The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health Kindle Edition

I'm glad that I only wasted $1.99 on this Kindle book. I tried to read this with an open mind but I felt like he was pulling stuff out of the air without any real underlying evidence. Then he get to talking about vegetarians and he goes completely off the deep end. His theory is that vegetarians are vegetarians because they are disgusted by killing animals so therefore they are also disgusted by outsiders and are in favor of eugenics. Then he starts talking about how Hitler was a vegetarian. So basically he sees a straight path from vegetarianism to Nazism. Wow! I think Franco and Mussolini ate meat so does that mean meat eaters are fascists. No it doesn't.Apparently he doesn't just have an issue with vegetarians but also women. He moves on to theorizing that women domesticated plants and therefore led to the agricultural revolutions and patriarchy, so they only have themselves to blame. Another theory for the change to agriculture is so people could make beer and guess which gender drinks more beer?John seems to think being a hunter gatherer was a perfect life and agriculture spoiled everything. So why doesn't he give up his money and take off into the woods to be a hunter gatherer? Probably because he wouldn't last a week! On his website he talks about buying bars and other processed foods. Did they have them during the paleo era. I don't think so.

Great introduction into why we should even fathom the idea of paleolithic lifestyle. Research should still be done for the choices one will make but at least you'll be walking a different path with much more meaning and significances. Make every foot step count even if its miniscule. Remember what you are and it will all fall into the right pieces of a puzzle.My favorite ch. was biohacking. That is something i will dig deeper into as a way to assist me with my nutrition and health. Also the hunting chapter was a nice story that made me want to try at least once what it feels to hunt for my own meal. Maybe then i'll be able to truly determine whether paleo is for me.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. I majored in anthropology in college and this book made it clear how we (in civilization)have not been leading natural lives for the last few thousand years. 99% of our history has been defined by being hunter/gatherers. We evolved a biology around being hunter/gatherers over hundreds of thousands of years. The changes in our lifestyles started happening around 10,000 years ago, and that rate of change has increased. We have changed our diet, social interaction, and fitness levels drastically... mainly due to agriculture and technology. Although these things are advantageous for convenience, they can affect our biology and health in very negative ways.... Look at all the caffeine, anxiety, and obesity. The chapter on the health benefits of fasting was really intriguing. I would have definitely given this book 5 stars, but the last couple chapters took away from the rest of this important book. I dont know why Durant goes on a lecturing, attacking rant against feminism and vegetarianism in the final chapters. Dislike these things if you wish, your point was proven.. But calling vegetarianism a sign of mental illness was ridiculous! An amazing must read that got unnecessarily politically motivated in its conclusion.

There is some interesting information here, and I agree in theory with most of what he espouses. I particularly liked some of the earlier chapters including some interesting biblical references, along with the dietary information in the middle. That said, I found many chunks of the book to be very tedious. He spends too much time going on about examples of things and anecdotes that don't really add to the understanding of the concepts. Half the time its like - yeah I get it already. The book could be half the length - it would have been much more enjoyable that way. Actually most "manifestos" that I know of are relatively brief and to the point. I felt like this was a novice author trying to fill pages.He also completely ignores the environmental issues surrounding meat production, which, while not the topic of this book, deserves more consideration. He also totally disses yoga - pretty much if you're not into CrossFit or barefoot running you're doing exercise wrong, in his view.I think some people will enjoy this book, but I had a hard time getting through at least half of it and found myself skimming or skipping pages out of boredom. He needed a better editor.

I think this book digresses to the point of annoyance as, time and again, the author takes the reader's attention and squanders it on topics which are only vaguely connected to the subject of paleo living. There is room for this kind of distraction in any book but a point is reached where the reader begins to lose patience and interest in this self-styled manifesto. There is good information in this book (I devoured the chapter on nutrition). But an author with the interests of his readers and the environment at heart would take this information and produce a pamphlet with it instead of wasting the paper and our time producing a book with this amount of fluff.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. John may not be right in all his conclusions, but he starts from what seems to be a valid premise: become familiar with the basic, inherent design of a mechanism (the human body) in order to figure out how to make it work better and continue to operate efficiently over time. I'm biased in his favor, because his research supports theories I've developed on my own. It's easy to like a book that agrees with you.His writing style is clear, conversational, and enjoyable.I highly recommend this book.

This is a good read. The author is very engaging and gives a good overview of a “paleo” lifestyle. I think there are some helpful lessons in here and will take these away. However buyer beware, the author does make some sweeping statements “dressed up” as science. His language often suggests an association between certain aspects of lifestyle that is drawn from an observational study. This is scientifically not valid so approach with a critical air. Having said that I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it.

A good read that will make you have a long hard look at how you live. The author made the subject matter really interesting.

Good information but could do without the rant against vegetarianism at the end.

Super read but maybe for afficienados primarily

A human history. Really makes you think. Absolutely a book everybody should read. Made me think new about a great deal.