Question of the Week: What is the Paleo Diet?

Question of the Week: What is the Paleo Diet?

Q: Jo Prior, Australia

Hi Darryl.  I've been reading your blog and following you on twitter and have heard you mention the Paleo Diet.  

Would love to hear more about this particular 'real-food' eating philosophy and practice.

Joanne

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A: The Fitness Explorer  

The Paleo Diet, also known as the Stone Age, Caveman, Ancestral and Hunter-Gatherer diets is a modern interpretation of what our ancestors ate in Paleolithic times (during the stone age) as hunter-gatherers.  

The paleolithic era is assumed to cover over 2.5 Million years.  The foods consisted of lean meats, fowl, fish, vegetables, nuts, fruit and excluded sugar, grains, dairy products, legumes (beans) salt, sugar and processed oils.

Researchers have found that our ancestors were lean, fit and in good health and not plagued with modern lifestyle diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  Life expectancy was usually as good as the present day (obviously without the daily risks of being eaten by predators, poor hygiene or contracting infection).  

It is believed in some quarters that not only were the activities undertaken by our ancestors beneficial, but that the diet was key to this healthy state.

When did this all change?

10,000 years or so ago we entered the Neolithic era and a diet which began to be dominated by grains.  This was the genesis of agriculture and thus the types of food we ate began to change.  With the industrial revolution of the 18th Century and the advances in manufacturing and food science of the last 50 years - mass-produced food based around grain, sugar and man-made substances have become the norm.  

In recent years food-like substances, artificial additives, unhealthy fats and nutritionally redundant calories have brought with it a corresponding deterioration in food quality and health.  

The ultimate goal: to produce the lowest quality food, with the longest shelf life, at the cheapest price to the largest possible audience with a marketing campaign concerned with taste rather than nutritional benefit.

Evidence?

There are many studies that support this modern take on the Paleolithic diet.  One study that was widely reported in the British Press in 2008, was the trial run by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.  Published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [1]

Subjects were only allowed to eat fruit, vegetables, lean meat, fish, and nuts.  All beans, grains (wheat, rice), alcohol, sugar and juices were banned.  In just 3 weeks the subjects had lost an average of 5 pounds (2.3kg), waist circumference had reduced by 0.2 inches (0.5cm), a 5% decrease in lower blood pressure and had 72% lower levels of a blood clotting agent that could cause heart attacks and strokes.

Dr Per Wandell noted at the time, “Short-term intervention with a paleolithic diet in healthy volunteers showed some favourable effects on cardiovascular risk factors.”

Is it a fad?

Like with most approaches to nutrition there are many debates about what is 'good for us'. With the last person to speak sounding more convincing than the last.  

I have personally found success with a paleolithic type diet, but it's best to make up your own mind and read as much as you can about this approach (both supporting and contrary).  It took me a few years to make the switch to Paleo from the universally accepted balanced diet 'food pyramid' with its foundation built on grains, low-fat and moderate protein.  

I will expand in a future post on my personal interpretation of the Paleo Diet.

Darryl.

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References:

[1] Österdahl M, Kocturk T, Koochek A, Wändell PE. Effects of a short-term intervention with a paleolithic diet in healthy volunteers. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008;

"The Paleo Diet" - Dr Loren Cordain

"The Paleolithic Solution" - Robb Wolf