Paleo Diet

The core problem Aajonus identified in the Paleo approach was its carbohydrate content. In his framework, carbohydrates are only needed at approximately 5% of total dietary intake, corresponding to the 5% role of citric acid or carbohydrate in the citric acid cycle at the cellular level. He cited work from Columbia University showing that when the body produces glycogen from carbohydrates, it generates advanced glycation end products (AGEs) that store in the body at a rate of 70% in a healthy person and up to 90% in an unhealthy person, such as someone with diabetes or kidney problems, and that these AGEs remain stored for a lifetime. He described this as the mechanism by which skin shrinks, dries, and deteriorates with age, and as the reason fruitarians develop thinning and fragmenting bones: the citric acid and fruit sugars trigger the body to pull calcium and other minerals from bone and tissue.

A diet too high in carbohydrates, whether from fruit, starch, or glandular tissue rich in glycogen, produced this same degenerative effect over time. Aajonus was consistent in applying this critique not only to vegetarian and fruitarian diets but also to dietary frameworks like the Paleo diet that he considered excessively carbohydrate-forward relative to the fat-dominant model he advocated.

The specific characteristic of Paleo dieters that Aajonus repeatedly noted was their emphasis on consuming large quantities of glands and organs. He observed that "the Paleos like to eat a lot of glands and organs" and that this produced a very particular physiological and behavioral profile: "They're hyperactive and intense. Intense people." He described them as having "too much nervous, chaotic energy" and stated directly that he could not and did not want to handle people in that state.

His own practice with glands and organs was restrained and situational. He ate glandular and organ meat, but not frequently. He described using it only "when I feel a little weakened," at which point he would grind up a buffalo heart, pig heart, or beef heart and mix it half and half with other meats such as chicken or fish to get "extra strength and extra energy and charge from it." He framed this as a targeted intervention, not a regular dietary feature. His reasoning was that the concentrated hormonal and enzymatic activity in glandular tissue was appropriate for someone living an intensely physical outdoor life, like a hunter, but that for the typical person seeking calm, stable, regenerative health, eating large quantities of glands regularly would overstimulate the system and produce exactly the hyperactive, chaotic energy profile he associated with Paleo dieters.

Aajonus consistently grouped the Paleo diet with the Instincto diet when making this critique, treating them as variations of the same fundamental error. The Instincto diet, in his description, operates on the principle of eating whatever one has the smell and taste for, which he observed invariably led people toward 60 to 70% sweet fruit consumption because "everybody wants something sweet." He cited a specific case of a woman who had been extremely malnourished, essentially resembling someone from a concentration camp, who went on the Primal Diet, gained 50 pounds, and was doing well, but was then intellectually converted to the Instincto diet by someone in her circle. She began eating large quantities of fruit, lost all the weight she had gained, and was dead within a year. He used this case to argue that following instinct in a body that has been damaged by decades of cooked food and toxicity is not reliable, because the instincts themselves have been corrupted.

He also recounted the case of Elnora Van Winkle, a researcher who had worked at Milhouser Labs at New York City University Medical Center for nearly 40 years, studying neurological compounds in the body. She had been on the Primal Diet for two years and was doing well at nearly 80 years old, but then decided she wanted something "more natural" and transitioned to an Instincto diet. She died within months of making that transition. Aajonus presented this as direct confirmation that even a body that had been rebuilding on the Primal Diet could not sustain itself on the carbohydrate-heavy, instinct-driven eating pattern of the Instincto framework.

Aajonus contrasted the Paleo and Instincto approaches with what he described as the correct macronutrient ratios derived from the citric acid cycle: approximately 80% fat by caloric intake, 15% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. He pointed to the Eskimos as a real-world example of this ratio in practice, noting that they ate approximately 80% of their calories as fat, with almost all the remainder as protein, and consumed virtually no vegetable matter, fruit, or grain except occasionally in summer. He also pointed to a tribe he encountered in the Philippines who lived almost entirely on raw fish and coconut, with fruit appearing only once a week or once a month in the form of a green banana or green mango, and who were "thick and strong," not the lean, energy-depleted people one might expect from a very restricted diet.

On his own diet, Aajonus kept fruit to 5% of total food consumption, and he described needing to maintain that ceiling strictly because when he was cleaner and less toxic, even 10% fruit caused him to become either sleepy or hyperactive. He described this as a calibration that each person needed to make based on their individual toxic burden and metabolic state.

Aajonus offered his own physical capacity as a testimony to what his diet could produce compared to the Paleo approach. At the time of the recorded workshops, he was in his 65th year, sleeping approximately three and a half to four hours a night, working from 3:30 in the morning through to 9 at night, seeing patients from 8 in the morning to 9:30 at night, and continuing through night hours as well. He framed this level of sustained output as possible specifically because of "this particular kind of a diet," which he then contrasted directly with the Paleo and Instincto diets, saying those approaches could not produce the same result due to their carbohydrate excess.