Debunking Diet Trends: The Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet is one of the hottest topics in the health world at the moment. This now trendy style of eating is based on the idea that our bodies are unable to successfully adapt to process modern day foods and that we are actually more biologically suited to the diet of our Stone Age ancestors from Palaeolithic times (2.5million to 10,000 years ago). The premise is if we return to this ‘cave man’ style of eating we’d be healthier and have less risk of chronic disease.

So is there any merit to this style of eating?

Like most new fads everyone wants to share their opinions on the matter. The Paleo diet has a strong following from high profile celebrities and gym junkies alike. Given the positive media attention it gets from these people it can often make it confusing for consumers to determine whether this style of eating is beneficial for your health.

 So exactly what does this diet involve you may ask?

The modern day Paleo diet promotes a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet. This includes a high intake of meat, fish, eggs, nuts, animal fats, coconut oil and vegetables which could be obtained by hunting and gathering. It promotes avoidance of all grains, legumes, dairy foods, processed foods and limits fruit intake.

The Paleo style of eating does have a few positives. It promotes avoidance of soft drinks, cakes, pastries and other processed foods which are high in calories, sugar, saturated fats, sodium and low in nutrients . This has obvious benefits to our health and can be beneficial for weight loss. However, this style of eating makes it difficult to reach your recommended daily intake of key nutrients such as calcium and fibre.

Cutting out all dairy foods means very little calcium intake. This increases the risk of poor bone density and an increased osteoporosis risk.  Although vegetables, fruits and nuts contain soluble fibre, we also need insoluble fibre found in wholegrain cereals as well as resistant starch found in legumes, potatoes and pasta. These different types of fibre work together to ensure a healthy bowel and reduced the risk of colon cancer.

From a practical point of view the Paleo style of eating is often very expensive due to the large emphasis on meat products. This makes it tough for someone on a budget to stick to.  For people who are time poor it can also be difficult to come up with interesting, quick meal ideas.

Finally, the fundamental principles of the Paleo diet are even questionable. According to evolutionary biologist Professor Marlene Zuk, from the University of Minnesota, little is actually known about the foods eaten by our Palaeolithic ancestors and it is likely their diets varied according to where they lived. For example people living close to the Artic ate a diet based on meat, fish and seafood- there was not an abundance of plant foods in these areas. In contrast those who lived around the tropics had a predominately plant based diet. Seasonality also played a role. Additionally, plants produce seeds and fruit at different times of the year they were in. So in fact the modern day Paleo diet does not reflect ancient eating patterns and is based on a misunderstanding of how evolution works.

Overall it’s important to realise that sometimes fad diets aren’t always generated through common sense decision making. The final point I’ll leave you with is why would you try to base your diet on a group of people who only lived to an average age of 35?