Paleo or no Paleo there lies the question.

I'll start off with the disclaimer - I do agree with the posts about how this isn't a true "paleo" diet. But putting the title aside.
My husband wanted to try it. I was totally against it but he has gone along with my hair brained schemes so I went along with his. We followed the Whole 30. I did not measure food although the Whole 30 suggests portions, a palmful of meat, handful of eggs, thumb size version of fat and lots and lots of veggies, few fruit. It also encourages you to focus on consuming carbs if you are active. They also suggest adjusting portion sizes.

What I found -
While I'm normally a 6 small meal a person day, I did fine on the 3 meals plus a snack (when exercising) when I built my meals on their guidelines. I ate far more veggies than I ever would have. I never went hungry. I didn't crave foods. I enjoyed a lot of the food and a lot of their recipes (they recommend not making paleo versions of normal food). I also lost weight.
I also found it was very restrictive and I had to always be prepared. I'm not the always prepared type. I struggled with finding something to eat after work when I was too tired to cook and finding meals that I could prepare ahead of time. Eating out was hard but we were lucky because there was a restaurant that offered a paleo friendly meal. It can be expensive.

In the end, it was just not sustainable for us. I still make some of the meals. I still build my meals in a similar fashion, portion of protein, some fat, lots of veggies but I don't restrict foods.
If you approach it in a balanced way, it isn't an unhealthy diet even with the restricting foods. If you plan to eat just protein and fats, probably not so great.

stevencloser wrote: »

It won't kill you.
It's not magic either.
It's just a diet like any other, if it lets you create a calorie deficit, you can lose weight with it.

Can we just add this as the TL'DR to my post?

Heamous wrote: »

I have a few of my friends that want to start to do paleo, but they said that a lot of people are telling them that Paleo is bad for your health and bad to lose weight as well.
What do you guys think:

It has proven to be healthy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26269362
(with the warning that the paleo tested in the RCTs is not the HFLC approach of popular authors/bloggers, but the "academic" paleo that is moderate in macros)

nvmomketo wrote: »

hamlet1222 wrote: »

What I don't like about paleo is the basic principle that it's based on, in that what paleolithic man ate must be our ideal diet. I see multiple problems with this.

1. Exactly which paleolithic peoples are we supposed to follow? Humans were spread out across most of the planet, eating what they could find in their area - and this would differ a lot from region to region. There would have been some regions where starchy roots/tubers were a staple food.

2. Paleolithic people weren't concerned about age related illnesses, they just needed to get the energy to survive each day at a time, if something they ate was going to give them cancer in 30 years so what?

3. The agricultural revolution happened around 10,000 years ago, that has given us hundreds of generations since where people who couldn't digest cereals would have died out (I wonder if gluten intolerant people are the last remnants of this?).

4. Paleolithic humans would have been far more active than the average office worker. If you're going to match the diet, why not the activity level too?

Still, if you like the menu and works for you then fine, to each their own.

1. My roots are northeastern European. Big game and less edible plant options (than down south) would have been common. It's working for me.

As far back as paleo times? Given population migrations, I suspect none of us really know. I suppose you can do one of those deep DNA test things, but it's still going to be extremely incomplete, and chances are we are all mixes.

Also, chances are the foods currently available to us bear no real resemblance.

My ancestry is pretty much northwestern European, to my knowledge (which is incomplete, again) and that seems to correctly predict that I do well with dairy--which the paleo folks would have me dismiss.

Any diet that suggests that plant foods like fruits and veg are unhealthy because some climates made them difficult to get much of the year (hmm, much like the climate I currently live in) is, IMO, not very well supported or thought-out. However, most definitions of paleo I've seen -- and why I do think it's usually reasonably healthy -- are very pro such foods, suggesting that you should start by getting at least half of your plate from vegetables, for example.

Not authentic to the name, given food choices, but not a bad way to eat.

nvmomketo wrote: »

hamlet1222 wrote: »

What I don't like about paleo is the basic principle that it's based on, in that what paleolithic man ate must be our ideal diet. I see multiple problems with this.

1. Exactly which paleolithic peoples are we supposed to follow? Humans were spread out across most of the planet, eating what they could find in their area - and this would differ a lot from region to region. There would have been some regions where starchy roots/tubers were a staple food.

2. Paleolithic people weren't concerned about age related illnesses, they just needed to get the energy to survive each day at a time, if something they ate was going to give them cancer in 30 years so what?

3. The agricultural revolution happened around 10,000 years ago, that has given us hundreds of generations since where people who couldn't digest cereals would have died out (I wonder if gluten intolerant people are the last remnants of this?).

4. Paleolithic humans would have been far more active than the average office worker. If you're going to match the diet, why not the activity level too?

Still, if you like the menu and works for you then fine, to each their own.

2. What foods would have caused cancer back then?

I believe that grilling meat has been linked to cancer. Presumably this link also would have existed in paleolithic times.

3dogsrunning wrote: »

I'll start off with the disclaimer - I do agree with the posts about how this isn't a true "paleo" diet. But putting the title aside.
My husband wanted to try it. I was totally against it but he has gone along with my hair brained schemes so I went along with his. We followed the Whole 30. I did not measure food although the Whole 30 suggests portions, a palmful of meat, handful of eggs, thumb size version of fat and lots and lots of veggies, few fruit. It also encourages you to focus on consuming carbs if you are active. They also suggest adjusting portion sizes.

What I found -
While I'm normally a 6 small meal a person day, I did fine on the 3 meals plus a snack (when exercising) when I built my meals on their guidelines. I ate far more veggies than I ever would have. I never went hungry. I didn't crave foods. I enjoyed a lot of the food and a lot of their recipes (they recommend not making paleo versions of normal food). I also lost weight.
I also found it was very restrictive and I had to always be prepared. I'm not the always prepared type. I struggled with finding something to eat after work when I was too tired to cook and finding meals that I could prepare ahead of time. Eating out was hard but we were lucky because there was a restaurant that offered a paleo friendly meal. It can be expensive.

In the end, it was just not sustainable for us. I still make some of the meals. I still build my meals in a similar fashion, portion of protein, some fat, lots of veggies but I don't restrict foods.
If you approach it in a balanced way, it isn't an unhealthy diet even with the restricting foods. If you plan to eat just protein and fats, probably not so great.

And this illustrates my point. You tried it, it worked for you but you found it unsustainable. However, you learned from it and can take what you learned and apply it to a diet that you can sustain.

Not every diet is for everyone, but if one appeals to you, it's fine to try it. Even if you discover you can't sustain it long term, you will have learned something from that will help you plan your own diet down the road. So if you want to try some form of Paleo, go for it. If you're unhappy with it and are not looking forward to making it a permanent change, then stop. If there are parts that helped you, apply them to your diet in your own way.

_John_ wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

nvmomketo wrote: »

hamlet1222 wrote: »

What I don't like about paleo is the basic principle that it's based on, in that what paleolithic man ate must be our ideal diet. I see multiple problems with this.

1. Exactly which paleolithic peoples are we supposed to follow? Humans were spread out across most of the planet, eating what they could find in their area - and this would differ a lot from region to region. There would have been some regions where starchy roots/tubers were a staple food.

2. Paleolithic people weren't concerned about age related illnesses, they just needed to get the energy to survive each day at a time, if something they ate was going to give them cancer in 30 years so what?

3. The agricultural revolution happened around 10,000 years ago, that has given us hundreds of generations since where people who couldn't digest cereals would have died out (I wonder if gluten intolerant people are the last remnants of this?).

4. Paleolithic humans would have been far more active than the average office worker. If you're going to match the diet, why not the activity level too?

Still, if you like the menu and works for you then fine, to each their own.

2. What foods would have caused cancer back then?

I believe that grilling meat has been linked to cancer. Presumably this link also would have existed in paleolithic times.

raising the incidence rate of cancer becomes irrelevant when they are the very calories keeping you alive. That's why food being "toxic" is a laughable concept.

I think there is a level of toxicity or contribution to cancer (or other illnesses) that can reasonably inspire a switch to alternate calorie sources (for those who are able to make the switch). I am not arguing that grilled meat falls in this category -- I have no idea how strong the association is.

I think tea is allow on the Paleo diet.