The Paleo Diet

Been doing this diet for 3 weeks now, anyone else doing it?

i've never heard of it. and, i don't diet... that's kind of a four letter word around here.

Diet - I've had enough dieting over the last 35 years - no more for me. K

I'm always a little suspicious of anything that claims to be the next big diet fix.  Personally I have never had as much long term success on a diet as I have simply counting the calories, eating nutritionally rich food, avoiding junk food, exercising and getting lots of water (in short a life style change).

This is not to say that many people do not begin a lifestyle change by investigating dietary changes, and often many dietary books are helpful to educate us about proper eating habits, or re-educate us. There are of course tonnes of fad diets out there that do not teach us about proper nutrition and instead have us cut one food group or another or do radically different things to try to supress apetite. I think these ones are bad.

Which the Paleo Diet is, I don't know.

For those interested here is the link http://www.thepaleodiet.com/faqs/

I guess the only flag that goes up for me is that you obviously have to pay to find out why it works. This makes me a little nervous.

It says it is scientifically based, but doesn't say how (or at least not a first glance, I could have missed it).

I'm also a little suspicious about going pre-agricultural revolution. I'm reasonably confident that it is a switch to a high-caloire, high-sugar, high-saturated and trans-fat diet which is characteristic of the post world war II period that saw a sharp increase in obesity.

I think I would have a great deal of trouble arguing that there was significant obesity pre-industrial revolution, or even pre- WWII. So I'm a little lost on the logic.

Anyhoo... this should not discourage you from embracing a healthy lifestyle choice.

This site has been the best ongoing source for nutritional information that I have ever found. And, it's free. Too good to be true, but it is...

From what I understand, the idea is that you eat the way prehistoric humans did, the theory being that our bodies haven't changed enough in 60 000 years of evolution (a tiny amount of time in terms of evolutionary history) to be able to properly metabolize the diets we now eat.

On the surface, it seems reasonable from a scientific standpoint. HOWEVER, that doesn't take into account the fact that, even IF it's true that the cause of the "obesity epidemic" is that our metabolisms are 60 000 years behind our diets, a lot of other things have changed, not just how we eat and exercise.

1. We live longer these days! The average lifespan for prehistoric human beings was between 30 and 40 years. Now most of us see at least 80, up to 90 or 95 if we're lucky. A different lifespan puts different nutritional demands on the body, because it alters our hormonal balances--again, in theory, of course.

2. The foods available to us are very different from what our ancestors ate, indeed-- I'm not talking junk food and over-processed foods, but the vegetables and fruits as well as the meat and grains that we consume today are higher in nutrients than the ones we used to consume, because we are no longer scrounging for weeds and eating carrion. Over 60 000 years of agriculture and selective breeding, we've come up with foods that are tastier and better for us, not just McDonalds and Doritos!

3. Finally, I'm skeptical of the whole "60 000 years aren't enough to change our physiology" Our physiology certainly HAS changed--why do you think so many people need to have those impacted wisdom teeth removed, and we have appendices that we can live without? Besides which, our digestive systems are almost infinitely adaptable. I haven't eaten red meat regularly in about 9 months, so that now, when I eat it, I find it very difficult to digest. If I were to reintroduce it into my diet, I would eventually have no problems with it again.

What we need to do, in my opinion, is look at what works for people NOW. The majority of studies of modern humans beings show that eating sensible, calorically-appropriate diets full of nutritionally rich foods and getting a moderate amount of exercise helps modern North Americans live happy, healthy lives--so why wouldn't we do that?

Does not sound too good for me. First, any "diet" that restricts food especially when we live in 2006 and not 160 bc will almost always comes back and bites you in your butt. Second, we do need all of those things that are not allowed in that diet. I personally have been on Southbeach diet for short time but I now mostly count calories and eat the healthier version of the food which I loved to eat before, ex. rice-brown rice, pasta-whole wheat, soda-diet soda, etc. If it works for you then great but make you can live with it for the rest of your life which might be very hard. I guess to each is own.

Natalie

Sounds like a variation on the Perricone Diet.....which like Southbeach tries to eliminate "bad" carbs.  It also advocates no preservatives, just whole foods.  I actually lost 20 lbs. and kept it off.  I loved that diet for about 8 weeks.  Then one morning I woke up and decided I was going to toss my cookies if I had to eat one more ounce of salmon!!  I also agree that restricting foods is pretty unrealistic for most of us. Work the diet until you get tired of it and then move on.

I've been doing it for a couple of weeks. I love how much energy it gives me! It is very difficult not to eat cheese and bread though.

Ooh paleo - if I can ever get my stupid self into actually following it, I'm a big fan. And I have read up on it, and there is very valid points about why it is good. Yeah it is 2006, but from what I can gather there are still people (other countries and ways of living etc) that live by this diet simply because that's what sources are given to them, and seems to give a lot of general health benefits as well as weight loss.

Anyway... Are you still going strong on it? Cus I'd love to jump on your bandwagon and see if I can pick it up properly too! I found pasta I thought would be hard but I've cut that out easy. Bread is my extreme difficulty! Cheese is hard too but I've found a lot of the time I put it on things that I can hardly taste it on anyway. But yeah bread is definately something to get used to.

Good luck by the way, and nice work!

Man i'm a late poster..

I've been on strict paleo for nearly 5 weeks now. loving it but limited for ideas.. not the greatest cook in the world :)am always hungry though this is the crap thing.

Training twice a day and i did a calorie count an it says i'm only taking in 1300.. so not enough..

must eat more veges!!

expensive but the body is feeling wonderful and gains in the gym are insanely awesome! hope yours is going well!