I read some of the responses and I like the fact that Mark Sisson focused on the bigger picture of what actually works for most of his clients and readers rather than the reductionist debates in the blogosphere over which is the most important single factor - insulin or leptin or calories or something else (like Mark, I have been noticing increasing claims in the blogosphere that leptin is the main villain rather than insulin). He then does concede that he focuses on insulin, but says it's only because he finds this focus works for his clients rather than to claim that insulin is the only factor or to win debates in the blogosphere.
I also like that Tom Naughton focused on what actually works for him and how the growing fad that starches like rice, potatoes and pasta work for everyone didn't work for him. Chris Masterjohn also recently noted that he tried sweet potatoes and didn't fare well on them:
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Paul-Shou-Ching-Jaminet-Perfect-Health-Diet-Review.html. So it seems that one size does not fit all.
People like easy magic cures and sound bites and diet book authors are basically forced to prescribe a single approach for everyone, but what it seems to boil down to is each individual finding out what works for them. If there were one thing I would like to see more emphasis on in Paleo and traditional diet books and blogs I think it would be this and warnings along the lines of "the basic diet approach I recommend in this book/blog may not meet your specific needs and you may need to customize it to better suit your individual needs, which means doing the hard work of tracking the effects of foods on your body, listening to how your body responds to foods, and educating yourself on recognizing signs of food sensitivity and nutrient deficiency, learning about potential dietary pitfalls, getting exercise and sufficient sleep, learning about posture and other health topics and maintaining a rich social life." Being assigned work to do is not what people want to here, but in my experience it has paid dividends.
On the other hand, it may be good that someone somewhere is debating the minutiae in case it generates some new insights and some of these debates spark my curiosity now and then.
One thing I wonder about from this debate is whether the success some (not all) people (such as Matt Stone) report from intermittent leptin refeeds or overfeeds could be due to some sort of natural fractal effect along the lines of how some (not all) report benefits from intermittent sprinting, intermittent heavy-weight-lifting, intermittent fasting, etc.?
