Paleo Diet

[The Jay]

What do you all think of the idea that dropping grains, legumes, and dairy from your diet? I actually followed this diet while exercising for an average of an hour and a half per day, not counting a high amount of walking, with great success. The only negative was that I miscalculated my caloric need and should have ate more than I was. I lost pounds of fat and gained almost all that weight back in muscle when I was on it.

Needless to say, I'm going back on it. What I was curious about is whether or not any of you were experienced or had any questions about it.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I've heard that despite it's name, it doesn't resemble ancestral human diets much more than any other diet in the present. What's the deal?

Also, are potatoes allowed or is that considered cheating? If they're not allowed, whence carbohydrates?

[The Jay]

I know that potatoes are a no-go and as for the fact that it may not represent an ancestral diet, I'm not too bothered. I wasn't convinced by that argument anyway since it would have been a naturalistic fallacy. What I was convinced by was some of the studies that I read as a layman, I'm no nutritionist.

About where you get carbohydrates, you can get them according to the diet from any source other than grains and legumes. You can eat all the vegetables and fruit that you like.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I know that potatoes are a no-go ...

About where you get carbohydrates, you can get them according to the diet from any source other than grains and legumes. You can eat all the vegetables and fruit that you like.

So can one eat potatoes on this diet or not? It's not exactly clear since you seem to contradict yourself here, as potatoes are neither grains nor legumes.

I'm asking because eating plentiful carbohydrates is rather important if one is undertaking a great amount of physical activity. Or if like me you're living in a badly insulated flat with no central heating.

[The Jay]

So can one eat potatoes on this diet or not? It's not exactly clear since you seem to contradict yourself here, as potatoes are neither grains nor legumes.

I'm asking because eating plentiful carbohydrates is rather important if one is undertaking a great amount of physical activity. Or if like me you're living in a badly insulated flat with no central heating.

Honestly, there are a lot of mixed messages on it and I'm not sure. If it works for you then do it. I do know that some of the "experts" don't have a problem with potatoes if people are physically active. I do take issue with you saying that I contradicted myself however. I never said that potatoes are legumes or grains. If anything all that you could have said is that I left out a proscription from my initial statement.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I don't see the point in this. We know a healthy intake of grains, legumes and also of dairy can be beneficial to our diet, so why would be cut these out?

Surely a better diet cuts out completely the things we know don't really give any health benefit, and we keep the things that give moderate benefit, and consume more of the stuff that is low-calorie and gives us huge health benefit.

This just seems a bit...faddish?

[The Jay]

I don't see the point in this. We know a healthy intake of grains, legumes and also of dairy can be beneficial to our diet, so why would be cut these out?

Surely a better diet cuts out completely the things we know don't really give any health benefit, and we keep the things that give moderate benefit, and consume more of the stuff that is low-calorie and gives us huge health benefit.

This just seems a bit...faddish?


Kind of, yes. If you listen to speeches given by the main proponents they will say that some people experience no negatives to eating grains, legumes, and dairy in the same way that some people tolerate and in fact digest lactose very well. What they go on to say is that their research indicates that people benefit from cutting out those things more often than not. The people that give absolute answers are usually quacks and I generally ignore them.

To get specific with you, what is an "healthy intake" of those things? Some people have no problem with drinking milk while others would be wise to avoid it, the same with everything else. What does matter is what works for the majority of people a majority of the time. If people stopped eating grains and replaced it with vegetables they are likelier to be healthier than before.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Kind of, yes. If you listen to speeches given by the main proponents they will say that some people experience no negatives to eating grains, legumes, and dairy in the same way that some people tolerate and in fact digest lactose very well. What they go on to say is that their research indicates that people benefit from cutting out those things more often than not. The people that give absolute answers are usually quacks and I generally ignore them.

To get specific with you, what is an "healthy intake" of those things? Some people have no problem with drinking milk while others would be wise to avoid it, the same with everything else. What does matter is what works for the majority of people a majority of the time. If people stopped eating grains and replaced it with vegetables they are likelier to be healthier than before.

Obviously different people have slightly different needs, but seeing as we live with ourselves 24/7 for years on end, it shouldn't take too many years to really understand our nutritional needs.

My perfect intake of food on a typical day would be something like:

2 x egg omelette w/tabasco sauce; glass of milk
Natural yoghurt w/1 banana and seed mix.
Sandwich (seeded bread) with grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise.
Protein shake consisting of whey, oats (maybe chuck a tiny bit of cocoa powder in too!) and water post-workout.
Dinner might by stir fried veg (red onion, peppers, garlic) with peas, spinach, grilled chicken/fish or beef mince and some basmati/wild rice.
Before bed have a protein shake (just whey and water) and/or a cup of green tea.

I say perfect, I don't achieve that on most days, tbh. And if i'm training I will probably require more food than that, so maybe add in some more fruit as snacks or whatever.

[Rooiakker]

It seems like a fad diet to be quickly forgotten with time.

I'm vegan, for what it's worth.

[Blake's Baby]

I thought this was actually going to have something to do with research into hunter-gatherer diets. Pity.

[Aleksandr Karelin]

The paleo diet is the most effective recomposition food protocol ever. However if you are below 10 percent bodyfat and are having a low carb approach you are not doing it right. Rob wolf advocates lean hard charging people to reintroduce foods like milk, white potatoes and white rice.

I can not explain the changes you will feel properly unless you have spent 4 hours a night training and seen how much this food protocol can transform your body and health.

Only hard thing is maintaining weight on paleo. You may need some non paleo foods to bulk or maintain weight. If you are not suffering from auto immune issues this will not be a problem.

For strength athletes, RAW MILK and paleo is a potent concoction. If you are doing a russian squat routine like the infamous smolov routine, you will think you started taking steroids. The resulting increases in strength and mass is insane.

[Aleksandr Karelin]

I've heard that despite it's name, it doesn't resemble ancestral human diets much more than any other diet in the present. What's the deal?

Also, are potatoes allowed or is that considered cheating? If they're not allowed, whence carbohydrates?

It is not a low carb diet, it is about non processed foods that the human body is capable of adapting to in the 10 thousand years since agriculture or whatever.

The evolutionary science is irrelevant to me, this is the becst food protocol out there. It is also easy and does not limit fat carbs or protein.

[Fionnagáin]

No grains means no beer. So that's out.


Or, less flippantly, I think that the whole problem with attempting to find a "natural" diet is that no such thing actually exists. Hunter-gatherers display a considerable degree of dietary plasticity, even within single cultures when their environment undergoes considerable seasonal change. There's doubtless something to be said for this sort of very lean diet if you're trying to bulk up, but I think that can be done more effectively through modern nutritional science than trying to approximate a basically mythological "natural lifestyle".

[Aleksandr Karelin]

No grains means no beer. So that's out.


Or, less flippantly, I think that the whole problem with attempting to find a "natural" diet is that no such thing actually exists. Hunter-gatherers display a considerable degree of dietary plasticity, even within single cultures when their environment undergoes considerable seasonal change. There's doubtless something to be said for this sort of very lean diet if you're trying to bulk up, but I think that can be done more effectively through modern nutritional science than trying to approximate a basically mythological "natural lifestyle".

As I said I do not do it for the evolutionary science thing. I do it because it works when I am training four hours a day.

For example, to get 300 carbs I can either eat a laof of bread with no nutritional value and huge caloric intake or I can eat 1.5 kg of sweet potato throughout the day and get 5700 % vit A 490%vit c etc.

Grains offer nothing. Can you eat them and be healthy? maybe. Can you eat bread and pasta and perform at your best possible? not at all.

I like to call what I do the real food diet. 95 percent whole, unproccessed foods and the occasional rice, bread or pasta.

My performance has gone up so much from this diet to levels most people would not believe. I can train for hours and recover then day after. I can squat more, I have a higher vertical jump. I am more explosive.

Id anyone here is serious about training. give it thirty days and watch your body transform.

[mew]

I used to be a pretty big believer in low carb then paleo diets but doing more research it doesn't make sense. One is that the paleo diet isn't based on real research like real scientists say that we would have deselected foods by now that we weren't meant to eat. Another is that there was no monolithic paleo diet. Plus a lot of stuff seen as paleo like certain vegetables wasnt eaten back then. I can't post links but it's not hard to find takedowns of it. Then a lot of benefits are just from the removal of processed and hyper palatable foods, it doesn't have to do with following some mythical ancestral diet. Then it gets more complex like the lower carb diet advocated by most paleo gurus offering initial weight loss and energy boost but causing a lot of stress to the body and messing up the thyroid. Yeah not all paleo is low carb or high fat or low fat or high carb blahnlah but it starts to get so nebulous it doesn't mean anything. Probably the best thing anyone can do is to eat moderate amounts of whole food and limit animal products.

[Fourth Internationalist]

A small amount of processed foods, fatty desserts, candy, other treats, etc. + mostly: whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables = best diet :D

[Lina]

You are going very well dude. I think you should must carry on. Paleo diet is better then other diet plan for this purpose. Anyway I really appreciate you for your this decision to ask. God bless you.

[Ele'ill]

I was going to create a thread in this area of the forum ranting about how much bullshit there is on the internet with fad diets, vegan and non-vegan diets and that we have absolutely no idea how to eat a balanced and healthy diet because there is so much misinformation or just information and opinions floating around about how diets impact individuals with individual health concerns and risks. I just read an anti-green/fruit smoothie article and it made part of my brain rupture, as did the comments, and it made me realize that if these articles are legit then we have no idea how to eat healthy. Sure, the diet we eat now may be making us feel great, it might be healthy now, but will cause some fatal shit to happen five years later. It is made out to sound like eating what I think all of us here can picture to some extent as a healthy diet is no better than eating mcdonalds while heavily drinking and smoking cigarettes all day long. It's maddening.


http://kimberlysnyder.net/blog/2012/05/29/response-to-article-how-green-smoothies-can-devastate-your-health/

this is the counter article to the other one, I know it's not about the paleo-diet specifically

this one is okay too

http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/green-smoothies/why-green-smoothies-will-not-devastate-your-health/

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

i did an archaeology module last year, and, um, insofar as it's possible to generalise the diets of all paleolithic groups (since obviously what you could eat depended entirely on your location, the season and the weather back in the day) I don't think a real paleo diet would be quite so appealing - i mean, unless you like eating everything that isn't poisonous that you can get your hands on.

I'm aware that it's just a convenient name for a particular diet but I think it should be made clear that it's claims of being like the diet of our distant ancestors are pretty spurious.