The Paleo Diet: for and against

The Paleo Diet: for and against

this comment got me thinking a little.

· Well to start with breast fed babies poo a slurry of breastmilk. It only starts thickening once they start eating solids. Our guts and colons are long... much longer compared to a strict carnivore. Let's look at a cat which is a strict carnivore. They have pure carnivore teeth designed for ripping flesh. We don't. Most of our teeth are designed for grinding. A cat's stomach is high in acid to break down meat. Our guts aren't, which indicates that we were designed to be carrion eaters. Whilst we don't eat rotting flesh now (homo habilis was unlikely to have been a hunter but a scavanger) we cook meat to speed up the rotting process. A cat's intestines are short designed to process and expel the meat as easily as possible. Ours are longer which indicates we are supposed to be eating primarily vegetarian foods. So if the bowel/colon cancer is a red herring WHY is it that when you have a colonoscopy they ask you to stop eating meat for weeks before the procedure? Because red meat STICKS to the sides of your colon and they can't differentiate it from blood. You need FIBRE to process the meat in your guts."

Eat as much red meat,fish etc as you can I say!

Sydking said:

The Paleo Diet: for and against

this comment got me thinking a little.

· Well to start with breast fed babies poo a slurry of breastmilk. It only starts thickening once they start eating solids. Our guts and colons are long... much longer compared to a strict carnivore. Let's look at a cat which is a strict carnivore. They have pure carnivore teeth designed for ripping flesh. We don't. Most of our teeth are designed for grinding. A cat's stomach is high in acid to break down meat. Our guts aren't, which indicates that we were designed to be carrion eaters. Whilst we don't eat rotting flesh now (homo habilis was unlikely to have been a hunter but a scavanger) we cook meat to speed up the rotting process. A cat's intestines are short designed to process and expel the meat as easily as possible. Ours are longer which indicates we are supposed to be eating primarily vegetarian foods. So if the bowel/colon cancer is a red herring WHY is it that when you have a colonoscopy they ask you to stop eating meat for weeks before the procedure? Because red meat STICKS to the sides of your colon and they can't differentiate it from blood. You need FIBRE to process the meat in your guts."

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i'm not a fan of the paleo diet unless someone is very active given the high saturated fat content, and I'm wary of paleo enthusiasts who think bacon should be part of every meal, snack and dessert ... LOL

I like some aspects of it though as it's probably quite suitable for some if you need to eliminate dairy and/or grains for intolerances etc.

It's just another dietary lifestyle that is supported only by anecdotal evidence and evangelism (broscience?) and not any real evidence to back it up. Some of the claims are outlandish ...
BUT, that said, with regard to fibre, you can get all three kinds of fibre in a paleo diet that were mentioned in that article.

What is going on with the Age these days.....sigh....

I liked this statement:

"Sometimes nutrition seems like a war zone with different tribes slugging it out over what’s the best way to eat"

So true...and this really comes down to money and just someones idea that they have made public....at the end of the day eat a balanced diet, that includes foods from all food groups...

I do stand by my - eat as much meat, fish etc as you can though...I think this should be the base of any good diet....

Joel said:

I liked this statement:

"Sometimes nutrition seems like a war zone with different tribes slugging it out over what’s the best way to eat"

So true...and this really comes down to money and just someones idea that they have made public....at the end of the day eat a balanced diet, that includes foods from all food groups...

I do stand by my - eat as much meat, fish etc as you can though...I think this should be the base of any good diet....

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that's the sensible approach but wow, when I read "foods from all food groups" I immediately thought of my favourite varieties of cacao ... rofl
cos chocolate makes everything better ... even meat

chocchillimango said:

that's the sensible approach but wow, when I read "foods from all food groups" I immediately thought of my favourite varieties of cacao ... rofl
cos chocolate makes everything better ... even meat

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I saw on my kitchen rules where they made that mexican style mince with chocolate...would be keen to try!

Joel said:

I saw on my kitchen rules where they made that mexican style mince with chocolate...would be keen to try!

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yep a mexican chilli con carne. Best thing would be a real mexican mole sauce on chicken. I can't believe I wrote that. I'd really make an effort to love chicken if i could make an authentic mole.

next cooking mission...mole sauce.

earlier comment probably the result of my post workout haze in which i scoffed two of those chocolate coconut things.... straight from the freezer...yum.

Which btw, are totally paleo friendly... LOL

I don't see the point in restricting any food group unless you are intolerant.

And I agree with Joel, eat lots of meat!

chocchillimango: I sort of thought from you're blog posts that it was pretty close to paleo. Just the vibe I got

jzpowahz said:

I don't see the point in restricting any food group unless you are intolerant.

And I agree with Joel, eat lots of meat!

chocchillimango: I sort of thought from you're blog posts that it was pretty close to paleo. Just the vibe I got

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oh I definitely do not follow a paleo diet ... although I seem to have a lot of paleo followers LOL

I include some stuff that just happens to be paleo friendly by accident rather than design...probably because I accommodate food intolerances and I have one too. I limit grains due to fructan intolerance but still have oats and I wouldn't be Italian if I didn't have some polenta from time to time...

jzpowahz said:

I don't see the point in restricting any food group unless you are intolerant.

And I agree with Joel, eat lots of meat!

chocchillimango: I sort of thought from you're blog posts that it was pretty close to paleo. Just the vibe I got

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The basic cornerstone of the paleo ethos is avoidance of all grains, alot of weight training people include dairy and some of the paleo "no no's" such as potato's, however its the removal of grains from the diet that many people get such rejuvination from.

The idea is that even in people who aren't intolerant, some degree of inflamation occurs in the gut and intestine from the grains (wheat mainly), as the purpose of a seed is to pass through the digestion intact for transport and growth of the plant species.

Its thought that removing this from the diet, inflamation decreases and the whole digestion system works better > in turn greater energy, less feeling like a bloated donut etc.

DREADLIFT said:

The basic cornerstone of the paleo ethos is avoidance of all grains, alot of weight training people include dairy and some of the paleo "no no's" such as potato's, however its the removal of grains from the diet that many people get such rejuvination from.

The idea is that even in people who aren't intolerant, some degree of inflamation occurs in the gut and intestine from the grains (wheat mainly), as the purpose of a seed is to pass through the digestion intact for transport and growth of the plant species.

Its thought that removing this from the diet, inflamation decreases and the whole digestion system works better > in turn greater energy, less feeling like a bloated donut etc.

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The scientific evidence for this inflammation in non intolerant people is pretty non exsistant. It's another of the latest fads from the self proclaimed health gurus that grains are bad for everyone.

yep, true. all the evidence one finds is anecdotal by people who swear by it.
not good enough.
plus, it's fine if you live a paleo lifestyle with the sort of eating patterns, hunting and gathering and constant nomadic lifestyle. But if you're hunting your meat at the butcher's and running around in your SUV ... maybe not the same??

a bit like saying a gluten free diet should be followed by everyone. unless you have a problem with gluten, there does not appear to be any real evidence it harms otherwise healthy individuals.

All I know is that I'm not a happy chappy if I don't get my choc/cinnamon proats

I eat paleo plus non-paleo

I have been looking into this paleo dieting "craze" and for me it makes sense, i dont know if i am carb intolerant but i do know when i avoid them of reduce them in my diet i feel much better and dont get that bloated feeling.

I dont eat much diary anyways except a little milk in my coffee and occassional bit of cheese, so this wasnt hard to drop, although i still have the milk in my coffee, as for grains etc, really i found this reasonably easy as well as i stay away from breads, pasta etc. Now i can still enjoy my red meats and fish as well as chicken and i will just steam up different veggies and have that for my meals.

Broscience or not, i feel much better on this diet, less tired, more energy and still seem to be gaining some muscle while dropped BF.

As with any diet you need to try it out for a period of time and make small changes till is suits you.

chocchillimango said:

oh I definitely do not follow a paleo diet ... although I seem to have a lot of paleo followers LOL

I include some stuff that just happens to be paleo friendly by accident rather than design...probably because I accommodate food intolerances and I have one too. I limit grains due to fructan intolerance but still have oats and I wouldn't be Italian if I didn't have some polenta from time to time...

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How do you do your polenta, I grew up eating it cooked then cooled in a baking tray, Then sliced and baked so the outside is cripsy and toped off with pasta sauce and cheese, Parmagina style

I rekon the macros of polenta are decent, ill have it for breaky sometimes pan cooked with water then a dolop of greek yougurt and a Fried egg on top..

Neddysmith said:

As with any diet you need to try it out for a period of time and make small changes till is suits you.

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You do not need to try out a diet to know if it's stupid or not. Any diet that randomly cuts out whole food groups for no reason is bro science and you don't have to try it to know its stupid.

The paleo diet argument is interesting but cannot explain away traditional diets whose benefits to health and longevity have solid scientific backing, in particular the Okinawan diet and the traditional Mediterranean diet. When I say traditional Mediterranean diet, I'm not talking pizza and pasta, or souvlaki and chips. My dad grew up in a very remote village in Cyprus. They ate lots of poultry game - mostly wild birds they caught and some chicken, fish and hardly any red meat - only if they slaughtered a goat or lamb at Easter. They couldn't afford to keep and butcher cows or pigs. They grew their own wheat. The villagers chipped in money and would send off the wheat as a collective to a neighbouring town which had a mill and had the flour returned to them. They'd bake their own bread.

The main source of wheat though was not bread. It was in the form of burghul (in English) - dried cracked wheat (what we call purkuri). They would often soak this in raw sheeps milk to form a bready like food called "trahanas". Trahanas would be eaten as a soup, which is basically like porridge. I think Turks and Arabs might have this too. The organisms in the milk break ferment the grains, breaking down the phytic acid and complex starches, making it kinder on the digestive system. There is thinking now that soaking grains greatly reduces sensitivity to grains.

This was pretty much the staple of their diet.

My great-great-grandfather lived to 111. Pretty good considering he smoked. But they grew their own tobacco too.

With the rise of allergies in Western societies, particularly Australia, there is merit in looking at grain consumption from an evolutionary aspect, but this has only happened in the last generation. There is lots of research going on about this at the moment and there are more questions than answers. One interesting theory applies Pottenger cats theory, which suggests that it can take three generations for intolerances to accumulate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_M._Pottenger,_Jr. ) The theory is that around the turn of the century is when flour production became industrialised and white flour became a staple. the problem, according to this theory, is not grains per se or even flour (bread has been a staple for millenia). Its the overconsumption of refined flour, which has found its way into all kinds of food products.

Interestingly the author of the original paleo diet, Loren Cordain, made it clear that if it wasn't for grain we wouldn't have civilisation and we have no economically or ecologically sound alternative to replacing it from the human diet. Its the zealots that followed that made it sound like all grain is evil. If everyone followed a paleo diet, the world would starve.

Bazza20 said:

You do not need to try out a diet to know if it's stupid or not. Any diet that randomly cuts out whole food groups for no reason is bro science and you don't have to try it to know its stupid.

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Yeah you are right, there are many many diets out there that are completely rediculous and we dont have to try them to know this, i guess i sort of missed my point in that there are many diets out there that can be befeficial in general but they will all need to be tried and tweeked to suit an individual for their individual goals.

ONe thing i have also noticed is that many people claim to be using a paleo diet, but the interesting thing when i speak to them is they all have a slightly different view of what the paleo diet is, ie higher carbs, no carbs, only carbs from green veggies and limited fruits, high healthy fats, lower fats etc etc.

Neddysmith said:

ONe thing i have also noticed is that many people claim to be using a paleo diet, but the interesting thing when i speak to them is they all have a slightly different view of what the paleo diet is, ie higher carbs, no carbs, only carbs from green veggies and limited fruits, high healthy fats, lower fats etc etc.

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Paleo diet shouldn't have anything to do with macronutrient breakdown, its all about selecting food that is unprocessed, seasonal and similar to what was available to humans before the advent of agriculture. Eg starchy tubers, which are high carbs, like taro, yams etc, are fair game in paleo.