"Debunking Paleo Diet" TED talk

[Farmgirl70]

I, too, have questions about "paleo" diets. It seems to me that if one is going to eat "paleo", one must also live "paleo". The people I know who eat this way consume lots of meat and fats, but they don't hunt and gather, live outside where their bodies need lots of fuel to stay warm or do copious amounts of physical labor. I guess I think that something has got to be off if modern people eat like ancient people, but do not use their bodies as ancient people. Any insight into this if you eat "paleo"? I've just never heard anyone address that issue...

[butterflymommy]

 

Here's a national geographic article on the Hadza, one of the few hunter gatherer societies left on earth. If you click on the photo gallery there is a picture of women processing baobab fruit and the caption says that fruit and tubers (which, of course, are carb and starch heavy) are a greater part of the diet than game. I'm not saying there's anything intrinsically bad about dieting low carb but there's nothing "paleo" about avoiding carbs and starches.

[Greta]

I, too, have questions about "paleo" diets. It seems to me that if one is going to eat "paleo", one must also live "paleo". The people I know who eat this way consume lots of meat and fats, but they don't hunt and gather, live outside where their bodies need lots of fuel to stay warm or do copious amounts of physical labor. I guess I think that something has got to be off if modern people eat like ancient people, but do not use their bodies as ancient people. Any insight into this if you eat "paleo"? I've just never heard anyone address that issue...

 

Mark Sisson does address things like exercising in ways more like our ancestors did (lots of easy movement at a slow pace and some lifting as opposed to "chronic cardio") and good sleep habits, avoiding stress as much as possible, etc. Is that what you mean?

 

No one is saying we have to go back to being cavemen in order to be happy and healthy, though.

[Murphy101]

I, too, have questions about "paleo" diets. It seems to me that if one is going to eat "paleo", one must also live "paleo". The people I know who eat this way consume lots of meat and fats, but they don't hunt and gather, live outside where their bodies need lots of fuel to stay warm or do copious amounts of physical labor. I guess I think that something has got to be off if modern people eat like ancient people, but do not use their bodies as ancient people. Any insight into this if you eat "paleo"? I've just never heard anyone address that issue...

 

I am very active, but going whole30 without changing much else works for me. I don't consume "lots of meats and fat" in the way you are thinking. I eat a lot of avocado. Which is a high fat, but it's GOOD fat. I had a bulletproof coffee and I had mahi with artichokes and a lemon vinegrette for dinner with a side of steamed broccoli and a plain baked sweet potato. I has 3 eggs scrambled with mushroom, spinach, onion, and bell peppers for breakfast. Lunch was left over roasted chicken over a spinach and romain salad mix with roasted butternut squash, walnuts (another high GOOD fat), and a few dried cherries sprinkled with sea salt and a fresh squeezed 1/4 lemon of juice. My plates are roughly 50/50. Meat on one side and veggies on the other. The portion of meat is roughly thesize of my hand. According to my fitness pal, I had a lot of fat today. What it doesn't show is that it is was GOOD fats.

 

I have lost weight, but more importantly to me, I have lost inches, all my medical numbers are better, cholesterol, sugars, you name it. The only thing "worse" is my blood pressure which has always been low and actually got lower. Normally that would make me very sluggish for exhaustion, but I have more energy. If I'm more active, it's not because I'm doing it directly for exercise, it's because what I'm eating is giving me more energy.

 

MY big frustration with most paleo chatter is it does seem to toss a bunch of funky stuff as replacements. I can't afford them even if I wanted them. Coconut milk and almond flour and more is roughly double or even more the cost of the regular items they are replacing. And I really hate coconut and almonds. Cannot stand the taste.

 

I do none of that except using ghee and coconut oil. And I don't use those much. Maybe a few times a week.

 

Does that answer your questions? :)

[Greta]

I'm not saying there's anything intrinsically bad about dieting low carb but there's nothing "paleo" about avoiding carbs and starches.

 

Paleo diets don't generally bill themelves as being low-carb, or claim that paleolithic diets were low-carb. Paleo dieters eat a lot more sweet potatoes, other root vegetables, and fruit than most low-carb dieters do. Paleo diets do not include sugar, grains, or legumes, though, so obviously they are going to be lower in carbohydrate than the food pyramid or the SAD. But they're not usually as low-carb as Atkins or other low-carb diets. That's why I do nutritional ketosis rather than paleo. I've found that limiting carbs is extremely important for me.

 

ETA: Paleo emphasizes the quality of carb sources, while low-carb diets limit you to a certain quantity. I've learned that for me, limiting quantity is the single most important thing, and then emphasizing quality is like a bonus.

[Lady Florida.]

Mark Sisson does address things like exercising in ways more like our ancestors did (lots of easy movement at a slow pace and some lifting as opposed to "chronic cardio") and good sleep habits, avoiding stress as much as possible, etc. .

 

Does he suggest our ancestors lived stress free lives (or had less stress) or am I just extrapolating that from the first part of your sentence? Because our ancestors certainly did have stress. It's not the same kind of stress we live with today, but spending most days trying to stay alive would have been quite stressful.

 

If I misunderstood, then in the words of Emily Litella...Nevermind. :D

[Greta]

 

 

Does he suggest our ancestors lived stress free lives (or had less stress) or am I just extrapolating that from the first part of your sentence? Because our ancestors certainly did have stress. It's not the same kind of stress we live with today, but spending most days trying to stay alive would have been quite stressful.

 

If I misunderstood, then in the words of Emily Litella...Nevermind. :D

 

You didn't misunderstand - I didn't make it clear! He's talking about the kind of chronic but low-grade stress that is a product of modern life. Obviously our ancestors had stresses, some of which were quite intense (escaping a predator, for example!) but probably didn't go on for years and years like ours do (going every day to a job you hate). But please don't take my word for what paleo dieters believe. I'm not even a paleo dieter! His book is an easy, fun read even if you don't follow the diet.

[TravelingChris]

I liked her talk. I am not a fan of diets and I knew that paleolithic people ate differently depending on where they lived but how much certain plants have changed was interesting to me.

[Murphy101]

For ME whole30 isn't a diet. It's just the way I eat now. I don't miss the grains, dairy, rice and legumes. I miss the desserts occasionally. I miss having wine at the end of a long day. So sometimes, I have a dessert or wine. Sometimes I'll splurge to make a compliant dessert.

 

I don't like diets either. Bc the day you go off them, any progress starts to be lost.

 

I finished my official whole30 at Mother's Day. I have mostly stuck to it. Still no rice or pasta. I have not gained back a single ounce or inch. I have noticed a difference in how I feel when I go off grid so to speak. So for me, whole30 is not a diet I'm going off and on and yoyoing my health as I do it. It's just how I generally try to eat now.

[LibraryLover]

Here's a national geographic article on the Hadza, one of the few hunter gatherer societies left on earth. I

 

 

 

 

Thank you for this! What a wonderful read.

[LucyStoner]

What about periodic starvation? Feast or famine is not just an analogy. Devouring a ton of meat for a short time followed by a prolonged period of very low caloric intake (or even no intake in bad weather) seems more authentic. :p

[Momof3littles]

Well, intermittent fasting seems to be the topic of a lot of ongoing research right now. It seems they are seeing improvement in lipid levels and other biomarkers.

[Soror]

Yes, as Momof3littles mentions a lot of "paleo" advocates encourage intermittent fasting in some form or another.

[Murphy101]

Ha! I think the Catholics (and some others) have known the benefits of fasting periodicly way before paleo came along. :)

[MSNative]

I figure the term Paleo is like South Beach. Not everyone in South Beach eats like that nor do all SB diet followers have to live the SB lifestyle (thank goodness.) It's a marketing term.

 

I follow the southern diet. Lots of butter and bacon. :)

[Greta]

For ME whole30 isn't a diet. It's just the way I eat now.

 

I don't like diets either. Bc the day you go off them, any progress starts to be lost.

 

I don't think of NK as a diet either, because the term in our culture usually implies "weight loss diet" or "fad diet" or at the very least "temporary diet". Of course in most general terms diet just means "the foods one eats" so obviously it applies. But for me, even though I did lose weight when I started it, it's not a weight-loss diet because I did it, and keep doing it, for health reasons. This is the way I plan to eat for the rest of my life. People don't generally think of vegetarians or vegans as being "on a diet", and that's the same way that NK is for me. It's simple the way I live, because I got sick of being sick all the time, and decided to change my life!

[Greta]

I figure the term Paleo is like South Beach. Not everyone in South Beach eats like that nor do all SB diet followers have to live the SB lifestyle (thank goodness.) It's a marketing term.

 

Exactly! "Paleo Diet" is a general term for popular diets that shun some modern foods and emphasize whole foods. No one, certainly not the authors of the books promoting it, is claiming that it's a perfect imitation of the way paleolithic peoples ate.

 

It's common in our language for the same word or phrase to have different meanings, implications, and nuances in different contexts. And that is exactly what is going on here. "Paleo Diet" in popular culture has a different meaning than "paleolithic diet" would do an anthropologist. So the whole lecture seemed kind of silly to me, because she was arguing against something that no one else was arguing in the first place.

 

I follow the southern diet. Lots of butter and bacon. :)

 

Now that's my kind of diet! :hurray:

[Negin]

[Soror]

Negin- Love the pic, you made me LOL!

 

fwiw though Paleo isn't necessarily low-carb though, although a lot of times it is.

 

At this point I think it means little to most on Paleo as to whatever real Paleo people ate. I mean we do like to see ongoing research of this sort to look at tweaking for optimization but without personal results all of that is really moot to me and most others.

 

I feel best when I avoid grains, sugar, gluten and dairy. HUGE difference. Gluten is non-negotiable. I'm sure others can eat different diets and feel good as well, as Alte Vista mentioned Weston Price studied traditional peoples all over the world who thrived on different types of diets. He found people thriving on diets from carnivore to vegetarian. He found no vegans however, and those who were mostly carnivore, the Intuits, weren't as healthy as those with more moderate diets although given their climate there are a lot of confounding factors to be examined there.

[ktgrok]

fyi on sustainability...it depends on the area, and environment, and how the animals or crops are raised. Pastured animals, on a good pasture rotation system, are more environmentally responsible as a food source than monoculture crops like wheat/corn/etc. Areas that are unsuitable for raising food crops ARE usable for grazing. More and more is being done in this direction. There are areas where the land is being saved by introducing grazing animals, which by fertilizing and trampling the ground are recreating topsoil, native plants, etc.

 

This is a blog post on the idea of grazing animals/pastures helping with global warming: http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/grass-fed-beef-and-global-warming/

 

And this is a Ted talk that is fascinating...the guy is really passionate: http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

[tex-bex]

This is a fantastic conversation, so here are my 2 ¢.

 

The Paleo lifestyle, for me, is a focus on nutritionally-dense, high-quality foods, with a keen avoidance of inflammation-causing foods. The reason it's called Paleo is that these foods tend to line up with pre-agriculture food options. The grains and legumes that are so touted as "heart-healthy" contain anti-nutrients that cause damage to the human digestion. And there are healthy alternatives to all of those standard options. You do not NEED grains for fiber or nutrients. Veggies supply all of that.

 

I've done 2 Whole 30's and never, ever felt better than when I was in the middle of them. :)

 

I think there is a lot of discussion about what our ancestors actually ate, and I think it's only a small part of the discussion. Today we just evaluate the options we have for what our needs are. We have all moved around the globe so much, and moved our foods around so much that we each need to evaluate our options for what works best for each of us individually. Maybe that's one reason Paleo comes under fire. There really is no ONE best way. Just a template.

[butterflymommy]

I forgot to mention, another aspect of the "living stone age" tribes is repetition. They tend to eat the same thing over and over again, sometimes eating the same exact meals every day for years. So the emphasis on "variety" in most diet trends today definitely is not an ancient or "paleo" concept.

 

If I were going to copy a geo-social diet for health reasons I would follow a traditional Greek mediterranean diet. It is heavy on plant foods like legumes, greens, fruit but also includes honey, bread, olive oil, some meat and cheese. But I'm a really picky eater so it's difficult for me to officially follow any one way of eating.