Pros of Paleo

I’ve still been following the Paleo diet (albeit a little modified) more or less, and have felt pretty damn good lately. The main thing about how I’m eating now vs. before the transition is I’m getting in a lot more fruits, vegetables and roots now, whereas before it was more moderate. It’s worth noting that in any diet, no matter the underlying philosophy, the addition of more fruits and vegetables will universally guarantee better health and well-being. Dr. Joel Furhman, Ph.D definitely grasped this idea when he came up with his “Eat to Live” diet. His basic premise – health=nutrients/calories, sums up a paradigm that a lot of so-called gurus miss when they try to formulate such non-sense as fixed macronutrient ratios for well-being and rules like “no fruit after 12pm”.

Anyway, I digress. In my last post, I gave a critique of Paleo nutrition. Today, I’ll write about the pros of the diet.

1. Without the convenience of grains or beans, you’re nearly forced into eating more fruits, vegetables, nuts and tubers. This in turn means pushing towards a more nutrient dense diet.
This comes with a big “if”. If you can avoid the temptation of most processed foods, the exclusion of grains and legumes definitely mean you’ll get more calories from healthier whole foods. I do most of my eating at home – ergo, what I buy at the grocery store is what I’ll be eating. I’m a hell of a lot better at resisting chocolate chip cookies on the grocery shelf then I am in the kitchen pantry, so I abstain and if I have to, I’ll get one or two “guilty pleasure” items and limit it to that. Otherwise, since I’ve ditched the bread and pasta, I’ve filled up a lot more on raisins, dates, dried bananas, canned fish, yogurt and apples – all of which are much more nutrient-dense than whole grains. More nutrients means a better immune system, faster recovery from hard workouts, less risk of overtraining and better well-being. It’s hard to lose… besides having the occasional burrito craving. What I’ve found is this – if you tell yourself “I can never have a piece of french toast/burrito/chocolate cake again”, you’ll end up hopeless and eventually binge – big. Denying yourself readily available pleasures never works over the long-term unless you have monk-like sensibilities. The trick is to view things like grains and legumes like you would a rich desert – fine to have on seldom occasion – say, after you just smoked that performance evaluation or at your cousin Louis’s birthday, but not something to eat every day.

2. Modern diets are too over-reliant on grains, especially refined ones.
It’s true. Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, spaghetti for dinner. Pretty standard American fare, right? The problem is, most people eating like this aren’t active enough to justify so many carbohydrates, and grains in general are pretty nutrient-sparse (not to mention hard to digest for some people). Add in white bread, white rice, and sugar, and you’re now in the red – your body is leaching nutrients to digest those things. It’s pretty easy to see how long-term, you’ll eat yourself tired, slow and fat that way.

3. Dairy is not a good option for many people. In addition, the modern factory-farmed dairy industry is among the shittiest.
Seriously – if there’s one food to buy organic, its dairy. Okay, “conventional” soft-skinned fruit like apples and berries get sprayed pretty heavily. Non-organic soy and corn is guaranteed to be heavily genetically modified, and non-organic chicken doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as organic free-range.

Either way, the factory farmed dairy industry is nasty stuff. I won’t go into the details – you can read some Michael Pollan to find out yourself.

My point is this – the Paleo diet functions on the underlying logic that foods which humankind has not had adequate time to genetically adapt to should not be in the diet. Grains and legumes, as products of the agricultural revolution, are the first to be put into this list. Processed foods shouldn’t even need a mention. But for many people – namely those of non-European descent, dairy is just not a good idea. Populations with no traditional consumption of dairy have the highest rates of lactose intolerance for good reason – you need those hundreds of generations of ancestors consuming it to be able to handle what is essentially baby cow’s growth spurt juice. In addition, it’s theorized that many people lose their ability to adequately digest dairy in their adult years.

If you can digest dairy adequately (read: no milk farts), I really think plain yogurt is a good idea. That doesn’t mean you have to eat it plain – add some fruit, nuts and honey if you want. My point is mainly that most flavored yogurts are candy by comparison – not whole food. Cheese, ice cream et al. however should be viewed more as very occasional vices – a lot like grains. Don’t drive yourself insane denying yourself a scoop of the good stuff at your next holiday dinner, but don’t eat it on a daily basis either.

4. Makes it easier to limit carbohydrates, if you’re trying to do that. On the other hand, with fruits and tubers in the diet, you can still keep your carbohydrate intake pretty high.
This drives back to my point earlier. If you’re a modern sedentarian, you really don’t need to be consuming much in the way of carbohydrates. If you’re like me and fancy a 4 hour bike ride before work as a nice way to spend the morning, you’re craving carbs left and right. Eating Paleo, you can have it both ways. Either increase your fruit/tuber intake for more carbs, or increase your animal product intake for more protein. Ancient Paleolithic man likely ate whatever was available, so don’t get yourself into a sweat trying to emulate exactly what s/he ate. (Yeah, don’t be like these geeks.)

To sum up, I think that while Paleo nutrition ideas offer a great guideline, they should by no means be considered set-in-stone dietary commandments. Don’t get overly strict, don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t turn down a slice of pie you really wanted if you’ll be beating yourself up mentally for the next two days over what you couldn’t have. Food is nutritional, but it’s also heavily social, psychological, and personal. The key is striking a balance between these diverging forces.