The caveman who went to Liggett:
Farms native nabs book contract

As New York Times Sunday Style trend stories go, the one that featured Grosse Pointe Farms native John Durant early this year wasn't the silliest ever, but it might be in the top 10: With a photo of Durant and two friends posed in a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History, the three were announced as "new age cavemen" who seek better living through the embrace of their hunter-gatherer ancestors' lifestyle. Despite living in New York City, these urban Neanderthals eat mostly meat, exercise in high-intensity intervals (to mimic how early humans might have fled danger), run barefoot and otherwise try to hold at least some of civilization's corruption at bay.

I started trying to arrange an interview with the graduate of the University Liggett School ('01) and Harvard University ('05), but had to get in a very long line behind, among many others, Stephen Colbert, who had Durant as a guest on his show about a month after the story, along with every other journalist in the world and a fair number of women with celiac disease – gluten/wheat intolerance – many of whom thought they'd finally met their dream man. ("Most of them had photos attached," Durant said.) Not to mention several literary agents, one of whom helped broker a book deal in November for the 27-year-old. Working title: "Live Wild: A Survival Guide to the Modern World."

Durant finally broke free for a Grosse Pointe Thanksgiving with his parents, Clark and Susan Durant, and agreed to meet for coffee. The caveman arrived sporting a short growth of beard, an unbarbered haircut, a jacket made of animal skins and …

Are you wearing flip-flops? In November?

These are huarache sandals. They're for running. I ran in these this morning.

And your feet don't get cold?

They started out cold, but they warmed up. The idea behind barefoot or minimal-sole running is to get you landing slightly on your forefoot instead of your heel. It reduces the impact on your joints and your body. It uses the arch of your foot and the bend of your knee to absorb energy.

Do barefoot runners have fewer knee problems?

Yes. I started a barefoot running group in New York, and we have tons of people who say, "Oh, I used to have knee problems, I used to have shin splints, plantar fasciitis, all those things, and the barefoot running made them go away."

So how did this all get started?

I guess it was about a year out of college. I was working as a management consultant. Like a lot of folks who are suddenly a lot more sedentary, I wasn't very happy about my health. I was not getting enough sleep, working too much, very little sun, not enough exercise. I was drinking too much, eating takeout all the time. I didn't want to just go on another diet. It wasn't about weight loss as much as it was about energy and mood. I thought I should be able to have a consistent mood throughout the day, not so dependent on whether I had a meatball sub for lunch or not. My brother sent me an essay by Art De Vany, who says that, genetically, we are still hunter-gatherers and that essentially lies at the root of why we're not adapted to the foods we're eating and why we're not adapted to a sedentary life. To me, this really clicked. It wasn't just a fad diet. It was about what it means to be human. So I gave it a shot. I threw out processed foods, grain products, dairy, sugar and basically went with seafood, meat, vegetables, some fruit, eggs. And I got great results – my moods evened out, my complexion cleared up. I lost 25 pounds in two months.

Obviously, with such an immediate reward, you're going to get deeper into it.

A lot of the working out I integrated (with the diet) pretty much right away. And that working out was a lot of high-intensity interval training. People think they have to do moderate exercise to burn calories. It's not about burning calories, it's about building up muscle mass so that your muscles are burning energy.

Running from predators.

A lot of that is tongue-in-cheek. The New York Times picked those parts out.

But you don't take yourself all that seriously.

I'm able to laugh at myself.

And you have a freezer of meat in your apartment?

You should see it. It's a thing of beauty. It makes buying good meat in bulk easier.

Do you hunt?

No, but I've taken a deer-hunting seminar.

You were brought up in the deer-hunting capital of the world, and you have to take a seminar in New York?

I know, I'm embarrassed. But my dad and grandfather weren't hunters, and I didn't learn. I've field-dressed a deer, and I've done target practice and gun safety, but I still need to actually go do it. It's pretty lame to be a hunter-gatherer who doesn't hunt.

I guess the huge irony here is that you've chosen this lifestyle in one of the most urban areas in the country.

The point is not to go back and live as a hunter-gatherer. It's to learn the key behaviors that kept us healthy and then we can combine that with the best of the modern world and civilization. New York is actually a good place to lead this lifestyle because one, there is good food there, and good farmers markets. Two, there are lots of people, and more people who eat like I do. People tend to be very open-minded and tolerate folks who are doing things a little differently. This lifestyle is not about being a Luddite.

In my life, I have never had so many people telling me what to eat. It's the low-carb people, the locavores, the organics, the vegans. And they all have the gut certainty that they're right. How do you sell this to people in a way that isn't off-putting?

The way I talk about it is, if you have a health problem that you're struggling with, try it. If it solves your health problem, keep doing it. If you are happy with how you are eating, keep eating that way. I won't look down on you or give you a hard time about it. Food isn't just about optimal health. It's about socializing and tradition and lots of things that have importance for other reasons. There are a lot of situations where I won't eat perfectly paleo. If I'm a guest at dinner, I will eat whatever is served. If my niece makes a sugar cookie for me, I will eat a sugar cookie.

This is Thanksgiving weekend. How are you going to eat Thanksgiving?

I will probably have mostly a paleo meal, plus some pumpkin pie.

Because man does not live by meat alone.

Right.

See John Durant's blog, or follow him on Twitter and Facebook. His book is not scheduled for publication yet, but he hopes it will be on shelves by 2012. Watch his appearance on "The Colbert Report" here.

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