Some Thoughts on the Paleo Diet
Filed under: Nutrition
I have had several requests recently from readers to comment on the Paleo diet that seems to be all the rage in many internet nutrition communities these days.
First lets try to define what the Paleo diet is, as there seems to be several variations of it.
According to Wikipedia:
“The modern dietary regimen known as the Paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the “Paleolithic diet” also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the “contemporary” Paleolithic diet consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils”
There are many variations in which some allow dairy, some allow some processed oils, while some only allow raw Paleolithic foods, and on and on it goes.
The fact of the matter is there isn’t one true “Paleolithic diet”, there are just estimations based on anthropological evidence. Modern hunter-gatherer societies have thrived on vastly different dietary intakes. Many of these cultures lived on tremendous amounts of dairy, starchy tubers (sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc), fermented grains and other “Neolithic foods” that are usually not allowed on Paleo diets. Yet these cultures remained almost completely free of the “diseases of affluence” that the Paleolithic diet aims to avoid.
While many Paleo advocates claim it is not so, the fact of the matter is that there is plenty of evidence that humans have evolved in the past 10,000 years. Many humans have evolved a tolerance to lactose and gluten for example.
Many Paleo followers believe that since the average Paleolithic man was thought to consume 19-35% of calories from protein, 22-40% from carbs, and 28-58% from fat, those are the numbers that provide the benefit. Unfortunately for them, many modern hunter-gatherer societies have thrived on diets differing greatly from these numbers.
So is it really the macro percentages? Or the exclusion of grains, or dairy, or other real food that generations of humans have thrived on? I think not. The benefit from this diet comes from the fact that it focuses on people eating REAL food. While I don’t agree with some of the foods it says to avoid, I will agree with (mostly) avoiding sugar, refined flours and industrial vegetable oils.
The point is that it isn’t the numbers, or the potatoes, or even the dairy that lead to our ever-increasing health problems, it is our over-reliance on processed foods that are high in nutrient-empty sugar, refined flours and industrial vegetable oils. History shows us that humans have thrived on tremendously varied diets, and definitely not just on Paleolithic foods. The common theme among them all is that their intakes were all based on real, whole, minimally processed foods.
For those who want to dig a little deeper, the write up on wikipedia is quite good on the Paleo diet.
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Posted on March 8th, 2011 by Brian St. Pierre
20 Comments
March 8th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Brian,
Very fair-minded presentation. You are right that the main thing is to avoid the worst Neolithic agents: sugar, refined flour, and vegetable oils. Throw in soy as another no-no, and grant that lots of people have NOT adapted to gluten and lactose, and we’ll call you an honorary paleo!
March 8th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Hi Brian,
I’ve been following your blog for a long time. It has been interesting to see your views subtly shift in certain areas over time, and I always admire it that you are constantly refining and updating your views.
It’s validating to see you reach many of the same conclusions that I have about nutrition. Every time you have released a post about eggs, saturated fats, vegetable oils, sugars, or preparing grains I think you are spot on and it shows that you are continuously learning new things.
I don’t believe that macronutrient ratios are that important, although low-carb eating seems to be effective for people with metabolic derangement. As you say, too many healthy cultures have lived off a wide variety of macronutrient ratios to say that any certain one is the best.
I also don’t believe that all neolithic foods are damaging such as dairy, and properly prepared grains and legumes, although I think most people would be better off avoiding grains and legumes because of the poor nutritional content and plant toxins.
Without a doubt eggs and tubers, including white potatoes are health promoting foods, even though not necessarily “paleo”.
Over the last 6 months or so, there has been a major shift to making paleo a little less ideological and more evidence-based, and I think this is where these changes are coming from in the paleo community.
Have you read ‘The Perfect Health Diet’ or checked out the blog: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/ ?
I think they have the best grasp of nutrition I have read in a book, highly recommended.
I’m bummed out that you’re no longer at CP, I’m going to be interning there this summer and would have liked to talk with you about nutrition stuff!
Best,
Tyler
March 8th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Great post—unfortunately, “Paleo” is getting as fanatical and irrational as the groups it opposes, for lack of a better description. I like your scientific viewpoint of including what is healthy based on how if affects us…and not if it was, or wasn’t, in our diet 10,000 years ago.
March 9th, 2011 at 5:55 am
Just came upon your site from Smitty’s. I enjoy your writing and presentation of information, it is very balanced, but doesn’t compromise your beliefs.
You are spot on with the healthy eating bit, if people ate smart, stopped going crazy about diet and stopped eating the processed food they would be healthier.
I am living in Norway right now, and the food choices here are much more wholesome then in the states, bread has a 2-3 day expiration date, milk lasts about a week, meat is at least 25% pasture fed, as a whole the diet is much more agreeable. The problem is all of the fast food that is becoming popular; Obesity, metabolic diseases, ADD and ADHD are all on the rise here. With dedication and education It can be turned around, people need to educate themselves. Intelligent approaches like yours are the way to fix this problem
March 9th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Brian,
With all due respect, I think you are misleading the facts of the diet itself looking too much at “variations” of the diet. Let’s see:
“There are many variations in which some allow dairy, some allow some processed oils, while some only allow raw Paleolithic foods, and on and on it goes.”
Strict Paleo does not allow dairy, if a person chooses to consume it is up to them. The raw food diet is called “Warrior Diet” and it is not the same as a Paleo Diet. The main proponents or authors of the Paleo Diet do not promote dairy.
“The fact of the matter is there isn’t one true “Paleolithic diet”, there are just estimations based on anthropological evidence.”
Why do you use anthropological evidence as base to analyze the diet? Why not use molecular biology as a base to analyze the diet? Do you even know what lectins are? Do you realize the damage that gluten causes to the gut lining?
“Many of these cultures lived on tremendous amounts of dairy, starchy tubers (sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc), fermented grains and other “Neolithic foods” that are usually not allowed on Paleo diets.”
Sweet potatoes, yucca root, potatoes and so forth are all part of the Paleo Diet. If a person chooses to go low-carb Paleo then they are told to limit these types of foods. They are a very healthy source of carbs nonetheless.
“While many Paleo advocates claim it is not so, the fact of the matter is that there is plenty of evidence that humans have evolved in the past 10,000 years. Many humans have evolved a tolerance to lactose and gluten for example.”
Please state your references. Humans have 99.999999% identical genes as their ancestors thousands of years ago. Why should evolution grant tolerance to lactose and gluten? It should be noted that some tribes and cultures DO handle lactose, THEY are adapted to it.
At least you grant some validity in the way that eliminating processed foods makes people healthier, but I’ll sugest following the Paleo Diet ala Robb Wolf, Matt Lalonde, Chris Kresser kind of way (science supported approach) rather than as an evolutionary diet.
March 11th, 2011 at 6:13 am
Thanks Glenn!
March 11th, 2011 at 6:19 am
Tyler,
I appreciate that, as I certainly try to maintain an open mind and am always trying to learn as much as I can.
While I have not read the Perfect Health Diet, I did actually contribute some money to the making of the movie version of it, so I agree with your assessment.
I come down to CP from time to time, so maybe I will see you there!
Brian
March 11th, 2011 at 6:20 am
Mike,
Unfortunately yes it is. Thanks for the kind words!
March 11th, 2011 at 6:22 am
Trevor,
You absolutely nailed it. Hope you stick around for a while!
March 11th, 2011 at 7:15 am
hmart,
With all due respect your idea of the Paleo Diet is not everyone’s idea of the Paleo Diet. Calling it strict Paleo just furthers my point, any lifestyle diet that has to be so “strict” is not a sustainable nor enjoyable lifestyle. People don’t like to feel penned in.
As for the anthropological evidence, that is how the Paleo diet was started! That’s why it is called the Paleo diet! Loren Cordain really popularized the diet, and the basis of his work was estimating the dietary intake of our Paleolithic ancestors.
While I appreciate your condescending question, yes I do know what lectins are. This is why I recommend when people do eat grains, they eat sprouted grains, as the lectin and other anti-nutrient content is drastically reduced.
I also know all about gluten, and yes it can damage the lining of the small intestines, but this is not nearly as common as Paleo followers make it out to be. Roughly 40% of the population carry the allele to be susceptible to gluten problems, though actual gluten sensitivities are much lower. I do not recommend people just crush cereal grains all day, and if they do, I again recommend things like Ezekiel products, as they have a lower gluten content.
According to Robb Wolf and others, starchy tubers like sweet potatoes should really only be eaten after training. So yes I guess you could call this a “part” of the Paleo diet, but there are severe limitations to its inclusion.
I was simply providing my THOUGHTS on the Paleo Diet, not a referenced journal article, so I apologize for not referencing all of my statements. I think it is pretty self-evident that many populations, northern Europeans for example, have developed an ability to digest lactose, even as adults. There are clearly people who tolerate a high wheat intake without any problems as well. I fail to understand how this isn’t self-evident?
Evolution grants tolerance to these items because hundreds of generations of these people consumed them, adapting to their intake. Humans are not fully defined by their genes, and their adaptations that take place that have little to no bearing on our DNA. For more information on this read Chris Masterjohn’s series on Genetics: Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
While I agree that those authors have a more evidenced-based approach, they are still only looking at a slice of the evidence, not all of it in its totality. That is simply a fact.
March 11th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Great information Brian! I liked reading your reply to hmart as well. That helped clear a lot up as I was wondering what your thoughts are on gluten. So many people make it out to be the devil. Would love to see you expand on it in a future post if you can as I will certainly be following you from now on and passing it on to my personal training clients. Thank you!
March 14th, 2011 at 6:12 am
To the commentor above: the Warrior diet is essentially an intermittant fasting diet. That’s the main trait of it.
Great post, Brian. The paleo cult really is laughable.
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January 9th, 2013 at 3:36 am
In my opinion people look way too much into diet.
The difficulty is educating people, overcoming psychosocial habits related to food and ensuring healthy whole food options are accessible and affordable.
Getting people to start making healthy changes regarding their diet is a challenge in itself. Further limiting their food options just makes the whole process more difficult to enact and maintain. Additionally, paleo diet is expensive which in itself (money) is a major reason people choose a Big Mac, fries and coke over more nutritious whole food options.
If you have made a dietary change that has bettered your health who am I to criticise it in the context of your personal circumstances. I just don’t think getting everyone to eat paleo is the answer.
Make eating healthy affordable and accessible to all, improve our food production process and educate the population before you start limiting people of foods that have next to no evidence to be bad.
That’s just my two cents and I apologise if I have offended anyone. I respect all your opinions just don’t necessarily agree with them
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