Is the Paleo Diet Low Carb?

So, I am interrupting my vacation for a moment to write a bit about Melissa's topic over at HuntGatherLove. Is the Paleolithic Diet Low Carb?

Melissa has an interesting blog. She is always bringing up good conversation points, that we in the Paleosphere are interested in talking about and discussing at length.

In this case, she was looking at the "Paleo diet" in general, as it exists in the 229 hunter gatherer societies that Cordain studied when doing his research on the Paleo diet. In the cultures that were studied, it was evident that animal foods were the primary source of sustenance when possible.

In the results section of the study she was looking at, the authors state that "whenever and wherever it was ecologically possible, hunter-gatherers would have consumed high amounts (45–65% of total energy) of animal food. Most (73%) hunter-gatherer societies worldwide derived >50% (56–65%) of their subsistence from animal foods, whereas only 13.5% of these societies derived more than half (56–65%) of their subsistence from gathered plant foods. In turn, this high reliance on animal-based foods coupled with the relatively low carbohydrate content of wild plant foods produces universally characteristic macronutrient consumption ratios in which protein intakes are greater at the expense of carbohydrate."

At first glance this seems to suggest that a Paleo diet is generally low carb, the question then becomes how low carb? If fifty percent of your diet is made up of animal products, that leaves around fifty percent for fruits and veggies. A dietician or nutritionist will tell you that typically a "low carb diet" is defined as any diet that is less than 100 grams of carbohydrate per day. I eat around 80 on my high days and 20 on my low days. The authors caution that a diet that relies on protein in excess of 35.1% could be dangerous. "For a 12552-kJ energy intake, the mean maximal dietary protein intake would be 35.1% of energy (range: 29.7–40.9% of energy). Therefore, dietary protein intakes greater than values in this range may result in hyperammonemia and hyperaminoacidemia, which in turn likely cause some of the clinical symptoms responsible for the rabbit starvation syndrome described by explorers."

So, should a Paleo diet be low carb?

This is a question that I think bears reflection in the context of my own life and experiences. Most likely, our ancestors ate what they could when they could. If there was no fatty meat, they ate lean, if there was no fruit, they ate roots, tubers, and the delicate shoots of new plants. They gathered nuts and mussels, caught fish, and ate grubs. But we are more than our evolutionary past. We all start the Paleo diet with our own ideas about diet and health. Many Paleo followers have come to it after low carb experiences. We all have our own experiences that teach us what we like or don't like to eat, and we try to form a healthy diet around all of this, our past experiences, what we know or think we know about health, our present likes and dislikes, and ultimately our goal. For many of us, weight loss is a huge part of that goal.

Looking at myself for example, my greatest burden is my weight. I have been following the paleo diet relatively strictly since this year began. I gave up all dairy except for about 1 tablespoon in my one cup of coffee per day. I walk 4-6 miles every day, and sprints once or twice a week. I eat about 1700-1800 calories a day, and fast intermittently a couple of times a week. M and I have one cheat meal per month where we just eat what we want. I have been certainly as good following this diet as most people have been. I find that in general I tend to eat around 50-80 grams of carbohydrate per day. (This includes one or two pieces of fruit and lots of vegetables.) This is not a very low carb diet. A very low carb would probably be about 20 grams or less per day.

I mention this because I am not really losing much weight since the year began--my weight fluctuates a great deal, but doesn't steadily go down. I begin to wonder if I drop my carbs to about 20 if I will lose weight fairly steadily. It is hard for me to do that without overeating protein on a pure paleo diet (no butter, no cream). I need more fat, and the best "easy" sources are butter and cream.

Then there is our budget. We have vastly overspent the last two months, and starting April 1st I am going to have to make some huge changes. Sadly, I am come to the point in my budget where grass fed meat is clearly not an option for us everyday. We are going to have to cut back for a while. And finding good fat sources can be tricky. Whole organic flaxseed might be an option, but not ideal. Grass fed butter is cheaper than grass fed meat, but it is butter. Omega 3 eggs are affordable, but should be limited on a Paleo Diet. Ultimately, doing a very low carb Paleo diet, and still making it appetizing (for me), would be difficult. Fruits and vegetables on the other hand are pretty affordable, so I am leaning toward a moderate carb Paleo diet--basically the diet as outlined in Cordain's book.

On another and related note, Astrogirl had a very interesting post today regarding low carb diets. She has a quote from Dr. Robert Atkins, which I had never read before:

“…remember that prolonged dieting (this one, low-fat, low-calorie, or a combination) tends to shut down thyroid function. This is usually not a problem with the thyroid gland (therefore blood tests are likely to be normal) but with the liver, which fails to convert T4 into the more active thyroid principle, T3. The diagnosis is made on clinical ground with the presence of fatigue, sluggishness, dry skin, coarse or falling hair, an elevation in cholesterol, or a low body temperature. I ask my patients to take four temperature readings daily before the three meals and near bedtime. If the average of all these temperatures, taken for at least three days, is below 97.8 degrees F (36.5 C), that is usually low enough to point to this form of thyroid problem; lower readings than that are even more convincing. It may be appropriate for those of you who fit these criteria to be prescribed thyroid by your doctor, and if so, a natural form of the hormone, which contains T3, is far superior to the most popular form of prescription thyroid, synthetic T4.”

This particularly interesting to me because thyroid issues seem to run in my family as well, and I certainly have a history of long term low carbing. I began low-carbing in 1998, switched to Paleo/Primal in 2003 (still keeping it low carb), so I have effectively been on a low carb "diet" for 12 years. That is pretty long term. And I have recently (for the last 5 years) been gaining weight despite a great deal of exercise and dedication to the Paleo/Primal diet. I think it is time to consider different approachs.

I have been reviewing Cordain's book over the last week, and have decided that April 1st, I will begin to follow it very precisely for a while, eating ordinary grain fed exceptionally lean meat when necessary (I know it is not ideal, but it is affordable, and species-appropriate). I will try to get the Omega 3 fats elsewhere. Perhaps organic flaxseed oil will have to become more common in our diet, and organic canola oil as well, although I am not too keen on those as they are both heavily processed oils. Most drastically, I will just have to let go of my natural inclination toward carbohydrate restriction for a while. I will follow Cordain's advice however, which does tend to keep certain carbohydrates in check (only 4 oz of nuts per day, only 2 oz. per day of dried fruits...)

I think I will call this "the Perfect Paleo Experiment."

I'll check in next weekend after my vacation is over, and let you know how I am doing...