I thought this book was very helpful and believeful and I started out as a total skeptic. I think think these principles are sound, although I find them hard to follow. This book is very easy to understand, even for a lay person and many sports 'self help' books aren't. I find that this book gives enough scientific evidence that makes it good, but not so much that its boring or hard to understand. Definitely a must-have for endurance athletes' reference collection.

I didn't think this book was an easy read. I think many other diet books flow better. I can't imagine eating salmon for breakfast every day!

I have followed a low-carb diet for about 3 years now, and in the last year have gradually become an avid runner. I was looking for info on how to add carbs into my diet to support my running, and this book has specific, useful info on that topic. I do not agree with all of his dietary advice in general (for general info on low-carb diets I would recommend that you read a variety of books to gather well-rounded advice on this diet, as each author contributes a different piece of the puzzle), however I do highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for advice on how to properly integrate diet and sports, or who is suffering some sort of chronic problem during high-intensity athletic training - this book may straighten your problem out, even if you don't currently see it as related to your diet. This book is a valuable and much-needed addition on the topic of nutrition and sport.

Two stars for the Paleo Diet but Zero stars for the "modifications."

I was severely disappointed with this book. I hoped that an athlete would adopt the diet and adapt his training to the demands of the sound science that Dr. Cordain authored with his Paleo Diet. Instead, we have an athlete who has basically adapted the Paleo Diet to the high carbohydrate nonsense that permeates the "endurance world", which leads to good results, but bad health. How many of our great athletes have to continue sacrificing their long-term health for short term goals?

Recovery is not a good enough reason to "adapt" and modify the diet. The goal of training is to race, not more training. I don't think enough athletes understand that. There is a large section in this book about overtraining, but the authors "overcome" this seeming limitation ironically with the very thing that the Paleo Diet attempts to cure us from - - a misplaced reliance on excessive glucose which is responsible for the majority of the maladies that currently afflict us.

"Periodization" is also a problem. I'll leave you this quote by Olympian Gordon Pirie which accurately details the issue:

"Another popular aspect of training which I think is very dangerous is that known as "periodization" - that is, breaking down the training year into various "phases", each of which is divorced from the others. Thus, the beginning of the year may be devoted to a slow distance "build-up", the second portion of the year devoted to hill training, a third part devoted to interval work and then speed training, and finally (though most of these runners never get this far) a racing season undertaken. The difficulty with training in this manner is that you go along quite well with one aspect of training (e.g. long distance running), and then suddenly, on a certain day, "Bang!". You start hill-bounding, or speed-training, or something new, and the body simply is not ready for the change, and invariably, year in and year out, you are more often than not injured. The body should be trained in all aspects of running, all of the time. Only the emphasis should change as you progress through the year; no aspect of training should be entirely given up for any significant length of time. The balance between different types of training (distance running, intervals, hill running and speed training) should be adjusted as the year progresses" Pirie, "Running Fast and Injury Free", Page 86.

This balance can be achieved with adequate rest. When an athlete gives up his dependance on sugar, he will find that he has much more strength and steady energy reserves. Sure, you don't recover as quickly, but this is an indication that training is too hard, and one needs to adjust this training in order to successfully make it to the starting line. The science by Phinney and others clearly demonstrates that athletes, when given sufficient time to adapt to fat burning, were able to repeat their athletic performance. Frequency was a problem, but again, the goal of training is to race, not more training.

I'm disappointed that Dr. Cordain could not find an athlete willing to test his theories with sound and intelligent training, rather than the usual carb-load glucose-laden mess we've been stuck with. There are many low carb runners and cyclists out there who address the issues covered in this book far more intelligently and in a way that does not compromise their long term health as this approach potentially does.

Two stars for the Paleo Diet but Zero stars for the "modifications."



I was severely disappointed with this book. I hoped that an athlete would adopt the diet and adapt his training to the demands of the sound science that Dr. Cordain authored with his Paleo Diet. Instead, we have an athlete who has basically adapted the Paleo Diet to the high carbohydrate nonsense that permeates the "endurance world", which leads to good results, but bad health. How many of our great athletes have to continue sacrificing their long-term health for short term goals?



Recovery is not a good enough reason to "adapt" and modify the diet. The goal of training is to race, not more training. I don't think enough athletes understand that. There is a large section in this book about overtraining, but the authors "overcome" this seeming limitation ironically with the very thing that the Paleo Diet attempts to cure us from - - a misplaced reliance on excessive glucose which is responsible for the majority of the maladies that currently afflict us.



"Periodization" is also a problem. I'll leave you this quote by Olympian Gordon Pirie which accurately details the issue:



"Another popular aspect of training which I think is very dangerous is that known as "periodization" - that is, breaking down the training year into various "phases", each of which is divorced from the others. Thus, the beginning of the year may be devoted to a slow distance "build-up", the second portion of the year devoted to hill training, a third part devoted to interval work and then speed training, and finally (though most of these runners never get this far) a racing season undertaken. The difficulty with training in this manner is that you go along quite well with one aspect of training (e.g. long distance running), and then suddenly, on a certain day, "Bang!". You start hill-bounding, or speed-training, or something new, and the body simply is not ready for the change, and invariably, year in and year out, you are more often than not injured. The body should be trained in all aspects of running, all of the time. Only the emphasis should change as you progress through the year; no aspect of training should be entirely given up for any significant length of time. The balance between different types of training (distance running, intervals, hill running and speed training) should be adjusted as the year progresses" Pirie, "Running Fast and Injury Free", Page 86.



This balance can be achieved with adequate rest. When an athlete gives up his dependance on sugar, he will find that he has much more strength and steady energy reserves. Sure, you don't recover as quickly, but this is an indication that training is too hard, and one needs to adjust this training in order to successfully make it to the starting line. The science by Phinney and others clearly demonstrates that athletes, when given sufficient time to adapt to fat burning, were able to repeat their athletic performance. Frequency was a problem, but again, the goal of training is to race, not more training.



I'm disappointed that Dr. Cordain could not find an athlete willing to test his theories with sound and intelligent training, rather than the usual carb-load glucose-laden mess we've been stuck with. There are many low carb runners and cyclists out there who address the issues covered in this book far more intelligently and in a way that does not compromise their long term health as this approach potentially does.

Two stars for the Paleo Diet but Zero stars for the "modifications."

I was severely disappointed with this book. I hoped that an athlete would adopt the diet and adapt his training to the demands of the sound science that Dr. Cordain authored with his Paleo Diet. Instead, we have an athlete who has basically adapted the Paleo Diet to the high carbohydrate nonsense that permeates the "endurance world", which leads to good results, but bad health. How many of our great athletes have to continue sacrificing their long-term health for short term goals?

Recovery is not a good enough reason to "adapt" and modify the diet. The goal of training is to race, not more training. I don't think enough athletes understand that. There is a large section in this book about overtraining, but the authors "overcome" this seeming limitation ironically with the very thing that the Paleo Diet attempts to cure us from - - a misplaced reliance on excessive glucose which is responsible for the majority of the maladies that currently afflict us.

"Periodization" is also a problem. I'll leave you this quote by Olympian Gordon Pirie which accurately details the issue:

"Another popular aspect of training which I think is very dangerous is that known as "periodization" - that is, breaking down the training year into various "phases", each of which is divorced from the others. Thus, the beginning of the year may be devoted to a slow distance "build-up", the second portion of the year devoted to hill training, a third part devoted to interval work and then speed training, and finally (though most of these runners never get this far) a racing season undertaken. The difficulty with training in this manner is that you go along quite well with one aspect of training (e.g. long distance running), and then suddenly, on a certain day, "Bang!". You start hill-bounding, or speed-training, or something new, and the body simply is not ready for the change, and invariably, year in and year out, you are more often than not injured. The body should be trained in all aspects of running, all of the time. Only the emphasis should change as you progress through the year; no aspect of training should be entirely given up for any significant length of time. The balance between different types of training (distance running, intervals, hill running and speed training) should be adjusted as the year progresses" Pirie, "Running Fast and Injury Free", Page 86.

This balance can be achieved with adequate rest. When an athlete gives up his dependance on sugar, he will find that he has much more strength and steady energy reserves. Sure, you don't recover as quickly, but this is an indication that training is too hard, and one needs to adjust this training in order to successfully make it to the starting line. The science by Phinney and others clearly demonstrates that athletes, when given sufficient time to adapt to fat burning, were able to repeat their athletic performance. Frequency was a problem, but again, the goal of training is to race, not more training.

I'm disappointed that Dr. Cordain could not find an athlete willing to test his theories with sound and intelligent training, rather than the usual carb-load glucose-laden mess we've been stuck with. There are many low carb runners and cyclists out there who address the issues covered in this book far more intelligently and in a way that does not compromise their long term health as this approach potentially does.

Highly informative for all athletes and people wanting to exercise on a regular basis.

Basically it teaches you what, when and how to eat your food so that you get the maximun performance. It also has specific advice on fluids. If you are planning to do regular execise, this is a highly recommended book, even if you are not planning to follow the paleo diet strictly.

This book is packed with some very useful information. I would have given it five stars, but I don't have the knowledge to thoroughly evaluate all the statements made in this book and I feel like there are probably some important points that are being left out. Nonetheless, it has made me aware of some very important and little understood issues relating to performance and diet. As a result of reading this book, I am much better informed and I will definitely be better able to understand additional material relating to nutrition and health.

I have read other books by Joe Friel, and I find that the incorporation of performance related principles from his other books is consistent and very helpful.

This book has really helped me in my quest for iron distance triathlons. The times to eat and the types of foods are very helpful for recovery from exercise. Joe Friel's scientific approach to nutrition is extremely well informed. I have used his techniques and had great results. I highly suggest this book to anyone who wants to increase their fitness level.

These nutritional strategies will help you fuel your body to keep it going longer as you work to build up your endurance.

Not that this is a bad thing, maybe even if your goal is weight loss.

This book has some surprising new angles on diet for performance, and I think it has in fact improved my performance.

I do wish it had more sample menus and clearer examples of what to eat if you're not a huge muscular guy. (The amount of calories assumed by this book is kind of alarming. Maybe if I ate that I really would just get stronger and not balloon to the size of Texas, but I've been afraid to try it all out.) Also wish it offered some healthy alternatives to eat on the bike instead of just Gatorade, which my dentist says is the reason my teeth suddenly went to heck after I started biking (and sipping Gatorade) a lot.

He gives lots of very good information about the non-exercise times food, but then seems to rely heavily on the sports drink for the exercise window. Really? I still have trouble believing this day-glo stuff is really the health elixer of all time. (Even if you don't care about having your original teeth all that much.) Hope maybe he'll revisit that question with the same inquiring spirit as he has the rest of the plan.

Awful lot of lengthy kinda academic discussion of the roots of the diet. Don't care as much as I should. Tell me what to eat and when as simply as possible, please. I'm slow and fat and too hungry from trying to diet conventionally to wade through all those complicated explanations...

Seriously...I was very disappointed that this book did not offer more concrete weight loss help, because I really want to lose weight, but...I think it actually did more toward getting me to genuinely eat well than anything else I've read. And I've read quite a lot. (Almost as much as I've eaten...)

It's genuinely different, it makes sense, and ...damned if it doesn't seem to work. That's really saying something for a diet book these days. Even if its a "go faster" diet book, and not just a "fit in your favorite jeans again" diet book.

Bonus points, however, if the next version could be both.

Nutrition is a key aspect of endurance sports and is discussed in detail by two leading experts in the field, Cordain and Friel. Following the techniques described in this book will resort in better recovery, overall improved health, and improved performance. Based upon Dr. Cordain's Paleo diet, the authors present strategies for proper nutrition and refueling that is revised for the specific demands of endurance training. Highly recommended for any endurance athlete with dedication to improve their lifestyle surrounding their sport. The plan is easy to follow after some adjustments and becomes a way of life!

Nutrition is a key aspect of endurance sports and is discussed in detail by two leading experts in the field, Cordain and Friel. Following the techniques described in this book will resort in better recovery, overall improved health, and improved performance. Based upon Dr. Cordain's Paleo diet, the authors present strategies for proper nutrition and refueling that is revised for the specific demands of endurance training. Highly recommended for any endurance athlete with dedication to improve their lifestyle surrounding their sport. The plan is easy to follow after some adjustments and becomes a way of life!

I'm not one to promote one diet over another, but by way of disclosure I am a vegan (which means I don't consume any animal products) and a competive (though amateur) cyclist. I am also an anthropologist. My main problem with the Paleo Diet books is that they are based in part on flimsy ethnographic and physical anthropological data. Studies of the diets of contemporary foragers (who used to be called "hunters and gatherers") are flawed in their methodologies and result in widely disparate data. They also do not take into consideration the history of most foragers as colonized subjects whose lifeways (including subsistence strategies) have been substantially altered by their domination by neighboring peoples or by the state-level societies in which they have lived for sometimes hundreds of years. In some cases carnivory may be a recent strategy as a result of resource scarcity, and not a time-honored practive dating to our hominid ancestors. We can't assume much about early hominid diet from contemporary forager diets. Moreover, contemporary human populations have occupied specific ecological niches that are distinct from our paleolithic ancestors; no one would expect the Inuit, for example, to have developed a vegan diet since their environment would make that a huge challenge. Likewise, other populations in different environments will have developed distinct strategies for meeting basic nutritional needs. In addition, evidence of carnivory exists in the hominid record; but this does not tell us the degree to which it was important in the diet. Plant-based diets don't leave a lot of physical traces (dentition patterns are one indication of diet). Meat eating may have been the result of scarcity and not preference; it may have aided population genetic fitness (via selection) but not overall health. So behind the "data" there are a lot of contradictions. How this in the end translates into increased athletic performance is another story. If you want to justify your diet on pseudo-science, fine. I would rather justify it on based on results. If this sort of diet (mislabelled "paleo") works, great. If not, try something else. But don't be fooled by the labels.

I'm not one to promote one diet over another, but by way of disclosure I am a vegan (which means I don't consume any animal products) and a competive (though amateur) cyclist. I am also an anthropologist. My main problem with the Paleo Diet books is that they are based in part on flimsy ethnographic and physical anthropological data. Studies of the diets of contemporary foragers (who used to be called "hunters and gatherers") are flawed in their methodologies and result in widely disparate data. They also do not take into consideration the history of most foragers as colonized subjects whose lifeways (including subsistence strategies) have been substantially altered by their domination by neighboring peoples or by the state-level societies in which they have lived for sometimes hundreds of years. In some cases carnivory may be a recent strategy as a result of resource scarcity, and not a time-honored practive dating to our hominid ancestors. We can't assume much about early hominid diet from contemporary forager diets. Moreover, contemporary human populations have occupied specific ecological niches that are distinct from our paleolithic ancestors; no one would expect the Inuit, for example, to have developed a vegan diet since their environment would make that a huge challenge. Likewise, other populations in different environments will have developed distinct strategies for meeting basic nutritional needs. In addition, evidence of carnivory exists in the hominid record; but this does not tell us the degree to which it was important in the diet. Plant-based diets don't leave a lot of physical traces (dentition patterns are one indication of diet). Meat eating may have been the result of scarcity and not preference; it may have aided population genetic fitness (via selection) but not overall health. So behind the "data" there are a lot of contradictions. How this in the end translates into increased athletic performance is another story. If you want to justify your diet on pseudo-science, fine. I would rather justify it on based on results. If this sort of diet (mislabelled "paleo") works, great. If not, try something else. But don't be fooled by the labels.

This book changed the way I look at nutrition. I have always been active and eaten a decent diet, but I knew I was too heavy on sugars and carbs in general. When I got into triathlons, I got Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible, and it turned me onto the Paleo Diet.

Since both authors have advanced degrees (Loren Cordain has a PhD in Exercise Physiology and Friel a M.S. in Exercise Science), it is heavy on science. The authors base their claims on numerous sources, and reference these sources throughout.

The basic premise is that the way we currently eat is contrary to how our bodies evolved over the millions of years prior to agriculture. Lean meat, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables should be our staple, with a small twist. Paleolithic man could never have been a high level endurance athlete, as he just wouldn't have gotten enough carbohydrate to replenish his glycogen stores after a long or very intense workout.

This book, then, makes adjustments to the standard Paleo Diet to include certain types of foods normally not allowed during SPECIFIC periods of the pre and post-exercise window.

Post Script: Though I don't like to comment on others' reviews, I feel I must say that I don't agree with the assertion that the book doesn't place enough emphasis on when to eat the foods you eat. After the intro, the entire first few chapters are exactly that: What types of food to eat, and EXACTLY when to eat them.

This book changed the way I look at nutrition. I have always been active and eaten a decent diet, but I knew I was too heavy on sugars and carbs in general. When I got into triathlons, I got Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible, and it turned me onto the Paleo Diet.

Since both authors have advanced degrees (Loren Cordain has a PhD in Exercise Physiology and Friel a M.S. in Exercise Science), it is heavy on science. The authors base their claims on numerous sources, and reference these sources throughout.

The basic premise is that the way we currently eat is contrary to how our bodies evolved over the millions of years prior to agriculture. Lean meat, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables should be our staple, with a small twist. Paleolithic man could never have been a high level endurance athlete, as he just wouldn't have gotten enough carbohydrate to replenish his glycogen stores after a long or very intense workout.

This book, then, makes adjustments to the standard Paleo Diet to include certain types of foods normally not allowed during SPECIFIC periods of the pre and post-exercise window.

Post Script: Though I don't like to comment on others' reviews, I feel I must say that I don't agree with the assertion that the book doesn't place enough emphasis on when to eat the foods you eat. After the intro, the entire first few chapters are exactly that: What types of food to eat, and EXACTLY when to eat them.

Paleo Diet for Athletes

A lot of what Dr. Cordain says (The Paleo Diet) makes sense -- basically, from the time of humanity's existence, 10,000 years is a short time to make adaptations in the way our bodies have evolved. Agriculture and dairy products, for instance, just happened in the past 10,000 years.

I won't go into the details of the hunter-gatherer diet that Cordain mentions. I believe that there are also other diets out there are similar (in fact, probably identical) in both reasoning and implementation (i.e., Evolution Diet, and other hunter-gatherer diets out there).

The Paleo Diet part gets 4 stars, and the additional star goes for the "for Athletes" part.

What makes this book different is the "... for Athletes" part. (On a separate note, the title would have been more apt if they said "ENDURANCE Athletes" instead, as other non-endurance athletes could probably be recommended the regular Paleo Diet by Dr. Cordain, or the other similar ones by other authors.)

I have always watched endurance athletes take down gobs of pasta and carbohydrates. And with that, assumed that Joe Friel, a premier coach of endurance athletes (just check out his "Bible" series books and his website), I assumed that Joe Friel was another carb junkie. Apparently, he WAS. Note, "WAS" is the past tense.

Dr. Cordain introduced him to the Paleo diet, and though Joe was hooked, he did some modifications on the diet for endurance athletes. And that's where this book stands out from other hunter-gatherer diets out there. (If you want to know more about hunter-gatherer diets, do a search for similar books here in Amazon and read the reviews. And a bit of search 'round the internet wouldn't be a bad idea).

I particularly like Joe's modifications in what he calls various stages: what to eat before exercise (both a few hours before, and immediately before), during exercise (obviously only applicable to endurance athletes in multi-hour events), and after exercise (further broken down into the first half-hour after, the succeeding hours or so, and the long term recovery strategy via nutrition). And that's what makes this book worth it, especially for endurance athletes and those regular blokes who work out or exercise everyday (those who put in maybe an hour or more of exercise a day). By the way, this is good for "regular" endurance athletes as well, not necessarily marathoners and other ultra-distance racers, or ironmen triathletes (i.e., this book is still perfect for "sprint distance" triathletes as well... and also 5k and 10k fun-runners).

Friel is especially keen on making sure the nutrition strategy gives one optimum performance (for either an exercise session or a race), as well as the all-important recovery (so you can go hard again in your next training session -- IF that is what you have scheduled).

I find it amusing that I know what parts Friel wrote, and what parts Cordain wrote, simply by reading. Maybe it's because I have Friel's other books that I already know his writing style, but it was easy to see which parts were written by whom.

I cannot comment if the Paleo Diet is better than The Evolution Diet (but, truth be known, I don't have The Evolution Diet), but I assume they're similar to the point of being nearly identical, as are PROBABLY all other hunter-gatherer diets out there. I cannot comment either on who has written a better book, or a better explanation, or a better implementation of the hunter-gatherer type of diet. But it is only The Paleo Diet for Atheltes that has a collaboration with an "endurance athelete guru" (i.e., Joe Friel) that addresses the needs of athletes. If you fall into that category, you will surely like the part that Friel contributed, especially the various stages of pre- during, and post-exercise nutrition strategy.

I bought this book because my diet was already headed in the Paleo direction without anybody's book telling me to do so, but also because Joe Friel's web site recommended it. That made me curious about the details of why I should eat that way. I have slightly elevated blood pressure (pre-hypertension), and managed to bring it down from an average of about 129/84 to 124/81 or so just by eating low-sodium (I already was riding my bicycle 150-300 miles a week, so clearly more excercise wasn't needed). After having real trouble finding low-salt foods, I discovered that the produce section was my best friend, and the fresh meat/seafood section too; that was pretty close to Paleo already. But I was still eating lots of grains and beans, and this book convinced me to go full Paleo for non-sports reasons. Now I seem to be recovering much quicker and no longer have any of those rides where my legs are dog-tired. I've also gotten a bit leaner, though I was already at just 8% body fat. I then bought his first Paleo Diet book and read that. I now have pretty much gone completely Paleo, with some intentional lapses, and I don't really follow this second book so much. I follow his first book with its non-athlete orientation primarily to maintain my health as I get older, but I find that I can eat a Paleo omelette for breakfast, and ride for three hours with no sports drinks or gels (though I do bring dried fruit for any ride over three hours, and sports drink for long races or very hard training rides). Leaves me wondering if this second book was really needed. I strongly recommend his first book, and this one only if you're in the Ironman Tri, RAAM, or something extreme like that.

Best diet book I read so far. I lost 10lbs the first week and I was amazed how easy this is. Highly recommended!!

Very informative and layed everything out nicely. I'm going to order the Paleo diet book as I'm not a long distance athlete and more into the crossfit type training. This book would seem to be easily applied to gaining strengh/Muscle with a couple small "tweaks" as the authors put it.

The authors play a rather silly game of exclude the middle.

They start from the premise that most endurance athlets overconsume refined grains to the exclusion of dietary protein and veggies. This isn't necessarily incorrect, I've seen endurance athletes do that very thing. I've done it myself.

Therefore, endurance athlete should go to the opposite extreme and eat lots of lean meat and fibrous vegetables and some fruits. Basically, a retread of Cordain's Paleo Dieting thing.

Except that somehow they then shoehorn recent research into pre/during/post workout nutrition on top of that. They argue that this will optimize endurance performance.

Apparently the idea of eating sufficient protein AND vegetables AND digestible carbohydrates was lost on them.

As well, they apparently forgot to look at data on the Kenyan runners who routinely consume 70% carbs and 10% protein and seem to be doing ok performance wise. Or the Tarahumara indians who eat massively high carb intakes and are known for their prodigious running abilities.

Don't get me wrong, I think many endurance athletes get insufficient protein and eating plenty of veggies should be a huge part of any athletic diet (or any healthy diet for that matter). But let's not pretend that you can't eat sufficient lean protein, plenty of vegetables AND get sufficient digestible carbohdyrate (from grains/etc) to support the monstrous training volumes common to high level endurance programs.

IMO, their recommendations would make far far more sense for strength/power athletes who simply don't have the carbohydrate requirements of long-duration endurance athletes.

If Paleo people were so fit and healthy why do authors of this book put so much empahsis on importance of sports drinks? How about soda bicarbonate to improve one's performance, or caffeine? So where do we draw the line? Either promote NATURAL way of nourishing our bodies or lets have a list of supplements (as long as they are still legal) to give an athlete the edge. Too bad our ancestors did not have access to energy jels.

I was excited to try the Paleo Diet in conjunction with a general fitness improvement plan. However, I was slightly disappointed by the fact that the book is focused almost entirely on endurance athletics. Barely a mention is given of Paleo in conjunction with weight training or general weight loss.

The book does give lots of details for implementing the Paleo way of eating for intense athletes, so it's a great book if you fit that category.

Regardless of fitness level, there are many tasty sounding Paleo recipes in the book, so it will be a good companion to the original Paleo Diet book even if you're not a high-volume athlete. But for beginners, I would recommend the original Paleo Diet book first, because it is geared more towards general fitness and weight loss.

And one thing that I like about both of Cordain's books is that they have an extensive bibliography of references, so you can be sure his research is backed-up with lots of research.

I was excited to try the Paleo Diet in conjunction with a general fitness improvement plan. However, I was slightly disapponted by the book in that is is almost focused entirely on endurance athletics. Barely a mention is given of paleo in conjunction with weight training or general weight loss.

The book does give lots of details for implementing the Paleo way of eating for endurance athletes, and that's probably one of its strong points.

I probably need to go back and read the original "Paleo Diet" book which is targeted towards a more general audience.

Nutritionist Loren Cordain created The Paleo Diet, and here teams with USA triathlon and cycling coach Joel Friel with The Paleo Diet For Athletes, a guide to using the premises of the Paleo Diet in the course of training. Runners, cyclists, swimmers and more can make easy changes using The Paleo Diet, which gives guidelines for what to eat before, during and after a workout or competition. Recipes included.

What books like the PaleoDiet and The Evolution Diet (by JSB Morse) are saying is that our modern culture and lifestyles have veered from the path that our human bodies were evolved on. It is a very common-sense premise since one can see how unnatural our diets and exercise routines have become, but it is something that escapes us when we get bogged down with our everyday lives. Simply, we must revert our diets (and exercise routines) to fit prehistoric man's or we are bound to be unhealthy.

To do this, as the book explains, is to coordinate not only what one eats, but how and when to eat it. The Evolution Diet has a good principle on how to appropriate one's diet that goes something like this: sugary foods during exercise, high protein after, and high fiber foods the rest of the time. Of course, what is meant by sugary foods is not Skittles or M&Ms. Apples and bananas suffice to give one the boost before and during a workout.

While the PaleoDiet is a great read and very insightful, it is missing a few points here and there. The science behind our diets is good, but I was often left wanting more. I also found that the concept didn't place as much emphasis on when you eat the foods you eat and more so on what you eat. Overall, though, the book is quite helpful and entertaining enough to keep you interested in learning more.

It is a straight forward, easy to understand book that does a good job of showing that the Paleo diet is not a fad diet, but a well balanced diet with the focus on proper nutrition. If you're new to the Paleo Diet concept, I suggest getting this book. To complement the concept of healthy life style I strongly suggest adding "Can We Live 150"