-----Original Message----- From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Swayze [Jim] There is so much room within which one can operate while still being paleo, that I still don't get the "one size fits all" concern. [Ron] For most Europeans, perhaps. [Jim] Interesting. So you're saying that there are groups of people, mostly non-European (but some Europeans as well), who have evolved to the point where they *require* grains and/or beans and/or dairy in order to be healthy? That's a new thought to me. I've always assumed that anyone can thrive on a base paleo diet and that some populations *may* be able to add non-paleo foods to varying degrees of success. [Ron] No, but I am saying that some people live long, healthy lives eating non-paleo foods. For instance, my mother-in-law is 95, is still very active, and is amazingly fit for her age. She is also sharp as a tack. She went gluten free and dairy free about 20 years ago, but otherwise eats a pretty conventional diet. Also, a fellow I have coffee with every morning is 89 years old. He was a pilot during the last 2 years of World War II. He was shot down in the North Sea, and he and several of his flight crew survived for 13 days in an open life raft before they were picked up. He still flies his little single engine, 4 seat aircraft. He is fit and very sharp and his reflexes are amazing. I saw him catch a honey container before it hit the ground, after it fell off a counter beside him. Yet he eats a very conventional (SAD) diet. *** [Jim] It seems to me a very strong argument can be made that concentrated sources of sugar, whether starch or honey or fruit, were not a dietary staple for humans over the long course of our history. [Ron] I would agree that is probably true for most humans. [Jim] Innocent question. What populations thrive on high carbohydrate intake? [Ron] I wouldn't claim to know about any populations that thrive on high carb intake, but my mother-in-law is certainly a carb hound, and so is my 91 year old mother. *** [Jim] Potatoes never. Not only are they nearly 100% carbohydrate, but they are poisonous. Not even remotely arguably paleo, in my opinion. [Ron] They can become poisonous from exposure to sunlight, but I don't know which natives cultivated them and whether they did so for long enough to adapt to eating them. Do you? I don't either. Thus caution. [Ron] Yet your statement above sounds more like condemnation. I don't pretend to have all of the answers but I think that there is a trap in thinking that we have the dietary answer for everyone. For myself, I fare best on a diet that keeps me in mild ketosis and is bereft of grains and sugar. Fruits and most berries don't taste good to me. I love the taste of fat, and, unfortunately, sugar. I can indulge in a few cookies and in a single day my weight will increase by several pounds..... probably mostly water. Yet I observe others who seem to fare well on the standard American diet, and I suspect that they are also in that 20% of the population who do not make zonulin. Todd Moody, a previously active poster on this list, used to talk about his experience as incongruent with the experience of others on this list and I suspect that he was correct, except that he was inclined to carry too much weight. Could he have had some, but not all the genetic traits necessary for a full adaptation to a high carb diet? I don't know, but I remain open to the possibility. best wishes, Ron