It&#x27;s hard to quantify happiness or flourishing or whatever we define as the ultimate goal.<p>That said, it&#x27;s quite clear that infant mortality, occasional starvation or death from minor infections and other paleolithic norms are not a benefit to whatever we define as the ultimate human goals. It&#x27;s equally clear (regardless of quantification) that obesity, depression and suicide rates, loneliness, impostor syndrome and other features of 21st century life are not of benefit to us either.<p>I&#x27;m fairly sympathetic to the view that if you moved people into a &quot;natural&quot; setting for a few weeks or months where they gather food, live in close contact with natural cycles like daylight and weather and expose their bodies to the stresses of such a lifestyle, than many of these modern pathologies dissipate. I&#x27;ve experienced this (like many people report) when camping or trekking even for a few days. I am also inclined to accept (in a general way with few absolutes and much room for exceptions) the hypothesis that this is an evolutionary heritage.<p>Look Brother jacquesm… I agree that people get overblown with their health ideology and that it can get silly. We don&#x27;t really want to be paleo or even know how. But, it&#x27;s based on ideas that are interesting, appealing, and not nonsensical. So what if people get a little overexcited about them. You should listen to me when I get into a good futurism conversation. Your friend is looking for a way to live better and her approach is sensible. We also need a couple of puritans and extremists among us, as long as they&#x27;re harmless. Someone needs to bear a flag and find out where the logical limits of some idea is, like Richard Stalman does for Free Software..<p>TLDR, sometimes we (people) get a little carried away with theory. But overall, these paleo ideas are nice ideas. They&#x27;re intelligent, reasoning about ourselves as evolved beings and actively working to alleviate some of the ills. It&#x27;s way more interesting (and sane) than most things people get passionate about. Ever visit HN when open vs private offices gets discussed?