The Paleo Answer: 7 Days to Lose Weight, Feel Great, Stay Young [Hardcover]

Loren Cordain (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 20, 2011

How to take the Paleo Diet to the max for optimal weight loss and total health—from bestselling author and top Paleo expert Dr. Loren Cordain

Dr. Loren Cordain's bestselling The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet Cookbook have helped hundreds of thousands of people eat for better health and weight loss by following the diet humans were genetically designed to eat: meats, fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and other foods that mimic the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors. In The Paleo Answer, he shows you how to supercharge the Paleo Diet for optimal lifelong health and weight loss. Featuring a new prescriptive 7-day plan and surprising revelations from the author's original research, this is the most powerful Paleo guide yet.

• Based on the author's groundbreaking research on Paleolithic diet and lifestyle
• Includes a new 7-day plan with recommended meals, exercise routines, lifestyle tips, and supplement recommendations
• Reveals fascinating findings from the author's research over the last decade, such as why vegan and vegetarian diets are not healthy and why dairy, soy products, potatoes, and grains can be harmful to our health
• Includes health and weight-loss advice for all Paleo dieters—women, men, and people of all ages—and is invaluable for CrossFitters and other athletes
• Written by Dr. Loren Cordain, the world's leading expert on Paleolithic eating styles internationally regarded as the founder of the Paleo movement

Whether you've been following a Paleo-friendly diet and want to take it to the next level or are just discovering the benefits of going Paleo, this book will help you follow the Paleo path to the fullest—for lifelong health, increased energy, better sleep, lower stress and weight loss.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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From the Author: The Paleo Answer Top 10 Shopping List

Author Loren Cordain, Ph.D.

• Wild salmon

• Lean beef (grass-fed if possible)

• Hormone-free chicken

• Organic eggs

• Raw unsalted walnuts

• Ground flaxseed meal

• Organic broccoli

• Organic blueberries

• Orthopedic-style walking shoes

• Short-sleeve white cotton T shirt

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Review

' Here's all you need to know about the paleo lifestyle. ' (Woman, November 2012)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (December 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118016084
• ISBN-13: 978-1118016084
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Cordain is a Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. His research emphasis over the past 15 years has focused upon the evolutionary and anthropological basis for diet, health and well being in modern humans. Dr. Cordain's scientific publications have examined the nutritional characteristics of worldwide hunter-gatherer diets as well as the nutrient composition of wild plant and animal foods consumed by foraging humans. Over the past five years his work has focused upon the adverse health effects of the high dietary glycemic load that is ubiquitous in the typical western diet. A number of his recent papers have proposed an endocrine link between dietary induced hyperinsulinemia and acne. Currently, Dr. Cordain's research team is exploring the connection between dietary elements that increase intestinal permeability (primarily saponins and lectins) and autoimmune disease, particularly multiple sclerosis. Dr. Cordain is the author of more than 100 peer review publications, many of which were funded by both private and governmental agencies. He is the recent recipient of the Scholarly Excellence award at Colorado State University for his contributions into understanding optimal human nutrition. He has lectured extensively on the "Paleolithic Nutrition" concept world wide, and has written three popular books (The Paleo Diet, John Wiley & Sons; The Paleo Diet for Athletes, Rodale Press; The Dietary Cure for Acne) summarizing his research findings.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#92 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

#92 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 129 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loren Cordain rocks!! December 18, 2011

By jim1961

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

When I was in engineering school there were some professors who were very, very smart but they were lousy teachers. There were also professors who did an excellent job of teaching and they made teaching look easy. Loren Cordain is an excellent teacher. I've read two of his books, now. His books have significantly more technical detail than any other book I've read on nutrition (I've read dozens) and yet it's all VERY easy to understand. It seems that every popular book on nutrition contains some testimonials and I'd like to share my own testimonial.

I read Loren Cordain's first book, "The Paleo Diet" in 2004. I started following the diet right away and lost weight. Then I got lazy and went back to eating the standard American diet (SAD). In 2007 I had blood work done and my doctor alerted me to the fact that my liver enzymes were elevated. They did an ultrasound test and found nothing seriously wrong with my liver. I was relieved but still concerned about the health of my liver. I'm no doctor but surely the liver is a vital organ. Don't ask me why but I still kept eating the SAD diet. My doctor drew my blood every six months for the next two-and-one-half years. Each and every time my liver enzymes were elevated. Last year I decided to follow a strict paleo diet. After 10 weeks I had lost thirty pounds and my liver enzymes were in the normal range. As a side benefit the acne on my back, which I had for decades, had completely disappeared. I hate to use hyperbole but the paleo diet is damn-near miraculous.

If you are new to the paleo diet concept you should keep something in mind. The paleo diet is not an "invention" but actually a discovery of what humans ate for millions of years. The paleo diet mimics the diet "designed" for us by the evolutionary process.... Because this "diet" has been a way of life for millions of years it's ironic that some people call paleo a "fad" diet.

I've given Loren Cordain five stars for this book but I have one minor nit-pick. He could have included a paragraph or two about the significant health benefits of pasture-raised (grass-fed) meat. His first book did a very good job of this and that's where I learned about eatwild.com. This website has very good information about the health benefits of pasture-raised meat, poultry and eggs. Feed lot beef, poultry and eggs are crap and I try to avoid it. At the time of my first reading of Cordain's first book it was difficult to find pasture-raised meat and eggs. In the last few years it has become much easier to find. Pasture-raised beef can be found at every Whole Foods Market. Read more ›

95 of 99 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes my top five rankings, but still has a few weaknesses January 18, 2012

By Konrad Graf

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Among the crop of paleo/primal/ancestral health books, this one earns a place on my top five ranking. It has useful and up-to-date discussions of specific disease conditions and their relationships to nutrition. Since the Paleo Answer is brand-new, it also has the advantage of being able to cite new research since Good Calories, Bad Calories (GCBC) came out.

The book is almost entirely about nutrition. It mentions other lifestyle issues, but only in short treatments, so do not expect the kind of wide-spectrum discussion of lifestyle at the depth available in the Primal Blueprint. I thought the sub-title was misleading. This is not a play-by-play gimmicky diet program. It is a useful applied science book (and sure, if you stop eating nasty toxins, of course you'll feel better in a few days!).

The chapter on vegetarianism/veganism is notably solid and might be useful to recommend to vegetarians and vegans. Moral issues are touched on, but what Cordain really wants to make fully clear in this chapter, and I think he slam-dunks it, is that seeking better health is not one of the reasons to be a vegetarian/vegan [Steve Jobs, RIP].

It is nice to see an author who openly changes his mind and Cordain is quite clear on points on which new evidence or understandings have led him to do so in the past few years. The discussion of vitamin supplements is important. Cordain argues that the most recent studies are trending to indicate that most supplements are somewhere between useless and harmful, but D and fish oil appear to remain positive. I thought his personal stories fit with the content and add to the book (rather than being mere ego digressions), I particularly liked the story related to obtaining clean water.

The chapter on dairy showed some logical weakness.... All of the evidence it cites is from studies of cow milk drinking, but the author generalizes those conclusions to all dairy products. I have had very negative experiences with milk drinking and stopped years ago, but no (noticeable) negatives with cheeses and heavy cream. Clearly there is a major difference created with the separation into cream/butter and the bio-processing involved in cheesemaking. I'm not saying those products are thereby cleared of suspicion, just that they are clearly different in their effects from milk itself and need to be addressed as such. I thought it was a black mark on the logic of the book that this distinction was not addressed at all in the dairy chapter and that conclusions based on milk studies alone were generalized to all dairy products.

Another weakness is the repeated reference to "lean" meats as being recommended. I'm not sure what this is about, but I guess it might be a kind of subconscious artifact leftover from the habit of bowing to anti-fat hysteria. Fat is the primary target of predators and ranks above lean meat in priority of consumption. Traditional societies eat the whole animal and your fellow hunters would certainly be horrified if you started tossing out the fat components of the kill in favor of boring old chunks of dry muscle! Treatments of fat in the Primal Blueprint and GCBC seem to be superior.

Above this on my current nutrition/health rankings are only three volumes: The Primal Blueprint, GCBC, and The Paleo Solution. In sum, that leaves a lot of other volumes in this genre that I am ranking below this one (I've gotten good specific insights from a lot of other books, but the quality and reliability of the advice is much more spotty). I would definitely include The Paleo Answer in a top-five reading program in this area. Read more ›

82 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely Update to The Paleo Diet January 1, 2012

By Paleo Man

Format:Hardcover

For many years prior to 2004, I bought into conventional wisdom regarding diet and nutrition and ate lots of whole grains, as did many of my acquaintances who were striving for good health. The results were disastrous across the board: weight gains, gastrointestinal problems, skin problems, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, autoimmunity and more, a cascade of unaccountable chronic issues. We could not understand how we could be eating such "healthy whole grain goodness" and yet become so sick and fat. Dr. Cordain's original pioneering Paleo Diet book led many of us, including me, to greatly improved health. The science that has been unfolding since has essentially all been pointing in one direction, supporting Dr. Cordain's theories. The scientific support is so strong that you see little of the back and forth, the contradictory study results, that usually accompany unfolding science in peer reviewed journal articles. Yet as always seems to be the case, few of those practicing medicine or nutrition in the trenches seem to have recognized the truths and effectiveness of the principles.

The Paleo Answer is a much welcome update to The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Several years ago, I'd suggested such an update and was told it was in the works. The original book, The Paleo Diet, good as it was, contained some understandable errors of the time that needed revision, such as the suggestion to use flaxseed oil for cooking, when flaxseed oil is far too fragile for that purpose.

Dr. Cordain tends to be a relative purist when it comes to paleo diet principles, and many readers will be daunted when they read the new book and find that so many of their favorite foods are seriously deleterious. Yet there is sound science backing up Dr.... Cordain's assertions, and it all makes great sense when you consider that the foods that science documents as deleterious are those that would have had no place in human diet during the eons over which the human race developed. Other authors and proponents of primal diets tend to compromise more in terms of accommodation for popular conventional foods such as dairy, nightshades, and legumes. I've endeavored to follow the science as reported in journals preceding Dr. Cordain's new book and so far as I can see, he gets the science right, and more important, it works in practice, in real life application.

Following Cordain's relatively strict paleo diet principles, I lost 35 excess pounds in about six months and have not gained any of it back in the 6 years that have since passed. I eat as much in terms of food quantity as I feel like and I never have a problem feeling excessively hungry, so the weight loss and maintenance have been relatively effortless so long as I limit my food selections to those that fit the Paleo profile. GI problems disappeared, skin rashes cleared, obstructive sleep apnea resolved, cardiac arrhythmias normalized, and a recent electron beam coronary artery scan showed a calcium score of zero in my coronary arteries, no measurable arterial plaque. Yet years prior, even conventional CT scans showed mild arterial calcium buildup.

The diet and lifestyle can be especially beneficial for those tending toward autoimmune disorders, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's, scleroderma, autoimmune hepatitis, autoimmune thyroid disease, and others. The few autoimmune patients that I know of who have been willing to institute Cordain's Paleo principles strictly have had exceptional improvements and sometimes complete resolution of all symptoms and signs. Without question, a considerable amount of diligence, study, effort, and expense are involved in maintaining a strict paleo diet and lifestyle. Most restaurant fare and most quickly prepared processed foods are off limits. For many of us, myself included, great efforts must be made to avoid consuming even the tiniest amount of wheat gluten at the risk of provoking a return of symptoms that can last a couple of weeks.

In the big picture of things, we can look at the history of medical science and see that in the period between 1900 and 1960, many acute and infectious diseases were conquered. But since then, in terms of real results, there have been few breakthroughs that treat patients truly effectively for chronic diseases such as heart disease, autoimmune disorders, diabetes or asthma. Incidence of many of those disorders is actually increasing. Something has been missing in the focus of all the admirable science that has been directed at those disorders, possibly because so much has been focused on developing profitable patentable "pills" to provide relief. Dr. Cordain is leading the way to what are and will be a new series of breakthroughs in avoiding and treating disabling chronic diseases. Relief will not be as simple as popping a pill, and only a relative few will be willing to make the considerable effort and to sustain it indefinitely. But the rewards for them will be well worthwhile. Read more ›