I got so many passionate emails after my last newsletter about male vegetarians that I decided to write about the other end of the spectrum---the increasingly popular Paleolithic Diet.

The basic premise of the diet is simple. We should eat only what our hunter gather ancestors ate, because over hundreds of thousands of years, the human body has evolved to perform best using that fuel. Followers of the paleo diet (as it is called by people far cooler than me) eat unprocessed meat, fish, eggs, non-starchy veggies, fruit, nuts, and seeds. They do not eat dairy products, grains of any type, beans, sweeteners, processed foods, or alcohol.

Proponents say the paleo diet increases peoples’ energy levels, helps them lose weight, lowers blood sugar, and reduces cardiovascular risk factors.

There aren’t any statistics about how many people have “gone paleo” but the diet is getting increasingly high profile media coverage, and generating lots of cocktail party conversation. There are also rumors that a number of celebrities are following it.

Consumer products companies are already jumping on the trend. Paleo Foods has launched a line of frozen gourmet paleo dinners, and Caveman Cookies had a booth at the recent Fancy Foods Show in New York.