I encourage you to QUESTION AND TEST EVERYTHING.
Just had an interesting conversation with a guy about the latest panacea diet, Paleo.
If you’re not familiar with it, the main staples are almost exclusively meats, nuts and seeds, berries and some veggies. It’s based on the Paleolithic Era where modern agriculture was non-existent and we were hunting and gathering for sustenance. Here was his stance…
He argued it’s the way we should all eat, that it’s best for fat loss and is an effective strategy for anyone looking for higher levels of health.
Those are some lofty statements so I thought I would share my feedback as I have tested this diet (and many others) myself.
But first…
We know there is no panacea. *which was claimed otherwise in this conversation* We should know this. Wait, we do know this. Why do we fall for it every time? Actually, I know why. We want results YESTERDAY.
We often get caught up in the initial weight loss, but this is not lasting. It wasn’t for me. Again, I’ve done it and the weight didn’t hold. Biochemistry 101 tells us that when you eat carbohydrates, they pull water into the muscles and tissues. In fact, the word ‘carbohydrate’ means, watered carbon. When you cut carbohydrates you also lose the water, hence the large amount of weight lost in the first week or two of any such diet.
Okay, let’s first look at how Paleo gets it right. Every diet has something we can take away.
1) It focuses on eliminating processed foods, and specifically processed grains, to control insulin levels. If you signed up for my ‘How To Drop BodyFat‘ guide then you know I am a huge fan of being flexible with insulin. It’s one of our most potent hormones in the body and regulates how you use fat as fuel. The more flexibility you have with it, the greater the chance you’ll use fatty acids or lipids as energy. That’s a good thing, as I will discuss later. I’ve noticed for myself and my clients that being more choosy (in selection and amount) with those carbs that I take in is ultimately the key to insulin balance.
2) It focuses on real food, but not always the kind I talk about here. To me there are two types of real food; commercial and non- commercial. Commercial real food is the conventional beef you buy in the store. It may still be given antibiotics or growth hormones and is on a corn based diet. It’s not best, but it’s better. It’s still technically real, but non-commercial, high quality real food is where it’s at for lasting results and increased vitality. In this example it would be grass fed beef, pastured chicken etc. Higher quality with better fats and more nutrient density. This is the key to any lasting weight loss. Check out my ‘High Quality Food Guide‘ to the right of this page if you haven’t already.
3) It allows ample room for good fats like coconut oil, nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil and the like with the reduction of rancid prone vegetable oils. This is huge in that vegetable oils or hydrogenated oils have been shown to create inflammation in the joints and tissues (including the arteries surrounding the heart). Eliminating these can prove to benefit your health. I’ve written numerous posts on what I have experienced adding coconut oil and other higher quality animal fats to my diet. It’s helped me feel sustained longer leading to greater levels of fat loss.
So where does the Paleo diet go wrong?
1) It virtually eliminates whole categories of food! Grains, dairy, root veggies, natural sweeteners like raw honey, maple syrup or even dates. For the most part, these are a no-no on this diet. I get it. I understand why. I see the theoretical biochemical shifts in the body that can take place when we eat these making it harder to drop fat. As we stated above, dropping bodyfat is largely associated with managing insulin. Grains and sweets in particular (and some root veggies) can give large swings in the body’s insulin levels creating an environment that uses glucose from the carbohydrates as fuel instead of fatty acids. So then we must deduct from that equation that we should cut grains, right? Unfortunately we know that life isn’t cause and effect. These foods that are cut in and of themselves are not a bad thing and in fact have many healthy roles in the diet (including weight management). They should not be demonized as being responsible for the body’s bodyfat storage ‘problem’. So how does it all work?
When you break it down a little further we find out it’s not quite as simple as cut this out and you lose fat. The body is always volleying back and forth between using fat as fuel, glucose (carbs) as fuel and sometimes (rarely) protein as fuel. Being that we have consumed grains for thousands of years (roughly 10,000 by some estimates), we have become ‘flexible’ to switching fuel sources and using them appropriately. The problem now isn’t grains themselves but the quality and processing of the grains that are being used. Nearly 99% of the grains people use are not prepared in a traditional manner which allows them to be more effectively used by the body. I’m referring to things like sprouted grains, soaked nearly every grain before cooking it (rice, oats, quinoa etc). Again, if we were to focus on quality and proper preparation, the grain argument would likely not exist.
Now, let’s assume you ARE using higher quality grains AND you are preparing them appropriately.
It seems that by sticking to a Paleo diet you are actually, in a sense, devolving by not allowing yourself to adapt to as many quality foods as possible.
You are teaching your body to be LESS flexible with those grains. The next time you eat them (as you will again), you don’t handle or process them as well. It’s sort of like the muscle you never use. You do a workout that you haven’t done in a while leaving it overly sore. If you keep working it, it’s stronger, better, less sore. If you leave it dormant, it’s a struggle when you use it again(use it or lose it, right?) Turns out that Metabolic Flexibility, as Mike T Nelson states here, is the same way, and it’s what we should strive for in my approach to eating.
2) It’s unsustainable. We live in a modern, industrialize world. There’s a reason we no longer eat the Paleo way. We have a thing called choice. That choice will make it damn near impossible to maintain this diet for any length of time. We have adapted to choosing from too many different foods.Again, met flex is the best approach because it allows for these things in varying amounts without the unwanted side effects of body fat storage, decreased energy, health and vitality. I’ve experienced both sides of the coin. What I have realized is it can be too difficult for me to totally exclude grains. I’ve also found that it makes a HUGE difference in how I look and feel based on how they were prepared. I eat varying amounts dependent upon the day and have been successful of achieving the look I want.
I will be offering more content very soon teaching you how to properly prepare grains.
3) There has never been a time in history that we ALL ate the same foods or consumed them the same way. We are all unique and different. Back then diet wasn’t necessarily based on choice. You simply ate whatever was in your region; tubers, berries, animals, insects… you did what you had to in order to survive. Obviously this is not the case now, and can we not argue that our life expectancy is greater for that? (modern medicine of course has some role, but food is thy medicine).
You chose. Quick non-lasting results, or forever sustainable dietary happiness? Question Paleo, question me, test everything.
Brian-
Interesting post, Brian. However, playing devils advocate here… If our bodies have had 10,000 years to adapt to grains, how is it possible that my body would become less flexible? Furthermore, grains have to be processed in order to eat them and once cooked, grains are very harsh on the human digestive system (not to mention the anti-nutrients). Our genes just aren’t fit for digesting them. And after spiking insulin levels, what nutrients are grains *really* providing that a big ol’ salad can’t?
Thanks Reshma for questioning all things. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘less flexible’? Is it because you never eat them? As I stated in the article, the less grains you consume, the less flexible you become. Creating the healthiest body possible is about increasing adaptability in ALL directions, is it not? The more you confine yourself to only certain foods, the less adaptable you become to all foods. Being that we no longer live in the Paleolithic era, there are other foods that from time to time make it into our diet. Do you ever eat grains? I agree that processed grains are harsh on the digestive system, but I am referring to unprocessed grain, traditionally prepared grains here. As far as insulin goes, foods in isolation or combination give far different results. There are things that are in a salad that might spike insulin greater than grains. At the end of the day we are all different, so I’m happy that you’re doing what is best for your body.
Peace
Interesting post here…and Interesting comments. I had the same thoughts you mentioned here and have also talked about it with my other friends. It’s very interesting stuff…and very debatable because so much of human sustainability and dietary studies takes years to materialize and collect research on, and there are so many external and internal variables. I agree 100% that we should question and test everything…I am going to make a case for paleo here based on some of the information in this post…I am no nutritional or biochemical expert, but I have spent a great deal of time reading and studying about evolution (as a hobby, not academically or professionally). Although I don’t fully practice the Paleo diet, I would estimate 85-90% of my caloric intake is paleo friendly.
First of all, Paleo isn’t about cutting carbohydrates, it’s about getting carbs from the right sources that can be absorbed and metabolized by your body. I think your description of the paleo diet should be – lots of lean meats, lots of veggies, and some fruits and nuts – with a particularly emphasis on more berries; and for other fruits and nuts in relatively low quantities.
Also, I am curious as to why you say creating the healthiest body possible is about increasing adaptability? Specifically in reference to humans consuming grains, 10,000-20,000 years to adapt to a grain fed diet is merely a blink of an eye in evolutionary timetables. You may be right, I don’t deny that, but it seems that trying to force adaptation of a “staple” food in a relatively short amount of time would kill us off or leave us with a host of diseases to battle before human genes actually adapt. To me it’s like rubbing poison ivy on your skin so you can adapt to it. Also, my research seems to indicate that grains have evolved to prevent certain species from even messing with it.
Furthermore, I think the notion of having the “prepare” grains for proper digestion is exactly what the paleo movement is trying to point out. Yeah, grains aren’t prepared properly…and two, why should we even bother with grains in the first place?? To my knowledge, the process of properly preparing grains seems to resemble the digestion process of other herbivores who actually eat grains – however, they get to do all their processing in one of their many stomachs. Why are we forcing ourselves to eat something we weren’t naturally supposed to eat in the first place? Maybe you can explain more about why processing grains properly eliminates this argument by Paleo advocates.
The part of pale I buy into, especially with reference to grains, is that paleolithic man hardly, if at all, ate grains. Picture a hunter-gatherer gathering food, he finds broccoli and then he finds some wheat, which one is he going to eat?
The advent of agriculture and technology based around harvesting and processing grains does not necessarily mean that we should adapt to that style diet. A similar analogy would be, just because tobacco is hella abundant now, doesn’t mean we should force ourselves to adapt to ingesting it. I would argue that human ingenuity had a large role in the cultivation and proliferation of our grain based diet, combined with more recent subsidization and the modern processed food industry, grains are the ideal “filler” for several manufactured foods. Grains are easy, cheap, and abundant. They do have essential nutrients, but nothing that can’t be found elsewhere. I think we also have to take into account the harshness on the digestive system, for processed and unprocessed grains. Specifically, if grains can supposedly cause a systemic backlash into our body’s biochemistry, we won’t realize all the nutritional value, and to my knowledge increase internal stress on chemical and hormone levels in our body.
There are couple of things I’d like to point out that I find erroneous Brian. Paleo is not claimed to be a pancea diet. It’s not a diet as in a fad to lose weight and then go back to eating bacon double cheeseburgers. It’s a lifestyle and one must apply “diet” to it, it would be the Greek “diata”. Additionally, it’s meats, veggies, fruits and nuts – vs the order you’ve listed. Vege is huge component of the plate composition. If you’ve tried to eat in this manner, I hope that you tried for at least 30 days to get any inflammation out of your system from eating dairy and grains (that includes legumes, corn, and any processed / engineered foods). If you want to go by “feel” you should have “felt” better. But let’s look at the science of just grains. What is that we are trying to avoid, deactivate or mitigate by preparing grains? First there’s phytic acid, which without phytase, you can’t access the minerals unless you have rument – that has nothing with adaptability, unless you know of a human that’s evolved to have one. Second, there are those nasty lectins. Letcins are nature’s toxins or pesticides, protecting the grain from predation. They can create micro-perforations in the gut, disrupt immune systems, and according some research, bind to leptin recepters. Again, nothing to do with adaptability – it’s a fact. Some people _tolerate_ grains better but that doesn’t mean that lectins aren’t there and aren’t causing havoc internally. Next is gluten – nothing really breaks this stuff down, not fermentation or sprouting or praying or whatever means you take to make these nasty little grains edible. Lastly, enzyme inhibitors prevent all the nutrition from a grain from being taken in. Not that grains are really abundant in nutritional value compared to vege anyway. Grains are truly sub-optimal as a staple. So I say forget how you “feel” unless you’re doing it whole hog for 30 days. Second, base it also in the science of grains and they are nasty buggers. Grains have become a cheap source of nutrition, but also a poor source. If I’m a starving Grok somewhere, of course I would take a slightly toxic source that will cause bloating, flatulence, and other disruptions to my auto-immune system on a temporary basis vs starving until I can find something more nutrient and calorically dense like animal protein. That animal protein is what helped humans evolve to have bigger brains too. But given a choice, I’d take that broccoli that Alnoor suggested vs that stalk of grassy wheat, which the amount of energy to consume an adequate quantity wouldn’t be worth it anyway. Every culture finds a way to make these useless grains edible through sprouting or fermenting more but why? Because we are lazy creatures and want the most amount of calories / carb in as easy way as possible. Agriculture made these grains more accessible and processing of the grains made them cheaper and more shelf stable. Tae that and mix in the right quantity of sugar and industrialized food corn and soy products, and voila- we trick our bodies in thinking that bran muffin is really a good source of nutrition so much so that grains end up at the bottom of our food pyramid for years. But that bran muffin, oats, granola, or sprouted tortilla is not the healthiest choice and no one should fool themselves into thinking that it is healthier over a cut of lean meat, green leafy / orange vege, fruits and nuts in whole, unprocessed forms. I do agree that cooking / preparing meat does make their nutrients less bio-available though. Although I’m not about to eat raw meat due the processing methods, it’s a lot different than saying I’m going to eat something that we do not need to survive or thrive, and are naturally selected to ward off insects and hominids and make my body sick when I can make informed choices.
Tarek
Thanks for the comment. I know that Paleo itself is not claimed to be panacea. The guy I was having a discourse with was the one claiming that it was. My response was to him, not the idea as a whole.
I want to start by saying that I am not for eating grains all day everyday. I am strategic when eating mine, and know how to use them to my advantage. With that being said, I eat them maybe under 5 times a week (out of roughly 25-30 eating opportunities). Do I think we are ‘over grained’ in this country, yes. But what I am for is grain awareness. Eat them traditionally prepared and base everything on feedback.
I would not have written my post if I had not tried the diet. Regarding inflammation, why would you assume that these food cause inflammation for ME? That’s an extremely bold statement. Also, when you dig a little deeper into biochemistry you see that plants and animals are also inflammatory to some degree. The whole point is that it’s relative. One man’s food is another s poison, right? I’m not taking away the fact that Paleo may work for you.
Thank you for the biochem lesson, but lectins, phytates, or any ‘inhibitors’ studied ‘scientifically’ is meaningless. Isolation means nothing. I can study anything and pull negative info from it. Why do you think there are groups of people that say meats are bad? Or cooked foods are bad? It’s just ‘science’, right? And they have the research to back it up. There is NO DIET THAT WORKS FOR ALL PEOPLE. That is my point. We are all different. We can all tolerate different things. Grains for me work, if they don’t for you cool.
peace-
Brian
Alnoor-
Thanks for the feedback. I’m not here to take anyone’s experience away from them. As I stated in the post we are all biochemically different. That means what each of us experience is also different.
With that, what constitutes the ‘right’ carbohydrate sources? If we agree that we are all different, will various foods create biochemical differences within us all?
In regards to adaptability, I am not referring to force. In the article you’ll see that I am all for people who have a negative experience with certain foods to eliminate them. Again, that goes back to individuality. I do fine on a variety grains, but that doesn’t mean you should eat them because I do or to force adaptation. What I am referring to is blindly accepting dietary guidelines because it sounds correct. I encourage everyone to base it on their own experience. With that grains are here to stay. If you do not have a problem with them, why not include them? I know many people who admittedly claimed gluten or grain intolerance without even experiencing symptoms, solely based on what they believed to be true within what was eaten before modern agriculture. That to me is force.
Let me ask you this, do you cook a steak before you eat it? Do you grill, bake, roast chicken before you eat it? Does cooking tomatoes and other veggies not make them more bio-available? Then what is wrong with properly preparing grains to make them more available and digestible to the body?
Again, all things are relative. NONE of the foods we eat now resemble that of the Paleo era, because it’s not the Paleo era. Do you think they stumbled upon broccoli often? Do you think raspberries were bountiful? Do you think they even looked similar to what we know of them now? I doubt it. Not a valid argument in my mind. Besides, Paleo man didn’t have a choice, he’d eat both.
The advent of harvesting grain also doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consume them. And many would say, with research to back it, there are some benefits to pure, unadulterated tobacco.
Please don’t believe everything you read or hear, including this. Base it on your own feedback, and if the diet you come up on your own and allows you to feel you best is Paleo, then rock on!
Brian
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