At the age of thirty-three, Ray Audette was diagnosed with diabetes. This was devastating as he'd already been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for more than twelve years and walked with a cane. Tired of being sick all the time, and unhappy with what his doctors said couldn't be cured, he decided to school himself on these disorders. As a result of his research, he developed an interest in Paleolithic nutrition-a natural diet based on the science of what our Stone Age ancestors ate before the development of agrarian societies.
He then started on this diet, and although he expected positive results, he was astounded by the improvement he saw in just one week. His blood-sugar levels were normal, and within a month his arthritic pain was gone, his muscle tone had improved, and he'd lost twenty-five pounds.
His mission then became to share this information, so he developed NeanderThin, a simple plan for achieving a healthy weight, and most important, a healthy body.
"I recommend NeanderThin to anyone interested in losing weight, lowering blood pressure and serum cholesterol, controlling diabetes, and improving overall health and fitness." --from the Foreward by Michael R. Eades, M.D., coauthor of Protein Power
"The definitive book on eating!...Excellent." --A reader from California
"Outstanding...I got the book, lost weight, gained health, and passed the word on to friends." --A reader from Michigan
About the Author
Ray Audette is the official nutritionist for the Ted Nugent Show. When not hunting or gathering, he lectures, consults, and writes about Paleolithic nutrition. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
Troy Gilchrist is Ray Audette's assistant and the coauthor of this book. He is a massage therapist and personal fitness enthusiast.
Product Details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (November 30, 1999)
Does the name Ray Audette ring a bell? If it doesn't already, it may soon.
Audette is already a hero to some. Five years ago, the self-described "computer nerd" released his self-published masterpiece, NeanderThin: A Caveman's Guide to Nutrition. At first, the book was only available in a handful of Texas health food stores, some of which took the book from their shelves. They found the book to be too radical.
"It's still pretty radical," Audette laughingly admits. "A film crew from CBS News was here a couple of weeks ago. For three days, they followed me around. The two closest whole-food stores wouldn't let me in. They didn't want to publicize my book."
That's right, the book is back. Only this time, it's available at bookstores nationwide. Published by St. Martin's Press, the new title is NeanderThin : Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body. The writing style has changed somewhat, but the information of the original is still there.
Writing the book took just 60 days, but only after a decade of research. While a junior in college, Ray suffered severe pain in his joints followed by a trip to the doctor and a dismal diagnosis: rheumatoid arthritis. If walking with a cane wasn't bad enough, imagine how Audette felt 12 years later when he learned he had diabetes and would probably be on insulin for the rest of his life. That was too much for the 33 year old to take.
The doctors told him precious little, so it was off to the public library. Audette learned through his own research that both diabetes and arthritis are autoimmune diseases and only occur within agricultural communities. With two apparently diet-related diseases making his life miserable, Audette decided to eat like the hunter-gatherers of yore who never suffered from diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or a veritable cornucopia of other modern afflictions.
And it worked. Audette's glucose levels returned to normal almost immediately. His energy increased while his need for sleep decreased. In just a few weeks, his joints stopped hurting almost completely.
The suffering stopped, but the research continued. Audette found the articles and studies other low-carb diet authors and researchers quote in their books and studies, but something was missing. No one had written a book on the Paleolithic diet that John Q. Public could understand. So Audette decided to do it himself. If an author sells just one thousand copies of a self-published work, he's considered successful. Over five years, Audette sold nearly 10,000 copies of the self-published edition of NeanderThin.
What makes NeanderThin different? The diet is strikingly similar to those found on the best-seller list. But in a book half the size of other low-carb diet books, Audette arguably beats the competition cold when it comes to explaining why his diet works so well. It's his documentation of what early humans ate and the maladies they didn't suffer versus what happened in the wake of agriculture that makes it hard to argue with the author. Not that he doesn't take the heat.
"I've been out in places where people are going to argue with me a lot and I've had to put up with it from the get-go," Audette says.
Despite his outstanding, easy-to-read documentation of what's best for humans to eat (with all the doctor-ese documents listed in the back of the book, in case you don't believe him), Audette's book is, without question, the most controversial low-carb book ever. Why?
"People don't want to believe that humans are animals," Audette explains. "People put this artificial distinction between us and other species. Other animals should eat what they're designed to eat, but hey, we're not like them. We're made by God and magic somehow. People don't want to be rational about themselves."
So what should humans eat? As usual, Audette makes the complicated quite simple: "Your body cannot require anything in nature it cannot acquire."
On the 'yes' list: meats, fruits, leafy green vegetables, nuts and berries. No grains, no produce that's inedible raw (peanuts, pinto beans and potatoes, for example) and no dairy. Sorry, no whipped cream on your strawberries. But think about it a minute. Did you ever see a wild bear nurse a puppy? Of course not. Why, then, should humans drink the milk of another species?
Critics often ask why we should eat more meat since meat-production is so hard on the environment. One argument is that domesticated animals compete with humans for food, eating perhaps three times the amount they provide. Not true, Audette says. Once again, low-carb logic flies in the face of what we've been told. According to an Oklahoma State University study, only 35 percent of the Earth's landmass can be used for food production. Only one third of that portion is suitable for growing crops and this land area is predicted to shrink. Why? Global warming, the greenhouse effect and erosion, caused primarily by modern agriculture. The remaining two thirds of land will only support plants that can be consumed by animals, not by humans. Scholars say only by raising domestic animals on this land can we derive any food value from the resources it offers. Still think agriculture is good for you? World rice production in 1993 caused 155 million cases of malaria by providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the paddies.
Audette has obviously done his homework. He can even convert vegetarians, as long as they're willing to listen. But the soft-spoken Audette doesn't pick a fight with people who refuse to consider the facts. "I've gotten to the point where I try not to argue with these people," he says. "I patiently listen to them and throw them a zinger or two and try to make them think. If I see that they're starting to think then I'll follow it up. I try not to get into spitting matches with vegetarians because nobody wins."
But others are more than willing to try a truly natural diet. And the advantages of the Paleolithic diet go far beyond the joy of losing weight and lowering your blood pressure. Time after time, Audette hears from and about others whose switch to the Paleolithic diet results in nothing short of a miracle.
Take, for example, the story of a desperate mother whose own Internet research led to her discovery of the Paleolithic diet and Audette's research. "She e-mails me and asks 'Do you think this diet would help my 5 year old autistic son?' So I send her a copy of the book. This is a vegetative autistic child. He bangs his head on the floor and stares at light bulbs, completely non-communicative. He just goes normal in a week. A month later, Mary is posting to the 'net, 'My son said for the first time in his life 'I love you, Mommy.' It's going on. That's the way that it's been. Everything that's an auto-immune disorder responds to this diet."
So with his book finally available outside Dallas, Audette's hometown, what's next for the author? "I've had some experience of having it in some stores," Audette says. "Three whole-food stores here in Dallas carried the book and each one sold over 600 copies. If I can keep those kind of numbers up in bookstores, I'll be movin' to a bigger house!"
While fame and fortune are nice, it's not about the money. "I did this for a reason," Audette explains. "It really ticked me off when I got diabetes. It really ticked me off because I already had arthritis and there is nothing they can do for it. And then diabetes came along and it's the same damn deal: 'Here you go, treat the symptoms 'til you die, it's going to be there all your life.' And I just got mad. There are lots and lots of people who are in the same situation I was, that feel miserable and whose lives have turned to crap, and there's no reason for it. No one told me what I had to go find out for myself. I'm actively promoting the book. I want to get enough sales that Paleolithic nutrition becomes mainstream. I consider myself a pagan missionary. I'm out to change the world with this book and I won't stop until I do."
This review is from: NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body (Hardcover)
I became interested in the Paleolithic Diet after starting Atkins. I lost weight quickly and easily by cutting carbohydrates. There really was something to this low-carb stuff!
I began reading other diet books like Protein Power and scoured the Internet. There were a lot of online references to something called the Paleolithic Diet. One book was mentioned time and time again, Neanderthin, by Ray Audette.
I got ahold of the new edition and became a convert. The book tells that while our diet has changed since the advent of agriculture, our genes have not had time to adapt. We still have the old hunter-gatherer DNA. The grains, refined sugars and carbohydrates in our diet today are making us sick. Our bodies can't handle this new stuff.
The book tells you what foods to eat and what to avoid. Well written with an extensive bibliography.
Very highly recommended. The book has changed my life.
Bob Hodgen
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This review is from: NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body (Hardcover)
After seeing Ray Audette on 48 Hours I stepped on the scale and found myself at 180 lbs., 5 lbs. more than I had ever weighed. At 43 I was looking my age and felt it. The Neanderthin approach appealed to me. It made good, logical sense. I got the book and started on January 20th. My weight has steadily gone down yet I have not gone hungry nor felt deprived. The amazing side effect is that my energy level has gone through the roof. I have been on hyperdrive, feeling great and just plain happier with life! After ten weeks on this diet I have lost 13 lbs and now am just 2 lbs. over my college weight. At this rate I will be back to my high school weight in another ten weeks. I feel good enough to get back to pumping iron to help things along. Since my wife was doing the cooking she has been on it too and has lost 15 lbs. This is a plan I can and will stick with. It's so easy! The results are so good I can't imagine going back to my old eating habits. I just don't want many of the foods I subsisted on before. I would urge anyone to get this book and give it a try. Looking better and feeling better are a great way to go through life.
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This review is from: NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body (Hardcover)
I lost a lot of weight using the Neanderthin diet plan. But it is also a plan for life. I will stay on this diet forever. I feel so much better. My arthritis is gone, as a result of being on this diet. I had arthritis so bad I could hardly walk, it was even painful to stand...now the pain is gone.
This book does a good job explaining why certain foods are paleo, and why others are not. This was very helpful to me. I now get very sick if I eat "foreign proteins" like gluten and dairy. This book has also helped my son who was severely injured by childhood immunizations. The book has helped me to put him on a diet that avoids foreign proteins and stresses on the immune system. My son is making great gains and recovering.
This book would help almost anyone with an auto immune disease to recover and to get healthy again. I have lost weight and feel better. I highly recommend this book.
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