Last week, I spotlighted the trend of New Yorkers following a Paleo Diet, also known by other names like the Caveman Diet. While I talked about the basics of the eating philosophy, there are some interesting extremes some followers take.
New York is definitely a strange place for one to take on a caveman lifestyle. The most obvious reason is that your surroundings are as opposite as one could get from the vast spaces that real cavemen lived in. Then you also have the fact that New York has literally outlawed hunting and gathering, as residents can’t uproot plants or trap animals in the city’s parks.
“I like New York, but it’s hard to sit in a Midtown office all day,” said Melissa McEwen, who prefers her lifestyle to be referred to as “hunter-gatherer.”
Some Paleo Diet followers take their lifestyle quite literally.
Those Paleo dieters described in the New York Times piece go on occasional fasts, as a way of mimicking their caveman ancestors’ eating patterns. They even have their own slang in regards to the fasting, which could include something like “Are you going for a 24?”, as in the hours one would go without eating.
In another literal miming of the caveman lifestyle, former Navy officer Andrew Sanocki, 38, prefers to workout on an empty stomach and then eat a large meal afterward. This is supposed to be similar to how a caveman may hunt after hours or even days of not eating, and then return home with his catch and devour a larger meal.
But here is where the literal practices get particularly strange. Some people will donate blood frequently as a way of mimicking the fact that cavemen would have lost blood in squabbles, much more than the average American would today.
No word on how this relates to being healthy.
But wait, there’s more.
Vladimir Averbukh, a 29-year-old web professional, sees himself as a pre-Promethean who eats a lot of grass-fed ground beef… raw. This isn’t shared by all of those in the “urban caveman” community in New York. Those who find it strange point to the fact that Paleo man had fire.
While there may be some solid points by pro-Paleo Diet followers, some of these literal interpretations remind me a little of the vampire nerds who live totally submersed in their goth cocoons.
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