muladzh
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The Stone Age Diet
The theory of the Stone Age Diet is that because mankind dates from a couple of million years ago, and agricultural farming is only 10 - 11 thousand years old, we humans are more aligned with the pre agricultural diet than the modern concept.
What it means is that when mankind got round to farming, he stayed in one place and lost the year round food of the nomad, so he had to do something else - this introduced grain and legumes into the diet, and eventually introduced dairy products as well. The Stone Age, or Caveman, or Paleo diets all remove those introductions with surprising results.
In 1976 I got hold of a somewhat unusual book called " The Stone Age Diet " by Walter L Voegtlin; billed as 'The stone age diet: Based on in-depth studies of human ecology and the diet of man' it presented very convincing arguments for it's suggestions. Me being a studious kind of young man, at the time, decided to try it,as I was dissatisfied with the way my diet was going. I was not overweight at all - that did not happen until about 1998 or 99, so going on a 'diet' was seen as odd, by those around me. However, when my already fit physique went from pretty good, to very low body fat, well formed muscle packs, and incredible energy, all the doubters started to borrow the book.
I lent that book out to anyone who wanted to read it, for about 4 years, until one miserable day, it came back in many pieces, having fallen apart. That ended the useful life of the book, as only about half of it came back to me. I had intended to buy another copy, so good is the book and so well it helped me, but it went out of print quite early on, and is now of very limited availability - I have a book finder searching for me, but they reckon they haven't seen one for 10 years.
Anyway.. to continue with the tale. The precepts of the diet are very simple ' if the food wasn't eaten by paleolithic man, it isn't food. This suggests that anything that needed growing carefully and cooking, was probably not designed for the human body, so I happily abandoned such foods, and waited to see what happened. The results were incredible - I lost the flaccid flesh around my thighs and arms, my belly became completely flat, and I kept it that way until some strange day in the late 90s, when I just started eating junk.. I have no clue why, I just did, and the weight loaded on me so quickly, I tried every modern diet to get rid of the gross looking body I suddenly had, and forgot completely about the stone age diet I had adhered to for over twenty years.
Last year, in Washington state, I rediscovered it in 'The Paleo Diet' by Loren Cordain, and followed that book with limited success - he changed the original by Walter quite a lot, and it just didn't work out the same. I lost some weight, but got bored with it, and the 'bad food' came back, packing on more weight. But then, , , Searching for something else altogether, I came across the name of Walter L. Voegtlin, MD F.A.C.P. and it all came flooding back. Memories emerged and I started to remember the old precepts, so we started it last week, and as I said, the Frog is amazed with her body now, in 9 days - I am glad that the water retention of the last few months is gone, I feel better, no clogged up snout, ears or eyes, no 'blaaa' feelings, and it will just get better every day.
Unfortunately, I cannot find a copy of the original book, and the efforts of other authors puts some of their flawed ideas into the mix, so I cannot aim at the original, but I will list what I remember (I haven't read the book since about 1978)
What you can eat, in any quantity, is:
Lean Meat, be it of fowl, fish or beast.
Colored veggies, being of leaf or root, barring potatoes and yams.
Fruits of any kind, particularly apples, pears, plums, peaches, oranges, berries and melons.
Everything else is not on the diet, so I, for many years did not eat any legumes, any grain, any dairy, no potatoes and no sweet potatoes. I grew up well, had a very slim but muscular body, that I desperately want back, and no health problems at all.
This, in a nutshell, is the Stone Age Diet, and we will be following it from now on - I lived very well, and very happily for over twenty years, so will do so again.
Anyone who wants to try it, good luck, and wait for the amazing results.
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7/20/2009, 12:23 am
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TexasMadness
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
Interesting. I've heard of the newer versions of the Paleo-diet and seen some of the books. Not desiring to add meat to my diet, they haven't really struck a cord with me! But I did try an all raw food diet in an attempt to get my digestion in order (turned out it was gall stones). So a somewhat similar concept - eat what would have been eaten millions of years ago. Except many people on the raw vegan diet eat lots of things that wouldn't have been considered food back then.
Good luck on the journey. Sounds like you are already really enjoying the good results. I look forwarding to hearing about your progress!
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7/20/2009, 2:54 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
I think food back then included a lot of things we wouldn't accept as food anymore. Insects are rich in protein, for example.
It's also interesting to know that fruit wasn't as we know it now, and the brassica family didn't exist at all in its variety. There probably were one or two very plain parent lines.
(I once did a class on stone age and ancient food.)
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7/20/2009, 5:52 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
Pretty much any food now would be unrecognizable by a stone age person I think. I mean, meat is meat but the animal itself would be pretty different. And fruits and vegetables would be very different since we've cultivated them and bred them for specific qualities for soooo long.
A class on ancient food sounds really neat! That sort of stuff fascinates me.
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7/20/2009, 6:40 pm
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PerpetuallyCurious
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
I would think that the Stone Age diet would only be successful if one only eats what they hunt OR naturally raised, free ranged animals. Not the factory farmed byproducts you find in the plastic wrapped packages at the store. I know most of us here know this, just musing out loud 
Unfortunately for us, the good healthy versions are VERY expensive up here so we rarely eat meat.
Once we get our homestead I plan on raising most of our poultry. That and fresh Whitefish from Lake Superior (where I live) are our favored meats of choice.
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7/25/2009, 6:00 pm
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muladzh
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
Were it not for an amazing Amish Butcher in Shipshewana, IN, that sells grass fed and range fed beef, lamb, pork and poultry, we would have difficulty eating meat also - the pricing is similar to junk meat in supermarkets. We go once a month and buy bulk.
I have lost all my facial fat, so far, my head is fitting in my hats better, and I am no longer retaining water in my limbs. Strength is increasing, as is stamina, and I feel good. The Frog is back to her happy shape, with visible ribs and muscles rippling on her abdomen.. It will be a while before I can find my ribs, I think.
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7/25/2009, 6:12 pm
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Re: The Stone Age Diet
