When I first heard about the Paleo diet, my first question was probably the same as yours: Are we going back to gnawing on raw meat and bones?
By Caitlin Brown
When I first heard about the Paleo diet, my first question was probably the same as yours: Are we going back to gnawing on raw meat and bones?
Diets come and go, but the Paleo diet may be here to stay, because it’s rooted in a healthy and nutritional past: fish, grass-fed beef, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, and nuts.
The Paleolithic era began 2.6 million years ago, when early-form humans began using primitive stone tools to facilitate their hunting and gathering and consumption of meat, fruit, and vegetables. The carbohydrates so common in our modern daily diet were not part of the caveman’s, and therefore, if you are on the Paleo diet, they are not a part of your life, either.
There is no evidence of farming or agriculture until the Mesolithic era, so grains, beans, potatoes, dairy products, refined sugar and salt, processed oils, and beef raised on grains was not part of the Paleo diet.
The “new” diet has become popular in recent years, with both men and women turning to it when other diets fail them. Men like it because they get to eat large helpings of meat and fish, even burgers. Women find they aren’t as hungry as they tend to be on most diets, most likely due to the emphasis on protein. Restaurants, from the Lemon Tree Café in Bermuda to Dick’s Kitchen in Oregon, are devoting their entire menu to Paleo-acceptable foods.
The chief advocate of the Paleo diet is Dr. Loren Cordian, who has written a number of books and journal articles on the subject. When asked recently on the “Dr. Oz” show why it’s beneficial to humans, his answer was “It combines all the best ideas we’ve ever had about nutrition. For one, it’s a high-protein diet and low-glycemic load diet. We know that those characteristics are perhaps the best way to get weight off and keep it off. For another, it’s very high in fruits and vegetables that contain healthy biochemicals, vitamins, and minerals that tend to promote immune function and make us a lot healthier. It’s also high in long-chain Omega-3 fatty acids which help to calm down inflammation.”
Dr. Cordain asserts that, “every woman in America” should be on the Paleo diet.
But not everyone agrees. There is not a great deal of long-term academic study and research on the diet, and much like the Atkins diet and other predecessors, the Paleo diet has a number of critics.
Joy Dubost, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, believes that weight loss does come from the elimination of processed foods (like refined flour and sugar), and that eliminating such foods is always beneficial. However, also beneficial to one’s diet, she says, are foods not allowed under the Paleo regimen.
In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Dubost noted, “It has eliminated several food groups like dairy and grains, which provide essential nutrients, such as calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and phosphorus in dairy and B vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants in grains. Legumes also provide a great protein source with little fat and are lower in calories while providing essential nutrients and fiber.”
In 2011, U.S. News and World Report invited a panel of nutritional and dietary experts to evaluate 29 different diets to determine which ones were the most beneficial. The Paleo diet finished tied for last. The experts stated, that in their view, there was little research to support the benefits of a Paleo diet, and were highly critical of its nutritional shortcomings, echoing the thoughts of Ms. Dubost. They further noted that the diet would be both difficult and expensive to follow.
If you are brave enough or willing to cut out all dairy, processed foods, alcohol, caffeine, sugar and flour, a slew of books, blogs, and cookbooks are available to help put you on the Paleo diet plan.
