Ray Audette, Troy Gilchrist, Raymond V. Audette, Michael R. Eades
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Eat healthfully for the first time in your life 5 out of 5 stars.
84 of 93 people found this review helpful.
I'm a low-carb dieter who lost 47 lbs on the Atkins diet last year. During that time I felt great, slept better, skin cleared up, had wonderful energy and also experienced other little side benefits to the weight loss that are too numerous to get into here. However, after several months I plateaued at about 25 lbs above my ideal, and of course I wanted to jump-start my weight loss again. So, I did a little investigating, discovered the Neanderthin diet and decided to give it a try.A brief summary of the basics of this diet: eat no technology-dependant foods. By that, author Ray Audette meant that if a food needs technology beyond a sharp stick or stone to process it to become edible, or to exist in its present form, it was never a natural part of our human diet, which had its origins with hunter-gatherer societies. What foods absolutely must be processed and/or cooked are: grains, including wheat, rice and most others; starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams; legumes, including peanuts, beans and peas. Refined sugars and artificial sweeteners are absolutely unnatural, although a small bit of honey is fine. Modern fruits are okay but must be eaten sparingly due to the fact that they have been altered over thousands of years to barely resemble the wild originals that our ancestors snacked on, usually much larger and with a much higher sugar content. Fermented foods are of course absent without our technology, so that excludes cheeses, vinegars and alcohols. Dairy products are also absent from the lives of hunter gatherers for obvious reasons. That leaves us with meats, fish/seafood, eggs, nuts, most vegetables, greens, and small amounts of fruits and berries.
I tried the hunter-gatherer diet for about one month. Just as with Atkins, I felt wonderful and had all of the other side benefits of the low-carb diet, but my weight loss was still stalled. You see, the allowance of fruits on this diet was too great a temptation and I overdid it there. Longtime dieters may be familiar with the term "trigger", which is anything that causes your cravings to resurface. Some people like me have carb triggers so sensitive that even fruits can activate them. So, reluctantly I concluded that I would have to replace the Neanderthin diet with a low-carb diet that forbid me to have any fruit, at least during the weight loss phase. When I am finished and at my goal weight, however, I will return to the Neanderthin diet to maintain my excellent health, as I can't imagine a life entirely without strawberries, peaches and melons!
I should note here that the authors Audette and Gilchrist do not advocate this diet as an aid to weight loss per se, but for reversing health problems and improving overall fitness. They theorize that diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity and many other curses of civilization are the byproducts of an immune system response to unnatural foods like grains: they show how you can trace the origins and progression of these conditions from the time grains and other technology-dependant foods were introduced into a culture. Examples in our European culture point to the Industrial Revolution as the biggest health problem of our history, when steam powered mills made refined white flours and sugars commonly available and cheap to the masses. Until then heart disease and diabetes (just to pick two examples) were so rare as to be unheard of; now they are epidemic in the USA, which by the way consumes more refined flour and sugar per person than any nation in the world.
Audette's theories and explanations make perfect sense to me, a non-scientist. They may partly explain why other low-carb diets are successful for weight loss. I can also see the sense in removing refined and processed foods from my diet, along with all the chemicals and trans fats that come with them. It's just too bad that a hunter-gatherer diet has a built in flaw, namely that the diet food industry can't cash in on it (remember, no artificial sweeteners or processed foods), and therefore it won't get the kind of publicity that diets like Atkins and Protein Power have had. Hopefully, the good word of mouth from satisfied dieters will spread and eventually get Audette nd Gilchrist the acclaim they deserve for helping so many people get back their health and quality of life.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
Editorial Review:
Discover the diet that's been worth for thousands of years!
In a revolutionary approach to weight loss and improved health, author Ray Audette presents his groundbreaking "caveman" diet--an eating program that stems from the notion that what we ate before agriculture and technology evolved is still what our bodies need to function effectively, stave off disease, and stay lean and healthy.
Read NeaderThin and you'll discover:
How to become a modern-day Hunter-Gatherer and give up the addictive foods and habits that have kept you unhealthy and overweight
How a high-calorie, high-fat diet can actually make you leaner
Tips for getting started on the NeanderThin Diet, sticking with it, keeping a food diary, and more
Becoming Neander-Fit, a five-week exercise plan to complement your new diet
Dozens of delicious, easy-to-prepare NeanderThin recipes, including Chili, Cold Shrimp-Stuff Avocados, Lemon Thyme Pesto Chicken, and Coconut Ice Cream
