The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

337 Pages·2013·1.79 MB·English

by  John Durant

More Praise for
THE PALEO MANIFESTO
“Durant’s provocative manifesto is bound to inspire necessary
discussion about the nature of our food and the role of evolution in
determining a healthy diet.”
—GARY TAUBES, New York Times bestselling author of Good Calories,
Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat
“John Durant has a gift for relating complex and seemingly
disparate ideas in an engaging and accessible way. His habitat-based
approach on how to eat, exercise, and enjoy a healthy lifestyle invokes
the same concept we use to promote animal health and welfare in zoos:
the natural history of the species is paramount. This book should not
only be in the hands of human and animal health experts but be
required reading for anyone who is—or takes care of—an
omnivore, carnivore, or vegetarian.”
—KRISTEN E. LUKAS, Ph.D., curator of Conservation & Science,
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
“In many respects we have become ‘zoo humans,’ living unnatural lives
—and the cost of this disconnect from our wild origins is greater than we
imagine. John Durant is a bright and original thinker, and here he makes
a compelling case for the health benefits of a life rooted in evolutionary
principles. Insightful and inspirational, The Paleo Manifesto is a
masterpiece.”
—ERWAN Le CORRE, founder of MovNat
“The Paleo Manifesto is the most up-to-date user manual for the
human animal. A splendid synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern
science, this book is essential reading.”
—BAREFOOT TED McDONALD, ultrarunner, primal athlete, and
founder of Luna Sandals
“The Paleo Manifesto is now the definitive guide to going paleo.
Smart, compelling, entertaining, and accessible—it’s the book I’ll be
recommending to our members at CrossFit NYC, and to anyone
interested in looking, feeling, and performing their best!”
—JOSHUA NEWMAN, cofounder of CrossFit NYC
“The Paleo Manifesto explores a way of life that we’ve forgotten,
and convincingly argues that we should rethink the way we live.”
—WILL DEAN, founder and CEO of Tough Mudder
“John Durant offers a guided tour of our evolutionary heritage, showing
how an ancestral lifestyle can improve our health and happiness. (And it
works for animals, too!) Entertaining yet profound, The Paleo
Manifesto is a book you won’t want to stop reading—but you will,
because you’ll be so eager to start living its advice!”
—PAUL JAMINET, Ph.D., coauthor of Perfect Health Diet

Copyright © 2013 by John Durant
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.
www.crownpublishing.com
Harmony Books is a registered trademark of Random House LLC, and the Circle colophon is a
trademark of Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Durant, John.
The paleo manifesto : ancient wisdom for lifelong health / John Durant; with contributions by
Michael Malice. —First edition.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Health behavior—History. 2. Prehistoric peoples—Health and hygiene. 3. High protein diet. 4.
Nature and civilization.
I. Malice, Michael. II. Title.
RA776.9.D87 2013
613.2—dc23 2013017890
eISBN: 978-0-30788919-5
Jacket design by Michael Nagin
Jacket photograph: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Author photograph: Gabrielle Revere
this page: © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, number 46-49-60/N7365.0 (digital file # 60743070)
this page: These materials are reproduced from www.nsarchive.org with the permission of the
National Security Archive.
v3.1
To my ancestors,
for my descendants
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
1. Becoming the Caveman
Part One: ORIGINS
2. Know Thy Species (Animal Age)
3. Rise and Fall (Paleolithic Age)
4. Moses the Microbiologist (Agricultural Age)
5. Homo Invictus (Industrial Age)
6. Biohackers (Information Age)
Part Two: HERE AND NOW
7. Food: The Conventional Wisdom
8. Food: Principles for a Healthy Diet
9. Fasting
10. Movement
11. Bipedalism: Stand, Walk, Run
12. Thermoregulation
13. Sunrise, Sunset
Part Three: VISIONS
14. Hunter
15. Gatherer
Conclusion: Habitats, Old and New
Resources and Recommendations
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author
BECOMING THE CAVEMAN
What would it look like if a caveman were interviewed on TV? America
was about to find out. On February 3, 2010, I was backstage at The
Colbert Report, waiting to be interviewed by the razor-sharp comedian.
Colbert’s interviews are among the most difficult on television—and it
was going to be my first ever TV appearance.
Colbert had invited me on because of my so-called caveman diet.
Admittedly, my health regimen sounds unusual at first. I attempt to
mimic aspects of life during the Stone Age—or, as many people jokingly
refer to it, “living like a caveman.” Heck, I even look the part, with a
shaggy mane and scruffy beard.
In popular culture the “caveman in civilization” is a reliable source of
punch lines. In 2004 GEICO ran an award-winning series of commercials
showing a pair of well-dressed cavemen offended at the insurance
company’s tagline, “So easy a caveman can do it.” On Saturday Night Live
in the mid-nineties, Phil Hartman played Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, a
thawed Neanderthal who enrolled in law school and won over juries by
pretending to be a simpleton (“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just
a caveman!”) before delivering the clinching argument.
The jokes begin as soon as people find out about my lifestyle.
Whenever I use a piece of modern technology (a cell phone, a Styrofoam
cup, a spoon), someone reminds me, “Cavemen didn’t use those!” People
tease me about the caveman approach to dating: clubbing a girl over the
head and dragging her by the hair back to my apartment. And if I ever
eat anything other than raw meat straight off the bone, my co-workers
kindly inform me that I am doing it all wrong. Apparently, watching
reruns of The Flintstones turns anyone into an expert paleoanthropologist.
Given the widely held cartoonish perspective of Stone Age life, I had a
pretty good idea of what kind of jokes to expect from Colbert. My job
was to point out that our impression of how humans lived in the Stone
Age is exactly that: a cartoon. In the same way that Mickey and Minnie
Mouse tell us little about the lives of real mice, The Flintstones tells us
little about the lives of real Stone Age humans. In fact, the terms
“caveman” and “Stone Age” are inaccurate and outdated. Though some
early humans lived in caves, particularly in cold or mountainous
climates such as Europe, our Paleolithic ancestors lived for millions of
years underneath the big open sky of the African savannah.
These early humans were hunter-gatherers who foraged for a variety
of wild foods, and whose lifestyle was quite different from the lives
people lead today. This ancient, ancestral lifestyle is more important
than we realize—especially when it comes to being healthy in the
modern world.
Here’s the simple truth: genetically speaking, we’re all hunter-
gatherers.
Of course, we’re not just hunter-gatherers. We also carry the genes of
primates; herders and farmers; factory workers and explorers; office
workers and computer programmers. But at our biological core we are
still largely hunters and gatherers.
My path to discovering my inner hunter-gatherer began during my
junior year at college. Two important but seemingly unrelated events
took place at the same time. First, I went through a long breakup with a
girlfriend and watched my physical and mental health suffer. Second, I
began studying under cognitive psychologist Dr. Steven Pinker, learning
about the evolution of the human mind over millions of years and how
that evolutionary history shapes the way our minds work today.
In the middle of the breakup I had an epiphany: If I got fewer than
eight hours of sleep, it felt like my world was coming to an end. But on
the days when I got more than eight hours of sleep (and exercised), I
was able to put it all behind me. It blew my mind that my entire outlook
on a relationship could be so noticeably influenced by my bedtime.
Rather than having a mind or spirit that rose above my base body, it
seemed like I was nothing more than a bunch of cells and chemicals
sloshing around in a big, leaky sack.