Rating: 
Summary: Mostly Right
Review: The book is a great overview of the human body's natural diet. Dr. Cordain does a great job explaining in detail the concepts of a Paleolithic Diet and how it translates into modern day eating. I agreed with most of Dr. Cordain's concepts except when it came to eating fat. Fat, and more specifically saturated fat, has been unfairly villainized by modern paradigms and this book does nothing to clear this misinformation. There is some evidence to suggest that our ancestors preferentially ate the fat from the animals they hunted. Cordain's diet seems to skirt this issue and combine a true paleo diet with a modern day, politically correct, low fat diet.
Rating:
Summary: Politically incorrect enough to offend almost everyone
Review: The Paleo dietary theory is looking better and better as time passes. I've been successfully losing weight by following principles similar to Cordain's, even before I read his book. Cordain should be commended for defending a thesis that is politically incorrect on many levels.The Paleo theory offends Creationists, because it assumes an evolutionary explanation for human origins and why our bodies seem to thrive better on hunter-gatherer foods than on "our daily bread." It offends free-market zealots, because it implies a criticism of the way American capitalism produces the toxic waste it calls "food." It offends the charlatans in the weight-loss industry, who offer the simplistic explanation that Americans are getting obese because they are "eating too much," instead of scientifically looking at the consequences of WHAT they are eating. It offends the American medical and pharmaceutical industries, because it argues that a proper diet to prevent cancer, "Syndrome X," and other degenerative diseases makes more sense than developing exorbitantly expensive (i.e., profitable) therapies and drugs to treat them after the fact. It offends the social-engineering goody-goods (mostly on the Left) who had the government dictate carbohydrate-heavy nutritional guidelines to us which have proved disastrous in practice. It offends vegans, because it argues that humans need to eat animals for optimum health. It offends technological cornucopians of the Julian L. Simon school, because it challenges common beliefs about "progress," and whether our planet can produce enough of the proper sorts of foods for human well-being. Cordain points out that with current technology, only about ten percent of the world's population could be adequately sustained on a Paleo-compatible diet. Unfortunately, the world's impoverished billions have to take their chances with their suboptimal grain-based diet. In light of this, about the only ideologues this theory doesn't offend are the neo-Malthusians who have been arguing all along that the world is way over-populated. It's not often that a diet book presents a worldview radically at odds with the usual range of beliefs in our society. Cordain's message deserves a wide and thoughtful hearing, for what is more important than our health and the food we eat?
Rating: 
Summary: Some good information, but flawed
Review: This book has a lot of useful information, particularly on the effects of grains and excessive carbohydrates on the human body. When people replace animal foods and fats for grains, degeneration sets in as the fossil record shows. Where the book goes wrong is in its explanation and role of fat in human diets. Cordain erroneously believes that saturated fats cause heart disease and other diseases--totally wrong. Because of this belief, he also writes that our Paleolithic ancestors did not each much saturated fat from animal sources. The evidence he gives to support this, however, is very selective and misleading. For accurate information on saturated fats, see Uffe Ravnskov's excellent book THE CHOLESTEROL MYTHS, as well as Fallon and Enig's NOURISHING TRADITIONS.
Rating: 
Summary: A Major Milestone in Nutrition
Review: This book is about the diet of man from 2 million years ago until modern hunter gatherers today, and is the diet we evolved with. It's easy to read and gets great results. It is excellent for weight loss and for most health problems. It teaches many important things about food, to know forever. Hunter gatherers don't get most of the diseases of modern civilisation, mainly because of their diet. Virtually all topics in nutrition are covered in the one package! The author is the world's leading authority on the topic and has a down to earth no-nonsense approach. ...
Rating:
Summary: Paleo success
Review: This is a great plan. Not your typical starvation diet. This plan makes great sense. You can adapt this to your everyday life and make it a habit for the rest of your life. Create muscle and loose weight and feel great doing it. It was recommended to me by my boss who is a diabetic and it has helped him stay off insulin injections and maintain his blood sugar. It helps with cholesterol problems also. I have recently begun the program and am feeling better each day. I like it so well that I have bought a copy for my salesman and his family.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Research
Review: This is a wonderful book. I have a degree in dietetics, and I have tried to follow the Food Guide Pyramid for years. For years, the weight has just kept on piling up. This book really does make eating easier. You don't have to count calories, carbs, or anything else.
As a nutritionist, I know the dangers of high protein, high fat, no carb diets. These dangers include calcium loss from the bones, excess ketone buildup, constipation and other problems. For those reasons, I do not recommend high protein diets and would never go on one. But this book is different. You can eat all the carbs you want, as long as they are the right kind *fruits and non-starchy veggies*. You get lots of fiber and adequate calcium. This diet is truly healthy. I analyzed several days worth of meals with the FoodWorks program, and this diet is very high in vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber. It has also cut my calories in half, and I've lost four pounds this first week. For those who are worried about giving up favorite foods forever, the diet allows two open meals a week, at which you can eat grains and dairy.
I also ordered "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" by Walter Willett, an M.D. at Harvard who heads up some long term nutrition studies. I recommend this book to those who are interested in research or a second opinion. Many of the paleo diet points are echoed in Dr. Willett's book. After reading these two books, I don't see how they could fail to convince anyone.
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Summary: The Holy Grail
Review: This is one of the most influential books I've read - definitely in the top 5. In following the doctrines outlined here, I've lost about 12 pounds of bodyfat, gained ridiculous amounts of energy, and can lift more weight in the gym than ever before - all in about 2 months. The title is slightly misleading - this is really less of a "diet" book and more of a "lifestyle" book. On the three or four times I have departed from this Paleo lifestyle (usually just for a meal or two), I noticed a dramtic decrease in my energy level. For the first time in my life, I believe I "get" the whole nutrition thing. Don't confuse the Paleo approach with Atkins - although there are similarities, the differences are critical (ie., salt, quality of fats, etc).
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Summary: Valuable information, deserves to be taken seriously
Review: This is the best book on paleo nutrition since Ray Audette's Neanderthin. It brings Audette's information up to date with science from this burgeoning area and will serve as an introduction to the only diet that is totally attuned to our physiology. That's what's so neat about it. But it is also what is so difficult for people to get their minds around. As Robert Ingersoll said: "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, merely consequences" and we are inclined to regard our dietary preferences as matters of taste (in all senses), or even of ethics - as do vegetarians and those who point out that grain-based diets are far less demanding on the environment than meat-based diets such as those advocated by Dr Cordain. But this misses the point. Cordain is telling us what is natural, not what is ethical. If a meat-based diet takes more land for each consumer than a grain-based diet, that is a consequence of human population numbers, it is not a reason for dismissing a paleo diet. It also misses the point to say that, if we are to adopt a paleo diet, we should return to stone tools and a totally paleo life. Cordain's thinking is clearer than this and the book has many stimulating ideas and insights about our evolutionary inheritance. Cordain also tells us that the human species has barely altered since grains were first cultivated 10,000 years ago. We are hunter-gatherer bodies in a post-industrial world. Much of the book is devoted to explaining how diabetes, cardiovascular disease, food intolerances, osteoporosis, asthma, heartburn, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and many other modern diseases derive from the extent to which we have departed from the evolutionarily-proven lifestyle. For this reason alone, this book deserves to be taken seriously. As Ingersoll implies, there are natural consequences to our behaviour; our cultural preferences are irrelevant to the truth. The author also contrasts modern activity levels with paleo activity levels and presents an exercise routine to complement his dietary advice. Dr Cordain devotes a part of the book to pointing out how meat, fish and fresh vegetables can be contaminated and he gives some guidance in avoiding such contaminated foods and whether the contamination levels are serious. I'm a paleo eater and exerciser myself and I've been looking for a book like this for ages that I can pass to my friends to explain why I eat and exercise the way I do. I bought two copies. Great stuff!
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Summary: The Ultimate Diet
Review: This plan really strikes me as the best possible way of eating. I am familiar with a number of other popular "low-carb" plans, and most are either too high in saturated fat and too low in fruit and vegetables, or simply too complicated and full of unusual foods. This book describes what seems to be a very reasonable, tasty, and healthy eating plan based on lean meats, fruits and vegetables, and some healthy fats. The author explains in simple terms how this is the diet that humans are genetically programmed to do best on. I'm convinced; I'm going to try it!
Rating: 
Summary: This Is How The Cavemen Ate? Uh, I Don't Think So!
Review: When I first heard Loren Cordain was finally authoring a book on paleo nutrition I was quite excited, for Cordain has conducted a lot of very insightful research into the eating patterns of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. When I finally got to examine the book though, I was sorely disappointed. Cordain evidently seems to have ignored much of his own research. The most alarming error is his frequent recommendation to use flax oil when cooking meat dishes. Recipe after recipe calls for marinating cuts of meat in flax oil before cooking - a very bad idea! For those who don't already know, you should NEVER cook with any type of polyunsaturated oil. Their high degree of unsaturation makes them extremely prone to oxidative damage, and this process is greatly multiplied by exposure to high temperatures (e.g cooking temeratures). Omega-3 fats, like those found in flax oil, are the most vulnerable polyunsaturates of all. When eaten, these 'healthy' fats trigger a chain-reaction of nasty free-radical activity in the body, leaving one open to the development of all sorts of degenerative ailments. Cordain should be well aware that liquid vegetable oils simply did not exist back in paleotlithic times. Cordain also denigrates saturated fat in his book, which once again is rather pitiful considering his background. The anti-saturated fat doctrine is a product of agenda-driven 20th century researchers and beaureaucrats, eagerly supported by commercial interests and their cheerleading squad of ignorant nutritionists, health authorities, and authors. Cordain claims that a single experiment where saturated fat raised cholesterol levels in young men is proof that this fat is bad. Big deal! Such an assertion assumes that the cholesterol theory of heart disease is a valid one. Considering the numerous absurdities inherent in the cholesterol theory, that is a rather risky leap of faith. Hunter-gatherers ate lots of animal fat, which is around 50% saturated. And no, just because an animal is wild does not mean it is low in fat - I had the pleasure of sampling some camel steak last week, and you can be sure I enjoyed every bit of the backstrap fat covering the steak! Even the leanest animals have fatty portions of meat, and if observations of recent hunter-gatherer societies are anything to go by, these would have been the most valued and preferentially eaten cuts. Cordain also jumps on the anti-low carb bandwagon, even though his own research shows hunter-gatherers were far more likely to consume a low carb diet than a high carb diet. In fact paleo nutrition, with its emphasis on animal foods and starch poor plant foods, and low carb nutrition are a perfect match. The whole book reeks of an attempt to squeeze paleolithic nutrition into currently fashionable and politically correct guidelines. Only problem is, back in the stone-age there weren't any pompous cholesterol researchers who thought they knew better than mother nature, and there were no advertising campaigns to let people know of the 'heinous' health effects of saturated fat - so people ate it, and lots of it! Paleo eating is still the ultimate nutrition in my opinion. It is the only eating plan that cannot even begin to be accused of being a 'fad'. Subsistence patterns that dominated for over two million years can hardly be considered a fad. Cordain's book does contain some useful info, but Neanderthin by Ray Audette is a far better, and cheaper, book on paleolithic nutrition. Buy that instead.
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