It's Whatever

Perhaps I know why there are so many paleo blogs floating around out there now... that was easily the most hits any post I've written has garnered. Easily. I suppose, were hits the sole metric for gauging my success here, I might take the hint, scramble some eggs with a big pat of butter, and head out the door, sans oatmeal or bread. Then, I should blog about how I have this totally new energy, plummeting body fat levels, and any other health benefit you could think up.

These are the things I would say, because they are the things others say. Paleo diets are, in large part, successful because they offer people a solution well outside the mainstream. "It's not your fault. You didn't over-eat and sit around too much. No, it was the evil grain that got you fat. Now have a steak."

It might sound like I'm mocking these people. But in truth, I don't begrudge anyone their success. Look at any diet book, any nutrition blog, and you will find scores of people claiming that this way of eating fixed everything that was wrong in their life. People who feel better eating no meat, to almost only meat, to any extreme you can imagine.

What works, works. And it's good that they found what works for them.

Coffee, of course, works for me. I bring this up, because, not unlike many food bloggers, I seem something of a militant fanatic for my lifestyle. Drinking coffee, and lots of it, works great for me. And I tend, of course, to think that it should work just about as well for just about everyone else too.

I know this not to be the case, however. It's not that I think coffee is unhealthy. I think the scientific literature pretty clearly supports the opposite being true, in fact. But rather, if someone does not like coffee, or does not feel well when drinking it, then they probably don't need to drink it.

If two different people can lose weight, lower cholesterol, and banish any manner of health problem by adhering to as divergent of diets as exist, then clearly, as if we needed more proof, there is a individuality to the functioning of the human animal. For some, coffee fits in to that picture beautifully. For others, it does not. And though I can hardly fathom that reality, I know it exists.

Which is for the best, really. More coffee for those who want it.