can you eat Paleo and do Macros?

sara1984 wrote: »

sixxpoint wrote: »

Just another annoying "fad" diet that serves no real purpose except to make the author of the book which promotes it rich.

Eat logical. Predominate your intake with whole, minimally processed foods and hit your daily calorie goal while at least hitting your macro minimums. A rational diet is as simple as that.

If Paleos had their way...





But unless you have a time machine, you can’t eat paleo. You can’t even get close to it, the food environment has changed that much.

“But, like, paleo is an idea of eating, man. It’s like a metaphor.”

A metaphor for eating like they did during a time when starvation was the #1 killer of humans, and you were lucky to live to 35? Sign me up for that. Living in the Paleolithic era sucked.

Nutrition expert Alan Aragon summed up paleo pretty nicely in an interview. He said the paleo diet, which is really just a form of low-carb dieting that its advocates presume our Stone Age, hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, is just another fad. “Paleo philosophy is wrong on a couple of different levels”. “They say our ancestors didn’t eat grains, and therefore we shouldn’t eat grains. First, our ancestors did eat grains. There is also the logical error that if our ancestors didn’t eat something we shouldn’t either. Well, our ancestors didn’t concern themselves with optimal nutrition, they just wanted to survive.”

“It’s just another fad,” sport nutrition expert and registered dietitian Nancy Clark echoed Aragon’s opinions on paleo. “There’s no science to support it.”

I already said it’s impossible to replicate any aspects of the diet, because our food supply. Even the meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables have been so manipulated since humans first began farming that what we eat today can’t ever possible resemble that of mammoth-slaying Stone Age. Oh, and like I wrote in this piece, eating mammoth or any kind of meat was exceptionally rare.

Our Paleolithic ancestors were far more likely to get protein from bugs. So instead of paying double for your antibiotic free, grass-fed methane dispenser meat, you should just head to your nearest field and commence chopping down crickets.

But the modern concept of the paleo diet is way stupider than that. Why? Because you can buy these products, that’s why:

Paleo butter
Paleo coffee
Paleo dog food
Paleo chocolate
Paleo chocolate chip cookies
Paleo turkey jerky, which comes in plain, spicy and extra spicy
Paleo caviar
Paleo energy bars
Paleo waffles
Paleo syrup
Paleo yogurt
Paleo ice cream
Paleo protein powder
Paleo protein powder? Really? These guys also sell you paleo Vitamin D (which I expect our ancestors got by, you know, going outside), and even paleo “recovery powder.” Check out those prices.

Being paleo is like paying a stupidity tax. Again, it’s not you who is stupid, but the diet sure is, because it lets you drink paleo coffee while putting paleo butter and paleo syrup on your paleo waffles before you drive your paleo minivan to the paleo office to sit in your paleo cube and do spreadsheets on your paleo computer. Do you see the stupidity in that?

See, the paleo diet made up a bunch of silly rules on how we allegedly ate, and then goes and twists them all to hell in the name of selling you a crappy, overpriced product. That is scientology-level stupid.

Let’s have some fun. I’m going to make up my own stupid diet with my own stupid rules. I’ll call it …


The Disney Diet

Everyone loves Disney movies. Just like the Paleolithic era, men were the heroes and women were the damsels in distress, although Disney damsels had way less body hair and much better teeth.

So, based on what I’ve learned from watching Disney films, here are the rules of the Disney Diet:

-Never eat anything given to you by an old woman, because it’s poison – Snow White
-Eat only fresh kills, but only the females are allowed to do the hunting – Lion King
-Unless you think you killed your father and ran away from home, in which case you can eat lots of bugs – Lion King
-Sugar can only be consumed while taking medicine – Mary Poppins
-Don’t eat turkey, popcorn or sweet potato pie. And definitely not pancakes piled up until they reach the sky, because if you do, it will cause mental deficiencies of Goofy proportions, not to mention the fact that you will eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until you die – Jack and the Beanstalk
-Spaghetti can only be eaten as a couple, and must lead to a kiss, followed by the male chivalrously passing the last meatball to the female using only his nose. Any fornication that results from this romantic gesture must be done doggie style – Lady and the Tramp

See how silly a diet can become when you start adopting arbitrary rules based on mythical thinking?



Why Paleo is Dangerous

Paleo can end up excluding nutritious foods for no other reason than its proponents think that we didn’t eat them a long time ago, and so we shouldn’t eat them now. Secondly, it’s dangerous for your financial future to be forking out big bucks for paleo-approved products, because such things usually don’t come cheap. Apparently that bulletproof coffee crap is paleo, and it costs a bloody fortune.

But the real problem? Following a paleo diet can lead you down a path to an eating disorder. That’s why I rag on this kind of crap.

The science of nutrition is complex. Eating shouldn’t be complex, but paleo is far from flexible. It creates a system of arbitrary, difficult-to-follow rules for eating that can lead to disordered eating. Primarily, it can cause one to obsess over eating the “right” foods and avoiding the “wrong” ones. This phenomenon has been coined “orthorexia,” which is not yet recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but enough mental health professionals are talking about it that it has gained some scientific legitimacy. While other eating disorders tend to obsess over calories and body weight, so-called orthorexics obsess over food quality. Again, which foods are right, and which foods are wrong. Some people end up thinking the right foods are 1,600 calories worth of butter paired with five eggs.

A lot of paleo is about which foods are right and which ones are wrong. This is not a healthy mindset to go through life with, constantly obsessing over whether something is paleo approved or not, several times each day. It creates a toxic mindset about eating, and anxiety and fear around certain food types that are not good for your mental health. Such unhealthy obsession can eventually lead to a full-blown eating disorder.

When people break these food rules they can feel like a failure, which increases stress levels and can cause binge eating because Well, I already blew my highly restrictive diet, so I might as well really blow it and go down in a blaze of gluttonous glory.

So what’s the solution? Stop falling for all the marketing. Realize that paleo is just a cheesy gimmick designed to sell an expensive pile of crap and adopt a more flexible approach to eating that isn’t so rule-based or restrictive.

I understand that the skeptical mindset is not easy to adopt. People are naturally gullible, it seems, and will fall for just about anything if it sounds scientifically valid, although having zero basis in actual science.

I am well aware when speaking of nutrition, diet, or exercise some people treat it like a religion. Its beliefs, a lifestyle. And like any religion I don't pass judgment, hey if that's what works for you. There are some aspects of paleo I don't fully agree with but I get the gest of it. I take what works for me and use it. I am not strict paleo nor will i ever be. There are cheat days.

I gave it a whirl because nothing else at the time worked. Nutritionist, Atkins, beachbody, advocare, meal replacements etc. The results were amazing and motivational . Was it Paleo? crossfit? Balancing hormones? Who knows! I felt great!

I have learned a lot about certain foods and how they make me feel. Ex. 30 min after lunch brown rice and breads make me groggy/sleepy. High sugar makes me crash but I can be addicted to coffee and soda. Juicing the green monster literally turns me into baby hulk. Yes, I like black beans but sometimes they don't like me. It works for me because of the limited food. I don't buy something just because it says Paleo. I have a lil boy that also has to eat and cooking two separate meals would be pricey.

I will read all the links posted because at the end of the day I'm looking for what works for me. Thanks for all the great advice.