Live primal

One of the greatest resources for the paleo/primal lifestyle is Loren Cordain's book, The Paleo Diet.

Many say that his book started the hunter-gatherer, Paleolithic, ancestral, or primal "revolution" as he outlined optimal and non-optimal foods. His very basic points include:

• Our ancestors ate lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.
• It is only in the last 10,000 years or so that humans started to not eat these foods. Most of today's diets include 70% grains, dairy, legumes, and sweets.
• We are not genetically adapted to eat these other "foods" and should therefore go back to eating the way we did in the Paleo era.
• Today's diets are not dense in nutrients. Vegetables have almost twice as many nutrients as grains. As Cordain states: "Grains can't hold a micronutrient candle to fruits and vegetables."
• Grains and dairy, although wholesome in some ways, are also highly allergenic.
• Eating meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts reduces cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, arthritis, and other modern diseases. These premises are easy to understand. Many organizations and experts also agree that we should focus our diets on natural foods. However, this is not to say that this book hasn't caused controversy.

Here are some basic counterpoints to the paleo/primal diet:

• The paleo diet does not provide enough calcium. Milk products should be part of a daily diet.
• Animal fat is not bad, so the idea that one should only eat lean meats is off base.
• It is untrue that Paleo folks did not have carbohydrates or starchy roots. There is evidence of grains being used and tubers being slow cooked.
• Primitive man did indeed eat salt. It could have been obtained from the brine on seacoasts, salt flats, game meat and marsh grasses.

And the controversies do not stop there.

Cordain's other book, The Paleo Diet for Athletes with co-author Joe Friel provides formulas for endurance athletes to maintain a mostly paleo/primal diet. This book has caused debates, as many people believe that you cannot be both primal and an endurance athlete.

The extra fuel burning by athletes requires more carbs to ensure a quick recovery. As Cordain puts it: "Training for endurance sports such as running, cycling, triathlon, rowing, swimming, and cross-country skiing places great demands on the body, and the athlete is in some stage of recovery almost continuously during periods of heavy training. The keys to optimum recovery are sleep and diet. Even though we recommend that everyone eat a diet similar to what our Stone Age ancestors ate, we realize that nutritional concessions must be made for the athlete who is training at a high volume in the range of 10 to 35 or more hours per week of rigorous exercise. Rapid recovery is the biggest issue facing such an athlete. While it's not impossible to recover from such training loads on a strict Paleo Diet, it is somewhat more difficult to recover quickly. By modifying the diet before, during, and immediately following challenging workouts, the Paleo Diet provides two benefits sought by all athletes: quick recovery for the next workout, and superior health for the rest of your life."

The "nutritional concessions" Cordain talks about relate to carbs. Here's a quick overview of carbs and their relation to fat and protein.

• Carbs are used for fuel for active muscles and carbs do not provide as much immediate energy as fat. Carbs are converted to glucose. If your body does not use the glucose, it is converted to glycogen and stored. Glycogen is used in times of exercise and it releases energy quicker than fat, so it is a better energy source for muscles.
• Fat is also used for fuel for active muscles and is the most efficient energy source. Fat should be used as fuel or it is stored.
• Protein is not a primary source of energy, but it can be used to provide some energy if the body is low on carbs. The main function of protein is to build body tissue.

The primal diet of limiting or eliminating grains, legumes, and tubers lowers one's carb intake. This works well when the body is not burning a lot of fuel. However, when the body does burn more fuel, more carbs are needed for energy sources. If you do not have enough glycogen, the body finds other ways to get energy, breaking down stored fat and protein. If you use up your stored protein sources, those must be replaced for your body to recover. Yet most people, especially those who do not eat primal, eat way too many carbs. If those carbs are not used, they are stored as fat.

Many folks are quick to point out that cavemen did not compete in marathons or triathlons. While it is true those events did not exist, archeological studies show that our ancestors had regular vigorous exercise related to hunting and gathering. They were not sitting in cubes 8 hours a day. Many cultures, including the later Tarahumara society, used persistence hunting. Early people were also walking/hiking/running to gather and hunt food, communicate between tribes, and even to hold celebrations.

So where did these cultures find the extra carbs to replenish lost energy stores? Fruits and berries, and in some cases tubers, were available for carbohydrate fuel. Another modern example are the Hazda, current hunter-gatherers in Africa who pick berries, fruit, and dig for tubers. They also collect raw honey and hunt when opportunity knocks.

Some primal folks are completely against endurance sports. They instead prefer to strictly adhere to the paleo/primal fuels and avoid long exercise sessions (usually defined as strenuous exercise lasting more than one hour). Other primal tribes, however, believe in endurance sports and have adapted their diet (adding in more natural carbs at certain times) to meet the increased energy needs.

Neither school of camp is necessarily right or wrong, just as those primals who include dairy or some grains are not right or wrong. The Live Primal mission is to encourage individual research and experimentation with primal lifestyle theories. In the end, we all have to find our own adaptations and what works with our every day lives.

These points and counterpoints will be further explored on this site, and as always, your input is encouraged and welcomed! What works best for you?

Do "primal" and "paleo" mean the same thing?

We at Live Primal use the terms primal and paleo (along with Neanderthal, stone age, caveman, hunter-gatherer, evolutionary, etc.) to describe the lifestyle that promotes living closer to the way our ancestors did – eating natural foods, exercising, and not getting wrapped up in daily modern grind. For those who have researched primal and paleo, we're sure you have found that beyond this basic theory, individuals vary on what foods and exercises they consider "absolutely correct." Even within a self described "paleo" group there are discrepancies – some believe in only eating raw foods while others are more lenient, using microwaves to cook foods and easing up on the strict "naturalness" of all foods.

In our view, this site is an amalgamation of paleo and primal. We discuss what we understand about the research behind fuel and fitness and relate our own experiences, plus the experiences of others. We make recommendations, but we are not the end all, be all word on the primal or paleo way. We do not tell folks that to be truly paleo, they must eat only lean meat and not use microwaves. We also don't tell folks that if they run marathons they are not primal.

For us, there truly is no black and white, there are gray areas when looking at the way our ancestors lived and the ideas we should incorporate into our own lives. We also have to consider that our ancestors were highly adaptable – they had to be in order to survive. The tidbits we do know about our ancient past show that much of what primal men and women ate and how they lived depended on their geography. For example, the coastline encouraged a diet rich in seafood, while the plains provided animals like bison and antelope. A primal fisherman may not have had to chase down his fuel – elsewhere, persistence hunting may have been necessary to catch prey. This difference in geography and the educated guesses we make about Paleo people makes some believe in lean versus fatty meats, or short bursts of exercise versus distance running.

However, primal and paleo are more alike than dissimilar. They both agree on the following premises:

• Eat the things that occur naturally in our world
• Eliminate or reduce grains and refined sugars
• Eat mostly meat, fish and vegetables
• Fruits, nuts and seeds are good
• Depending on your fuel expenditure, some diet modifications may be needed
• Supplements may be beneficial
• Our bodies need rest

From our research (good sources include Loren Cordain and Mark Sisson), here are a few differences between what can be considered "paleo" and "primal."

Paleo

• Suggests lean meats
• No dairy (including butter)
• Suggested oils: avocado, canola, flaxseed, olive, walnut (not coconut)
• Eggs in moderation
• No chocolate
• No soy
• Diet soda in moderation (to help ease into eliminating refined sugar)
• Encourages adaptations for endurance athletes

Primal

• Suggests fatty meats
• Some dairy (butter, certain cheeses)
• No canola oil (rancidity and toxic compounds)
• Coconut oil
• No restriction on eggs
• Dark chocolate
• Whole soy
• No diet soda (although some artificial sweeteners are ok in moderation)
• Does not promote endurance activities

For those of you who may be confused on our Live Primalphilosophy of primal/paleo, here's a quick recap:

• Organic fatty meats or lean "grocery" meats
• No dairy
• Suggested oils: olive, coconut
• No restriction on eggs
• No chocolate
• No soy
• No soda
• Natural sweeteners (raw honey)
• Endurance activities with some diet adaptations

We encourage everyone to research and experiment to find their own happy medium, their personal philosophy of primal living. Again, there is no stark white wrong or right, just a focus on natural, nutritious foods and healthy living.

We caught the first episode of the National Geographic's series "Alone in the Wild." It's a documentary of Ed Wardle's experience of being alone in the Canadian Yukon for 50 days. The idea is obviously something that interests the public – there have been other shows recently that explore the same ideas, such as Man vs. Wild, Survivorman, and Into the Wild.

It's interesting that even though folks are fascinated with the thought of being alone, battling the elements, and fending for themselves in the wild, they still don't subscribe to primal living outside of a "great adventure." For many, these men going out in the wilderness are crazy and are going against everything civilized in our society. Normal people don't do this. Yet, this is where we came from, this is our history. And we don't have to isolate ourselves for days or months in the wild to still live more like our ancestors, and get the same health benefits.

In fact, Ed Wardle's experiences are not completely primal. He gets dropped into the Yukon by a plane with plenty of supplies: numerous cameras and equipment, solar panel, electric fence with batteries, sleeping hammock, canoe, fishing pole, cooking pots, silverware, 12 Bore and 10 22 gun, Jack London books, rice, oatmeal, toothbrush, toothpaste, salt, and bow saw to name a few. Obviously, our primal relatives did not have these supplies. They had to make their own sleeping quarters, hunting and fishing tools, cooking and eating tools, and personal supplies. Wardle simply used his canoe and fishing pole to catch fish and cook them in his pot, and used his gun to shoot a porcupine.

Granted, this is the 21st century and we would hate to see a man die in the wilderness alone because he didn't utilize at least some of our modern conveniences. We also understand that our ancestors were probably never truly "alone in the wild." They were members of tribes that would help each other survive. It would be extremely difficult for a lone person to survive on their own with nothing but themselves. After experiencing the mountains on his own though, Wardle does state: "I started with too much stuff. I even had a bow saw in my room in Whitehorse. I couldn't carry everything so I was forced to make choices and leave a lot of stuff behind. I never missed the bow saw." This emphasizes the point that not all of our modern gadgets are actually useful in the wild, and in some ways, can be burdens.

Of course we are all not going to wander off in the woods by ourselves with nothing but the clothes on our back. There are dangers (bears) and struggles with finding and capturing food. Even after you find food you have to be wary of other possibilities. For example, some edible plants resemble plants that are toxic (the Eskimo potato looks like a plant that has toxic roots). This is most likely what killed Christopher McCandless, as detailed in the film Into the Wild.

So how can we emulate experiencing nature like these men and our ancestors without leaving our world behind? Just do the simple things outlined by primal living.

• Grow your own foods, if possible.
• Hunt your own food, if possible.
• Eat the freshest fruits and vegetables you can find.
• Pick the organic meats.
• Cook with just the bare essentials.
• Be aware of your environment – look at the clouds, the scenery, the stars.
• Relax! Learn to whittle like Wardle!
• Find entertainment in the simple things in life (not the television).
• Get exercise! Explore your world and the creatures around you!

As Jeff Darnell put it: "Ed [shared] the Yukon wilderness with over 60 mammals, including moose, caribou, stone sheep, wolves, around 227 birds such as ducks, geese, hawks, bald and golden eagles, 36 species of fish, 92 species of butterfly and over six thousand species of insect – including millions of blood sucking mosquitos."

Now there's plenty of food and entertainment!