First of all, it's perfectly legitimate to claim the theory "like cures like". In other words, if someone has a damaged liver due to some disease, then it's perfectly legitimate to suggest to that person that he should eat healthy, raw livers from grassfed/organic/wild etc. animals as it is reasonably logical to assume that the nutrients from such a healthy liver could be reused by the person in question to rebuild his own liver. So (pastured) raw pig guts would be good for someone with damaged guts of their own etc. Naturally, of course, any such suggestion would have to be accompanied by a suggestion to also eat other raw foods as well - just eating raw liver alone for weeks would not be enough to maintain overall health.
I think think you are correct that the theory of like-cures-like is probably something our paleo ancestors would have believed. Want a strong heart then eat the heart. Want to be more virile then eat gonads. Want to please the gods, sacrifice a virgin...etc... etc. Silly based on what we know today, but mostly harmless - except of course - if you're the virgin on the chopping block.
The key here is your last sentence.
Eating liver alone would not maintain overall health. As paleo we'd most likely be consuming some liver as part of our diet anyway so it should be a mute point. It's the overall package of what we do, not the fact that we consumed some liver. My advice to someone asking would be to consume a wide variety of all parts of the animal as we have evidence that our ancestors did this. If you start to feel better then you've probably filled some of the nutritional gap from your previous diet.
Secondly, one of THE most common questions I've been faced with by RPDers is ":- I have multiple sclerosis/cancer etc., what foods do you recommend. Then, it is perfectly legitimate for me to point to concerns and studies linking grain-and-dairy consumption to multiple sclerosis, linking consumption of heat-created toxins to cancer via more studies etc. It is also legitimate for me to suggest a person eats raw liver if they have liver cancer, as mentioned above.
I agree with everything
except the last sentence. The problems that paleo can help with are overall nutritional deficiencies and eating a WIDE VARIETY of paleo foods (whatever the person accepts these to be) is the proper approach rather than insisting that a specific food will cure a specific health issue. I do believe that it is proper to indicate that a 'wide variety' includes the organ meats like liver, kidney, spleen. heart, tongue, brain, etc as well as the more common muscle meats.
Also, people have asked me and others in the past how to cure a specific infection. Indeed, I seem to recall I did so in the early days. I'd have been most annoyed if I'd never gotten an answer due to overly rigid rules.
I'm not suggesting ridged rules other than to not make claims of specific foods curing specific conditions. We have no proof that most of these things have any value whatsoever, and we don't know the real condition of the person asking the question. My approach leans more towards giving the body the
nutrients it needs to function properly and it will do the best it can to make its own repairs. Magic elixirs and herbal remedies just give people a false sense that they can continue poor behaviors, and then take a 'remedy' that will fix everything. We see this with GS who says that members of his family are facing some health challenges but won't eat paleo. He's attempting to solve the problems with magic herbs and wonder supplements. This is counter to everything that paleo is about.
I find it interesting that GS insists that high fruit intake is a good thing, yet his children are suffering tooth decay. Tooth decay has increased in the USA exponentially over the last few decades as concerned moms want to give their children those wonderful, healthful, vitamin filled, "organic" fruit juices that are just loaded with sugar. Many studies have been done that prove this cause and effect relationship.
As regards herbal medicine, most of herbal medicine has already been widely substantiated in terms of both millenia of folklore and recent scientific studies. About the only herb which hasn't has been echinacea, last I checked. I'll grant that most modern herbal supplements are useless being highly processed, but raw wild herbs such as dandelion and hundreds of others have proven uses, and even herbal teas, provided they aren't heated too much. If you doubt that, try taking any raw wild herb(in sizeable amounts), known to cause excessive urination(I think dandelion counts?) and see what happens!
I think that what as been substantiated is that many of the alkaloids that we have concentrated into pill form occur naturally in plants. I think the point should be that, given proper nutrition, our bodies don't need these alkaloids for health. All that most of these substances do is mask the symptoms but don't do anything at all to correct the underlying problem. I suppose that a tea made from crushed willow bark will help relieve a headache since it contains the active substance in aspirin, however, I've found that I no longer got the headaches when I ate a more paleo diet so the 'natural' plant alkaloids were no longer needed to cover up the symptoms of my previous poor dietary choices.
Re infertility:-Raw oysters have been widely reported by many RAFers in the past as benefitting their sperm-count/sexual activity(and not just RAFers) - I'm just one in a long line. So, again, it's perfectly OK, given that, to recommend raw oysters for infertility/sexual activity, provided it's not a 100% raw oyster-filled diet.
Most of us have found that libido increases dramatically on a raw paleo diet - including one without oysters. You may be correct that non RAFers feel that oysters help in this area, however, if they were eating proper foods in the first place, oysters would not be necessary. They wold just be another raw food in our paleo diet.
Re last paragraph or so:- This demonstrates a rather pro-zero-carb bias as being behind all the recent arguments, re the damning of fruit for hydration etc.. The fact is that most people in the world,define "palaeo" as a diet consisting of fruit, veg, meat and a rawpalaeo version would merely include raw versions of both. Now the ratios of raw plant-food within the Palaeolithic diet may be defined by a member as anywhere from 35% to 0%, but that is up to each forum member to decide.
I see no harm in mentioning alternative healing practices as long as they're put in the off-topic forum where they belong. I mean take the Alexander technique which teaches good posture - now good posture was a characteristic of palaeo times, as they had no chairs and wouldn't have needed any Alexander technique, but we live in an artificial world filled with beds and chairs etc. so may have need for alternative practices that mimic palaeo ways or whatever.
As I said in my previous post, my personal choice has been zero carb and therefore have made my personal bias very clear. I think this is as it should be - no hidden agendas. If you read carefully, you should also find that I indicated that including a bit of fruit on occasion is probably acceptable as well. In fact, when asked for a recommendation on how to transition to a paleo diet, I will recommend a small amount of fruit or even a small green salad be included. The key here being in the word "small", and my definition for this is ONE small to medium piece of whole fruit (or the equivalent, like a cup of cherries, or small bunch of grapes) or (not AND!) 1 to 2 cups of green salad as a snack per day. I think that most of us have found that grains, dairy, and most vegetables (especially vegetable juices) cause major problems. I'm also of a mind that consuming large amounts of modern sweet fruits (or their juices) year round is not the best choice. GS and his family consume large amounts of fruit and juice as part of their normal daily diet. They also seem to be reaping the expected results of this behavior in the form of tooth decay and less than optimal overall health. Magic herbs and supplements will not solve the underlying cause of these problems - you must stop the incorrrect behavior. I know, I spent 20 years of suffering with health issues and attempting to address them with "natural" remedies and can tell you first hand that it is a total waste of time.
Lex
