"Scientists confirms Paleo diet is nonsense" anyone else see this article?

Every diet out there is nonsense, and yet, you can lose weight on any diet. Personally, I get turned off anytime someone starts saying that we ought to do something because something about our ancestors lifestyle would've caused them to evolve a certain way.

Love Science Babe, especially when she puts that silly (restraining my language A LOT) Food Babe in her place.

Some parts of paleo make perfect sense

Others not

Take what works and leave the rest

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

The headline is a tad misleading, but thanks for posting.

Is the history/science behind eating a lower carb "paleo" diet wrong? Probably.
Is the science behind eating a lower carb, quality plant, quality fat, quality protein based diet wrong? I'd bet not.
Should we as modern humans living in our modern society reduce our consumption of heavily refined carbs (which happens automatically when one eats "paleo")? Probably.
If eating "paleo" got one of my family members to focus on eating whole foods, rather than all the heavily refined carbs? I'd say why not. They'd learn something about eating real food, and probably end up with a different approach to eating for the long haul (whole food based) after their "paleo" days ended.

This is how I feel. I eat lower carb, less refined sugar, watch my dairy, all because I have health conditions. I guess I kinda sorta inadvertently follow Paleo/lower carb/whatever the fad is this week. It helps my health problems when I eat that way and I feel a LOT better when I avoid dairy and soy other than trace amounts.

Someone told me, "Oh you eat Paleo" so I did some looking into it. I don't get the rationale behind the diet and I definitely don't follow it, but in the process of reading up on it I learned a LOT about the rationale behind why my doctor has me cutting these things out.

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I think it would be interesting to see more evidence uncovered around the diets of The ancients. I don't think this thing we call Paleo is even close. I thought Paleo made sense as a diet too... Then I purchased a cookbook and Hated the results. To me it seems an unsatisfying and joyless way of eating. I really love to cook and prepare food. Having all the variety and seasonal foods as well as dairy makes me happy.

I tried making that cashew " cheese " in the Paleo cookbook. Gross. Just gross.

I have noticed some very interesting things since starting to lose lots of weight using "calorie counting" in MFP (other than the fact that it has gotten me MAJOR results--47 lbs lost so far!!). And I know what I'm about to say is going to get some backlash, but I don't really care that much.

1) The people I know that are on fad diets (low carb, paleo, wheat belly, etc), for the most part, are still overweight, haven't made much progress at all if they've made any to begin with, and are mostly just miserable because they're depriving themselves of foods that are perfectly fine. Somebody on the news told them that gluten, carbs, fat, and sugar are all horrible for you, and they believe it. Many of them even think they're "allergic" to these foods. In my 38 years on this planet, I have never seen so many people "allergic" to so many foods. I find it 100% ridiculous. We are turning into a society of hypochondriacs who are absolutely insufferable at restaurants. What's more, these fad diets and made up ailments do NOTHING to help people lose weight because they still pig out and don't even do any kind of exercise to counteract it.

2) The people I know who have had success getting down to a healthy weight did it through calorie counting and exercising, and the people I know who have maintained the weight loss have done it by continuing to log their food and exercise.

3) The people I know who are already at a healthy weight and always have been, such as all the runners in my family, ALSO tend to count calories, log, and weigh and measure their foods when cooking at home. They also tend to not eat out nearly as much as most people I know.

The reason I have observed these things is that when people see that I've lost a lot of weight, they want to talk about it with me. I have learned a lot about the health of my friends and family that I didn't know before. The people that are already fit and healthy work at it JUST AS HARD as I am. They just made it seem effortless before becuase I was not someone they would have ever talked to about fitness.

My problem with paleo is the shady people who came up with it, promising that their diet would cure cancer and schizophrenia. They're just the lowest of the low, trying to take advantage of the desperate.

I'm not against trendy diets (for others) and am very pro-healthy where food is concerned. I just don't like those paleo people,

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

The headline is a tad misleading, but thanks for posting.

Is the history/science behind eating a lower carb "paleo" diet wrong? Probably.
Is the science behind eating a lower carb, quality plant, quality fat, quality protein based diet wrong? I'd bet not.

There's no evidence that carb level matters much at all. (Nor is paleo necessarily a low carb diet, to its credit.)

If eating "paleo" got one of my family members to focus on eating whole foods, rather than all the heavily refined carbs? I'd say why not. They'd learn something about eating real food, and probably end up with a different approach to eating for the long haul (whole food based) after their "paleo" days ended.

Sure, but I never understand why one must cut out whole foods like legumes or non-highly-processed foods like many whole grains or dairy to simply do something much more commonsensical -- eat a healthy, whole-foods based diet? Why not skip the false rationale and go right to focusing on the helpful stuff?

I do like the focus on sourcing meat and eating the whole animal, but seems to me a lot of newly paleo sorts ignore that and focus instead on the no grains (they usually aren't really eating lots of legumes anyway), and take advantage of the convenience products that are currently being made for the paleo market, as well as the "paleo treats" that replicate high cal low nutrient items but with alternative ingredients like almond flour. Kind of misses the point.

Paleo was designed as a diet for people with food allergies or food-related inflammations. Legumes are FODMAPs, as are wheat, rye, barley, and milk. So the rationale behind eliminating those things actually does have scientific-backing for the people for whom the diet was designed. The people jumping on the trend, not so much, but that doesn't make the diet itself wrong any more than a gluten-free diet for those with Coeliac's or gluten intolerance is wrong because people jumped on that trend.

Paleo is just Nourishing Traditions without the raw dairy. Nourishing Traditions is just Atkins with an "eat like the native peoples" spin, SoBeach is a more glamorous Atkins with more fish. There's nothing new here, whole foods/clean eating/blah blah they're all essentially just a low carb high fat diet.

My personal friends that are on Paleo diet love their meat. But when we meet up for dinner every few months, I see them devour the bread basket like a neanderthal. Thats science!

christineja wrote: »

Paleo is just Nourishing Traditions without the raw dairy. Nourishing Traditions is just Atkins with an "eat like the native peoples" spin, SoBeach is a more glamorous Atkins with more fish. There's nothing new here, whole foods/clean eating/blah blah they're all essentially just a low carb high fat diet.

I wouldn't call SoBeach low carb, or high fat, but yes, it's kind of a spin off on the mediterranean diet.

shell1005 wrote: »

Domicinator wrote: »

I have noticed some very interesting things since starting to lose lots of weight using "calorie counting" in MFP (other than the fact that it has gotten me MAJOR results--47 lbs lost so far!!). And I know what I'm about to say is going to get some backlash, but I don't really care that much.

1) The people I know that are on fad diets (low carb, paleo, wheat belly, etc), for the most part, are still overweight, haven't made much progress at all if they've made any to begin with, and are mostly just miserable because they're depriving themselves of foods that are perfectly fine. Somebody on the news told them that gluten, carbs, fat, and sugar are all horrible for you, and they believe it. Many of them even think they're "allergic" to these foods. In my 38 years on this planet, I have never seen so many people "allergic" to so many foods. I find it 100% ridiculous. We are turning into a society of hypochondriacs who are absolutely insufferable at restaurants. What's more, these fad diets and made up ailments do NOTHING to help people lose weight because they still pig out and don't even do any kind of exercise to counteract it.

2) The people I know who have had success getting down to a healthy weight did it through calorie counting and exercising, and the people I know who have maintained the weight loss have done it by continuing to log their food and exercise.

3) The people I know who are already at a healthy weight and always have been, such as all the runners in my family, ALSO tend to count calories, log, and weigh and measure their foods when cooking at home. They also tend to not eat out nearly as much as most people I know.

The reason I have observed these things is that when people see that I've lost a lot of weight, they want to talk about it with me. I have learned a lot about the health of my friends and family that I didn't know before. The people that are already fit and healthy work at it JUST AS HARD as I am. They just made it seem effortless before becuase I was not someone they would have ever talked to about fitness.

I lost my weight following a low carb diet and am now happily in maintenance. I also count calories since no way of eating replaces CICO. So do I help or hurt your observational analysis of your brief time on MFP?

No matter what diet people follow, if they consistently maintain a caloric deficit they will lose weight. That is what my observation has told me.

I think what you're saying actually supports my observations. I have no problem with a "low carb diet". What I have a problem with is people saying "If I eat no carbs I will lose a zillion pounds and then I can just go back to eating them again when I'm at my target!"

I avoid unnecessary carbs myself, only because the foods they're in are usually high in calories for very little substance. For example, I love pasta, but I avoid it because I can eat more food if I DON'T eat pasta. But if you do low carb or no carb with the illusion that it's the magic key to getting healthy, I think you're in for failure.

I like my potatoes!

Domicinator wrote: »

shell1005 wrote: »

Domicinator wrote: »

I have noticed some very interesting things since starting to lose lots of weight using "calorie counting" in MFP (other than the fact that it has gotten me MAJOR results--47 lbs lost so far!!). And I know what I'm about to say is going to get some backlash, but I don't really care that much.

1) The people I know that are on fad diets (low carb, paleo, wheat belly, etc), for the most part, are still overweight, haven't made much progress at all if they've made any to begin with, and are mostly just miserable because they're depriving themselves of foods that are perfectly fine. Somebody on the news told them that gluten, carbs, fat, and sugar are all horrible for you, and they believe it. Many of them even think they're "allergic" to these foods. In my 38 years on this planet, I have never seen so many people "allergic" to so many foods. I find it 100% ridiculous. We are turning into a society of hypochondriacs who are absolutely insufferable at restaurants. What's more, these fad diets and made up ailments do NOTHING to help people lose weight because they still pig out and don't even do any kind of exercise to counteract it.

2) The people I know who have had success getting down to a healthy weight did it through calorie counting and exercising, and the people I know who have maintained the weight loss have done it by continuing to log their food and exercise.

3) The people I know who are already at a healthy weight and always have been, such as all the runners in my family, ALSO tend to count calories, log, and weigh and measure their foods when cooking at home. They also tend to not eat out nearly as much as most people I know.

The reason I have observed these things is that when people see that I've lost a lot of weight, they want to talk about it with me. I have learned a lot about the health of my friends and family that I didn't know before. The people that are already fit and healthy work at it JUST AS HARD as I am. They just made it seem effortless before becuase I was not someone they would have ever talked to about fitness.

I lost my weight following a low carb diet and am now happily in maintenance. I also count calories since no way of eating replaces CICO. So do I help or hurt your observational analysis of your brief time on MFP?

No matter what diet people follow, if they consistently maintain a caloric deficit they will lose weight. That is what my observation has told me.

I think what you're saying actually supports my observations. I have no problem with a "low carb diet". What I have a problem with is people saying "If I eat no carbs I will lose a zillion pounds and then I can just go back to eating them again when I'm at my target!"

I avoid unnecessary carbs myself, only because the foods they're in are usually high in calories for very little substance. For example, I love pasta, but I avoid it because I can eat more food if I DON'T eat pasta. But if you do low carb or no carb with the illusion that it's the magic key to getting healthy, I think you're in for failure.

That's because so many people want a quick fix. They don't realize that there is no quick fix for weight loss, it involves retraining your brain and body to better eating habits. That's the whole point of MFP, or rather, what it SHOULD be. I don't have the healthiest diet out there, but I've still lost weight. I'm ended up subbing in some more nutritious foods for empty calories just so I can eat more, but I've never gone low-carb, no sugar, no processed foods, whole foods, etc. If that works for someone, that's fine, but it still isn't a quick fix. That's what's hard to get some people to understand.

What frustrates me is the people that will post asking about a fad diet, get honest responses about how it's probably not going to be sustainable and then get mad about it. If you want to do a fad diet, just do it! You do your thing if it works for you and is healthy (in that your doctor won't freak when he/she finds out about it), and we'll each do ours. There is no one diet that everyone should follow.