Paleolithic Diet (Paleodiet)
The Paleolithic Diet, commonly referred to as the Paleodiet, seeks to emulate the eating patterns of early humans during the Paleolithic era, which lasted from approximately 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 years ago. Advocates of this diet focus on foods that would have been available to hunter-gatherers, primarily consisting of lean meats, fish, nuts, seeds, fruits, and non-starchy vegetables while avoiding grains, dairy, sugar, and processed foods. The diet emphasizes a high intake of protein and healthy fats, while promoting a balance of dietary acids and alkalines for optimal health. Proponents, inspired by the work of Loren Cordain and others, argue that this approach aligns with our evolutionary biology and can lead to improved health outcomes, including weight loss and reduced risk of chronic diseases. However, the Paleodiet has faced criticism from nutritionists and food scientists, who highlight potential nutrient deficiencies and question the elimination of entire food groups. Moreover, critics argue that the precise diet of Paleolithic humans is largely speculative, noting that the foods available today differ significantly from those in the Stone Age. As the Paleodiet continues to gain popularity, it remains a topic of debate among health enthusiasts and professionals alike.
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Paleolithic Diet (Paleodiet)
A Paleolithic diet, or Paleodiet, is one that aims to replicate the foods eaten by hominids and homo sapiens during the Paleolithic era, which corresponds to the Stone Age and predates agriculture, roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 years ago. The diet is based on the foods that would have been available to hunter-gatherers and is the cornerstone of the Paleo movement, whose followers view modern health from an evolutionary perspective that they believe is encoded in human genes. Followers of the Paleodiet eat the meat, fruit, and vegetables that they believe the ancestors of modern humans ate and exercise in ways that mimic those of Paleolithic peoples. Loren Cordain, one of the world’s leading authorities on the evolutionary basis of diet and disease, popularized the Paleodiet in his 2002 book The Paleo Diet (updated in 2010 as The Paleo Diet Revised: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat).
Overview
According to Cordain and other Paleodiet experts, Paleolithic diet theory combines the best features of all other dietary theories, eliminates the worst features, and justifies it all by stating that the Paleodiet is the only diet that is encoded in our genes. The seven fundamental characteristics of hunter-gatherer diets, including vitamins, fats, protein, carbohydrates, antioxidants and phytosterols, will help modern people stay healthy, reduce risk of chronic disease, and lose weight.
Proponents of the Paleolithic diet claim that protein accounted for roughly 19 to 35 percent of the hunter-gatherer diet, in contrast to about 15 percent in modern diets. Thus, meat, seafood, and other animal products are the staples of modern Paleodiets. Non-starchy fresh fruits and vegetables represent the main source of carbohydrates and provide 35 to 45 percent of daily calories. Non-starchy vegetables can contain eight times more fiber than whole grains and thirty-one times more than refined grains; fruit can contain seven times more fiber than refined grains. The Paleodiet cuts the trans fats and the Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats in modern diets and increases the healthy monounsaturated and Omega-3 fats that were allegedly the mainstays of Stone Age diets. Also important is the ratio of potassium to sodium; the Paleodiet provides five to ten times more potassium than sodium, which proponents believe is ideal for optimal functioning of the heart, kidneys, and other organs.
Paleo experts say that the diet balances dietary acid with a net dietary alkaline load. All foods deliver either a net acid or net alkaline load to the kidneys after food is digested. Meats, fish, grains, cheese, and salt produce acid, while fruits and vegetables produce alkaline. Years of excessive dietary acid may bring about bone and muscle loss, high blood pressure, and asthma. The Paleodiet also calls for lean meats, fruits, and vegetables that contain vitamins A and B12, instead of substituting whole grains for them.
The Paleodiet forbids eating grains such as bread, pasta, or noodles. It also suggests avoiding beans, potatoes, dairy products, sugar, and salt. Desirable foods include meat, chicken, fish, eggs, fruit, berries, nuts, and vegetables except for potatoes and sweet potatoes. Root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas are especially desirable, as are organ meats like liver and kidneys.
The Paleo community has evolved mostly from the Internet, with hundreds of Paleo bloggers offering diet and exercise advice to newcomers. Paleo websites feature success photos and stories from people who have integrated the Paleodiet and exercise into their lives and say that they look and feel healthier than before. The diet became increasingly popular in the 2010s, even featuring as the most-searched weight loss method on the Google search engine in 2013.
Counterarguments
Despite the popularity of the Paleodiet, nutritionists and food scientists have been largely skeptical of its efficacy and safety. Although it is generally agreed that reducing the intake of processed foods, sugar, trans fats, and other elements of modern diets is beneficial to health, most experts warn that fully eliminating any one food group, as the Paleodiet does with grains and dairy, is unnecessary and potentially harmful. For example, the British Dietetic Association (BDA) placed the diet on its list of the top five celebrity-endorsed diets to avoid in 2015. It can be difficult and expensive to find foods providing enough calcium and other nutrients while following the high-protein guidelines of the Paleodiet, potentially leading to dietary deficiencies. Many nutritional guidelines also recommend reducing meat consumption, directly opposing the Paleo strategy. Furthermore, there is a lack of accepted scientific evidence proving that the Paleodiet is effective and safe, let alone able to combat diseases and prolong health as its supporters sometimes claim.
In addition to the general nutritional arguments against the Paleodiet, it has also been criticized for using flawed logic in its overall premise. Most importantly, there is virtually no solid evidence of what the diets of Paleolithic humans actually included. Scientists have noted that most widely-consumed fruits and vegetables today are the product of centuries of cultivation and breeding, making them very different from the plant foods that would have been available to people in the Stone Age (many of which are in fact extinct). Even the meat of domesticated cows and other livestock is considerably different from that of mammoths and the other animals hunted by ancestral humans. Additionally, the diverse bands of early humans would likely have had hugely varied diets depending on their geographic dispersal, negating any broad genetic predisposition to certain foods. In effect, critics say, a true Paleodiet is impossible and such recommendations are based purely on speculation.
Bibliography
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