The Paleo / Stone Age / Cave Man / Hunter Gatherer Diet
I had always intended to write up balanced reviews for a range of different diets that are out there and discuss the merits and downfalls of each. I had intended to start with a different diet but in the past few weeks I have been surrounded by people asking me about or wanting my opinion on the Paleo diet, so I decided I would bring my review of it forward.
The Paleo diet seems to divide people into two groups, those that live and die by it and will defend it to the hilt, sometimes getting quite aggressive in their approach. Then there are those who view the diet sceptically and will do anything in their power to discredit it and will pick holes in even the most minute details of the book and use this to belittle the die-hards. Then of course there is a third group (I lied about there being two) who have never heard of the Paleo diet and couldn’t give a flying monkeys...
 Let me just say before I start, that there are a number of positive points to take from the Paleo diet and clearly it has worked for a number of people, and worked well, and that’s fantastic, good on them. In fact when it comes to low carb diets, the Paleo is definitely one of the better, healthier options. And I am a firm believer that the best type of diet is one that works for you and that you can stick to long term.
Ok, that’s probably the longest intro to a review of a diet that’s ever been written without actually mentioning anything about the diet. So without any more waffling (ha-ha yeah right) here is the Jack Harrison crash course on the Paleo diet...
Let’s start with the name, which seems a good place to start
Paleo Diet...Paleo standing for Paleolithic...Paleolithic standing for “old stone age”...”old stone age” standing for about 2.5 million to 20,000 years ago...so it’s pretty old
The Paleo diet has also been called the caveman diet, the Stone Age diet, and the hunter-gatherer diet.
The diet has its foundations back in the mid 70s when Walter Voegtlin brought out the book “The Stone Age Diet”. Unfortunately for Walter the idea didn’t really catch on. Then about 10 years ago Atkins came along with his notion of NO CARBS and the world went crazy for it.
This then spouted a whole series of diets modelled on this idea with small tweaks introduced. Until eventually around 2005 we saw the return of the Paleo diet.
Diets are very much like fashion, you wait long enough, eventually ideas will return, just slightly altered.
This makes sense since really there’s only 3 food groups to play around with, Carbs, Proteins and Fat. It’s just a case of mixing up the proportions of each.
Right, I’ve gone off tangent again talking about fashion and whatnot so back to the subject in hand. Let’s look at the theories behind the Paleo diet.
Having looked through the book “The Paleo Diet” published in 2010 by Dr Loren Cordain, the figurehead of the diet and probably the world’s leading authority on all things Paleodiety (yes I just made up a word) it states that because us modern humans are still genetically pretty much identical to our Paleolithic ancestors, and so the ideal diet for us is one similar to the one they consumed.
The theory behind this being that our ancestors didn’t suffer from any “diseases of civilisation” now I’m not talking about Jordan or Kerry Katona here, they are diseases ON civilisation. Diseases of civilisation are diseases that have been brought about through our overindulgent lifestyles, for instance obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain forms of cancer. In theory, if we go back to essentially eating hunter gatherer diets we can reduce the risk of these nasties.
So what were hunter gatherers diets like?
Well our primitive buddies had no agriculture, no freezers or storage facilities, no supermarkets and no food processing. They simply ate wild plants and fresh meat as they found it. Hello fresh meat, fish, poultry, fruits, nuts (some) and veggies.
Of course since true Paleolithic food isn’t readily available to us anymore, the diet is based on modern food equivalents that are available to our intrepid, wannabe cavemen in supermarkets.
What you eat and how much you eat depends on your own personal goals.
This all sounds pretty good right, eating healthily and not dying of something preventable. Great. I have absolutely no argument that anyone willing to stick to a Paleo diet will have a healthy weight, and will dramatically reduce their risks of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and maybe even reduce their risk of cancer.
There is even some evidence to back up these claims; however the majority of studies directly using the Paleo diet tend to be very small, measuring results in only a handful of subjects. Some are also primarily testimonials, which of course have their place, but are easily influenced and can tend to generalise results i.e. if this works for one person then it will work for everyone.
Here’s my main question though...
Is it necessary to eat like a caveman in order to be healthy?
To be honest I don’t think we need to research into anthropology to realise that eating fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit is healthier than eating doughnuts and drinking cola – surely that is just common sense??
The Paleo diet is probably more defined by what you are unable to eat whilst following it than by the foods you are allowed.
So to make it simple let me put it this way. If the cavemen didn’t eat it....you don’t eat it. So long to refined carbs, dairy products, legumes (beans etc), grains (product of agriculture) and all processed foods.
This is where my main issue with the diet lies. Whilst it is undeniably a healthy diet to follow, the Paleo diet goes beyond simply healthy eating and demands sizeable sacrifice!
One of the main problems I have encountered whilst researching the Paleo diet is trying to work out what the hell it actually is. There are many, many versions, which has led to contradictions as to what can and cannot be eaten on the plan. For example some say sweet potatoes and yams are okay, others say hell no! Some say the use of oils is fine, others that only low omega 6/high omega 3 oils only, and others say hell no! Then there are some that insist that if eating beef then only grass-fed, organic beef can be consumed and not the normal grain fed stuff available in the supermarket, other books don’t even mention this.
With all these differences it’s hard to know where you stand.
So here is Jack’s handy, simplified do and don’t guide, as far as I can tell.
Fresh meat and vegetables
Grains, beans, potatoes, or dairy
Back in the day, grains, beans and potatoes weren’t eaten as they contained toxins that made the little cavemen poorly. Then around 10,000 years ago, one of the bright sparks realised that if cooked, these foods didn’t make him poorly. This discovery was monumental as now man didn’t have to forage or chase animals around; he could grow food and store it for times when it was needed.
In addition herds of animals were being kept and the introduction of dairy products happened soon after.
With this recent abundance of ready gathered calories, man was able to spend more time devoted to developing the things that have become the cornerstones of our modern civilisations: science, art, philosophy and football.
Unfortunately for us though, as our societies evolved, our bodies didn’t and are still unable to handle these new foods.
Click here and Tommy will briefly explain (WARNING CONTAINS BAD LANGUAGE)
The introduction of even more refined food, artificial sweeteners, colours, flavourings and preservatives has pushed our bodies past their limits and obesity and chronic illness are the by-products.
So what have grains, potatoes, beans and dairy done to be put on the naughty step?
Well, the main reason given by proponents of the Paleo diet is that they contain “anti-nutrients”. These little bastards can mess about with your body’s absorption of important vitamins, minerals and proteins.
Normally categorised as either lectins or enzyme blockers I will give you a quick overview that hopefully won’t bake your swede, (Swede is an allowed vegetable on the Paleo diet though!).
Lectins are a natural pesticide used by plants in order to defend themselves against attackers, including humans. Theoretically lectins are harmful to us. The cells of our bodies are covered with receptors which only respond to specific stimuli. Lectins have the ability to mimic these stimuli at the receptors causing a variety of responses- covering basically the full collection of the cells functions and sometimes even causing the cell to do things it normally cannot do.
Because of their skills of deception many are able to bypass our body’s natural defences and cause havoc all over your body. Like evil little ninjas.
Enzyme blockers are abundant in all seeds including grains and beans, and also in potatoes, serving to hold them in suspended animation until ready to sprout.Â
Most commonly they block the enzymes that digest protein (proteases), and are called “protease inhibitors”. They can affect the stomach protease enzyme “pepsin”, and the small intestine protease enzymes “trypsin” and “chymotrypsin”. These small intestine enzymes are made by the pancreas (it does a lot of other important things besides making insulin).
Some enzyme blockers affect the enzymes that digest starch (amylase) and are called “amylase inhibitors”.
Basically they help the plants reach adulthood before being chomped.Â
Ok that’s enough on them for now. Basically all those thousands of years ago when the hairy bloke discovered he didn’t get sick after cooking his beans, grains, potatoes etc, remember him? This was because cooking destroys most of these anti-nutrients.
Key word for Paleo followers being MOST
Some still remain and this is one of the areas of debate.
Followers say that these left over anti-nutrients will, over time cause problems.
Sceptics say that if a person follows a nutritious, varied diet then the effects of these tiny amounts will be negligible.
The area of anti-nutrients also throws up a lot of contradictions in the plan.
For example fruit is highly encouraged, yet many fruits are known to contain lectins, particularly lectins known to trigger allergic reactions in people.
Also nuts are cool on the diet, but again it’s well known that several people are allergic to nuts, and yet again lectins play a big role in this, and unlike grain allergic reactions which tend to be low severity, nut allergies are strongly associated with anaphylaxis and even death!!!
 Again I would like to point out that just because the plan has faults or inconsistencies, that doesn’t mean it isn’t without value and reducing anti-nutrient intake clearly would have positive effects.
I hope you’re still with me at this point.Â
 Ok let’s get to the crux of the matter. The main issues I have with the Paleo.
It completely disregards the fact that many of the healthiest and longest living races in the world as well as some of the worlds healthiest and fittest people have things such as grains, legumes and dairy as a cornerstone of their diet.
Diseases of civilisation have traditionally only affected Western cultures where processed food gradually provided a greater and greater proportion of people’s calorie intake. In Eastern countries such as China diabetes was virtually unknown until the influx of Western world foods. However their diet mainly consisted of vegetarian dishes grounded in rice or noodles, both big no nos on the Paleo diet.
To condemn foods like whole grains, sweet potatoes, oatmeal and so on, all of which are key parts of nutrition plans for the world’s top athletes also seems a strange move and doesn’t really make sense to me.
Whilst there is a percentage of the population who will thrive on the Paleo diet, there will also be a large percentage (myself included) that find the idea of being so restricted in what they can and cannot eat completely unappealing, especially when it is possible to obtain just as good results and just as healthy a lifestyle whist still eating things such as grains, potatoes, legumes and dairy.
Nutritional dogma won’t help anyone; it will only restrict and lead to cheating. Flexibility in your nutrition plan will give you the freedom whilst still keeping you on track.
The best plan you can have is one that works, and one you will stick to.
 One of my other bones to pick with the diet is it seems to disregard the fact that a hunter gatherer would most likely be taking in a lot, lot less calories than a person in the modern world, and this in turn might be the reason for the lack of diseases of civilisation.
It is not unreasonable to think that food energy excesses, rather than the consumption of “new” foods such as grains may be more accountable for causing diseases such as obesity. It has been well documented in studies much larger and more reliable than the ones carried out for the Paleo diet that diets that cause weight loss will reduce risk factors of diabetes, heat risk and hypertension.
And also whilst on the subject of grains being a “new” food. Evidence seems to show that Stone Age humans have been processing cereals and grains for food at least as early as 30,000 years and possibly as early as 100,000 years ago plus!!  Just saying...
 Finally, although we may be genetically similar to our Paleolithic ancestors, we are also nearly 99% genetically similar to a chimpanzee...
I’m pretty sure they have a low mortality rate when it comes to obesity and diabetes...
I can categorically state I won’t be changing my diet to fruit, nuts, insects, and raw monkey meat any time soon...
...On second thoughts...I could be onto something there!
That could be the next diet to sweep the world...I could make millions ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ
 WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you had success on the paleo diet? Or given it up for one reason or another? Or do you fancy replying just for giggles...please feel free.
Personal Trainer and Injury Specialist
Disclaimer - I am not advocating any programs or approaches...simply giving you information. As with everything regarding your health and body, check with a Dr. before making any big changes.
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