Bronze-level articlePaleo diet

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Potentially edible!

Food and Diet

Fabulous food!
Delectable diets!
Bodacious bods!
Fiction over fact


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How it didn't happen
—Alex Gregory, The New Yorker[1]


The "paleo diet", like most diets, has evolved over time and has many variants. Its earliest phase is associated with Loren Cordain and is based around only paleo food-types, as above.[2] It is the diet in this guise that has attracted most research in terms of diet trials.[3][4][5][6][7] Conversely, popular forms of the diet, for example, those advocated by paleo bloggers, commonly diverge from this. Recently there has been a significant movement towards "Paleo 2.0" which rejects simply eating the foodstuffs of the paleolithic, in favor of eating whatever foods best reproduce the "evolutionary metabolic milieu".[8][9][10] A simple example is that while Paleo 1.0 would reject cream as a novel foodstuff, Paleo 2.0 would tend to embrace it as a close analog of animal fat. Paleo 2.0 is also more likely to embrace biochemical and dietary research that is extraneous to pure paleo reasoning:[11] as such Paleo 2.0 is more accepting of both extreme low carb and high fat diets, high starch diets, traditionally prepared grains, inclusion of dairy, etc.


[edit] Description

In its original form, the paleo diet was a combination of two popular fad diets: the low-carb diet and the gluten-free diet. More recently, however, many paleo proponents are moving away from low-carb,[12] citing such modern hunter/gatherer societies as the Kitavans, who survive largely on tubers and are in impeccable health.[13]


It should be mentioned that much of the Paleo diet movement is focused not on the work of anthropologists but on that of Weston Price regarding the effects of then modern (1920s-1930s) processed food on so-called primitive cultures which were seen as "living fossils" of neolithic societies.[citation needed]

[edit] What do paleo dieters eat?

As with any fad diet, the paleo diet comes in many flavors[16] and many ranges of extremity. In general, though, the following tenets should hold true:

  • Meat, especially birds, wild caught fish and grass fed ruminants. Variation exists among paleo belief as to how fatty paleolithic meats would have been.[17][18][19] Hunter gatherers living in coastal areas would likely have eaten reasonable amounts of fat from marine mammals they hunted as the Inuit do today. Others would have eaten less animal fat.
  • The offal of the animals listed above.
  • Large amounts of vegetables.
  • Fruits (limited by some).
  • Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, and kefir.
  • No added sugar, especially high-fructose corn syrup.
  • Dairy is often excluded or limited, but high fat or fermented dairy is often included by so-called 'lacto-paleos' or 'Primal'.[21][22]


Small numbers of paleo dieters try a vegan version[23] (or Vegetarian) [24] of the diet though most humans can only get vitamin B12 from animal products or from highly processed vitamin supplements.[25]

[edit] What did paleolithic humans actually eat?

Paleolithic humans adapted their diet depending on the season and on what food resources were available locally. Humans evolved to be flexible eaters.[26] Early stone tools were used to process both animal and plant material.[27] Paleolithic diets had to include animals and plants that most Americans (who are the primary consumers of this woo) wouldn't touch with a 10-foot squeamish pole. Next time you meet a paleo, ask him or her if they eat:

  • Each other given that there is evidence of cannibalism among early human ancestors.
  • Unpleasant plants, pre-selective breeding. Sour and bitter tastes existed in many plant foods before human interference. Although paleolithic man probably would avoid downright foul-tasting (and likely poisonous) food, the plants that they ate were hardly nice, friendly spinach or carrots. Many modern vegetables are more pleasant mutations and hybridizations of less pleasant or even poisonous plants such as is found in the genera Solanum (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers) and Prunus (almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries); if you hated brussel sprouts and broccoli as a kid, imagine how nasty they were before selective breeding. Safe varieties were likely discovered by just eating them and hoping it didn't kill anybody. In addition, paleolithic people are known to have eaten woody stems, stripped bark, and pith: things suspiciously absent from the modern paleo diet that probably contributed to the extreme dental wear and tear observed in fossil individuals.
  • Organ meat — a critical part of paleolithic man's diet. Does the average paleo dieter eat brains, tongues, stomach, eyes, liver, or kidneys? All of these brought important nutrition to our "healthy" ancestors that doesn't exist in white meat and cuts of grazing beef.
  • Insects, especially grubs and large beetles, including roaches.
  • Grains and other starches such as sorghum, wild corn (in both North and South American), potatoes (South America), and a large variety of seeds. Evidence for consumption of legumes such as wild lentils has also been found, along with stone tools associated with processing them.[28][29] There is also evidence that paleolithic humans evolved extra amylase production to break down cooked starches, such as tubers, long before the advent of agriculture, suggesting that starchy food was already a diet staple.[30][31]
  • Fruits and nuts.

If they respond with "No, I don't eat some of that stuff", you've cornered them. They'll tell you that they don't eat insects because that would disgust them, but the real reason is that they have a faulty understanding of evolutionary reality.

[edit] How high-protein diets can work


Some reasons suggested for why high protein diets work include:

  4. Protein and fat take longer to digest, leaving the dieter with a sensation of being "full" for a longer period of time.[38][39]
  5. Simple carbohydrates, specifically processed sugars, cause insulin peaks and crashes, causing the dieter's body to react with a mental desire to eat, and often a physical sensation of being tired, weak or shaky. There are also some indications that these ups and downs affect how the body processes and stores the fats that are in the bloodstream.[40]

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the paleo diet, even in a 'high meat' form, is not necessarily high in protein. While meat is obviously protein rich, by excluding grains and dairy, the paleo diet removes significant sources of protein in the standard Western diet. For example, a 2500kcal diet based exclusively on whole-wheat bread[41] will provide more protein than one and a half pounds of beef steak.[42] Various dietary trials of paleo diets show little if any difference in protein intake between diet groups.[43][44] One study also found the paleo diet produced more satiety per calorie, compared to a Mediterranean diet, which was not accounted for by differences in protein intake.[45]

Paleo diets, in contrast to high protein diets such as the Atkins Diet and the South Beach diet, also include relatively high quantities of fiber, which, like protein, adds to satiety.[46] However, again, in a trial comparing the paleo diet to the Mediterranean diet, there was little difference in fiber intake between groups (the Mediterranean diet contained more fiber in absolute terms), but fiber was not significantly associated with satiety across the two groups.

[edit] Evaluation of claims



[edit] Nutritional claims

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., author of a version of this diet, Exercise Physiology,[48] claims that the diet is as healthy in nutrition as you can get.[49] It is important to note at the outset that Cordain is an exercise physiology specialist, not a dietician — while not a neonate to the field, his expertise is tangential to the topic. Some of his advice is dubious. Cordain advises making a salad, storing it and eating a bit with extras every day for a week. [50] By day two the salad will have lost its vitamin content; by the end of the week there may be a dose of the germs real hunter gatherers encounter. Here is what a website that understands food hygiene recommends. "Store leftovers in the fridge within two hours of cooking and eat them within three days."[51] A bout of food poisoning could lead to dramatic weight loss as claimed.




Experts the world over say all diets boil down to how much energy we take in versus how much we expend, and we simply cannot escape that. To that end, it is possible to lose weight eating only Twinkies, and gain weight eating only carrots.[54] However, the advantage of a paleo diet, like any other diet that emphasizes unprocessed foods, is in the satiety: dieters can lose weight without having to meticulously count calories.[55]

In U.S. News and World Report's end-of-2013 annual review of popular diets, conducted by a panel of around 30 nutrition and medical experts, the Paleo Diet came in dead last.[56]

[edit] Medical claims

Dr. Cordain has also suggested that because it is generally low in fat,[57] and that wild foods have a generally low glycemic index (also a popular diet buzz word), it will prevent illness from "modern diseases" (such as diabetes mellitus type II).[58] Real food scientists note glycemic load is based on realistic portion sizes and is therefore more significant than glycemic index. The glycemic load from baked potato is as high as that from sugary drinks.[59]

The stated assumptions at sites that suggest following this diet are that "cavemen were healthier" and did not suffer the kinds of ailments that Modern Man suffers from, and that most inexplicable illnesses (autism, cancer, arthritis, etc.) come from eating foods the body cannot process.

Despite Dr. Cordain's and others' assertions, little exists in the scientific journals[60][61] to support claims that a paleolithic diet prevents acne, "inflammation" (another new woo word in woo medicine) or improves athletic performance. Other authors' claims[62] about autism, multiple sclerosis, or arthritis are also unsupported.

NOTE: Not all variants of the paleo diet are low in fat. Some extol the virtues of saturated fat,[63] particularly in the form of untrimmed red meat, full-fat dairy, and coconut oil. Dr. Cordain's assertions about the healthy, low fat nature of "the" paleo diet clearly aren't talking about these high-fat variants.


Preliminary research on mummies, from ancient cultures around the globe, suggests that rates of atherosclerosis (plaque lining blood vessels) were not significantly lower now. Randall Thompson, cardiologist and professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, states:[65]

I'm a clinical cardiologist and I want people to eat a healthy diet, but this puts all that in perspective. [....] At least part of this disease is not explained by traditional risk factors. These ancient people didn’t have preservatives, everything was organic, they didn’t smoke and they got plenty of exercise. But [...] the amount of atherosclerosis in ancient times isn’t much different from what you see in modern times. If you account for age, it looks like we’re in the same ballpark. [....] We have this wistful hope that if we go back to nature that we would markedly delay atherosclerosis. But these people ate a natural diet, and they still had heart disease.

[edit] Genetic and evolutionary


—Alison George[66]

Proponents claim that the human digestive system is adapted to the diet of the paleolithic era and has not evolved since, and that the widespread incidence of diabetes and other diseases can be traced to the shift to a grain-based diet due to the advent of agriculture. This claim is not widely accepted, if at all, within mainstream science. Indeed, evidence suggests that humans have evolved over the last five thousand years specifically to eat an agricultural diet,[67] including changing from a straight-on cutting bite to a shearing overbite.[68] Further, the basis of the idea that we have not changed genetically does not take into account modern genetic studies nor modern theories of evolution.[69] There is evidence that in Europe, farmers out-competed and eventually replaced hunter-gatherers with minimal interbreeding.[70]

In fact, humans have, only to a certain degree, adapted to a diet based on agriculturally-produced foods. Milk intolerance is a condition where adults cannot digest and absorb lactose. This condition is common in Europe[71] and normal in at least some Chinese populations. Over 90% of Chinese adults cannot digest or absorb lactose fully. [72] China had an agricultural system for thousands of years but most Chinese adults have not evolved the ability to make full use of the milk their dairy animals produce.[73]


Loren Cordain advised against milk based on what he calls "an impressive study," though the authors of the study[75] and the UK NHS call it a preliminary study which does not provide firm conclusions.[76] Cordain suggests eating bone meal to increase calcium intake.[77] However, lead and mercury are present in bones from western nations, and the human variant of mad cow disease could be transmitted through bones.[78]


—Marlene Zuk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota[80]



[edit] Political has carried numerous articles promoting the paleo diet to libertarians, on the grounds that a grain, dairy, and sugar based diet is the product of big government and government-privileged agribusiness.[82][83][84] On the far left side of anarchism, the diet has some interest among anarcho-primitivists with Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth being the most influential book, arguing that agriculture is harmful to the planet.[85]


[edit] Woo debunked


Basing one's diet on a people who were often starving, had to spend days tracking and hunting for the foods they ate, who would eat almost anything during the harshest of times, and had short lifespans, high infant mortality, and generally harsh lives seems a bit extreme for simply losing weight, and is very likely fully unhealthy. At a minimum, it must be admitted that paleolithic man had eating habits and requirements that were dramatically different from modern man, who exists in an environment that is much more rich in available calories, leisure time, variety of foods, and lifespan. Because of this essential logical difficulty and the dearth of research support, eating like a caveman is not likely to be the healthiest option.


[edit] In a nutshell

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. [1]
  11. "Og like meat. Og kill."
  14. 1000 Inventions and Discoveries by Roger Bridgman in association with the Smithsonian
  15. For example, [2]
  17. Loren Cordain (The Paleo Diet)
  23. Vegan Paleo Diet
  25. What Every Vegan Should Know About Vitamin B12
  26. 26.0 26.1 Why the Paleo Diet Is Half-Baked
  27. Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tools
  28. [3]
  29. Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing
  30. The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution
  31. Genome flux and stasis in a five millennium transect of European prehistory
  34. med
  35. Neuropeptites and the regulation of appetite
  37. Effect of milk proteins on DIT
  38. Digestion rates of carbohydrates in women
  40. BBC, The Truth about Exercise
  48. Colorado State University
  51. SafeFood A website that understands food hygiene advises against storing prepared food for a week.
  54. [5]
  55. Not that counting calories is that difficult.
  56. Paleo Diet: Expert Reviews, U.S. News and World Report online, 12-December-2013
  57. Hunted wild game is generally quite low in fat, though I'm guessing few following this diet are hunting wild game.
  59. Carbohydrates and the Glycemic Load
  60. In writing this article, I searched Pubmed for "paleolithic diet"
  61. A study suggests possible benefits for type 2 diabetes sufferers from a paleodiet but the sample size far is far too small to give conclusive evidence, see Metabolic and physiologic effects from consuming a hunter-gatherer (Paleolithic)-type diet in type 2 diabetes..
  63. Like this one
  66. George, Alison. "The Paleo Diet Is a Paleo Fantasy," Slate
  67. Hemochromatosis: a Neolithic adaptation to cereal grain diets. Naugler C.
  68. Molar macrowear reveals Neanderthal eco-geographic dietary variation. Fiorenza L, Benazzi S, Tausch J, Kullmer O, Bromage TG, Schrenk F. PLoS One. 2011 Mar 18;6(3):e14769.
  71. Lactose intolerance
  72. Prevalence of primary adult lactose malabsorption in three populations of northern China.Dairy Intolerance in China
  73. Why Chinese people avoid osteoporosis is unclear but the Chinese diet has less protein than a Western diet and many varied vegetables. Chinese people may have evolved adaptations to an agricultural diet without milk.
  75. Plausibility of Dietary Lactose as a Coronary Risk Factor
  76. Milk may be linked to bone fractures and early death
  78. Bone Meal
  79. China Report: Osteoporosis
  82. their promotion of this diet is ironically more food policing than the First Lady has gone on record advocating.
  85. Utne Reader: Keith Goetzman, "Are Vegetarians Living a Lie?"

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