This makes me sad. I used to be a big fan of the Paleo movement - before even the main players started selling candy and other products, starting the rapid decline.
Now I feel that even the greatest Paleo guru of them all, the awe-inspiring Mark Sisson, is cashing in with some disregard for where the money comes from, or the long-term effects to his brand. Check out the image above, that just ended up in my inbox.
Mark is selling chocolate bars with caramel coating - sweetened by purified Monk fruit extract, an artificial sweetener like Stevia.
Rest assured no Paleo people ever sweetened their food with purified super-sweet Stevia or Monk fruit extract. Nor did they ever eat chocolate bars with caramel coating to get their daily dose of "grass-fed collagen". Paleo or Primal? Not so much.
But that's not all. Order your sweetened chocolate bars today and you also get something else you need. We all know modern life can result in a lot of chronic stress, that's not healthy for us. So what's the solution? Return to a more "primal" lifestyle? That may be too hard, so why not just pop some " Primal Calm " pills that will relax you.
I kid you not.
This thing with products is a slippery slope, and the ad above is from someone who has slided quite far. Here's the result to his brand, measured as Google searches for "Mark's Daily Apple" from 2006 (to the left) up until now. Quite sad really.
PS
Every health and fitness site has to struggle with the question of how to fund themselves in a trustworthy way. It's not easy. Originally on our Swedish blog, when we got started, we used to have ads and sell vitamin D supplements, etc. It never felt great, and we've stopped all that.
To avoid the slippery slope we've decided to never sell any products, not take industry money and not show ads. Instead we're fully funded by the people via an optional membership, to keep our interests aligned. We'll do everything we can to not start the slide. Because clearly even the best can fall far.