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Your Health versus that of Big Agribusiness
The Kaptain's Log
by Kaptain Kanada, aka Manuel Miles
[email protected]

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

[This week's Log entry is yet another of Kaptain Kanada's Helpful Household Hints.]

Back about the turn of the century, I co-founded P.E.O.P.L.E. (People Extremely Opposing Plant Life Exploitation) as a "Carnan" counter to PETA and the "Vegans". We advocated the banning of the use of our floral brethren for food, clothing or decoration as such behaviour is unethical predation upon life forms which are completely unable to defend themselves. Plants, we reasoned, can not run, slither or fly away in self-defence unlike animals which have a chance to either fight or flee.

This started out as a bit of a joke, of course, but the more I thought about it the more I realised that meat is not only good for us despite Oprah Dimwit's blithering to the contrary, but it is vital to our health. Articles about nutrition—especially ones about the hunter-gatherer, or "paleolithic" life—increasingly caught my interest.

I had figured out on my own that the shortest people were almost invariably those who ate the least meat. The herdsmen of the north of China, for example, were usually about half a foot taller than the rice farmers of the south. The Africans who keep cattle are all tall people too, and the ranchers of Texas have always been known as being the biggest, tallest folk in the USA.

In England, after the Norman conquest the French-speaking Normans taxed the conquered Saxons so severely that the former ate the animals raised by the latter who could no longer afford to do so. To this day the effect can be seen in the height difference between the Norman-named upper classes and the Saxon-monikored proletariat.

The very language reflects this nutritional caste division: names for animals when they are meat are all Norman French words, while live beasts are called by their Old Saxon names. For example, it's "sheep" when in the meadow but "mutton" on the table, "kine" or "cow" or "cattle" when on the hoof but "beef" when on the plate, and "pig" or "swine" in the barnyard but "pork" in the kitchen.

So why would we care? Well, taller is healthier in most ways, and healthier is definitely better if you want to live a long, full life. Meat is essential to vigour. The question is why is it so? The answer is found in the "paleo" origin of man. As Robb Wolf, the author of "The Paleo Solution" has pointed out, if you consider the time modern man has been around as the length of an American football field (100 yards), people have only been farming and living in cities for the last half-yard. Prior to that, we were hunter-gatherers, or "paleolithic man".

So whether you believe in evolution, intelligent design, or even "Creationism" there's no debate about one thing: we are meant to eat and live as our recent ancestors did because we are still put together the same way. Those forebears ate animals, vegetables that could safely be eaten raw, and fruits, nuts and berries in season. Study of their bones reveals that they were taller than modern man, had no cavities in their teeth, and didn't suffer from obesity, diabetes, Chrone's disease, cancer or cardio-vascular diseases. When food was plentiful they either died from injuries, old age, or the fact that there were other predators who liked to vary their diets with the occasional biped.

Today we are plagued with all the above problems except the danger of being eaten by a sabre-toothed tiger. And the trouble all started as soon as we settled in river valleys and planted crops, especially cereal grains. Oh, I know that we are told that we need several large servings of the "healthy" whole grains every day, but who is telling us that? Is it nutritionists who have researched the history of our species? Nope. It's the God damned government. You know, that same institution that tells us that wars are to protect us and taxes are for highways and hospitals and please don't ask how much goes to "perks" and police statism. That outfit.

And why would they bother? Why have the USDA "food pyramid" (recently replaced, amid much hoopla, by Michelle Obama's "My Food Plate") and the Canadian Department of Agriculture's "food guide" pie chart been flogging massive ingestion of the grains that are sickening and killing us? Because they are up to their rotting teeth in the business of meddling in business, especially agribusiness, that's why. The grain farming lobby is one big taxpayer subsidised boondoggle, folks, and it has as much interest in proper nutrition as the armaments industry has in peace.

Once I got interested in the paleo lifestyle I began to look for articles on it online. I learned a lot, especially from the afore-mentioned Robb Wolf's site, www.robbwolf.com, and I had the good fortune to pick up a copy of his book, "The Paleo Solution", when a friend spotted it on sale at the supermarket. It has changed my life. I really recommend it.

I had been trying for several years to lose the flab that had accumulated at my waist, but without success. I tried reducing the amount of meat I ate, I drank only 1% milk, ate no butter, and tried to fill up on the evil rice, oatmeal, bread, and corn instead. I was always hungry and getting steadily fatter. Since I have (gradually) converted to the paleo diet, I have lost around 25 pounds of fat, gained about five pounds of muscle, lowered my resting pulse from 86 to 68, and reduced my blood pressure to a steady 115/75. For a man in his 60s whose family is plagued by diabetes and heart disease on both sides, this is a very good thing indeed.

And I don't go hungry to do it; I eat until I'm full at every meal. I no longer miss the bread and potatoes because I now can load up on meat and the healthy vegetables (remember: those are the ones which can safely be eaten raw, because paleo man had no stoves and cooking pots) and fruits, nuts and berries. I don't eat any "processed" food and have very little or no salt in my diet. The sugar I get is natural and comes from the fruit and berries. I won't touch "fast food" or "junk food" and I no longer miss them either. My belts have all been tightened to the last notch. Soon I shall have to buy new ones, but I don't mind!

Not surprisingly, many, many of the advocates of the Paleo lifestyle are libertarians. We, after all, are the kind to challenge and doubt and think for ourselves. It's a good habit. With the coming hard times, we need to be as healthy as possible if we are to win the battle for...

...Peace and Liberty.

Kaptain Kanada, aka Manuel Miles, is a nasty old curmudgeon who lives to torment the God damned nation-state, feminazis, mercantilists, Darwinians, warmongers, socialists, global warmites, vegans, abortionists, animal rights nutsos, and the "politically correct" of all stripes. He is not a nice man, and you wouldn't want him for a neighbour—at least, that's what his mother says, and she should know. If something he writes upsets you, he won't care; on the contrary, he'll feel that he has succeeded in his efforts.

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