I’ve been known to turn down the occasional Krispy Kreme and shun the weekly pancake breakfast fund raiser. When asked why, invariably I answer that the foods in question are made with refined grains and are toxic. I think my frank attitude has the tendency to alienate people that think of grains as a staple, inseparably intertwined with their heritage and the meaning of life.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to respond to such outrage, is by telling them, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” That is, don’t get mad at me for not eating sub-optimal food, be mad at natural selection for making you and your genetic fore bearers predators that subsist on meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

I’ve won over a few converts and they have experienced some unexpected outcomes as a result of changing their diet to be more in accordance with an evolutionary template. One of my coworkers started–I think–in order to lose some of the weight he has gained since moving to the islands and ended up not just losing all the extra weight, but also curing himself of acne, which I had previously never seen him without. Another one of my co-workers has reported higher energy levels, not being sluggish after eating, and greater satiety.

It is pretty striking how the cliche “You are what you eat” can be so true. Unexpected outcomes can also be seen when changing from a paleolithic to neolithic diet. Anthropologists have observed that essentially stone age populations have none of the diseases that modern people suffer from, like acne, cancer, and autoimmune disorders, yet begin to suffer from them, as they transition to neolithic eating patterns.

Luckily, most of us can afford the abundance of agriculture, with the quality of a hunter-gatherer’s diet.

A search on Google Video turned up some interesting clips on the pernicious effects of neolithic diets on the human body.

Check out Dr. Cordain on possible (and plausible) causes of autoimmune disorders such as MS.

Here he is on acne.

Here is Jared Diamond of Guns, Germs, and Steel on humanity’s transition to agricultural assessing the utility of our transition to agriculture.

Feel free to post your thoughts by clicking on the title of this post.

–Nick