In the new products list I got in November, a source for raw cocoa beans is listed. I understood AV didn't recommend any chocolate at all, instead carob is a substitute. Does anyone know if he has changed his stance on that?
He doesn't usually recommend onions or garlic either or a number of other "foods", but every once in a while he recommends something unusual to someone. I get this perspective from talking with many primal dieters who have personal diet plans from him, one at a time. Maybe cocoa beans are on the list; because he has recommended cocoa as some type of treatment to a couple.
Right. There is a huge difference between promoting a product as
health forming and saying something can function as a specific tool for particular conditions or just simply be a minor vice in moving along on a health path. If someone is bit by a snake, it makes very little reason to fuss over toxic properties of the antidote. Seems to me the essence of AV's teachings are less pressing versions of this concept..using foods and larger aspects of diet ( fat burning etc..) to heal problems and remove compounds that were non existent in nature and go beyond the scope of a traditional diet.
To my knowledge cacao is seen more or less as toxic by AV but so is any kind of cooking or most processing pretty much unilaterally as well, despite popping up here and there in recomendations. People dwell on Aajonuis mention of breads and cooked starches and some of these appear on those product lists. So what?
What it comes down to is certain things are ultimately not important in the context of doing the crucial steps for increased health, and part of the whole point of what makes Aajonus approach unique is its emphasis on tools and processes indifferent to what can be simplistically labeled as "natural" as these approaches did not work for either him or his clients over decades of practice.
By and large he is against powders, oils and almost all heating and processing, but the things that happen to be (in his opinion) exceptions from such things are based on
objective analysis of what works for a modern person..and not about
blanket theories of good or bad. Oils, juices, and blenderized things feature sometimes even prominently. The big truth is these things can work to balance or nurture in ways that other foods cannot and should not be defacto criticized without actual analysis of the results.
Because, unlike with other dietary gurus, his advice has (sometimes though not all the time) proven very useful to people as regards improving their health.
Mostly people seem to react unnecessarily negatively to what are basically specific suggestions for people with extreme conditions...so if they don't work or arn't necessary on the individual level people are always free to eat whole foods and disregard such things. Often times maybe these thigns do lack evidence or are just plan wrong, at least on their indiviodual level, but if it works for
one person its worth having an open mind. In my analysis, what is more obvious is more often than not people ARE NOT
honest about what level of health these 'purist' decisions bring and will for whatever reason hold on to theories about what
should be best. Since there is no pretention of following a diet that is completely natural in Primal Diet, just that basic understanding and flexibility presents a far more healthful mindset while following the necessary steps to get well - steps which coincidentally can easily be skipped entirely on many interpretations of a raw whole foods diet..hence vegan interpretations etc...Of course any extreme diet -primal or purists - can also lead to
obsessions over doing the 'right' thing, and AV is probably very responsible for that in some ways.
In a nutshell, people miss the whole point as to what factors and
important process are for healing. A little even knowingly toxic (if that turns to be the case) chocolate is far more healthful than diets that don't specifically tackle disease, no matter how 'natural" or raw.
Yeah, chocolate is definitely both paleo and raw... 
Was this bumped for some relevant reason? non-raw and non-paleo discussions are allowed on this board and in this sub-forum.
Its possible to process 100% raw cacao, its just rarely done as it is not profitable and its effortless to label most processing raw and get away with it. Certainly the cacao fruit/nut is far more ancient/paleo than a kiwi, broccoli etc..
