The Paleo Manifesto Quotes

“George Carlin: “The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the Earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the Earth plus plastic. The Earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, ‘Why are we here?’ Plastic … assholes.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Even though a strict reading of a Paleolithic diet would include cannibalism, it is a practice that I have to discourage. Modern people have a much higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids due to their grain-based diets; carry a wide variety of chronic infections; have destroyed their liver with excessive consumption of alcohol and fructose; and contain many environmental toxins. That said, if one were to incorporate cannibalism into ‘eating paleo,’ it would be healthiest to eat people who strictly adhered to the guidelines in this book.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“wild animals in captivity and humans in civilization share an important quality: we are both examples of species living outside their natural habitats.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“In the middle of the breakup I had an epiphany: If I got fewer than eight hours of sleep, it felt like my world was coming to an end. But on the days when I got more than eight hours of sleep (and exercised), I was able to put it all behind me. It blew my mind that my entire outlook on a relationship could be so noticeably influenced by my bedtime.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“A holistic, habitat-based approach to human health is long overdue.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“the food movement needs people who can do the dirty work: hunt wild boar, gut deer, eat invasive species, try insects, raise animals the right way, and pay for ethically raised meat. That role falls to us.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Effective antibiotics are a linchpin of modern medicine; without them, it all falls apart. We are financing the creation of virulent biological weapons that one day may be turned against us. This alone should be sufficient reason to create more hygienic conditions for animals.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“What we do to many factory farm animals is dishonorable in the same way that carelessly wounding an animal while hunting is dishonorable.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Believe it or not, countless generations of children finished their supper before the advent of Kraft Mac & Cheese and ice-cream sandwiches.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“vegetarianism perpetuates (or even exacerbates) mental disorders.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“In 2012 a landmark German study found that vegetarians are considerably more likely to have mental disorders than people who eat meat.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“the very people who clamor the loudest about animal suffering won’t actually pay for meat that has been ethically slaughtered.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“there are serious environmental and ethical problems with the industrial food system.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Vegetables you’ve grown in your own garden just taste better. Meals that you’ve cooked yourself just taste better. And yes, animals that you’ve killed yourself just taste better.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“There’s actually a straightforward solution to invasive species: Eat ’em!”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“the most ethical option is not to stop hunting animals, but to re-enter the food chain and replace the predators that we displaced. To be good stewards of such ecosystems, we have an ethical obligation to become surrogate predators.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“When animal rights activists or moral philosophers try to draw moral judgments about wild animal populations, they often suffer from a bad case of “Bambi Ethics” or “Bambi Environmentalism.” They apply human morals to nature in a superficial way, without considering the actual ethical or environmental consequences of their actions.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“if getting a good night’s rest is sufficiently important for high priority missions in outer space, it should also be important for all of us here on Earth.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Avoid sunscreen! Regular sun exposure reduces risk of melanoma.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Turn down the thermostat. Let the air be a touch cold rather than a touch hot. Others can choose to wear extra clothing if desired. This also improves alertness and saves money.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“running an entire marathon burns only about 2,600 calories, the equivalent of a day’s worth of food. Even worse, body fat is a remarkably good way to store energy: a pound of body fat contains roughly 4,000 calories. That means losing a mere ten pounds is the caloric equivalent of running 13.5 marathons.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Habitually barefoot societies have lower rates of just about every major foot problem—flat feet, athlete’s foot, plantar warts, plantar fasciitis, bunions, corns—many of which are practically nonexistent.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“The demands of standing, walking, and running have literally shaped the entire human body from head to toe.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“our society seems to have become ever more risk-averse, full of helicopter parents who try to shield their children from all risks—which is impossible—rather than purposefully exposing them to reasonable risks.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Fermentation is right up there with cooking as one of the most powerful methods to transform food.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“This approach was typical of the Industrial Age: inadvertently removing something essential for human health, discovering it was essential for human health—and then developing an industrial method to add it back in.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Eating a Paleolithic diet is not about historical re-enactment; it is about mimicking the effect of such a diet on the metabolism with foods available at the supermarket. There was no one diet eaten throughout the entire Paleolithic, nor is there a single diet eaten by contemporary hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherer diets can vary substantially depending on the geography, season, and culture. Even so, the commonalities among hunter-gatherer diets provide useful parameters for a healthy modern diet.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“Listening to vegetarians talk about the benefits of a plant-based diet, it can be hard to separate health claims from ideological, ethical, or environmental claims. At various times it has been claimed that vegetarianism can end world hunger; end food cravings; reverse global warming; reverse heart disease; reduce violent crime; reduce cholesterol; improve the sex drive; reduce the sex drive; end sexism; cure cancer, and usher in the Age of Aquarius. Apparently soybeans grow best in bullshit.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“It’s also probably not a good idea to cook meat at extremely high heat, as charred meat has many toxins.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health

“An increasing number of devices allow people to collect data about themselves: blood sugar levels, the number of steps taken each day, and sleep cycles. It won’t be long before checking blood work will only require a relatively inexpensive device that plugs into a smartphone, not a visit to the doctor’s office. The cost of sequencing the genome continues to drop, and soon it will be as unremarkable as taking a fingerprint.”
― John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health