I am headed to the Ancestral Health Symposium tomorrow to hear a few of my friends present their thoughts on diet and lifestyle. For those of you that have not been plugged into the Paleo scene, the AHS is taking place on UCLA’s campus this Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th.

The website states, “The Ancestral Health Symposium fosters collaboration among scientists, healthcare professionals and laypersons who study and communicate about health from an evolutionary perspective to develop solutions to our modern health challenges. About the Symposium is presented by the Ancestral Health Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating healthcare professionals and laypersons  on ancestral lifestyle dynamics. This year’s inaugural event has been produced by a hobbyist volunteer model, utilizing the strengths of various individuals who proudly live an ancestral lifestyle. This model has helped keep the cost of attending the symposium low.”

I am looking forward to hearing Robb Wolf, Mat Lalonde, Body Eaton, Loren Cordain, Gary Taubes, Steffan Lindeberg, Michael Eades, Robert Lustig, Erwan LeCorre and several others speak about the benefits of prehistoric diet and lifestyle.

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I have said many times that I do buy into the religious doctrine that seems to have surrounded the Paleo in recent years, but the performance benefits I have seen in myself and those around me is proof enough. I know my thoughts on diet are can be at odds with some Paleo powers but I am looking forward to hearing a great collection of thinkers on evolutionary medicine.

Thinking about the AHS brings me back a few years to when I attended Berkeley, I was talked into taking a Rhetoric of Poetry class by Will West. Will was one of my favorite professors and talked me into taking this “incredible” class on poetry. I worked harder for that C+ than any other class I took at Cal and sadly, only remember two things.

One – Where the Side Walk Ends by Shel Silverstein is still my favorite collection of poetry

Two – “As for the primitive, I hark back to it because we are still very primitive. How many thousands of years of culture, think you, have rubbed and polished at our raw edges? One probably; at the best, no more than two. And that takes us back to screaming savagery, when, gross of body and deed, we drank blood from the skulls of our enemies, and hailed as highest paradise the orgies and carnage of Valhalla.” by Jack London is still my favorite poem.

Jack London’s poem conjures thoughts of primitive times. To quote Genghis Khan, “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.”