Michael Pollan, a celebrated food writer is someone with whom I generally agree. We share many platforms, including the benefits of whole food, real food, a high volume of plant food, and a return to cooking. However, he recently criticized the paleo diet and with this, I must take issue.

When I switched diets, some of my friends ridiculed the idea that such a simple diet change could clear up my arthritis. But they were proved wrong when research found how certain foods can set your joints on fire. As far as a clearer mind, well, they’ve caught up to that truth as well…

The Europeans don’t want anything to do with our food, especially our chlorinated chicken, our hormone-treated beef and our genetically-engineered crops. They’re concerned that it would degrade their food standards. Can you imagine if America had food standards?

I admit it, I have a sweet tooth. But I’ve discovered that on the paleo diet I can consume sugar in a way that improves my health, it doesn’t trash it.

We are all facing an energy crisis – a metabolic energy crisis inside our bodies. And if yours isn’t solved you could be facing the even more dangerous complications of energy-sapping diabetes, heart disease, even cancer…

Let’s not romanticize the cavemen: They lived incredibly difficult, short, arduous lives, and they basically ate anything they could get their grubby hands on — including, as some anthropologists have pointed out, grains of various kinds.

Before I went on the paleo diet, my digestive system never did its job without complaint. Constipation, diarrhea, stomach pains and bloating were near-constant companions. Until I forswore the problem foods in my diet, the aftermath of many of my meals were torment.

Have you ever wondered why non-smokers get lung cancer. Well, there’s some research that shows it could have a lot to do with diet, carbs and insulin…

You probably don’t consciously think about color when you plan which foods you’ll eat for your meals and snacks. But you should – it could be making an important difference in your health.

What do you mean you won’t eat spoiled food? Fermented foods have a long, wonderful history in the annals of human cuisine and health. And they may be just what saves you from the perils of modern food…

The ‘incurable’ diseases are not as incurable as you think. I expected to bedridden by now due to my “incurable” disease – secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Yet just one year later I completed an 18-mile bicycle ride with my family. How did that miraculous transformation happen?

One of the chief objections people raise to the paleo diet centers on the fact that our food has changed irretrievably since paleo times. They don’t believe that you can eat a real paleo diet since our meats and produce aren’t identical to what was available during paleo times.