Paleo Diet

Didn't the father of the Paleo diet say something to the effect of, "Our ancestors had to eat this way to stay in shape so that they could run away from the Dinosaurs that were always chasing them?" I'm sure I'm only paraphrasing... but - I can't take this stuff seriously after that.... LOL!

But seriously, ANY DIET that forbids you to eat something, is just a diet and not a maintainable lifestyle. If you can do something like this for a month or so and have it help you cut out processed crap - thats great, but really - are you going to never eat a potato for the rest of your life?

I prefer to lose weight the old fashioned way, moderation.

Hey, good for you! But I don't see anyone coming here minimizing or condescending to your decision. Follow your own path with integrity but why do you feel it's your place to ridicule someone elses?

But seriously, ANY DIET that forbids you to eat something, is just a diet and not a maintainable lifestyle. If you can do something like this for a month or so and have it help you cut out processed crap - thats great, but really - are you going to never eat a potato for the rest of your life?

I prefer to lose weight the old fashioned way, moderation.

I've been doing a lot of reading, research on this. I'm intrigued, and I"m trying it, with some modification (some dairy) for the next month. Nerd Fitness - nerdfitness.com and Mark Sisson's blog marksdailyapple.com as well as his book The Primal Blueprint are good resources for information. I particularly like Nerd Fitness. Not every way of eating is for every person and let's face it, not everyone can adhere to anything 100% - that is where common sense, modifcations and what "works for you" comes in. Most of the principles of Paleo are not all that extreme from what I"ve been doing such as no processed "JUNK" foods, nor are they particularly unique. For example, the glycemic index , the effect of simple carbs on insulin response within our bodies - is accepted nutritional science. I've never been a protein eater - always a carb girl. For the past year, I"ve steadfastly upped my protein, lowered my carbs and I've never felt better, nor been in better shape. So, taking it a step further in the direction of Paleo seems natural to me. A Paleo-type nutritional plan paired with heavy lifting just makes good sense to me. We will see : )


Jen

But seriously, ANY DIET that forbids you to eat something, is just a diet and not a maintainable lifestyle. If you can do something like this for a month or so and have it help you cut out processed crap - thats great, but really - are you going to never eat a potato for the rest of your life?

I prefer to lose weight the old fashioned way, moderation.

Forbid? Honestly, we are all adults. We can all eat whatever we want. Also, it's hilarious that you chose the phrase, "lose weight the old fashioned way" considering the context of this convo.

Yeah, I get that. But who are you to be critical of a paleo diet? Have you done it? You are just giving your opinion but you are doing it in a minimizing and condecending way. If you choose not to do a Paleo diet fine. State your reasons and live with your choice. You have attempted to judge and ridicule and "paraphase" to suite your agenda. My suggestion is do the research and speak from knowledge or be silent. Your words are indicative of your knowledge. A little bit is dangerous.

No, I have not done the Paleo diet - because when I was researching it, I found out that the man who created it based on "scientific fact", didn't know anything about science. I only paraphrased because I could not remember EXACTLY what he had said , but I'm sure if you'd like to see his exact words you could look them up for yourself. (As you not so politely suggested to another member.)

Furthermore, after much research - there is little to no evidence that humans in to Paleo area had evolved suffiecently enough to have the tools and resources need to be anything other then scavengers, eating whatever they could find, including grains and root vegetables. Also - they likely did not have tools sophisticated enough until the VERY end of the Paleo era to hunt live game - and several dig sites have found that the meat the Paleo cavemen did eat was from the weak, the very young, the very old, and the already dead. Road kill anyone? I do beilive that there was even recently evidence uncovered that the Paleo peoples were milling and grinding grains and creating basic cereals. Kind of blows the whole - no grains thing right out of the water... Along with the all meat thing... Unless you want to eat sick or dead animals.

Also, it should be noted that the Paleo people were largely nomads - and adapted to whatever land they found themselves on - eating anything that the land provided them without terrible amounts of effort, including grains.

And - to put one final nail in your "knowledgeable" coffin - Paleo people RARELY ever lived past 30-40 years of age, long before evidence of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other high saturated fat diet related health problems would have been easily detected in fossils.

PS: The Paleo diet was also considered the LEAST healthy and MOST dangerous of 24 diets that were examined by a panel of experts not too long ago - end of last year if I remember correctly.

I suggest you do some research, as it seems I have done enough for myself - and other then telling me to be silent (and demeaning myself and other members), I haven't seen any evidence of your vast wealth of knowledge on this subject.

I am an informed and educated consumer - Who are you?

And which panel of experts was that? You've yet to cite a source for anyting other than vague references.

So, you've chosen not to do the diet. Duly noted. So so you feel it's your duty to come here and convcince others? If so, do more than refer to some panel of unamed experts and paraphrase people. In the footnotes of mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint, he lists the sources for his research. He even expressed relutance to publish with an eye toward caution. There are many sources for the basis of his theories. You disrespect the intelligence and work of people who have labored for the good of others with your inuendo. You state half facts, out of context stements and opinions as though they are truth.

As I previously stated to the other poster you felt I was impolite to, do it or don't. Who appointed you the savior of those of us that would?

Some aspects of the paleo diet are useful - obviously we need to focus on eating a more diverse set of vegetables and fruits, nuts, legumes, tubers, lean meats, etc. That's clearly a huge benefit of the diet (given that people ARE indeed trying to mimic what hunter-gatherers ate - simply eating the same old meat and vegetable every day would not reflect a hunter-gatherer diet. Keep in mind that research suggests they did much more gathering than hunting, and that most of their calories came from plant products and small animals, like reptiles, rodents, insects, etc.)

However, aside from allergies, there is no legitimate reason to completely eliminate grains and dairy from your diet. It is true that the shift from hunter-gatherer groups to agricultural societies diminished health because of the dependency on grains. The issue was, these societies were basing their entire diet around grains - obviously, you should not exclusively eat grains, or primarily eat grains like many populations have in the past. But, eating them in moderation - paired with meats, vegetables, and fruits - is not an issue. Similarly, there is little reason to abandon dairy products - in the past and today, they are an excellent source of protein, fat, and calcium. Most modern people fulfill their calcium requirements by eating dairy products, so giving them up could potentially result in a deficit.

Additionally, arguing that the body is not well-adapted to eat grains and dairy is a bit short-sighted. Our bodies are constantly adapting to new challenges. That is why the ability to digest lactose exists at all. The "natural" condition is actually lactose-intolerance, but societies with a history of pastoralism evolved the genetic ability to digest lactose in adulthood - just within the past 10kya or so! Yes, in general, we are physically the same as our hunter-gatherer ancestors - but, we have changed in some ways. Our bodies adapted so that we could include a new rich nutritional source (dairy), thereby increasing survivability.

The paleo diet has some good things to offer, but overall, I definitely would never advocate it. I apologize for the rant, but as a biological anthropology grad student, I kind of had to throw in my two cents

Didn't the father of the Paleo diet say something to the effect of, "Our ancestors had to eat this way to stay in shape so that they could run away from the Dinosaurs that were always chasing them?" I'm sure I'm only paraphrasing... but - I can't take this stuff seriously after that.... LOL!

But seriously, ANY DIET that forbids you to eat something, is just a diet and not a maintainable lifestyle. If you can do something like this for a month or so and have it help you cut out processed crap - thats great, but really - are you going to never eat a potato for the rest of your life?

I prefer to lose weight the old fashioned way, moderation.

Hey, good for you! But I don't see anyone coming here minimizing or condescending to your decision. Follow your own path with integrity but why do you feel it's your place to ridicule someone elses?

No condescending - just the truth. He really did say that - but, then later recanted when someone called him out on the utter lack of knowledge of human history. I mean, from someone who is supposed to be an expert in anthropology, its telling when he didn't even know that humans and dinosaurs did not ever coexist together and fact lived what - some 2 million years apart?

Ooooh man, I hope you were joking on the 2 million years apart bit. Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, and humans have existed for no more than 200,000 years, lol.

Some aspects of the paleo diet are useful - obviously we need to focus on eating a more diverse set of vegetables and fruits, nuts, legumes, tubers, lean meats, etc. That's clearly a huge benefit of the diet (given that people ARE indeed trying to mimic what hunter-gatherers ate - simply eating the same old meat and vegetable every day would not reflect a hunter-gatherer diet. Keep in mind that research suggests they did much more gathering than hunting, and that most of their calories came from plant products and small animals, like reptiles, rodents, insects, etc.)

However, aside from allergies, there is no legitimate reason to completely eliminate grains and dairy from your diet. It is true that the shift from hunter-gatherer groups to agricultural societies diminished health because of the dependency on grains. The issue was, these societies were basing their entire diet around grains - obviously, you should not exclusively eat grains, or primarily eat grains like many populations have in the past. But, eating them in moderation - paired with meats, vegetables, and fruits - is not an issue. Similarly, there is little reason to abandon dairy products - in the past and today, they are an excellent source of protein, fat, and calcium. Most modern people fulfill their calcium requirements by eating dairy products, so giving them up could potentially result in a deficit.

Additionally, arguing that the body is not well-adapted to eat grains and dairy is a bit short-sighted. Our bodies are constantly adapting to new challenges. That is why the ability to digest lactose exists at all. The "natural" condition is actually lactose-intolerance, but societies with a history of pastoralism evolved the genetic ability to digest lactose in adulthood - just within the past 10kya or so! Yes, in general, we are physically the same as our hunter-gatherer ancestors - but, we have changed in some ways. Our bodies adapted so that we could include a new rich nutritional source (dairy), thereby increasing survivability.

The paleo diet has some good things to offer, but overall, I definitely would never advocate it. I apologize for the rant, but as a biological anthropology grad student, I kind of had to throw in my two cents

A very well presented and balanced point of view. I didn't see it as a "rant" at all. I would only partially disagree with the grain statements and diary statements. I think the grain thing is very individual. The are many that do have issues with grains as eveidenced by the gluten intolerance and celiac issues that are out there. Some don't have as much sensitivity. For those that do, myself included, the Paleo/ Primal/ Hunter Gatherer style diet works well. There is also the phytate and mineral absorbtion issue as evidenced by the preponderence of mineral defeciency in areas of the world where grains are the majority of the diet. There are some ways to minimize this by presoaking rice or wheat in vinegar that neutralizes a good portion of the phytates. So, it's really an individual thing from person to person.

I would present pretty much the same argument for lactose. The whole dairy thing is somewhat of a gray area in general. Some who follow this diet are against it. Some, like Mark Sisson, are more moderate. There is also a distiction in the difference between bovine dairy and goat and sheep dairy, the later being for more friendly for digestion. Also, there is some agreement that fermented dairy is very positive. Again, there are extremes in those who follow the diet that would not agree but a I follow a moderate path that involves goat milk and goat milk cheese and yogurt. I make it myself from raw goat milk and digest it well. I also have issues with Cow's milk digestibility and inflammation causeing flu like symptoms and bloating. Again, some people and people groups in different regions of the world have adapted just fine to dairy, like say the Masi is Africa. Others have issues.

Your .02 was appreciated!

I thought about trying the Paleo way of eating. The basic idea seems sound.
However, I am loosing quite well just watching my macros/calories and excercising. I am worried that I won't get the carbs I need for running if I try paleo. I feel great and have tons of energy like never before. Maybe someday I will try it.