The Paleo Diet is one of the "hottest" dietary trends in recent nutritional history, but does it really have staying power, or is it just a fad?
I wrote about the Paleo Diet back in 2015, and since then, it has only grown more popular. But dietary fads can sometimes last for quite a few years, so how can we be sure that Paleo won't go the way of so many other fad diets that have faded into the dusty archives of outdated trends?
The Paleo way of eating has thousands of passionate followers who claim that eating this way can help you lose body fat, lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, prevent diabetes, improve brain health, boost your energy levels, and more. But are these claims actually true, or is this just another over-hyped "miracle diet" that doesn't actually deliver on its promises in the long-term?
Today we will look a little deeper at the Paleo Diet in an attempt to address some of these questions.
I wrote about the Paleo Diet back in 2015, and since then, it has only grown more popular. But dietary fads can sometimes last for quite a few years, so how can we be sure that Paleo won't go the way of so many other fad diets that have faded into the dusty archives of outdated trends?
The Paleo way of eating has thousands of passionate followers who claim that eating this way can help you lose body fat, lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, prevent diabetes, improve brain health, boost your energy levels, and more. But are these claims actually true, or is this just another over-hyped "miracle diet" that doesn't actually deliver on its promises in the long-term?
Today we will look a little deeper at the Paleo Diet in an attempt to address some of these questions.
While there are certainly detractors and those who prefer to eat another way, the fact is that the Paleo Diet encompasses a way of eating that humans have (at least loosely) followed for close to 2 million years. While we certainly had our share of health concerns as a species during past centuries centuries, "lifestyle" diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other related issues barely existed.
Of course, in those days, we were probably more concerned about being eaten by a mountain lion than dying of a heart attack! Today's comparatively safer and more comfortable world makes it easy to eat whatever we want, and our longer lifespan means that we have a lot more years for our diets to impact our health later in life.
This means two things for you: 1. It is harder to make healthy food choices when we have such an easy abundance of unhealthy "convenience" foods available to us, and 2. It is more important than ever that we DO eat healthy!
Which leads us back to the Paleo Diet. Is it really healthy, and is it a sustainable way to eat in the long term?
Detractors of the diet say that it is too reliant on meat, and that it eliminates too many carbs.
In fact...neither of these assumptions are true.
Despite all the Paleo cookbooks out there with giant steaks and piles of eggs and bacon on the cover, eating Paleo isn't all about meat. Neither is it about avoiding carbs, although these are the two most common misunderstandings about the Paleo diet.
In fact, calling Paleo eating a "diet" is rather misleading. After all, a million years ago, there were no "diets." Our ancestors all ate dramatically differently depending on where they lived and what was available to them locally. Some of our ancestors thrived on mostly fruits, berries, and root vegetables, with the occasional treat of eggs or small mammals. Some ate mostly seafood supplemented with seaweed and a few seeds or nuts. Others ate seasonally fresh vegetables and fruits, organ (and other) meats, fermented dairy products, and other fermented foods that could be preserved for the colder months. Some people ate more fat from animal sources than others, some ate more plants and plant-based fat sources like coconuts, some ate lots of fish and seafood, others hardly any.
Obviously, there was no ONE "Paleo Diet."
However, all of these diets had one thing in common - regardless of what percentage of their calories came from which food source, or how much protein, carbs, or fat were consumed.
Can you guess what it was? (I'll come back to that in a minute...)
Another thing that is interesting about all these widely varied diets is that the people who consumed them were notably lacking in all of today's modern degenerative diseases. Diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's were virtually unheard of. Infectious diseases (which we have eradicated most of in the modern world due to advanced sanitation practices) and physical injury - things that have little to nothing to do with diet - were the most common causes of death.
So why, in today's modern, technological, highly advanced society, are we literally eating ourselves to death?
As I mentioned above, part of it is certainly due to the abundance of unhealthy foods we are surrounded with every day. Our ancestors couldn't walk into a grocery store and find thousands of prepared and processed food items waiting for them. Instead, they had to catch/harvest/gather, clean, cook, and otherwise prepare everything they ate for themselves - either individually or as a community. This meant that their food was always fresh, whole, and unadulterated - just the way God made it.
Contrary to popular belief, eating Paleo doesn't mean pigging out on bacon every day. Neither does it mean avoiding carbs (after all, most vegetables are high in carbs), or getting most of your calories from fat and protein. Instead, truly following a Paleo way of eating means consuming whole, fresh, and real foods that exist in nature. (And no, that doesn't include bacon!) Remember that the meats our ancestors ate were wild game that lived in their local surroundings. This is quite different from the factory-farmed animals that most of us consume today! If you are going to eat meat, dairy, or eggs, you really can't claim to be "Paleo" if you're eating products from factory farmed animals. It's literally "a whole different animal."
Speaking of whole animals, you should also keep in mind that our ancestors ate the whole animal - not just the muscle. They ate the fat, organs, cartilage, and blood. If they could, they cooked down the bones and ate the rich broth and marrow. And that was smart, because organ meats contain more nutrients than virtually any other type of food, and the collagen found in bones and joints has been found to have powerful anti-aging and other health properties.
Bottom Line: If you want to eat a truly "Paleo diet," you must choose meat sources that are either wild or grass-fed, and you need to eat more than just the muscle meat. But most of all, you must realize that no matter what our ancestors ate, it was an omnivorous diet of real, whole, fresh food. There was no refined vegetable oil, no refined grains, no refined sugar. There were no Twinkies.
This is the reason why our ancestors didn't suffer from today's diet-related diseases, and it's also the way that we in the modern world can eliminate them - if we so choose. It may not always be easy to make the healthy choice, but if we do make it, and make it consistently, over time we can find our way to the health and longevity that our modern society should have.
Those who talk about the "Paleo Diet" as a "trend" that won't last don't really understand what it is all about in the first place. It's not about meat, fat, or carbs, but about eating a balanced diet of REAL foods. And that's a "trend" that has kept our species alive for millions of years.
To your health,
Rose.
P.S. Next week is our weekend off from blogging, but I will be back the following weekend with another healthy dose of truth so stay tuned!
Of course, in those days, we were probably more concerned about being eaten by a mountain lion than dying of a heart attack! Today's comparatively safer and more comfortable world makes it easy to eat whatever we want, and our longer lifespan means that we have a lot more years for our diets to impact our health later in life.
This means two things for you: 1. It is harder to make healthy food choices when we have such an easy abundance of unhealthy "convenience" foods available to us, and 2. It is more important than ever that we DO eat healthy!
Which leads us back to the Paleo Diet. Is it really healthy, and is it a sustainable way to eat in the long term?
Detractors of the diet say that it is too reliant on meat, and that it eliminates too many carbs.
In fact...neither of these assumptions are true.
Despite all the Paleo cookbooks out there with giant steaks and piles of eggs and bacon on the cover, eating Paleo isn't all about meat. Neither is it about avoiding carbs, although these are the two most common misunderstandings about the Paleo diet.
In fact, calling Paleo eating a "diet" is rather misleading. After all, a million years ago, there were no "diets." Our ancestors all ate dramatically differently depending on where they lived and what was available to them locally. Some of our ancestors thrived on mostly fruits, berries, and root vegetables, with the occasional treat of eggs or small mammals. Some ate mostly seafood supplemented with seaweed and a few seeds or nuts. Others ate seasonally fresh vegetables and fruits, organ (and other) meats, fermented dairy products, and other fermented foods that could be preserved for the colder months. Some people ate more fat from animal sources than others, some ate more plants and plant-based fat sources like coconuts, some ate lots of fish and seafood, others hardly any.
Obviously, there was no ONE "Paleo Diet."
However, all of these diets had one thing in common - regardless of what percentage of their calories came from which food source, or how much protein, carbs, or fat were consumed.
Can you guess what it was? (I'll come back to that in a minute...)
Another thing that is interesting about all these widely varied diets is that the people who consumed them were notably lacking in all of today's modern degenerative diseases. Diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's were virtually unheard of. Infectious diseases (which we have eradicated most of in the modern world due to advanced sanitation practices) and physical injury - things that have little to nothing to do with diet - were the most common causes of death.
So why, in today's modern, technological, highly advanced society, are we literally eating ourselves to death?
As I mentioned above, part of it is certainly due to the abundance of unhealthy foods we are surrounded with every day. Our ancestors couldn't walk into a grocery store and find thousands of prepared and processed food items waiting for them. Instead, they had to catch/harvest/gather, clean, cook, and otherwise prepare everything they ate for themselves - either individually or as a community. This meant that their food was always fresh, whole, and unadulterated - just the way God made it.
Contrary to popular belief, eating Paleo doesn't mean pigging out on bacon every day. Neither does it mean avoiding carbs (after all, most vegetables are high in carbs), or getting most of your calories from fat and protein. Instead, truly following a Paleo way of eating means consuming whole, fresh, and real foods that exist in nature. (And no, that doesn't include bacon!) Remember that the meats our ancestors ate were wild game that lived in their local surroundings. This is quite different from the factory-farmed animals that most of us consume today! If you are going to eat meat, dairy, or eggs, you really can't claim to be "Paleo" if you're eating products from factory farmed animals. It's literally "a whole different animal."
Speaking of whole animals, you should also keep in mind that our ancestors ate the whole animal - not just the muscle. They ate the fat, organs, cartilage, and blood. If they could, they cooked down the bones and ate the rich broth and marrow. And that was smart, because organ meats contain more nutrients than virtually any other type of food, and the collagen found in bones and joints has been found to have powerful anti-aging and other health properties.
Bottom Line: If you want to eat a truly "Paleo diet," you must choose meat sources that are either wild or grass-fed, and you need to eat more than just the muscle meat. But most of all, you must realize that no matter what our ancestors ate, it was an omnivorous diet of real, whole, fresh food. There was no refined vegetable oil, no refined grains, no refined sugar. There were no Twinkies.
This is the reason why our ancestors didn't suffer from today's diet-related diseases, and it's also the way that we in the modern world can eliminate them - if we so choose. It may not always be easy to make the healthy choice, but if we do make it, and make it consistently, over time we can find our way to the health and longevity that our modern society should have.
Those who talk about the "Paleo Diet" as a "trend" that won't last don't really understand what it is all about in the first place. It's not about meat, fat, or carbs, but about eating a balanced diet of REAL foods. And that's a "trend" that has kept our species alive for millions of years.
To your health,
Rose.
P.S. Next week is our weekend off from blogging, but I will be back the following weekend with another healthy dose of truth so stay tuned!
RSS Feed