ray Audette, with Troy Gilchrist, was one of the early paleo diet authors. His home page NeanderThin [now restored from archive.org] has a diet based on the ideas of paleolithic nutrition. The diet can be followed as a low-carb, moderate or high carb diet, depending upon whether and how much fruit is used. This edition is the one most easily obtained.

NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body (Mass Market Paperback) by Ray Audette was the last one printed, but the hard cover (listed above) is cheaper on the used market. You can read much of the book at Google Books. [The webmaster has an extra copy with the author's signature for sale. It has the original lime-purple cover. Pristine new condition. $75 (shipping included). Paypal only. Use e-mail link at page bottom.]

NeanderThin: A Caveman’s Guide to Nutrition (Paperback) by Ray Audette. This first edition was self-published.

The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, is a much expanded version of his web site. See reviews at Amazon. But better is his newer and updated one: Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You.

The Dietary Cure for Acne by Loren Cordain PH.D. describes how acne happens and then shows the relationship between the food we eat and acne. The diet is paleo-like and very strict. Many reviews rave about their success and the Amazon.com reviews average to 5 stars.

We Want to Live: The Primal Diet (2005 Expanded Edition) is a book by Aajonus Vonderplanitz. His basic philosophy is that (a) food is to be eaten in a live, raw condition; and (b) a diet rich in raw fats and raw meats from natural sources is essential to health. However his diet includes massive amounts of raw dairy. From the Planets is a book review by Ralph W. Moss. The Live-Food Mailing List discusses the concepts of this book.

The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet & Exercise and a Design for Living by S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., Marjorie Shostak and Melvin Konner. This book, published in 1988, was the start of the Paleolithic diet movement. Its recommendations are not in line with what today is considered a paleo diet, as whole grain breads and pastas, legumes and some low fat dairy products are allowed. However, it is still a profoundly important book. Used books are available for a reasonable price.

Saturated Fat May Save Your Life by Bruce Fife logically shows why saturated fat is essential for good health. At the same time, the dangers of using polyunsaturated fats (so popular today) are revealed through the descriptions of what actually happens to these fats inside our bodies.

The Origin Diet: How Eating Like Our Stone Age Ancestors Will Maximize Your Health by Elizabeth Somer. I included this here so I could warn you that this isn’t really a paleo diet. She pushes beans and whole grains throughout the book, claiming they are paleo. See how much you can buy one for as an indication of what others think of this book.

Charles Hunt’s Diet Evolution by Charles Hunt is not truly a paleo diet, but more of a low-carb diet. It’s subtitle is “Eat Fat and Get Fit.” The author is PR oriented and studied up on the web, interviewed some experts, then wrote the book. Now out-of-print and has a tiny used price.

Nutrition and Evolution by Michael Crawford and David Marsh explains how diet may have shaped evolution. Heavy reading. See reviews at Amazon.

Cancer: disease of civilization? An anthropological and historical study by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. This classic shows what happens before and after tribes were “civilized.” Covers day-to-day experience of Eskimo life. Published in 1960. Used copies are available at a steep price. To read it get it on inter-library loan. Another of his many books My Life with the Eskimo (New Edition) is available.

The Stone Age Diet: Based on in-depth studies of human ecology and the diet of man was written and self-published by Walter L. Voegtlin back in 1975. It is out-of-print and inter-library loan is about the only way you will find a copy (unless someone convinces his descendants in the Seattle area to make it available as a print on demand book). However, we have put up his Functional and Structural Comparison of Man’s Digestive Tract with that of a Dog and Sheep.

The Primal Blueprint Cookbook: Primal, Low Carb, Paleo, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free by Mark Sisson and Jennifer Meier.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrat by Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. and Sally Fallon. The premise is the culinary traditions of our ancestors, and the food choices and preparation techniques of healthy nonindustrialized peoples, should serve as the model for contemporary eating habits. However, they push whole grains and dairy, which aren’t Paleolithic. [Kindle edition available.]

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz. The author lives a “Wild” life-style, a strange mix of homosexual, hippie and Amish. His lifestyle choices are expressed throughout the entire book. The book explains to others how to take advantage of natural fermentation processes to produce bread, yogurt, cheese, beer, wine, miso, sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented foods. Most are not paleo, but he does have recipes for cider that don’t add sugar and are very low-tech. Includes some interesting nutritional and historical information. He also gives recipes for some things not found in Sally Fallon’s book. (Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions contains information about all types of food preparation, including fermentation.) The author's website. [Kindle edition available.]

Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook is the classic dehydrating cookbook. Mary has spent more than twenty years traveling around the country demonstrating food dehydrators and food drying techniques.

Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore by Jennifer Mclagan glorifies marrow. It has sections for all the usual animals that we eat. All types of cooking are represented. The Amazon.com reviews average to 5 stars.

How to Dry Foods by Deanna Delong. A kitchen favorite for more than two decades-revised and expanded. A step-by-step guide to drying all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts is also the most comprehensive reference available for methods of drying and home dehydrating equipment. Includes more than 100 recipes. (2006 edition) [Kindle edition available.]

Virgin Coconut Oil: How It Has Changed People's Lives, and How It Can Change Yours! by Brian and Marianita Shilhavy. The book contains over 100 testimonies to the healing properties of Virgin Coconut Oil, and also contains over 75 recipes showing you how to incorporate Virgin Coconut Oil into your diet. The most practical book written on the health benefits of coconut oil. See Recipe Index. The reviews average to 4+ stars at Amazon.

Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat by Stanley A. Fishman shows you how to prepare grassfed meat so it comes out tender and delicious every time. Includes beef, bison, and lamb. You can also find this at Grassland Beef.

The Amazing Coconut: a fun guide to harvesting, opening, eating and drinking this miracle (Volume 1) by Dave Elberg. The book answers all your basic questions about coconut water, milk, meat and oil. Why it is good for you, where to find it, how to use it in the kitchen and more. It even teaches how to climb the palms and harvest the nuts. It is filled with beautiful color pictures and loads of facts about coconuts. All reviews are 5 stars. Published November 27, 2009.

The following books are not shipped by Amazon:

The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Matesz and Don Matesz presents evidence for a diet of vegetables, fruits, and pasture-fed animal products. Provides a practical plan and 250 delicious, family-friendly, grain- and dairy-free recipes. The author’s page The Garden of Eating and blog The Healthy Cooking Coach. The cookbook maintains a perfect rating at Amazon.

• Matt Metzgar wrote a free PDF web book The Stone Age Power on diet and exercise from an evolutionary perspective. Also see his blog Musings on Big Ideas, Health, and Other Topics.
• Diet Prevents Polio by Dr Sandler is a web site on a 50 year old book where he argues that low blood sugar, due to a high carb diet, makes one susceptible to polio, and other viruses and disease. He did research showing that a meat based diet, very low carb, keeps blood sugar stable.
• From September to December, 1997, Robert McFerran posted draft chapters of his book, Arthritis - Searching for the Truth - Searching for the Cure, to the Ask Dr Stoll Bulletin Board. Includes his view of human history and its relationship to dietary needs.
• For many years Arthur De Vany Ph.D. has been writing a book called Evolutionary Fitness on “What Evolution Teaches Us About How to Live and Stay Healthy.” The diet he follows fits into my core diet definition. He may have been the first one to use the paleo diet to maximize fitness. His current site is Art's Blog on Fitness, Health, Aging, Nutrition and Exercise.
• Online books on the Post-Paleo Hunza people: The Wheel of Health by G.T. Wrench, M.D. And with more effort: High Road to Hunza by Barbara Mons. The Healthy Hunzas by J.I. Rodale.
• Ian Tattersall has written Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness. In Chapter One at the beginning their is a discussion of the diet about 40 kyr ago.
• Nikki Young has Paleo Cookbooks where she sells two Paleo Cookbooks (plus bonus recipes) for instant download. Not cheap, with 50% of the price paid as a commission. Here's a neat marketing video they created The Paleo Diet - Explained.

When out hunting and gathering our paleo ancestors would have been barefooted. They would have been walking on dirt and stone. There are two lines of barefoot shoes. The more popular, but much more radical, are Vibram’s FiveFingers. To open a shoe in a new tab (for comparisons) hold down the Ctrl key when you click the link. In order by rank at Amazon.

Men’s Vibram FiveFingers:

When you’re scrambling up a rocky bluff or bounding along a riverbank, the last thing you want is gravel and grit seeping into your FiveFingers. The Vibram FiveFingers KSO is an all-new design with thin, abrasion-resistant stretch polyamide and breathable stretch mesh that wraps your entire forefoot to "Keep Stuff Out." A single hook-and-loop closure helps secure the fit. Non-marking Vibram TC1 performance rubber soles are razor-siped for a sure grip. KSO IS BEST FOR: Light Trekking, Climbing, Canyoneering, Running, Fitness Training, Martial Arts, Yoga, Pilates, Sailing, Boating, Kayaking, Canoeing, Surfing, Flats Fishing, Travel. Available in Black or Grey/Palm/Clay.

The Vibram FiveFingers Classic is a patented design that takes a minimalist approach to barefooting. Non-marking Vibram TC1 performance rubber soles protect your feet and provide a sure grip over a variety of terrain. A thin, abrasion-resistant stretch polyamide fabric fits low on the foot-for comfort and quick drying. CLASSIC IS BEST FOR: Running, Fitness Training, Martial Arts, Yoga, Pilates, Travel.

The Mens Vibram Fivefingers KSO Trek is a more rugged version of the popular KSO. Made from K-100 high performance kangaroo leather, the KSO Trek boasts extreme strength for excellent durability; amazing breathability; perspiration resistance to prevent sweat damage and prolong shoe life; and features MicrobloK anti-microbial treatment. These Vibram shoes are made for rugged outdoor use, providing grip and traction over a variety of surfaces. Additionally, the individual toe pockets separate and strengthen toes to improve balance, agility, and range of motion; while the thin EVA midsole and Vibram Performance rubber outsole allows your feet to move the way nature intended. The Mens Vibram FiveFingers KSO Trek Shoes are perfect for light trekking, trail running, fitness walking, and travel.

Women’s Vibram FiveFingers:

The Vibram Five Fingers KSO remains among our most versatile styles for women. Featuring a thin, abrasion-resistant stretch nylon and breathable mesh upper that wraps your entire forefoot to "Keep Stuff Out." A single hook-and-loop closure helps secure the fit. A non-marking 3.5mm Vibram TC1 performance rubber outsole is razor-siped for a sure grip, and a 2mm EVA midsole enhances plating protection and comfort. Available in Black or Grey/Palm/Clay.

Vibram FiveFingers Sprint. Release your feet from the constriction of shoes and stimulate your feet muscles and joints Kangaroo skin uppers hug your soles and deflect trail debris Vibram TC-1 performance rubber improves grip and shock absorption without hindering feel. Anti-microbial microfiber insert reduces biotic growth and keeps your feet dry When you get these, go easy! You’ve been wearing shoes for a LONG time and your feet and calves aren’t used to working this hard Stick with it, girlfriend! You’ll be surprised! Upper: kangaroo leather. Outsole: Vibram TC-1 performance rubber

The Vibram Fivefingers Performance was designed to enhance that barefoot feeling. The kangaroo leather upper is soft against the bare foot, yet strong and tear resistant, with outstanding breathability. The 7-part Vibram rubber sole offers maximum feel and fexibility without sacrifcing slip resistance. The Performance was designed primarily for indoor use during fitness training, Cross Fit, and for after sport. The sole is not designed for extended use during outdoor activities like trekking, running, or water sports.

The Vibram Five Fingers KSO Trek is a more rugged version of our popular KSO. The kangaroo leather upper and sock liner feels soft against the foot, yet is strong and tear resistant, with outstanding breathability. A 4mm EVA midsole offers plating protection from stone bruising, and a lightly cleated 4mm Vibram performance rubber outsole delivers improved traction on trails and over more rugged terrain. KSO TREK IS BEST FOR: Light Trekking, Trail Running, & Travel.

Terra Plana VivoBarefoot

The line of VivoBarefoot shoes from Terra Plana have a design based on the simple principle that being barefoot is the healthiest way for you and your feet to be. An ultra thin (3mm) puncture resistant sole allows your feet to be as millions of years of evolutionary design intended Barefoot! There are several styles with each in many colors. Plus many more styles that are not carried by Amazon.com

The EVO is designed to be the ultimate minimalist running shoe. The TPU Cage has breathable mesh and lightweight micro fiber reinforcements for maximum breathability and support while only weighing in at 7 ounces. The updated slim line VivoBarefoot shape and new ultra thin (4mm) soft rubber sole give maximum barefoot performance and response. The EVO is like running barefoot, but a little bit better. 100% Vegan. In order by bestselling rank at Amazon.com.

Men’s Black

Men’s Yellow

Women’s Blue

Women’s Pink

Women’s Black

Women’s Yellow

Women’s:

The Odette is a classic ballet flat with an elasticated back for a secure fit. The style is appropriate for work yet casual enough for trips to yoga or running errands. This style is the most feminine style within the ladies collection.

Casual and trendy, the Yukam offers all the comfort of a sporty slip-on and more! Designed to become your best friend in any situation. You could be running for your yoga class or strolling through the park. Either way you will benefit from a real barefoot sensation.

The Compton is a knee high winter wellie with all the benefits of Vivobarefoot!! Featuring top quality leather and easy fit zipper.

Womad. Sleek winter ankle boot, enjoy all the benefits of VivoBarefoot with added winter warmth.

• The Paleo Diet is Loren Cordain’s site. It promotes his book and also includes, for free download, PDF files of all of his scientific articles on Paleo Diet. You should also subscribe to his weekly mailing list. Buried underneath all the selling are some Definition of Terms:

  Paleolithic Diet Paleo Diet Paleolithic Nutrition Caveman Diet

  Paleo Paleodiet Hunter Gatherer The Paleo Diet

  Loren Cordain, Ph.D. The Paleo Diet for Athletes Low Carb Diet - High in Protein (compared to S.A.D.)

• Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains? by Elizabeth Pennisi discusses the Wrangham hypothesis, which argues that our ancestors have been cooking food for 1.9 million years, and that plant foods did play a key role, especially in the form of roots and tubers, and especially cooked.
• Cooking up quite a story: Ape, human theory causes evolutionary indigestion is an article by William J. Cromie discussing the controversy over how long humans have been cooking.
• Origins and Evolution of Human Diet is an academic web site devoted to discussion of evolution and the human diet. Especially don’t miss the articles on the conferences link! And in them especially see Boyd Eaton’s Evolution, Diet and Health which argues that current w-6 : w-3 imbalance together with absolute dietary DHA intake quite low in human evolutionary perspective may be relevant to the frequency of unipolar depression.
• Hunters and Gatherers Anthropology is a course taught by Raymond Hames at U. of Nebraska. Includes lecture notes on the book The Foraging Spectrum which outlines the important research issues, theory, and problems in hunter-gatherer research. His site has many other sub-pages that shouldn’t be missed.
• How to Carve an Elephant is a chapter in Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology by Kathy D. Schick and Nicholas Toth (1993). A cute writeup on some archaeologists that showed that a dead elephant can be carved up using the simple tools that were available 1.5 - 1.9 million years ago.
• Prehistoric Diet and Nutrition is a class at Indiana U. taught by Jeanne Sept, Professor of Anthropology.
• Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets. by Cordain et. al. is an abstract of an analysis showing that whenever and wherever it was ecologically possible, hunter-gatherers consumed high amounts (45-65% of energy) of animal food.
• From the Neolithic Revolution to Gluten Intolerance: Benefits and Problems Associated with the Cultivation of Wheat, by Luigi Greco, Department of Pediatrics, U. of Naples. A history of gluten intolerance and why it is so common.
• Underwater storage techniques preserved meat for early hunters demonstrates how PaleoIndians living in the Great Lakes region at the end of the last Ice Age preserved meat from large animal kills by storing it underwater.
• Do dietary lectins cause disease? is an editorial in the British Medical Journal which suggests that lectins, which are high in cereals, potatoes, and beans, may be behind some autoimmune diseases. Free registration now required to read the article.
• You Are What You Eat: New Theories About Rheumatoid Arthritis is a news report about an article in the British Journal of Nutrition. The authors argue that their theory implicating diet needs more research.
• The Southern Greek Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Sequence at Franchthi is a cave where the deposits revealed what the occupants ate over the years.
• Fattening cattle with corn changes the lipid balance and is clearly not the natural diet for a grass eating cow. In Simple change in cattle diets could cut E. coli infection researchers have found that when cattle were fed hay or grass for just five days before slaughter, much less E. Coli cells were present in the animal’s feces and virtually all surviving E. coli bacteria were not acid-resistant and were killed by human stomach acid.
• A Hunter-Gatherer Bibliography compiled by students of James W. Helmer Department of Archaeology, U. of Calgary.
• 'First farmers' with no taste for grain is an article by Mike Richards on the use of meat in ancient British Isles diets. The suggestion is that the Brits were depending primarily on meat for their nutritition up to around 2000 B.C.
• 'Man the Hunter' returns at Boxgrove. Mark Roberts, the Director of the Boxgrove Project, provides evidence that the hominids of the Lower Palaeolithic period did hunt their meat.
• In sorrow shalt thou eat all thy days Peter Rowley-Conwy, Archaeology at the University of Durham, argues that many hunter-gatherers never wanted to farm.
• No carefree life for Mesolithic people. Hunter-gatherers worked much harder for their living than has previously been thought, writes Rob Young.
• Neanderthal bone chemistry provides food for thought. Using bone-chemistry analyses, a team determined the Neandertals must have feasted on meat. Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes is the full text of the article.
• Kristin D. Sobolik is Professor of Anthropology and Quaternary Studies at U. of Maine. She has a home page which did list her publications, many of which are on prehistoric diets. However the site was reorganized and they disappeared. E-mail her.
• Blueberries May Restore Some Memory, Coordination and Balance Lost with Age is a study from Tufts U. which found that blueberries make rats feel young again.
• Human Skeletons and Society in Prehistoric Italy basically shows how various ills increased in the Neolithic age. The best parts are the graphs showing the disorders they found and how they increased as the food become more away from a Paleolithic diet. This is the link to infectious disease and childhood stress. [now in archive.org]
• An abstract: Reducing the serum cholesterol level with a diet high in animal fat. by Newbold HL.
• Hunter/gatherers often eat grubs. Entomologists at the Iowa State University have created some Tasty Insect Recipes, and insects can be bought via internet. Also see Nutritional Value of Various Insects per 100 grams.
• The Food Insects Newsletter site includes selected on-line articles from back issues. Probably more paleo than most people can handle.
• Bugfood! is by the U. of Kentucky Department of Entomology. Discusses insects as food and insect snacks from around the world.

• Metabolic and physiologic improvements from consuming a Paleolithic, hunter-gatherer type diet is one of the few studies to have been done on the diet. The study time was short, but all participants improved dramatically when on the diet.
• A High Fat, Low Carbohydrate Diet Improves Alzheimer’s Disease In Mice reports on a study that showed that a brain protein, amyloid-beta, which is an indicator of Alzheimer’s disease, is reduced in mice on the so-called ketogenic diet.
• The Free Republic has a post on Caveman Diet to Stay Healthy which argues our current diet is causing the diseases of civilization. Plenty of useless comments follow.
• “Drink At Least 8 Glasses Of Water A Day” -- Really? points out that there is no scientific proof that we need to force ourselves to drink a lot of water, and that it is just an urban myth.
• Processed Carbs = Breast Cancer? reports on a study finds that women who ate the most carbs had twice the risk of breast cancer compared to women who ate the least amount.
• Old Bones Hint At Fatal Neanderthal Flaw has quote: Vegetables and fruits played little role in the diets of Neanderthals and early modern humans, he said. “They were eating some (vegetables and fruits), but it was not enough to show up in their bone chemistry,” Richards said.
• Against the grain is mainly a review of the Dangerous Grains book, with digressions into other evidence that anti-gliadin antibodies cause numerous non-intestinal problems.
• Enduring Questions - Should You Be Eating Like The Cavemen? is an introduction by Amby Burfoot in Runner’s World.
• Better Beef is an introductory article on the health benefits of grass-fed beef.
• The Diet Wars has an introduction to the caveman diet as one of the four competing diets covered.
• The Soft Science of Dietary Fat is a summary of an article in Science Magazine reporting that mainstream nutritional science has demonized dietary fat, yet 50 years and hundreds of millions of dollars of research have failed to prove that eating a low-fat diet will help you live longer. In fact, there are good reasons to believe high-carbohydrate diets may be even worse than high-fat diets. Here is the text from the original article by Gary Taubes.
• The NY Times had a blog article on Good News on Saturated Fat which is reporting on Gary Taubes’s interpretation of the new report in The New England Journal of Medicine on a two-year diet experiment in Israel. A followup is the post The Fat Fight Goes On where Gary rebuts the arguments against the study. And here’s a good interview with Taubes (and includes a good summary): Gary Taubes on Cold Fusion, Good Nutrition and What Makes Bad (and Good) Science.
• The blowout diet: fast all day, feast at night reports on a study that finds an intermittent feeding schedule produces similar benefits as a semi-starvation diet.
• New road reveals Stone Age site which may provide evidence of fire in the British Isles back between 250,000 and 300,000 years ago.
• Meat eating is an old human habit reports on an analysis of our ancestor’s teeth that shows we became meat eaters 2.5 million years ago.
• Neanderthals' strong-arm tactics revealed discusses whether they threw spears or just used them to stab animals.
• Vilhjalmur Stefansson spent many years as an Eskimo among Eskimos. After a year experiment eating only meat at Bellevue Hospital, he wrote about his experiment and his years as an Eskimo in Adventures in Diet, a three part series Harper’s Monthly Magazine, November 1935 - January 1936.
• Food for Thought: Dietary change was a driving force in human evolution is an article in Scientific American that discusses our evolution in the context of diet.
• In prehistoric cave, scientists use computers as their guide lists off the diet of some middle Paleolithic era cave dwellers in Northern Israel.
• In Bread blamed for short sight Jennie Brand Miller links the dramatic increase in myopia in developed countries on childhood over-consumption of bread.
• Meat Eating More Healthy in Prehistoric Times discusses the healthier fats in wild meat. Loren Cordain’s team compared the muscle, brain, bone marrow and fat of wild animals with those of cattle.
• Neanderthals Were As Smart As Us reports on new research that reveals that Neanderthals were not dumb, but had the technical and intellectual skills to put them on an equal basis with modern humans.
• Cave men diets offer insights to today’s health problems, study shows. But, you have to eat wild meat, which has a healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.
• High 'Good' Cholesterol Level Lowers Stroke Risk is a news report highlighting that high HDL is the only indicator of lower stroke risk. However, it fails to mention that a low-carb diet is the only diet that increases HDL.
• Fishy clue to rise of humans reports that by studying the chemicals that remained in the bones of the earliest modern humans, scientists discovered that their diet, included fish and fowl as well as large mammals. The Neanderthals, on the other hand, only ate large mammals, which became extinct.
• Coconut oil promises to be anti-viral agent reports on trials that have confirmed that coconut oil has an anti-viral effect that reduces the viral level in HIV-AIDS patients to undetectable levels.
• Homocysteine A Possible Risk Factor For Alzheimer’s discusses an association between Alzheimer’s disease and moderately-elevated blood levels of the amino acid, homocysteine. Homocysteine levels can be reduced by consumption of foods with folic acid and vitamin B12, i.e. greens and meat.
• Diabetics Improve Health With Very High-Fat, Low Carb Diet discusses a successful study.
• Scientific American has Early Humans Had Woodworking Technology reports on finding evidence that humans produced wood tools, possibly spears, 1.5 million years ago. This is a million years earlier than previously believed. And Early Humans Ate Termites reports that ancient hominids had a taste for termites.
• Harvard Magazine on Paleolithic Fast Food. By excavating a cave they found that animals that move slower were eaten in the past and in later years ones that move faster were eaten.
• The discovery of fire speculates that man controlled fire 1.6 million years ago. Circumstantial evidence also suggests that they were cooking their food. (This is a version of the article in New Scientist by John McCrone, May 2000.)
• Insulin-Like Compound Predicts Stroke Risk states that insulin resistance (which is usually caused by excessive carb intake, meaning that caused by normal intake of grains and sugar) is a predictor (i.e. indicates increase risk) of strokes.
• Go back to stone-age diet, says health professor is an interview with Loren Cordain.
• New Human Ancestor? Two and a half million years ago a humanlike creature in what is now Ethiopia raised a stone and smashed it down on an antelope bone to get at the marrow and fat inside. This is the earliest known evidence of a stone tool used to butcher an animal.
• New Species Of Human Ancestor. A more detailed version than the ABC News one. They also ate catfish and horse. Note the bit about “high fat meat”!
• Fossil find may be 'missing link'. A third page on 2.5 million year old fossil find in Ethiopia.
• Olive oil 'reduces cancer risk' claims that using olive oil in cooking may prevent the development of bowel cancer.
• A taste for meat argues that our ancestors three million years ago ate a lot of small mammals that could be caught without tools.
• The Caveman Diet is the CBS story on 48 hours where they featured Ray Audette and the paleo diet. Focuses on weight loss.
• In What the Hominid Ate by analyzing carbon atoms in tooth enamel researchers challenge the widely held belief that these 3 million year ago homnoids ate little more than fruits and leaves. [now in archive.org]
• Eating Like a Caveman is a page written by Kathleen Doheny. She gives an overview of the paleo diet, then tells of her experience of trying it for a day. Includes this quote by Loren Cordain “If it’s a fad, it’s the oldest fad going.”

• Of course Wikipedia has a page on the Paleolithic Diet. It is quite thorough. It also isn’t clear about the lean/fatty meat debate between the followers of Loren Cordain and a slew of others, and pushes lean meat. It is weak on the variations of the diet. Then it restricts fermented beverages. Even butterflies eat fermented fruit. Why wouldn’t our paleo ancestors also?
• The Vitamin D Council starts off their site with Understanding Vitamin D Cholecalciferol. The site can answer all your questions on why most people are not getting enough Vitamin D, why you should care about this, and what you can do about it.
• Protein consumption is an important predictor of lower limb bone mass in elderly women concludes that protein intakes for elderly women above current recommendations may be necessary to optimize bone mass.
• The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics has a Discussion about the cavemen’s diet. Has comments from many researchers, some familiar from elsewhere on this page. No comments from Lorain Cordain, but much discussion and disagreement with him.
• The Weston A. Price Foundation was set up by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig. Like the Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation, with which they were previously affiated, it is not completely paleo in its recommendations (e.g. they like raw dairy and whole grains). But lots of good articles nonetheless. Some selected ones:
  • The Oiling of America
  • Guts and Grease: The Diet of Native Americans
  • The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain
• A small subset of the people eating only raw foods are eating animal foods (RAF). And some of them have put up a resource page for Raw Paleolithic Diets.
• The origins of agriculture - a biological perspective and a new hypothesis in which Greg Wadley & Angus Martin argue that the shift to cultivation and animal domestication was due to the “comfort” derived from the opioid peptides from gluten.
• John Coleman’s Opioids In Common Food Products-Addictive Peptides In Meat, Dairy and Grains. (There isn’t any evidence presented that this is an issue with meat, but it comes from a vegan site!)
• Paleolithic diet is a definition found in the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine.
• A hunting rights group has put up Eating Meat is Natural, written by Jim Powlesland. It appears to be a summary from The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet & Exercise and a Design for Living.
• Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors is a study of jaw size and shape, tooth size, shape, and wear patterns, which give clues as to what the earliest human ancestors ate two to four million years ago.
• Fatty Fish Cuts Risk Of Death From Heart Attack In Elderly is another study showing the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids consumption.
• Concerns Regarding Soybeans by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon discusses the negatives with soy consumption. Abstracted from Health Freedom News, September 1995.
• Soy Online Service is a New Zealand site dedicated to “uncovering the truth about soy.”
• Nexus Magazine has two articles for sale for $1.50 each: Tragedy and Hype, a very comprehensive article on soy that appeared in the magazine. It shows how the soy industry manipulated things to turn their toxic food into a health food. Also is The Hidden Dangers of Soy Allergens.
• Should we be Scared of Soy? covers the various health negatives of soy consumption.
• Ray Peat’s Newsletter has a web site with some sample articles. There are two articles of interest to Paleodieters: “The Benefits of Coconut Oil” and “Toxicity of Unsaturated Oils.” When you click on them then select open.
• Review and Atlas of Paleovegetation. Preliminary land ecosystem maps of the world since the Last Glacial Maximum (18,000 14C years ago).
• American Scientist had an article on Chimpanzee Hunting Behavior and Human Evolution by Craig B. Stanford in the May-June 1995 issue. It discusses British primatologist Jane Goodall’s observations.
• Paleolithic Diet: How our bodies want to be treated. is a page from The Healing Crow, an organization dedicated to bringing the aspects of mind, body, and spirit into our health.
• Beyond Toddlerhood: The Breastfeeding Relationship Continues by Priscilla Young Colletto provides evidence of lengthy breastfeeding prior to modern times.
• The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation promotes some Paleolithic nutrition concepts, though they recommend dairy, a non-paleo food. Many good articles worth reading there.
• Why I Am Not a Vegetarian by Dr. William T. Jarvis makes comments about the “ideological” commitment to a diet that are at least as interesting as the comments about diet itself.
• Trans Fat Spells Double Trouble for Arteries points out that the popular trans fat is unhealthy and not disclosed on food labels.

• Catalyst Athletics in Sunnyvale, CA has a collection of recipes with pictures. A few have some non-paleo foods, but still worth checking out.
• Was Agriculture a Good Idea, or an Act of Desperation? by Norm Kidder is an interesting essay on evidence that hunter-gatherers sometimes became so good at getting food that they settled down to form permanent communities. From the Primitive Ways site.
• The Homocysteine Revolution is an interview with Dr. Kilmer McCully. High homocysteine levels have been connected with heart disease. Folic acid (highest in leafy green vegetables) and B12 (abundant in animal proteins) help keep homocysteine levels under control.
• In an interview with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. She expresses clearly her well qualified opinion that saturated fats are NOT the problem they are reputed to be. Over two pages starting here: Health Risks from Processed Foods and Trans Fats. [Web site problems?]
• Insulin and It’s Metabolic Effects by Ron Rosedale MD deals with insulin as the “master switch” for a large number of disease processes. Argues that low insulin is key for long lifespan. Overly long.
• Elson M. Haas, M.D. has written a nice summary of Types of Diets. Has sections on the Paleolithic and 14 other diets. Put up by Healthy Net. [Web site problems?]
• Dr Stoll’s Sugar and Immunity is an article on the Leukocytic Index which shows the devastating effect of refined carbohydrates on immunity.
• The Skinny on Fat is an overview of the different types of fat and their uses in the body by Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, M.D.
• Why Americans Are So Fat by William Faloon blames a deficiency of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) for why we have become fat. CLA is found in beef and milk fat, both of which are decreasing in our diets. In addition CLA is much lower in grain fed cows than in grass fed ones.
• Just Game Recipes has just what it says. Not all are paleo, but lots of good ideas for cooking game.

• The Dry Store has the American Harvest GardenMaster Dehydrator. This is one of the two leading choice for serious dehydrating. Can run with 30 trays. Or find at Amazon.com.
• The Excalibur Dehydrator Website includes a pitch for dehydrating foods and showcases their dehydrators with square trays that slide in like a drawer, and not stacked like the round ones. This is the other leading choice (and the one I own and recommend). Buy at Amazon.com or ShopRawFoods or Natural Zing
• Dehydrators has quite a bit of information on dehydrating, including its history, along with a sales pitch to buy their high-end dehydrators.
• The L'EQUIP Model 528 Food Dehydrator is a rectangular model that can have up to 20 trays. Has computer-controlled dehydrator sensor.
• Has Dehydrators made from the finest birch plywood. Plus they have a book for sale.
• The Harvest Saver is a compact, small volume drying system. They also have A Basic Look at Dehydration which covers the technical aspects of dehydration from a commercial point-of-view.

• Wild Side of the Menu is a three part site on wild game: Care and Cookery and Field to Freezer and Preservation of Game Meats.
• Home Drying of Food is 25 detailed pages from the Utah State University Cooperative Extension.
• The National Food Safety Database lost its funding and it seems that only pieces now remain. The Canning, Drying and Freezing may be some.
• Drying and Curing Food at About.com points to articles from the Michigan State University Extension, the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, and other sources.
• USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference can be searched for all common foods.
• The California Rare Fruit Growers has information on hundreds of different fruits.

• The PaleoFOOD Listserv mailing list started in Spring 1997. The 260 active members have freewheeling discussions. When the list was started the FAQ was NeanderThin. See link in the Book section above. To subscribe go to Join or Leave the PALEOFOOD List. Searchable archives of the mailing list are available. Also see Recipe Collection.
• The Caveman Forum: Modern Diet and Fitness is Killing People. We Have the Solution. is a very active web-based forum.
• PaleoHacks is web-based forum to ask and answer questions. The interface is interesting and you can earn badges for increased participation.
• CrossFit has a Nutrition Forum that covers diet, supplements, weightloss, health & longevity. It is not all paleo, but much of it is.
• Meetup has a growing number of paleo groups. Each has a local message board. See:
  • Modern Primal Living in Seattle, WA. Founded January 25, 2009 by Keith. (Originally Men's Health Group.) The group appears to be low-carb and encourages supplements.
  • The Phoenix Paleo/Primal Diet Meetup. Founded February 7, 2009 by Don Matesz.
  • Eating Paleo in NYC. Founded July 12, 2009 by John Durant.
  • London Evolutionary Fitness Group. Founded August 11, 2009 by John Nugent.
  • Get Healthy Primal Style in Mooresville, NC. Founded September 23, 2009 by Wayne Coolidge.
  • Living Paleo in Boston. Founded February 4, 2010 by Michal Naisteter.
  • Boulder Paleo Tribe in Colorado. Founded February 11, 2010 by Joey Barbosa.
  • Paleo Approved Dinners for Crossfit and Paleo Curious in Venice, CA. Founded February 19, 2010 by Karen Pendergrass.
  • Paleo Eating in Houston, TX. Founded March 8, 2010 by JA. They also have a Facebook Page.
  • Seattle Paleo Life Meet-up Group. Founded March 30, 2010 by Jillian.
  • Primal Chicagoans. Founded April 7, 2010 by Sam.
  • The Nashville Paleo/Primal Meetup Group. Founded April 9, 2010 by Michael.
  • Paleo Eating in the Bay Area. Founded April 21, 2010 by ChadHydro.
  • Cincinnati Primal Living. Founded April 24, 2010 by Joseph Lucas.
  • Portland [OR] Paleo Nutrition and Fitness Group. Founded May 5, 2010 by Guy Berliner.
  • Eating Paleo in DC and Northern Virginia. Founded May 10, 2010 by Nick Hamilton.
  • Eating Paleo in Edmonton, AB. Founded May 21, 2010 by Jeff Sutherland.
  • Paleo ATL in Atlanta, GA. Founded May 25, 2010 by Matthew Manning.
  • Paleo Diet Group in Knoxville, TN. Founded June 21, 2010 by Doug.
  • Austin Primal Living Group in Texas. Founded June 23, 2010 by Bryan Barksdale.
  • San Diego Paleo Tribe. Founded June 28, 2010 by Clif Harski.
  • Primal DC. Founded July 11, 2010 by Luke Enos.
  • Colorado Paleo Wanderers in Castle Rock, CO. Founded August 8, 2010 by Erin Ong.
  • Karma CrossFit Paleorifics in Manhattan Beach, CA. Founded August 14, 2010 by Katy Rickman.
• The Raw Paleo Diet & Lifestyle site is a resource created by members of the Raw Paleolithic Diet community for people looking to improve their health by choosing a more historically natural approach to diet, fitness and lifestyle. They have two forums: Raw Paleo Forum. It has some activity. And Raw Paleo Diet, or RVAF Raw Veg and Animal Foods Group, a forum for followers of semi-RPD diets, (such as Aajonus Vonderplanitz’s Primal Diet/Weston-Price Diet/Sally Fallon/Instincto) and followers of the NeanderThin/Paleo/Stefansson Diets, who, for health reasons, wish to pursue a more fully Raw, Paleolithic variation of those diets.
• Lowcarber.org has a Paleolithic & Neanderthin web based forum. There is activity.
• CaveManFood is a Yahoo group on how to eat like our CaveMan ancestors. Light activity, but a decent post history archive you can look through.
• Magic Bus is a discussion and support forum for paleo ways of eating. Light activity.
• A Listserv mailing list on Evolutionary Fitness was started in 2000. It is now not active, though the searchable archives are useful.
• PADIET-L is an e-mail based discussion forum for topics relating to the origins and evolution of human diet. Little activity. See list archives.
• AV-Skeptics - Aajonus Vonderplanitz Skeptics provides a democratic forum for people to deflate the exaggerated promises, fraudulent claims, junk science, invented evidence, and humorous exploits of raw meat gadfly Aajonus Vonderplanitz.
• Live-Food Mailing List for persons interested in learning about and experimenting with the use of raw animal foods, and specifically, in the work Aajonus Vonderplanitz. It is recommended that members of the list be familiar with Aajonus Vonderplanitz and his book, We Want to Live.
• EatBugs is a Yahoo group on insect appreciation and eating them for lunch! Now inactive.
• The PaleoDIET mailing list is a RESEARCH oriented list. To get a subscription questionnaire send a message to listserv@listserv.icors.org with SUB PALEODIET yourfirstname yourlastname in the body. Actual subscriptions are processed by the list owner. Now inactive. Searchable archives of the mailing list are useful.

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