John Durant Quotes & Sayings

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

Avoid sunscreen! Regular sun exposure reduces risk of melanoma. — John Durant

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

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

Evolution is amoral. Just because something is natural doesn't make it morally good ("the naturalistic fallacy"). Conversely, just because something is morally desirable doesn't make it true ("the moralistic fallacy"). — John Durant

Fermentation is right up there with cooking as one of the most powerful methods to transform food. — John Durant

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

Fevers are a mixed blessing. They damage good tissues in the body, and some runaway fevers end up killing people. Also, for as long as people have had fevers, they've used herbal medicines (including ones containing the active ingredient in aspirin) to relieve them. But it's also possible that ancients knew something we don't: that helping along a fever may actually be beneficial. — John Durant