Paleo dogma bullshit
February 26, 2011 7 Comments
This post was inspired by the latest post of Primal Toad (link here). Now, I’m not calling out Primal toad but the whole ideology that he shares -with many paleo enthusiast- that conventional wisdom is always wrong (Interestingly enough, science is always wrong when you don’t study it) and that if something is not demonstrated (or at least badly demonstrated) to be detrimental to your health, it must be healthy. If it’s healthy, then we have to eat these foods in very large amounts. Amounts that are not necessarily natural (they require you to go out of your way to get more of these foods in). Toad posted mainly about saturated fat and cholesterol which is what I will base my short rebuttal on.
I find the data to be insufficient -or at least conflicting- to make conclusions about saturated fats and cholesterol. Yes, you need both of them. No, it’s probably not the most intelligent idea ever to focus on getting as much of it as possible.
By this, I mean that cholesterol and saturated fat should not exclusively be the reason why you consume certain foods. For instance, egg is a wonderful food because of its high vitamin content, protein content and availability as well as overall energy. It is not a great food because of it’s cholesterol content but because of the reason I have listed. Before you go all crazy and start cursing like a pirate (or like a caveman since most of my readership are just modern cavemen/woman), let me tell you that I’m known for my ability to eat 10 eggs (cooked in butter) as a breakfast. That means I’m not afraid of the stuff nor am I preaching a low fat, low animal products diet. What I am preaching is common sense and objectivity.
I eat them for the protein and energy. Not the cholesterol.
Still the point is, you gotta be careful with the way you deal with things and the message you send to the world. Low fat (30% of your calories as fat, as is advised) is technically not a problem at all. High carb (60-70% of your calories as carbs, as is advised) is technically not a problem at all. Plenty of epidemiology studies demonstrate this. I know, this type of studies sucks…except when you pull one about eskimos or another tribe, right?
Really, as long as you pick foods that you seem to do well on (aka foods you pick in nature for the most part), you are doing fine. For some it means a high meat diet. For others, it can be a diet lower in meat. My theory is that it’s all about the quality of the food you eat instead of the composition of the diet itself (macro nutrient, etc). Obviously, if we are going to use an evolutionary perspective, this make sense. Macro nutrients were cycled. Feast and famine. And sometimes the feast would involve stuffing your skinny ass with potatoes (a strategy that has persisted till today and made humans survive quite well actually). On the other end, quality was rarely an issue. It’s not like you would find mutant foods in an environment that was NOT dominated by humans.
This brings us to paleo dogma bullshit that plague the internet world the way freaking vegetarians seem to be everywhere around here. I get to hear their rhetoric bullshit in my nutrition class as well as at the metro station where they want us to sign some peta petitions. Same shit, different smell. All opinions, no fact.
The supposed idea of a perfect diet is ridiculous for various reasons : (a) not everyone is the same (genetics, etc.) (b) not everyone do the same thing (sleep, lifestyle, job, etc.) (c) not everyone is active (no matter what the so called paleo exercise haters tell you, exercise is a must and it will greatly enhance various processes that we are actually trying to improve with diet…insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, etc.) (d) not everyone as access to the same resources (foods or money). (e) everyone has a different health record.
I’m not a scientist (yet…but nutrition is not the field I will be studying) but from my less than optimally educated perspective, the only thing that has been demonstrated -either by scientific facts or by anecdotal experience is that a diet as natural (hunter gatherer style) as possible usually make people healthier.
/rant
Thank You for this post..I have so much that I WANT to say, but will restrain myself. I agree 100% with your views.
Agree 100%!
thanks Julie and Soiltosustenance for the comments.
Spot on.
Again.
Americans are adrift in a sea of sickness. The rules of conventional wisdom have created this morass.
What most people need and want is rules that work. Rejecting conventional wisdom rules is a good start. In contrast, Paleo rules work for a vast majority of people. So for sick people, adhering to those paleo rules is important to getting well. Time for experimentation comes later.
I notice that all the paleo bloggers that decry paleo dogma are fairly young and the bloggers who say you must follow paleo rules are older. There is a good reason for this. When you are young you can eat almost anything and see no effect. But when you are older, your system does not allow any slack in your diet.
As you might have guessed by my comment, my wife and I are in our late 60s and are strict paleo. We recently had a NMR test and a VAP test. Our results were off the chart great. Are we going to be following paleo dogma in the future? Damn right we are.
****Really, as long as you pick foods that you seem to do well on (aka foods you pick in nature for the most part), you are doing fine****
I think if everyone would just do this…and STOP LOOKING FOR an answer whcih will NEVER be found, we will all be fine. The paleo-sphere has done it’s job, but now it is turning orthorexic IMO because the stress it is causing the ‘followers’ is doing more harm than good. I read we should eliminate eggs the other day b/c of the BS O6 and AA in them… I bout had a shitfit at my desk lol.
I am also incredibly annoyed with people trying to ‘mock’ what works for ONE person, because that ONE person listened to THEIR body… they miss the whole picture that is what you said- pick food that makes you feel good and works well in your body!
word!