THE GREAT GRAIN DEBATE. PLEASE READ.

Was it the French or the Italians who invented espresso? Not sure, although espresso sounds suspiciously Italian. Each record gives us different answers. Some record says, the first espresso coffee maker was invented by Louis Bernard Babaut in 1822 along with Edward Santais, who was the marketer of machine in 1843. It got the publicity in 1855 at the Universal Exposition in Paris. According to the records, in an hour a coffee maker can produce one thousand cups of espresso coffee using steam to force water through coffee held in the filter. Every new invention has to bear risk and this espresso coffee maker was not an exception. It had a tendency to blow from time to time and sometimes it burned the coffee too. The initial espresso coffee makers weren't so easy to use. Operating them required some degree of skill and it left plenty of room for diversity. The intensity of the heat & the length of time were controlled by the operator and the water valve remained open. The coffee users could put in less coffee grounds & obtain strong coffee or use more water & get a diluted one. Further records credit Luigi Bezzera, a manufacturer, with the invention of Espresso in 1903. Bezzera wanted to make coffee faster, so he added more pressure due to which 'Voila' the Fast Coffee Machine was born. This machine made coffee faster and better than any other machine. The machine invented by Bezzera used the force of steam to push water through a fixed filter containing coffee. Even though Bezzera was skilled in inventing, he was lacking in the marketing talent to promote his creation. In 1905, Desidero Pavoni purchased the rights of the espresso machine and the product was successfully marketed, changing the way everyone drank coffee. The coffee makers were sold throughout Europe by Pavoni. Franceso Illy created the first automatic espresso coffee maker. In 1935, Illeta invented the coffee maker and used compressed air instead of steam for his machine. The problem of exploding espresso coffee makers was solved by this machine & gave a more stable result. The espresso coffee maker invented by Achille's Gaggia bears his name in 1945. The lever action was included in his invention and even today we can get the modern versions of both Illeta and Gaggia espresso coffee makers. An electric rotating pump was created by Ernest Valente in 1950. The pump allowed a continuous, even flow of water through the coffee maker. In 1970's, Illy went on to simplify the espresso coffee maker process, when he introduced a machine that combined the best parts of previous espresso coffee maker methods. His machine used double filters, which costs less than other coffee makers and was simple to use. Super automatic espresso coffee makers were born in the 70's. Now they are the standard coffee makers in many countries. The machines continue to evolve. The debate over which methods and which machines produce the best espresso will be going on as long as people continue to enjoy their cup of Joe. However, espresso is old school-- all true coffee cognoscenti know that to get the best coffee flavor from the best single-source beans you use: fresh, light to medium roasted beans ground using a mill grinder, filtered water at 190 to 200 deg F (not boiling!) in a French Press, grounds steeped for about 4 minutes, then drink it black. Pure coffee goodness. So we owe the French for the very best coffee experience after all.

Very well said, guys. I obviously don't speak for everyone, but over the course of my majorly geeky life of learning shit, the foremost true thing has always been: the more you know, the more you realize you don't actually know all that much. Nutritional science has long been impeded by the insufficient mathematical precision afforded it from biology. Lucky for people who like to know things, biomath is trending and maybe one day in the not so distant future, we'll have models rigorous enough to map the myriad chemical reactions involved in nutrient consumption, while factoring in genetic predisposition. These things take time to understand. A personal anecdote: really trivial stuff that I worked on in 2009 on protein knotting is juuuuuuuuuuust now, 3 years and multiple grad student theses later, conclusive enough to publish in the AMS monthly. And it's not even all that conclusive. Feynman said something to the effect of, "If you think science is certain - that's just an error on your part." Put loosely: shit's complicated. Until you know that you know something, experimentation reigns supreme. You get to play scientist - which is FUN, right? It's sort of like when you were a kid and you would use your pocket knife to slice your finger open so that you could look at your own blood under the lens of your microscope, only it hopefully involves less blood loss and more rippling abdominals. If we stop trying to say that any particular thing is true forever and ever, under all circumstances, no matter what - THE END, and we instead work to find best-fit models, it takes some of the heat out of this conversation. Which is exactly what this post says and does, and thus, bravo.

How does one reconcile their love of french wine, distaste for crousaints, love of espresso and distaste for incompetent military strategy? I prefer to remember the French supporting our founding fathers rather than the Maginot Line. Imagine the French Riveria rather than the undercity of Paris. Start my morning sipping a delicious espresso instead of getting crousaint flakes all over a nice shirt. There are some things that I love about the French. Gluten and Military Prowess are not included.

Thanks for this post! I'll get to reading all the links later this evening. For me, it has been difficult reconciling my Chinese heritage and not eating steamed rice (or any other dish at a typical Chinese restaurant). It literally feels like I am giving up a part of myself. Trivial when compared to much larger issues in our world, but it is such a conflict for me. We've been Paleo for 12 days now and my body feels good. Better than when I was eating grains? Not sure yet, not enough time to tell. But even without the rice I am still alive and kipping (well, that awkward movement I make which would slightly resemble a kip) so that's a good sign. WANG

it's like ROUS's i dont think they exist.

One of the points of the Challenge is to find out how these things work for YOU. Like Travis, the last time I seriously undertook a Paleo Challenge I noted several good health outcomes, including normal blood lipids (first time ever), decrease in blood pressure from pre-hypertensive to normal, decrease in body fat, my psoriasis and dandruff cleared up, less daytime sleepiness, decrease in need for meds to control restless leg syndrome (yes, Nick Conn, it’s a real thing :-)), and probably a couple other things, too. Once the Challenge ended and I reverted to wheat, grains, tortillas, etc., that stuff started to come back. Hard to say whether it was the lack of wheat, the lack of dairy, or some combination of everything, but I know how it affects me. Nobody’s going to die by foregoing wheat for a couple of weeks, so consider the Challenge an experiment to see how limiting some of these items works out for you. Claw

great post guys. I'm going to show this (well, maybe just parts) to my husband to see if he'll join me for a few weeks of the challenge.

Word. I can tell you that my firsthand experience on this feels compelling. My hands used to crack and bleed until I did my first paleo challenge in January. Then they were healthy until June, when I caved and had a few beers to celebrate an awesome day of rock climbing. Guess what happened to my hands a few days later. Yup. Cracking again. And it wasn't the climbing, I do that all the time. I haven't been diagnosed with any kind of autoimmune disease, but I know from experience that my life is better when I do not eat wheat. Thanks for the comprehensive post, T&E.