The Paleo Diet

[Aaltrude]

This is Part I of a 2-part article. In an inadvertent move too complex to explain, I deleted Part 2, but have reprinted it a couple of posts down. Sorry, everyone!

By Jon Barron (http://www.healthiertalk.com/users/jbarron) on 05/18/2011

Diets come, and diets go. And like fashion, if you wait long enough, what is now out will eventually return -- but with a twist, so you can't dust off the old books, but instead have to buy new ones.
And when you think about it, that only makes sense. After all, food really falls into one of only three groups: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. So all diets are pretty much restricted to mixing things up within those three groups -- thus the repetition. Ahh, but given those limitations, there is still infinite variety -- thus the ever new diet programs.
And now it is the turn of the Paleo Diet (also known as the Paleolithic Diet, or Caveman Diet) to sweep the nation. In fact, the Baseline of Health Foundation has been literally bombarded with requests for me to explore the topic over the last several months. But in truth, it's not actually new. It was first popularized by Walter Voegtlin in the 1970's and is close cousin to the Atkins diet and the Meat Lovers Diets that rose to popularity about ten years ago. And in truth, there is much to like in the diet, but also some things that give me pause and a couple of "are you kidding me's" along the way.

Read more: http://www.healthiertalk.com/paleo-diet-3949

[mellowsong]

Thanks for posting this, Aaltrude. Lot of good info here. I really like the way he goes into this. I have explored this many times but I was unaware of no fermented foods which is crazy. On dairy, most say that if you want dairy, it needs to be raw but doesn't outright say absolutely not.

[Reesacat]

I honestly think the Weston A. Price Foundation has the best guidelines because they are based on Dr. Price's research in the 1930's on traditional diets all over the world, which did include primitive hunter-gather cultures such as Australian Aborigines. At that time Dr. Price was able to find people who gathered/grew their food like their ancestors did in pristine habitats for thousands of years; it does give a window into a world that has gone for the most part.

[Islander]

I'm reposting Part II for Aaltrude because, due to a misunderstanding, I deleted the one she posted. Here's the continuation of the OP:

A Closer Look at the Paleo Diet
By Jon Barron (http://www.healthiertalk.com/users/jbarron) on 05/19/2011

Yesterday in Part I (http://www.healthiertalk.com/paleo-diet-3949) we covered the genesis of the Paleo Diet, the basic do’s and don’ts, and some of the inconsistincies that show up when you examine the diet more closely. If you didn’t read Part I yet you can find it here (http://www.healthiertalk.com/paleo-diet-3949).
Today we will examine a few more of the theoretical inconsistencies as well as my personal reccomendations.

Location, location, location
The assumed diet of the hunter-gatherers modeled by the Paleo's is reflective of cave people living in Northern Europe in cold climes where plants did not readily grow. But the simple truth is that hunter-gatherer societies in other locations ate decidedly different diets.

Read the conclusion here: http://www.healthiertalk.com/closer-look-paleo-diet-3950

[Reesacat]

Thank you Aaltrude and Islander for part II-he did recommend raw dairy if you choose to use dairy. Good article!

[Maurya]

My favorite source for all things "paleo" would be Nora Gedgaudas, whose book Primal Body, Primal Mind is scheduled for a revised edition to come out some time this summer (2011). Her conclusions actually do follow from the observations, unlike several of the other well known "paleo" authors, who seem to skip a step or two from observation to practice.

[mellowsong]

I am so delighted to see this well thought out, reasoned article. There's a lot I wasn't aware of about how our ancestors really ate. I'm thrilled to see the section on the added bonuses found in today's grocery store meat:
Growth hormones
Antibiotics
High pesticide concentrations
Heavy metals
Toxicity from over 100,000 manmade chemicals now found in the environment
Strontium
High levels of omega-6 fatty acids as a result of being grain fattened
Not to mention the fact that cancerous and tumorous meat is not necessarily removed at the slaughterhouse, and may quite easily find its way to the butcher's shop. If you think the USDA is actively preventing sick animals from entering the food supply, think again. Unbelievable abuses have been documented happening under the very noses of USDA inspectors.
As for fish, even if you catch it yourself, you're now looking at mercury contamination, dioxin, and sex altering hormones -- things Paleo fishermen never had to deal with.

This is the reality of today's food supply for the vast majority of the world.

[bmc65]

Man that is a lengthy article. I don't know when I'd get through it all. But, in general with most diets like paleo and south beach, I don't believe in following them to the letter, I see them as more of a guide to steer ones lifestyle choices. On the other hand I know that a diet like Hcg needs to be adhered to very strictly, but that diet is not a lifestyle diet. It's short term.

[sollyb]

"For example, at one time, people believed that the sun was a golden chariot driven by a god that crossed the sky -- a theory that many scientists now believe to be flawed."

ROTFLMAO! Ok, on to part 2..............

[sollyb]

...... On the other hand I know that a diet like Hcg needs to be adhered to very strictly, but that diet is not a lifestyle diet. It's short term.

But you know, on another HCG forum I read from time to time, there are some people who seem to be doing several rounds of HCG a year, EVERY YEAR.....for who knows how long......On that forum, I do not see anyone losing weight and keeping it off........same old lose/gain cycle as with other diets, just that the term of the "diet" part is shorter.......Maybe they are doing it wrong, but I did not see the longterm success that is supposed to be the point of the HCG diet.

[Reesacat]

I don't know about those.....if I eat something that is a trigger for me I start to gain weight back. These people might have gluten sensitivities or MSG triggers or undiagnosed and untreated thyroid issues.

[bmc65]

I believe the rest of the HH gang who have been doing hcg, have done several rounds and are all experiencing success. At first I poo pooed the diet because it just seemed like all other fad diets. You achieve weight loss, but it doesn't last on it's own.
Then I came around, at least in regards to HH'ers, because they have been working on their lifestyle eating habits for sometime and have excellent eating habits like, knowing your triggers. Thus the weight loss stuck once they finished the diet. They were also pretty strict in adhering to the hcg plan. A read through of the posts will attest to that.

[Islander]

I think I did 4 rounds to get most of the weight off that I wanted to lose; I got down to 147, would have liked to be at 145, but oh well. I had no trouble keeping it all off...until very recently, when suddenly I gained 12 pounds in a hurry. I'm blaming the 3 courses of antibiotics I was on when I couldn't shake a strep throat. I don't know what else to blame because I adhered to my usual eating plan.
So now I'm just finishing the 5th round, and I'm actually down to 145. With 2 more days to go, I might even break that record!

Total weight loss: about 65 pounds.

[highlander]

That's good news, Islander. Sorry to hear about the strep throat. Maybe you mentioned it somewhere else and I missed it. Are you well now? Taking loads of probiotics?

[Islander]

Yes, fine, thank you for asking. I may not have mentioned it, not exactly a news item. Yup, bottle of probiotics plus lots of sauerkraut, yogurt & kimchi. Yeah, Mellow said amox wouldn't work but the doc sez it's the standard of care so when it didn't work he ordered a second round. When that failed too, I insisted on a Z-pak, that did it...but what harm did all that f**king around do to ME?

[Reesacat]

Next time refuse to take an antibiotic until they do a culture and sensitivity — where they grow out the bacteria and test different antibiotics to see which one works.
They grow the swab of the throat on a Petri dish, and drop little disks saturated with antibiotics all over it and see which little disk kills the most bacteria.
This test takes 48 hours — they have to swab your throat and grow it out.

Most places do a Rapid Strep Test (done in doctor's office by swabbing throat) — this is NOT a culture and sensitivity.

[bmc65]

145.. Islander, don't blow away, and glad you are better :) Good suggestion Reesacat. I have a story where it would have come in handy. I kind of had my back against the wall and the whole fam ended up taking antibiotics under duress. They did nothing for me. I figured we all had a virus. For myself at least I was right. Too many docs don't like to swab though, (except to check strep). They prefer to simply write a script and move on to the next customer.

[Islander]

Mine swabbed.

[Katee]

I'm not maintaining long term. Really struggling. But i'll write of that elsewhere.

[Maurya]

Glad you are recovering, Islander! I guess we would not recognize you, with your new svelt figure.

[Islander]

Actually, I don't think I'm that much thinner than the last time you saw me. Still have a tummy! Watch for pig pix on FB (and no, I'm talking about 3 little actual piglets)!

[highlander]

I tell doctors Amoxicillin makes me nauseated (which it did when I had tonsilitis a loooong time ago) so they go directly to Plan B.

[walterrichmand]

Paleo Diet is all about eating the right kinds of food to prevent the development of life threatening diseases. This diet is all about only eating food that existed pre-agriculture. That means dairy products and other food types that contain additives are strictly prohibited.

[Lovemywesties]

As was stated in the article, it isn't possible to eat as prehistoric man ate because the food isn't the same. To me, a paleo diet means eating as close to nature as possible...period. Forget about all the various tweaks and interpretations that have cropped up recently. This means a "paleo" diet might differ quite a bit from one person to the next, based on trial and error, personal preferences, and what works best for one's body, but it's always an eating plan that's close to nature.

I eat very much according to the Recommendations section in Part II of Barron's article, with a few additions of my own that work well for me. For instance, I don't drink milk but I do use butter and occasionally cheese, and I do enjoy fermented veggies since they are a natural probiotic.

People are different; this sort of diet might not work for everyone because it's more of a lifestyle than a diet. It isn't something you decide to do for a month or two, planning all along to return to a SAD diet once the excess weight is off.