Neanderthin and Primal Hunting Video

I have a copy of Audette's original self-published version of Neanderthin: A Caveman's Guide To Nutrition, which appears now to have collectors value. When I first read Neanderthin, I had already read Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Ron Schmid's Native Nutrition (now Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine, and Eaton, Konner, and Shostak's The Paleolithic Prescription. However, Audette's book did something the others had not yet done, it turned me into a paleo/primal thinker/dieter.

You can see the cover of the original Neanderthin to the left, and in my opinion the major publisher made a mistake not retaining the idea of the original cover image (see that bland version below).

The first page  of text after the foreword looks like this:

Previous to seeing this page, I had not tried a grain-free diet.  I had cut down on grains considerably from my earlier vegetarian days, and at the time I read Neanderthin, I used grains, mostly oatmeal and some rice, in relatively small amounts, along the lines Barry Sears laid out in The Zone.  None of the other books I mentioned gave me any reason to consider grains inappropriate food for humans, but as soon as I read that first page of Neanderthin, I realized that grains and beans were the first staple foods consumed by humans that required processing to make them edible -- the first processed foods.

I enjoyed Audette's "biblical" approach, giving chapters titles like "Genesis" and laying out the paleo diet as "Ten Commandments":

Never Eat:

I.  Grains
II.  Beans
III.  Potatoes
IV.  Dairy
V.  Sugar


Do Eat:

I.  Meat "and any other meat by-products such as lard."
II.  Fruits
III. Vegetables
IV.  Nuts
V.  Berries

Basically, the first five consist of foods edible only with processing, the last five edible without processing or application of cooking.

Audette also provided me with the perspective and data resources that enabled me to see the flaws in the ecological and least harm arguments against a meat-based diet, in passages like this:

"As the principle cause of animal extinction and death is the plow and not the slaughterhouse, vegetarians actually kill more animals through starvation and habitat destruction than does the meat-eater throught his dietary habits.  In fact, it is for this reason that the person wearing a furn coat has killed less than 10% of the animals killed by [a] person wearing a cotton coat (cotton is one of the most ecological damaging crops grown today, second only, perhaps, to rice.).  Perhaps thte only species that are not endangered in our modern world are the domestic animals we eat."

 And this:

"Since ancient times, the most destructive factor in the degradation of the environment has been monoculture agriculture.  The production of wheat in ancient Sumeria transformed once-fertile plains into salt flats that remain sterile 5000 years later.  As well as depleting both the soil and water sources, monoculture agriculture also produces environmental damage by altering the delicate balance of natural ecosystems.  World rice production in 1993, for instance, caused 155 million cases of malaria by providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the paddies.   Human contact with ducks in the same rice paddies resulted in 500 million cases of influenza.

"Many environmentalists now believe the only way to preserve the envrionment is to return to our natural place on teh food chain (tree of life).  Over time nature produces more nutrients per acre than any method of agriculture.  Learning to intelligently harvest this natural bounty without destroying it is the biggest challenge facing modern man."

In the chapter "Genesis" Audette tells how, after getting diagnoses of rheumatoid arthritis and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM, type I), with no prospect of relief offered by conventional medicine, he went to the library and studied the conditions on his own.  He discovered that neither occured in non-agricultural societies -- i.e. hunter-gatherers.  So, he resolved that he would eliminate the fruits made edible by technology from his diet.  He wrote:

"I determined, therefore, to eat only those foods that would be available to me if I were naked of all technology save that of a convenient sharp stick or stone."

What happened when he applied this rule?

"Expecting only modest results, I was astounded by what actually happened. My blood sugar levels returned to normal almost immediately and remained constant throughout the day. Every day it seemed I had more energy. I slept less than eight hours per day, whereas I had previously reuired at least ten. Although I lost a few points, I seemed to be getting bigger as my muscles became larger and more toned without special exercise. After a few weeks my joints stopped hurting almost completely. Even my ability to think and concentrate seemed to improve. Needless to say, my moode and overall attitude towards life changed for the better as well."

Some people may find the idea that our ancestors hunted large game with nothing but sharp sticks -- i.e. spears-- incredible. Yet our ancestors did it. In a previous post I provided a video of !Kung men doing persistence hunting, which involves running an animal to exhaustion, then killing it with a spear.

Paleo hunters had another, less exhausting way of hunting with spears: ambush. This video clip from Relentless Pursuit features Jared Allen (Minnesota Vikings Defensive End) demonstrating how to wait in a tree above elk browsing grounds, then kill an unlucky buck with a spear.



Some of the books I have mentioned here, and learned from: