Four Honest Questions about the Paleo Diet

rgutie1

Hello,

I know there are other threads about the paleo diet but I did not want these to get lost in the sometimes angry debate happening in those threads. I am neither a proponent nor opponent of the diet there are just a few things I want to know from a practical and anthroplogic perscepective. I certainly do not think this is a bad diet nor do I think I would want to adhere strictly to it.

And agan I know these are not hard fast rules but they seem to be popular sentiments;

1) Why more veggies than fruits?

I hear this quite often and I am just curious as to why, is it because of nurtional value? because of fruit access in paleolithic times? I know some paleolithic cultures had little access to fruits but many had abundant access.

2) Why no honey? or more accurately why not more honey?

This was probably one of the most suprising ones to me as honey played a major role as a food source (not just a sweetner)throughout both the paleolithic and neolithic periods. Its abouot as primitive as it gets.

3) Does difference in meal structure make a difference?

This one is me wanting to know more about the diet as prescribed. Part of hunter gatherer lifestyle was a feast-famine dynamic. Kill an animal and you have lots of food but you may not eat much between kills. Infact are brain is hardwired to respond favoribly to the taste of fat because it was beneficial to take in as many calories as possible to make it through till the next kill. Do paleo-dieters do any calorie cycling or anything in that vain to mimic this?

4) How does Paleo "diet" take on grains compare to the actual role of grains in paleolithic culture?

This seems to be the major way in which paleo diets differ from whole food diets. Having some time spent in anthropology circles I know that in many cultures grains were a large part of the paleolithic diet, certainly not as big of a part as the neolithic that was defined by the spread of agriculture but still noticable. During the majority of the palelothic period this to the form of harvesting naturally occuring grains.

Are there other nutritional reasons to eliminate grains, or perhaps is this diet based on specific geographical location or culture during the paleolithic period?

Thank you in advance for your responses and I hope that everyone will remain civil.

Two interesting but divergent additions.

1) I remember reading a journal article in which a paleolithic site was excavated and it was found that all of the individuals had quite worn down teeth. Through careful excavation and analysis they found that the reason was as follows; the villagers collected wild graiins which they ground with (essesntially) a pestel and mortar to make a kind of unleavened bread. However the material that the pestel and mortar was made of tended to break down during the grindig process meaning that this staple food actually had a fair amount of rock in it, therefore degrading their teeth.

2) One theory about the move from hunter gatherer to agriculture is that humans did not domesticate grains, grains domesticated humans. Stay with me, we were largely a nomadic species but in order to tend to our crops we settled down into communities. We then served wheat by caring for it and transporting it to every corner of our planet putting great time and resources into ensuring that in thrived.

vim_n_vigor

I don't have any of the answers to your questions, but it is a very thought provoking post.

TheGoktor

Really interesting post - I look forward to reading the responses.

LuckyLeprechaun

bump, as I have wondered these things before, but you worded yourself quite eloquently.

However, prepare yourself, because even though you took care to word yourself cautiously, I predict you'll be accused of "bashing" in short order...

MeliciousMelis

I'm with the above posters, I don't have answers, but look forward to see what comes of this.

Thank you for posting!

FatUncleRob

2) One theory about the move from hunter gatherer to agriculture is that humans did not domesticate grains, grains domesticated humans. Stay with me, we were largely a nomadic species but in order to tend to our crops we settled down into communities. We then served wheat by caring for it and transporting it to every corner of our planet putting great time and resources into ensuring that in thrived.

Don't want to trivialize or hijack your thread, but I've also read this theory in connection with brewing. (In other words, we were nomadic until we discovered how useful grains were for food AND for fermentation to produce beer. Then we settled down with some bread and a nice pint of ale. )

thegoodner

for anyone interested...you can find most of the answers to your questions here :

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/

Food = fuel. Most of us are no longer nomadic. In fact we are quite sedentary, so the underlying theme is to reduce the need for an insulin response in the presence of excess carbohydrate. That mainly answers the honey, and fruit question in a very simple form. I am not as well educated as many on here who can go deeper than I.

Vegetables offer nutrients, carbohydrates, enzymes, antioxidants, etc etc, and most people who are at their ideal body composition do not worry as much about fruits as people who are in the process of leaning out. Many people do cycle doing intermittent fasting to emulate this reality of earlier men who would not have necessarily had regular meal times. But arguably, these folks would have eaten more fruit, because they were more active in general, and would need these stores for later use by the body.

Grains are toxic raw, and not much better for you cooked. Lecithins, gluten, etc are nasty little things. There is a whole host of information out there that I am just getting into as a newbie. But again, goes partly to insulin reponse as well.

I know this is just skimming the surface. A bunch of folks will give better answers. But I appreciate your post so I wanted to respond. I think that primal/paleo folks are just very passionate about how this lifestyle has helped us. Others see this lifestyle as excluding a whole food group and automatically label it a fad diet. The issue for me is that it is working for me, and my family - and I'm excited to share that! If I choose to get my carbs from fruits and vegetables, enjoy yummy protein sources, and learn how eat intuitively??... well I really don't see the issue. I personally wouldn't knock someone else for their choices if it is working for them and they are happy

Ljc3

Yay I'm curious about the answers to these questions too...

kgool

I guess I am curious too, and wait, the whole beer point is interesting. So can you not drink beer on a paleo diet either? I guess you couldn't eh? Ugh, that will kill it for me.

rgutie1

@Thegoodner

Thank you for your reply. I hope that other people will also be willing to add there 2 cents without either being afraid of attack or going on the attack themselves. I am really interested in people's opinion.

I for one find that I very much enjoy grains and feel good when I incorporate breads, rice, and beans into my diet. And as a Mexican those foods certainly aren't going anywhere.

I am quite sympathetic to your mention of celiacs. For far to long it has been underdiagnosed. While it certainly isn't as well known or accurately diagnosed today it certainly has come a far way. I remember celiacs would often be to correct guess to mystery diagnosis of discovery health back when it was a rare and quirky (probably not the right word) as other common ailments on that show as whipple's triad, but more and more I am coming into contact with people who have or know people with diagnoses of celiacs. And it is good to see that gluten free alternatives are becoming more and more common.

ales1979

bumping for later

bcattoes

I don't have any of the answers to your questions, but it is a very thought provoking post.

Agree!