SHOCKING!!! Health Screening Vegetarian to Paleo Comparison

kandienicole

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

Keep doing what you are doing! You tried to present a different lifestyle to people to show them what could possibly change for them of they want to ever go in that direction. The world needs more people like you who get excited and want to inspire others...and less people that feel the need to trash others all the time. I feel bad that some people have berated you so much...forget 'em, girl!

bcattoes

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

I think it's awesome that you have found what works for you, but it is possible to eat real food without following a Paleo diet.

jknoell

I can't believe all the negative posts!!

Cassie, you rock. You've inspired me to eat AND exercise outside of the comforts of my own shallow box. I've tried Crossfit b/c of you, and I'm trying a modified Paleo/real food diet b/c of you. I'm realizing that I'm motivated by you not just b/c you lost weight and gained muscle, but b/c you are a fighter. You kick serious *kitten* every day - even on your bad days, you kick *kitten*! Enough with the negativity on this post - you found something that worked for you and that is FANTASTIC!! Maybe paleo will work for me, maybe not. It doesn't matter - this whole journey is how we all support each other while on the same path! We try new things because obviously the old things didn't work for us (they are what got us in this unfortunate spot to begin with). I support you, girl, b/c you support me! ROCK ON!

Corryn78

It's really nice having a place to go for encouragement when something positive happens. :huh:

SanteMulberry

So your numbers went from good, to still good, and... I'm not sure I follow, all of your numbers, while having slight variations, are all in exactly the same range. A change of 3 or 4 points is really quite negligible in most of those categories, especially when the old numbers were already in the healthy range.

I don't see how this proves anything, other than the actual diet you eat is irrelevant, as you went from one extreme to the other extreme, and you remained, basically the same.

This was my thought exactly. You're still in the healthy ranges for all of your numbers, a few points here or there really aren't a big change.

If you prefer paleo to veggie than great, you've found something that works for you, but your biometric numbers and health scores are basically the same.

One of the biggest issues people have with Paleo/Primal is the amount of fat (and meat, to a somewhat lesser extent) that's in it. Everyone's first reaction is "OMG! You're going to clog your arteries and have a heart attack!" The fact that her biometric numbers have not only gotten worse, but have in fact gotten better, even when staying in a healthy range, is evidence to the contrary. And even though it wouldn't be considered scientific, perhaps enough of such reports would prompt the "real scientists" to do some actual studies.

What's funny about the "conventional wisdom" on eating saturated fat causing heart disease is that medical researchers have known that it is false---for MANY years. If we ate no cholesterol at all, our livers would still create cholesterol---it is critical for many functions in the body. Eating starch and sugar cause an increase in inflammatory cytokines and heart disease is caused by those inflammatory processes. High levels of C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation in the body) are closely linked to heart disease. Atherosclerotic plaques contain cholesterol, but THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT CHOLESTEROL CAUSES THEM. Your body actually uses cholesterol to "plaster over" the minute lesions formed by inflammation on the inner lining of the blood vessels. Chronically high blood sugar creates heart disease. That is why diabetics have a much higher rate of heart and vascular disease.

AggieCass09

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

I think it's awesome that you have found what works for you, but it is possible to eat real food without following a Paleo diet.

I never said "paleo is the ONLY way to be healthy" I just presented some numerical parameters of what has worked for ME. Never did I say "vegetarians are wrong"--i WAS a vegetarian for several years and don't think that at all. It just didn't work for ME personally.

geebusuk

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

I've lost weight, gained a bit of muscle, got better heart rate etc while having a stable diet of ready meals.
Should I put my story forward because it 'worked for me' and hope to spark people into thinking "maybe I should consider basing my diet on ready meals"?

Me, personally, I don't like the association of the word 'real' with 'unprocessed'. The two concepts are different to my mind.

KittieLea

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

yes, how dare you introduce a real lifestyle change? Please, let me stay on my diet of Lean Cuisines, oxy pro-elite, and keeping my cals under 1200 each day while doing cardio only.

ChrisRS87

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

I think it's awesome that you have found what works for you, but it is possible to eat real food without following a Paleo diet.

I never said "paleo is the ONLY way to be healthy" I just presented some numerical parameters of what has worked for ME. Never did I say "vegetarians are wrong"--i WAS a vegetarian for several years and don't think that at all. It just didn't work for ME personally.

I love the internet, we take what you say, put words in your mouth, then disprove and discredit you based on what we said you said. I know you said that you lost weight following Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me diet, but I think you cheated and got liposuction followed by gastric bypass! Shame on your for trying to get us to eat McDonald's when you couldn't achieve your results with surgical help!

:happy:

fastforlife1

So how low carb is paleo? I looked at 5 days of your diet - is that typical paleo way of eating? Do you fast regularily? Just curious.

bcattoes

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

I think it's awesome that you have found what works for you, but it is possible to eat real food without following a Paleo diet.

I never said "paleo is the ONLY way to be healthy" I just presented some numerical parameters of what has worked for ME. Never did I say "vegetarians are wrong"--i WAS a vegetarian for several years and don't think that at all. It just didn't work for ME personally.

Fair enough. But it seems a not illogical inference given your OP re: Paleo and that you think it an attempt to spark the notion. No offense was intended.

cutchro

My company also does the Blueprint screening. Just took it yesterday. Waiting on results to compare to last year... Weight and blood pressure has been reduced I know already!

Elzecat

Regardless of how or why your numbers changed, congrats on the progress you've made in the last year!

+1.

Akimajuktuq

Thank you to the OP for posting this topic. I too am enjoying AMAZING health benefits from eating a fat/meat/veggie based diet. A huge list of health problems have vanished and, bonus, I'm losing fat like crazy. It's amazing to me that people are posting trying to refute your personal experience. If I hear one more time that eating a diet based on healthy meat/fat and veggies is a "fad" I think I'm going to scream. Forget the names "paleo" and "primal"; it just makes sense to eat as close to what our ancestors were eating (and I don't mean 50 years ago). Since I live in an Inuit community the difference between a grain-based diet and a fat/meat based diet is so very obvious because the change is happening right now. The health differences are absolutely alarming but the government is still telling Inuit to eat bread and Crisco. (BTW most Inuit can't eat legumes, it makes them sick. I'm Caucasian and they make me sick, but legumes are supposedly healthy?!)

Melthrash

How did you figure out that you were allergic to dairy and gluten? What symptoms did you have? Also do you eat beans on paleo?

Elzecat

Good for you for comparing your numbers year to year and staying in control of your health-also, congratulations on the improvement, regardless of how slight, as others have mentioned. You are doing great things for your body by staying active and paying attention to your food choices!

As others have said...you will always have haters...people who will be negative regardless of what you have to say-just ignore their negativity. If anything...it seems that no one here on MFP can ever post anything positive without at least one person being a jerk and/or negative.

If you want to ask the OP a question about their diet or if they changed anything else in their life to get the numbers to change...FINE and great for you for being inquisitive...but there is no need to be condescending about it. Rarely do I get on the forums...maybe 4 posts in 7 months...but, this one has gotten a little ridiculous and I couldn't help but tell the OP congratulations on continuing a healthy lifestyle!! Everyone else...follow the Golden Rule, as elementary as that sounds.

This.

MissKim

congrats!! It's really awesome to see results like this!

and most people are missing the whole point of the post!!

You ate a ton of fat, saturated fat, and your numbers got better, not worse. Just more proof (like we need it!) that fat does not cause you to get fat, (low fat gimmiks and sales is a load of crock) and it's actually starches and sugars that cause all the bad stuff!
and I'm sure on a vegetarian diet you were eating plenty of sugar and starches.

everyone I know that switched to paleo/primal and had their numbers done had similar results to yours. amazing, eating tons of eggs, nuts, animal fats, etc is good for you!

Penfoldsplace

so much for wanting to possibly spark the "maybe I should consider eating real foods" notion for some people, clearly this is all about my ego.

yes, how dare you introduce a real lifestyle change? Please, let me stay on my diet of Lean Cuisines, oxy pro-elite, and keeping my cals under 1200 each day while doing cardio only.

I don't think the majority of people have said she shouldn't eat paleo. They just questioned the notion that the blood data is all down to paleo. Unfortunately you always get a few people who are mean but that's a risk with any public forum. I just think the title is a little misleading but then I guess that it gets people reading and discussing it . What if someone had great blood test improvement on the diet you mentioned of lean cuisine and cardio? It's perfectly logical that someone who needs to lose a lot of weight could do so successfully and improve their health doing so. It doesn't make ready meals good for you.

myofibril

For anyone interested a study that looked at 100,000 people on a low carb diet show low carb vegetarian fare far better than any other group health-wise

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-atkins-diet/

That video was nothing short of propaganda. Good grief.

The Pan A et al study was an epidemiological study using self reported data acquisition through food frequency questionnaires which are notoriously unreliable, not to mention they were only filled out as little as once every four years (seriously...) It has numerous confounding factors including baseline characteristics for the meat eaters with high levels of physical inactivity, diabetes, smokers (!) and alcohol consumption. A multivariate analysis was then applied which again isn't exactly reliable.

In addition, people seem to miss the fact that it was shown as meat consumption went up cholesterol went down - what is this sorcery?

You can conclude very little from that study apart from perhaps that the average vegetarians pays more attention to their diet and lifestyle than the average meat eater...

beccag28

That video was nothing short of propaganda. Good grief.

The Pan A et al study was an epidemiological study using self reported data acquisition through food frequency questionnaires which are notoriously unreliable, not to mention they were only filled out as little as once every four years (seriously...) It has numerous confounding factors including baseline characteristics for the meat eaters with high levels of physical inactivity, diabetes, smokers (!) and alcohol consumption. A multivariate analysis was then applied which again isn't exactly reliable.

In addition, people seem to miss the fact that it was shown as meat consumption went up cholesterol went down - what is this sorcery?

You can conclude very little from that study apart from perhaps that the average vegetarians pays more attention to their diet and lifestyle than the average meat eater...

thank goodness some people here understand science!