A Libertarian’s Take on the First Ever Ancestral Health Symposium

by Karen De Coster

I just returned from California, where I attended the first Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles on the UCLA campus, which Dr. Loren Cordain, an early advocate of the Paleolithic diet, has described as "the Woodstock of evolutionary medicine."

Indeed it was – plenty of minimalist shoes, bare feet, pony tails, shaved heads, colorful clothing, muscle shirts, ripped bodies, anti-state talk, food choice advocacy, fat-fortified beef jerky, and wonderful waist sizes. However, instead of smoking pot and dancing naked, most of us were busy polishing off all of the wonderful, grass-fed food being passed out, for free, by US Wellness Meats. Considering the campus cafeteria and its mostly slop food – aside from the salads, which were overpriced and required a long wait in line – I discovered that I had a choice of either nibbling at the US Wellness beef jerky, pemmican, and grass-fed cheese all day, or settling for a couple of days of involuntary fasting. Actually, I did a little bit of both, and indulged in satisfactory provisions at local restaurants each evening.

Readers not so familiar with this movement will ask: what exactly is ancestral health? The Ancestral Health website describes it this way: "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." The conference speakers and attendees included MDs, scientists, PhDs-to-be, medical school students, health and medical writers, authors, fitness specialists, nonconformist nutritionists, filmmakers, psychologists, bariatric specialists, bloggers, health hobbyists, lifestyle writers, and intelligent laypeople who understand that they don’t need a special degree from the education establishment to learn about, and live, the ancestral health lifestyle.

The ancestral health audience is often synonymous with the paleo culture (Paleolithic-type lifestyle/diet); the primal lifestylers as championed by Mark Sisson; the real foodists (natural, whole foods; not industrial-chemical concoctions); and the eco-agricultural lifestylers (such as those who associate with the magnificent Weston A. Price Foundation). I would describe the ancestral health movement as a force for educating people in order to equip them with the intellectual tools that are necessary to deny the conventional wisdom of the special interests and the government-medical corporatocracy so they can become accountable for their own health and life. This movement strives to educate people through science – and so many people do so much hard work for free, and that is because it is a purely grass-roots movement dedicated to spreading knowledge and helping others through voluntary and cooperative efforts. I know, that sounds mighty darn libertarian, doesn’t it?

More: http://lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster183.html

A Libertarian’s Take on the First Ever Ancestral Health Symposium

A Libertarian’s Take on the First Ever Ancestral Health Symposium

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

AnCaps In Science, Technology & Environment