One of the recent trends in nutrition is an evolutionary and lifestyle approach that is commonly called the paleo or caveman diet. Unfortunately, the use of these popular media terms encourages a simplistic interpretation of this multifaceted and science-based movement. The media has referred to this movement as a fad diet. The term "fad diet" is a popular media term that is defined as a way of eating that promotes temporary weight loss, usually at the expense of long term health or weight maintenance. To the casual American dieter who is desperately trying to lose weight, who has tried everything, and who feels confused by the varying advice out there, the paleo diet may actually seem just like the most current fad. I think it is important to clarify what "paleo" means to followers of this approach versus what the popular media says "paleo" means.
To call this nutritional approach a "diet" is misleading because as a society we tend to view the term diet only in relation to weight loss. A "diet" has a set of rules that you follow in order to lose weight (ie. the Cabbage Soup Diet, or the Atkins Diet). The paleo approach to nutrition and health, while it has rules, changes and adapts its approach based on current and developing science. In addition the paleo approach includes lifestyle choices such as sleep and stress management, and encourages a variety of daily exercise.
During the evolutionary development of humans, there was no one "paleo diet,” We know based on anthropological research, that Paleolithic peoples consumed anything edible and available in their local environment. They ate wild tubers, grass seeds, early forms of grain, roots, berries, meat, fish, seafood, insects and many wild plants and fruits. However, unlike current global populations, our Paleolithic ancestors did not consume large amounts of grains, legumes or dairy. Today, we learn much about what the diet of our ancestors may have been like by studying contemporary hunter-gatherer groups. Some cultures, like the Kitavan people of New Guinea live on a very high carbohydrate root-based diet, while the diets of hunter-gatherers living in northern tundra and coniferous forests, more often contain a very little carbohydrate and are instead rich in meats.
Dr. Loren Cordain, the author of the book, "The Paleo Diet," describes an evolutionary approach to nutrition: "There would have been no single universal diet consumed by all extinct hominin species. Rather, diets would have varied by geographic locale, climate, and specific ecologic niche. However, there are universal characteristics of preagricultural hominin diets that are useful in understanding how the current Western diet may predispose modern populations to chronic disease. Increasingly, clinical trials and interventions that use dietary treatments with nutritional characteristics similar to those found in preindustrial and preagricultural diets have confirmed the beneficial health consequences predicted..."
Among followers of this evolutionary approach to nutrition, there is a wide assortment of related strategies. This range of strategies includes different nutritional therapies that I like to call the paleo/primal spectrum. In fact, it might be more fair to call this method the ancestral health or evolutionary health approach rather than the "Paleo diet." Most of these therapies overlap a great deal and have a lot in common. On one end of the spectrum are people who follow a Weston Price traditional foods diet. This approach focuses on ancestral health, allowing traditionally prepared grains, seeds and legumes and encourages whole foods. On the other end of the spectrum are the paleo purists who avoid all dairy, grains, and legumes because these were not eaten in large amounts during the vast majority of our evolutionary history. They eat only grass-fed and pastured meat, organic veggies, and wild caught fish. Most of us fall somewhere in-between these two extremes. We are encouraged by the paleo/primal community to find what works for us.
We recognize the fact that Paleolithic nutrition is based around evolutionary biology and evolutionary medicine, so we take the best current research, and apply it to our lives. Most of us are not in this for a quick weight loss fix. We ended up here through a lot of trial and error, came to it via Crossfit or some other performance-based plan, or were pointed in this direction after being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition like Celiac, or Crohn's disease. It is estimated that as many as 1 in 133 people in the US have Celiac disease, caused by a reaction to gliadin, a protein in gluten, found in wheat, barley and rye. Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. These facts are just a few examples indicating how humans might benefit from a diet and lifestyle closer to that of our ancestors.
I started following what was called the “Paleo Diet” in 2006 while I was trying to manage an autoimmune disease. Some of the research being conducted at the time suggested that eating an elimination diet made primarily of meat, eggs, vegetables and fruit could have a positive effect on certain autoimmune diseases. I was desperate. Nothing else was working, traditional science was failing me. I bought Dr. Cordain’s book and stuck to the plan he suggested for three months. I found myself eating far more vegetables, and a much larger variety of fruits and vegetables than I had eaten before. I also ate more fish and seafood and much less sugar. A paleo diet is a naturally low-inflammatory diet. After three months, not only did I have some alleviation of my symptoms, I felt good in general and had lost a few pounds. I stuck with it and continued to research and read about dietary approaches to treating disease.
The idea behind most of the "paleo/primal diet" books is simply that more than half of the total daily energy (ie., calories) consumed by people in the United States today comes from foods such as processed cereals, refined sugars, dairy products and industrialized vegetable oils. These types of foods provided little or none of the energy in the typical pre-agricultural human diet. Like all science, the evolutionary approach to health asks questions, and formulates hypotheses. The "Paleo diet" is not a static set of rules; it has changed over time to encompass new research, and to reformulate the basic principles based on the newest science. We are not attempting to senselessly imitate or reproduce a Paleolithic life. Instead, we use the best of what we have learned by taking an evolutionary perspective and applying this knowledge to our modern diet and lifestyle.
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