Meet the Caveman Dieters

From ABC News. We're heeeeere...

"You don't have to carry a club or wear a bearskin to live like a caveman. To keep fit, a number of people have adopted the "Paleo" lifestyle -- eating and exercising like our ancestors from the Paleolithic era.

Art De Vany, 73, is often called the "grandfather" of the Paleo movement. For De Vany, a workout includes pulling his Range Rover in his driveway.

He compared it to "hauling heavy bison out of a pit."

"If you think about it, you're using every single muscle in your body. You're not going to hurt yourself by overdoing repetitions," he said. "It's easy for me."

De Vany, the author of "The New Evolution Diet," also eats like a caveman by consuming meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit, but no grains or processed food. He adopted the caveman or Paleo diet some 30 years ago in an effort to improve the health of his family.

The human species during the Paleolithic age, he said, "was probably the epitome of the expression of the human genotype. (They had) large, powerful brains -- they gave us all that we have in our world."

Those big-brained cavemen ate meat, vegetables and nuts. What they didn't eat, besides processed foods, was bread, grains, rice or anything that is the product of agriculture.

Actress Megan Fox is rumored to be a fan of the diet, and experts seem to have no major problems with it because it balances meat with a lot of fresh vegetables.

"I know many, many people who swear by the caveman diet," said nutritionist Danielle Omar. "I would say that if they're able to maintain it, and they're choosing lean meats, and they're really watching the fat, then ... it's okay for them."

The diet's rejection of processed foods "is positive," said nutritionist Keri Gans. "The average person should be staying away from more processed foods."

Robb Wolf is another adherent to the Paleo lifestyle. Wolf, the author of "The Paleo Solution," runs a gym in California -- but it's not your average gym.

"Usually when people walk in, initially they're not sure if it's an automobile chop shop or what exactly it is," he said.

A Champion of Meat

The gym's equipment includes gymnastic rings, pommel horses and cargo nets for climbing.

"We're not scratching around under bushes and getting poison oak on us in weird places and stuff," Wolf said. "It's trying to make full-body, functional movements that are fun."

"We do it in a group format," he added. "I think a lot of the success for my gym and a lot of gyms like it is there is a tribe element to it."

At the gyms, they love the tribe.

"You come in and you're accepted for who you are, and then immediately challenged to get better," said David Osorio, the owner and head coach of Crossfit South Brooklyn, a gym in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The members of this community work together and play together. Seventy people recently took part in the gym's "Paleo Challenge," which included following the Paleo diet for two months and coming together for a potluck dinner where the food was all Paleo, all night.

The members of this community work together and play together. Seventy people recently took part in the gym's "Paleo Challenge," which included following the Paleo diet for two months and coming together for a potluck dinner where the food was all Paleo, all night.

Wolf, amazingly, was a vegan before he went Paleo.

"I ate a vegan diet for two years and I got down to 135 pounds and couldn't lift my own body weight on the bench press. But the interesting thing is I was so sold on the idea of this being healthy that I wasn't listening to all the feedback that my body was giving me," he said.

Now he travels the world as a champion of meat. He claims he's convinced nearly a million people to follow the caveman lifestyle -- and, he says, it's not just "the lunatic fringe" who are following his lead.

"It's cops and teachers and doctors and computer programmers," he said. "It's everybody."

I've been eating this way for years due to food allergies, but haven't moved up to the workouts. My "workout" last night was to empty my pantry of all the offending foods I've been sitting on since my Frugal Valley days (it went to a neighbor's newly-unemployed adult daughter), empty my bookshelves of all reminders of Frugal Valley (I kept a few purely for later reference, but I doubt I'll be needing them), and even to change some of my bookmarks in the computer. Oh, and I cleaned out a homemade recipe book full of GF flour-based recipes to make room for the new ones I'll be collecting from Paleo/Primal/Neanderthal/Caveman/whatever recipe sources.

I even mentally rearranged the livingroom to make way for an exercise machine of some sort for when it's too hot or cold to mow the grass, or even in between mowings. The TV goes out in October, so I can pedal/stride my way through winter, and hopefully become a more fit Zog for the following summer.

Here's who I've been hanging out with, and who's expecting us at the new summit. If you care to further assimilate into this new culture, there are plenty of book and cookbooks online and websites to consult. Some groups allow dairy, small amounts of grain, and such sweeteners as agave nectar, but other do not. You may find it comfortable in this new place, or one of the nearby neighborhoods, or you may be more comfortable back down in Frugal Valley. If Frugal Valley's more to your taste and comfort level, you know the way back. I'm not going. I no longer care about your method of saving, your credit card problems, preventing your money woes, and am not going to worry about politics or economics any more. I posted my last articles about frugal living.

Take a life jacket--you'll need it. If you want a place to go, the Dollar Stretcher (and its over-a-decade-old info) should suffice.

For those of you staying with me, here's an example of simplified Paleo cooking: crackers without grain, and without much fuss and bother.

Look Ma! No Grains--Almond Crackers (courtesy of The Label Says Paleo)
* 1 1/2 cups nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, etc.)
* 4 egg whites
* 2 Tbs. oil (melted butter, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, etc.)
* Dried spice(s) of choice: dill, parsley, oregano, thyme, cayenne pepper, garlic
* Salt, pepper to taste

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grind nuts in food processor until you have a relatively fine cornmeal-like texture, and place in mixing bowel. Add dried spice(s), salt, and pepper to nuts and mix to combine. Add egg whites and oil of choice to nut mixture, and mix to combine--the mixture should be moist and sticky, but not liquidy (think pancake batter). If your mixture is too dry, add more oil. If it is too wet, add more ground nuts.

Place mixture on center of parchment-lined baking sheet. Place a peace of wax paper or plastic wrap on top of the mixture, and use a rolling pin to roll out the mixture until it is 1/8th inch thick. Remove top sheet (wax paper or plastic wrap), prick dough with a fork and place in preheated oven.

Bake at 325 degrees F, for 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Remove from oven, and cut into desired size/shape while still warm. Set aside, and let cool.

Serve as an accompaniment to your favorite dips and cheeses, or my personal favorite—with smoked salmon.
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Pictures of the process are here. See? It isn't as hard as you might think to forgo grains, beans, and dairy--somebody somewhere has invented ways around it. There's recipes galore for breads, crackers, chips, and tons of other stuff in the Paleo world, but they aren't made of the most convenient form of flour: grains. I myself am in the process of taking a coconut bread recipe and trying to make tortillas out of it with an electric tortilla press--will it work? Grok only knows!