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Table of Contents

PART I The Paleo Lifestyle

1. Origin and Main Features,  

2. Living the Way Nature Intended,  

3. How Did It Go Wrong?,   

PART II Eating the Paleo Way

4. The Owner’s Manual,  

5. Adopting the Paleo Feeding Pattern,  

Conclusion—Healthy Lifespan and the Best of Both Worlds,  

Appendix A. Population Studies Supporting the Paleo Lifestyle,  

Appendix B. Paleo-Conforming Recipes,

Chapter Descriptions

PART I

Explains the Paleo lifestyle—how we know what it means to be a human being in lifestyle terms. We highlight the consequences of our divergence from the ideal eating pattern. This part of the book deals with how, as humans, we moved away from our naturally adapted environment, feeding patterns, and lifestyle, and looks at the science supporting our claims. Then, based on these insights, we develop an “Owner’s Manual” for how we should be living and feeding ourselves and show you how to put it into action today.

Chapter 1, “The Paleo Feeding Pattern,” describes the remarkable discoveries about human origins, where we come from, and the lifestyle which our ancestral heritage designed for us. It goes on to describe the kinds of foodstuffs that our bodies are designed to eat and the ones that are a mismatch with our ancestral past.

Chapter 2, “Living the Way Nature Intended,” describes the main factors of lifestyle which affect us today and compares them with the way they would be in a state of nature. These factors include feeding patterns, physical activity, stress and social environment, nourishment by sunshine; and sleeping patterns.

Chapter 3, “How Did it Go Wrong?”, describes how, over the millennia, more and more new food group interlopers have become part of modern diet. We explain how they undermine our optimum health in a wide variety of ways, many of them sneaky. It goes on to describe the basic specification for an ideal food intake in the modern world.

The conclusion to Part I

“Healthy Lifespan and the Best of Both Worlds,” describes how we can have the best of both worlds: avoiding the lifestyle diseases of modern societies and avoiding the vicissitudes of life that carried off our forager ancestors. We show how we can aim to not only have a long life - span, but one that is a healthy lifespan right to the end. It is not normal to be sick in old age!

PART II

Chapter 4 “The Owner’s Manual,” which summarizes the various aspects of lifestyle and how to harmonize them in a way which our bodies and mentalities recognize. In order to help you make wise food choices, the feeding pattern section grades modern foods according to how well they conform to the Paleo template.  

Chapter 5, “Eating the Paleo Way,” is a practical guide to preparing food on a daily basis, for all kinds of consumers from children to the elderly, and for those with special dietary requirements such as vegans and vegetarians.

It suggests ways of adopting the Paleo way of eating in three easy stages and gives ideas for the various meals of the day from breakfast to supper.

Appendices: The book concludes with two appendices.

Appendix A: “Population Studies Supporting the Paleo Lifestyle,” explores a vital source of information: the effect different lifestyles have on health and lifespan as practiced by different populations around the world. This is an important piece of scientific evidence to support the Paleo way of living, but there is much more. This book cuts to the chase on the Paleo lifestyle and does not go into great detail of the scientific evidence.

For those who would like to get deep into the scientific background to the Paleo lifestyle, please see my book, Deadly Harvest.  

Appendix B features Paleo-conforming recipes. Eating the Paleo way can be kept very simple, just by cooking and preparing generic foodstuffs. However, it is also quite possible to produce delicious Paleo-conforming gourmet meals that would please and surprise any dinner guest. In this appendix we include some sample recipes extracted from Nicole Bond’s cookbook, Paleo Harvest.

Conclusion: This book’s fusion of healthy eating with healthy thinking could not be more important, dealing as it does with the absolute fundamentals of human nature. In this guide, you have a focused road map for a trouble-free lifestyle and bodily and mental nutrition. It will be a relief to be clear about where you have to go, and you’ll feel better about yourself for taking control of your destiny.

You will find the secret to what it means to be a human being living in close connection with our natural lifestyle. Everyone can use these ideas to enhance their image, inside and out. This book contains the easy-to-learn skills of how to harmonize your life with human genetic programming. We can make adjustments to our ways of eating, our ways of thinking, and our lifestyle so that they coincide as closely as possible with our inherited natural traits. These are the keys to a long, healthy, and harmonious life.