Short term Palaeolithic study compared to Australian Dietary Guidelines shows that both lead to weight loss, only the ADGs don’t lead to deficiencies!
A 28 day diet study of 39 healthy women published in the peer-reviewed journal “Nutrients”, titled “Palaeolithic vs. Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Diets: A 4-Week Randomised Trial” is contributing to the limited existing literature about the Paleo diet, which has to date been highly promoted by celebrities such as Pete Evans based on anecdotal evidence. Remembering of course that Pete is a chef. He has posted his response to the research on his page as “a win”. Let’s look a little further into the study, without the attention grabbing headlines and picking of cherries - the study is linked below. The report Pete linked to his headline is here: https://au.news.yahoo.com/…/paleo-wins-diet-battle-but-jur…/
Both groups lost weight (higher in the paleo group), and both groups experienced lower cholesterol and LDL and lowered their saturated fat intake, with no significant differences in biomarkers of metabolism. Additional fruit was recommended in the paleo diet group to meet carbohydrate needs.
INTERESTINGLY, THIS STUDY SHOWS THAT WEIGHT LOSS OCCURS WHEN THE DIETARY GUIDELINES ARE ACTUALLY FOLLOWED!!
The Conclusion stated: “In healthy females, the Palaeolithic diet induced a more favourable effect on body composition over the short term intervention period. The reduction in carbohydrate consumption did not impact on fibre intake in the Paleolithic group, however, significant reductions in thiamin, riboflavin and calcium were noted. We observed no significant differences between groups for cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors and further, larger studies are recommended to assess the impact of the diets over a longer term period.”
This initial research suggests more research, with vitamin and mineral reductions noted in just four weeks. Two essential B vitamins (thiamin and riboflavin), and calcium. I could write a piece on those vitamins and minerals alone, but moving along.
The Paleo diet excludes two food groups - grains and dairy, which contradicts evidence based recommendations from the NHMRC, “therefore requires investigation”.
“Our results showed loss of weight was significantly associated with the reduction in energy intake, and percentage of daily energy from protein. However, the reduction in body weight and fat mass found in this study cannot be attributed to the reduction in energy intake alone. This supports previous findings that lower carbohydrate diets are associated with greater losses of fat mass over a short term period. Longer-term Paleolithic diets require further investigation, with poor adherence to the high protein intake shown over a two-year period”. http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/5/314/html
