The subjects in our study were exclusively consuming “Paleo-approved” foods, which tended to be packed with micronutrients. Virtually all sources of “empty” calories were off limits. This is where the paradox part comes into play. As I entered their dietary information into nutrition analysis software, I noticed a rather counterintuitive trend: These subjects, eating a diet almost exclusively composed of micronutrient-dense foods, were coming far short of the RDI for a number of micronutrients.

I feel as if there are two ways to approach dieting— as you might have guessed from the bolded heading above, they are inclusion dieting and exclusion dieting. These approaches are characterized by distinctly different mindsets.

The inclusion dieter approaches food selection with the following mindset: “I will include food X in my diet, because it provides me with nutrients Y and Z.”

The exclusion dieter approaches food selection with a markedly different mindset: “I will exclude food X from my diet, because it hurts my dieting by providing Y and Z.”

In my opinion, the Paleo diet, and diets focused on “clean” food sources in general, are inherently flawed. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the food sources they promote, their primary shortcoming is that they are predicated on exclusion dieting. Rather than selecting food choices that contribute the nutrients they need, these dieters focus more on avoiding things they perceive to be “bad.” The result is often superfluous intakes of some micronutrients, along with deficient intakes of others. This explains “The Clean Foods Paradox,” and why our subjects were eating micronutrient-dense foods all day and still falling short of recommended intakes for certain nutrients.

So the take home point is to set appropriate macronutrient targets and use whatever foods you want to hit those targets, as long as daily micronutrient and fiber needs are met. For most people, satisfying these micronutrient and fiber requirements will demand that the majority of food choices will be “cleaner” food sources by default. Once micronutrient and fiber needs are met, knock yourselves out with the elaborate (and very impressive) ice cream and pastry-laden concoctions. And share the recipe.