Monday, December 13, 2010

New Evolution Diet: Go or No Go?



Art De Vany's new book, "The New Evolution Diet," hits bookstores next week, but the Kindle version's already available. De Vany's one of the pioneers of the modern caveman lifestyle -- plenty of folks first learned about the Paleo eating and evolutionary fitness from his website (before much of the content was hidden away behind a paywall). De Vany continues to be a prominent leader in the Paleo community, and I'm looking forward to checking out his book. I mean, the guy's in his seventies and maintains 8% bodyfat. He's obviously doing something right.

I was a bit disheartened, however, to read on Melissa McEwen's blog that De Vany's views hew closer to the Loren Cordain "eat only what cavemen ate" approach rather than the Robb Wolf/Mat Lalonde "Paleo isn't about historical reenactment -- science is the ultimate arbiter" approach. Surprisingly, De Vany cautions against consumption of red meat, fat (but recommends canola oil rather than coconut oil) and egg yolks -- none of which jives with what I've found to be true. Of course, my conclusions are based only on personal experience, my bloodwork, and what I've gleaned from folks like Wolf and Lalonde. Perhaps De Vany's got it right. But a diet without grassfed butter, big steaks and deliciously gooey egg yolks? Thanks, but no thanks.

Still, I'm going to buy the book to decide for myself. I can't wait to dig into De Vany's sections on evolutionary fitness and exercise. And if (1) you're relatively new to Paleo, (2) you've already read Robb Wolf's book but want more, and/or (3) you've got ten bucks burning a hole in your pocket, you'll likely get some good stuff out of De Vany's book, too. Just keep an open mind about the whole saturated fat thing.

[UPDATED: De Vany's none too pleased with McEwen's post.]