A review by nileimaj
The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf

3.0

My acupuncturist encouraged me to do the 30 day Paleo trial, and after flipping through this book for several weeks in a row while waiting for my appointments, I figured it was worth trying. So, the short story is, the Paleo diet is great. I recommend giving it a chance. I finished my 30 days and am part of the 50% Robb Wolf refers to as the people who do it 80% of the time and have no problem understanding the concept and following through. So why only 3 Stars? Well, basically, it’s the book. I read the first couple of chapters at my acupuncturist’s office, and skimmed the rest, then I borrowed it from a public library and tried to read it straight through. It was difficult for me to finish, because it’s supposed to be funny and easy to read, but I just found the tone and the jokes to be annoying and distracting. I almost stopped reading the book because I was concurrently reading another nutrition book, Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat, which is infinitely superior in terms of its writing style, explaining the science and history of nutrition and how food is processed in our bodies, and in documenting numerous studies over the last two centuries. If you are a Reader, one who actually enjoys reading books and does it for Fun, read Taubes’ book. It’s heavy reading, but not dull in the least. In fact, it’s pretty fascinating stuff. If you don’t generally read, but would like a crash course on wtf Paleo is, or if you want Paleo recipe ideas, read this one. (However, there are some pretty good Paleo recipe books out there that I would recommend if you really want to start eating like a caveman.) I have been using some of the recipes in the back of the book, and while they are definitely geared toward someone who doesn’t have much experience in the kitchen, they’re a great starting off point. I highly recommend the Paleo Pancakes (egg, nut butter, applesauce, vanilla extract!) and my toddler recommends them too!

I would describe this book as one huge ad for the Paleo diet. The chapters are short, with catchy titles, and there’s a lot of banter. It’s light reading, but it tries to cover some actual science. The end result is a lot of anecdotes ending in cliffhangers, like, “I suggested that he change one small aspect of his diet, and guess what, it worked!” and then a whole section dealing with nutritional science that is pretty garbled and confusing. In fact, I ended up skipping that section since I was also reading about it, in much more detail, in the Taubes book. However, I know people who LOVED this book, and rattle off anecdotes found in the book to random acquaintances (like me), and talk about how the Paleo diet is gonna make them RIPPED! So, there you go.