During the past few years, the Western world has viewed a wave of followers develop as advocates of the Paleo-style diet. You can see many of these people online, writing comments and speaking about Paleo articles. Perpetuated by famous Paleo-endorsers such as Loren Cordain, Robb Wolf, and Mark Sisson, Paleo has turned into quite the movement. Ever been told about Paleo is wrong?
Same with the other fad diets, individuals have different opinions about the Paleo diet.
The truth is, the concept behind Paleo has actually been around since the mid 1970s, when a gastroenterologist known as Walter L. Voegtlin first put together the idea. In reality, there is very little distinction between the Paleo Diet and countless other low-carb diet fads that have made the rounds in the past decade. The only difference is that, Paleo do not promote eating grains-regardless of its variety.
The Theory Behind Paleo
Paleo relies on the (unproven) fact that our ancestors and forefathers from the stone age (circa 10,000 years ago) had much healthier diets than us modern-day humans. It is because there were no health conditions during those times. In reality, people from stone age were even healthier and stringer than us. In Paleo, people must not eat what the cavemen did not eat.
Here’s a good article: Paleo Diet.
Paleo followers assume that our body is not genetically created to eat the products of agricultural revolution and that is why we should adhere to eating the meals that our ancestors ate decades ago.
Undoubtedly, its a pretty cool idea. It’s easy to get a kind of romantic connection to eating like we “should be – the way we were “meant to eat. When I first heard of Paleo and looked into it, it made a good bit of sense, at least in the beginning. However, your view will vary if you try to discover more things about it.
For 30 years Paleo has taken a backseat to almost every other diet program around. The Atkins diet, the Hollywood diet, the South Beach Diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the like. It wasn’t until 2005 where Loren Cordain unveiled her book “The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance” that it really came into the spotlight. I don’t know why it became famous but I think it is simply because during that time, other movement against gluten were starting up.
The twos rise to fame can be paralleled during the past few years, and it’s not really surprising. The two diets is dependant on the belief that gluten is the one resulting in medical problems. But im getting a bit ahead of myself here. Let’s start working on the next topic.
Loopholes in paleo Diet
Paleo instructs its enthusiasts that the human diet basically took a turn for the worst when the agricultural revolution got under way around 10,000 in years past. Farming, along with its processes, have been the corner stone of the human diet from the time that its inception. For paleo followers, that is the reason of our obesity. Keep in mind, if the cavemen didnt eat it – then you shouldnt either.
How Many Calories Should I Eat?
Especially, this means grains of all types, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and dairy are out of the query completely for the rigorous Paleo Dieter. I know what you are thinking, exactly why are sweet potatoes and yams not part of the diet? This is already in the agricultural industry for so long as you can remember. Relating to the Paleo logic, this sort of tubers should be included. After all, yams are an African crop which has been eaten by humans since the beginning of time. If that’s so, why is it not included in the diet?
Potatoes have been in existence for 35,000 years, but apparently this is way too short a time span for the hardcore Paleo(er). This is fascinating however, since Turkey is suitable to eat on the diet, although it was only introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
Probably the most shocking inconsistency that I found was on the subject of grains. Yep, a newsletter by the Oxford University Press called People, Plants, and Genes: The Story of Crops and Humanity lets us know there is certainly evidence that shows the nasty gluten-containing food staple identified only as “cereal grain has been highly processed and taken by humans as early as 200,000 years ago. This is contradicting to the remarks of Paleo Diets.
Truly puts a dent in the whole “haven’t had lots of time to get used to grains theory.
Some of the inconsistencies must be more important than others, but they all tend to discredit the logic of the Paleo phenomenon. Nevertheless, I wanted to find out more things about Paleo after being aware of the stuffs given above.