The Archevore

I think any human on the planet would do well to adapt one of the many "Paleo Diets" out there. There are so many Paleo gurus (for lack of a better word) out there that all give great advice. Some of the big guys of the Paleo Movement are Arthur Devany, Loren Cordain, and Robb Wolf. Anybody that wants to live and eat healthy would do well to follow one of these guys' protocol. That being said, I no longer follow any of those guys' diets.

I just started reading Kurt Harris' blog a couple weeks ago and since then I have changed my diet quite a bit. I'm eating way more fat (saturated fat specifically)and am even more scrutinizing with my avoidance of plant oils like corn oil. I've never felt better in my life.

Harris calls himself an Archevore which roughly translates to "one who eats the essentials." In his opinion, the essentials for anyone are lots of animal fats with little vegetables and very little fruits. Starchy tubers, white rice and corn are allowed in small amounts as well. Doesn't sound very "Paleo" does it. Rice? Corn? The staple is the fat of the animal not the protein? It just doesn't sound right to a paleo dieter who is trying to emulate the diet of our paleolithic ancestors. But his arguments are very convincing and since stumbling across his blog I've added way more saturated fat via copious amounts of heavy cream (sounds gross but it's delicious).

Arthur Devany and Loren Cordain advocate a leaner diet composed of lean meats, vegetables and some fruit. Starchy foods are best avoided, according to them. I've had great success with following this type of diet but there was always a problem: I couldn't stay on a diet of lean protein and lots of vegetables without calorically starving myself. It's really hard to get enough calories eating this way. Also, I always had the nagging feeling that something was missing. Like I wasn't completely full.

The problem, I think, was that I wasn't eating enough fat. Specifically animal fat. Boy does it feel good to not worry about making sure my bacon is well cooked and drained. I now typically fry eggs in the bacon grease. Also, my preferred fat to cook with is now butter and not olive oil. It sounds strange but butter is healthier than olive oil. Arthur Devany be damned. I am not trimming the fat from my steak anymore and I won't throw out any egg yolks. Devany wrote in his book that you should avoid the (I'm paraphrasing here) "rush of fatty acids entering your bloodstream". I was never sure what he meant by it but I always made sure to never have too many fats in one meal so that I could avoid that "rush". I now think that that reasoning is completely bunk so bring on the bacon and sour cream!

Besides, a large amount of fat in one sitting wouldn't be nearly as damaging to your body as a rush of sugar would. This makes sense if you want to think about it from a historical perspective too. Hunter-gathers would never eat hundreds of grams of carbs in one sitting. Pasta, skittles, twinkies and bread came years later. On the other hand, a large dose of fat in one sitting was probably a relatively frequent event. Whenever they brought down some large mammal, I'm sure the first thing they would eat would be the fattiest portions of it. So, it would make sense that we are adapted to get large doses of fat (at least once in a while) but not large doses of carbohydrates.

I think Devany's blog is great and filled with just as much science and truth as Harris' blog but Harris' diet is way easier to be on and I feel great on it. Not great. Phenomenal. I no longer have to worry so much about getting vegetables in every meal (they're way over-rated) or eating too much fat (seriously, give cream a try). It's just more practical for me to be on.