Paleo Rules

Michael Pollan's rules about eating from In Defense of Food are a good framework, but ultimately don't take a stand for what humans evolved to eat.

The article by Cordain in Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans in the anthology Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable is academic, but also provides a good "rules" framework.

According to Cordain, the diet we are most evolved to eat is:

1. Omnivorous (typically, high vegetable content by weight, and high meat content by caloric contribution)
   
2. Low in sugar
3. Proper omega-3: omega-6 ratio... 1:3 is optimal
4. High in protein
5. High in micronutrients, mostly from diverse plant foods
   
6. Low net acid load...most hunter-gatherer diets are net-base yielding
7. High potassium to sodium ratio
8. High in fiber

Unfortunately, this is a diet that is difficult to follow these days. Feedlot meat has an unfavorable fatty acid composition, fish stocks are poisoned, and domestic varieties of plant crops are higher in sugar and lower in fiber. Thankfully, if the need arises, these basic rules allow me some flexibility to adjust my diet with the inclusion of some agrarian foods without sacrificing the major benefits.