The Paleo Diet – a Fad or Something More?
As a species, modern humans (homo sapiens sapiens) have evolved gradually over a period of thousands of years from when we first appeared around 200,000 years ago. Whereas our race’s development has progressed at this modest pace the food that we eat changed over a much shorter timeframe. Even the last hundred years has seen our diet and foods we consume change drastically; the burgeoning processed food market, the rise of easy access high calorie fats and sugars and the increased availability and affordability of meat.
In a world where new fad diets seem to pop up every day, the new kid on the block – the Paleo Diet – continues to gain popularity and has been adopted by a number of celebrities. Miley Cyrus, Uma Thurman and Jessica Biel are the popular faces of the diet according to LA Weekly further adding credence to it as a lifestyle choice.
What is the Paleo Diet?
The term is derived from what we might have consumed during the Palaeolithic era which started 2.5 million years ago and ended in 10,000 B.C. The idea behind the diet was mooted in the 1970s but it wasn’t until Loren Cordain Ph.D. coined the phrase in his eponymously titled 2002 book that the public at large began to learn about it. In an interview held by paleoinc.com in September 2014, Cordain explained his basis for the diet. “The first line in the sand is the agricultural revolution. That began in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. Prior to that time, all humans on the planet lived as hunter‑gatherers. Consequently, they could eat only wild plant and animal foods. Once we developed agriculture and domesticated animals, cows and goats and sheep, then dairy products became available. Prior to that first line in the sand 10,000 years ago, no humans ever ate dairy products.”
So, the elements that would make up the Paleo Diet would be based on the foods available to our ancestors of that period such as lean meat, nuts and berries. The current perceived wisdom is that our ancestors’ nutritional needs would be catered for by the food available at the time and our digestive system would adapt to the advent of dairy – for example – as necessary. Proponents of the Paleo Diet say that our metabolism cannot adapt that quickly and we should go back to eating only what would have been available to our ancestors. This means ignoring the agricultural and domestication revolution and a return to our hunter-gatherer roots.
What makes up the Paleo Diet?
If this assumption is correct then we are maladapted to eating grain, legumes, dairy and the high-calorie processed foods that are common in most Western diets.
Eat these:
- Grass-fed animal meats
- Fish/seafood
- Fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Eggs
- Nuts and seeds
- Oils such as olive, walnut and flaxseed
Avoid these:
- All dairy
- Fruit juices
- All grains including bread
- All legumes including beans, peas, lentils and tofu
- Starchy vegetable like potatoes
- Pastries and biscuits
- and anything at all processed
Flaws in the Paleo Diet Logic
What we know of the diets of primitive Man is naturally blurred. We have fossil evidence of stomach contents and archaeological evidence that allows us a limited insight into our ancestors’ lives. The Palaeolithic era was extremely long and saw human habitation all over the globe all trying to survive in a vast array of different climates and environments with different challenges to overcome. Very little is known for certain about what Palaeolithic humans really ate and it is unwise to artificially narrow this by ill-informed assumptions.
Conclusion
There are definite health benefits to be found in some of the tenets of the Paleo Diet; reducing our intake of high-calorie processed foods is one and the increased consumption of fruits certainly goes towards our 5-a-day. However, as with all fad diets there is the worrying exclusion of valuable foods such as pulses and grains. It is self-imposed limitations based on ignorance – early humans did eat these – that makes the Paleo Diet one to only pick the best bits from.