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The paleo diet is big news, with many celebrities endorsing it.
The theory behind paleo is that while human physiology hasn’t changed much in the past 50,000 years, our diet has altered almost beyond recognition. Advocates of the paleo lifestyle claim eating the food our caveman ancestors would have consumed is better for our health, helping us to maintain a good weight and our bodies to function at their optimum level. So, are they right?
Back to basics
If you take a look around, it is clear that something is not working and that the health of many New Zealanders is not what it should be. Much of this can be attributed to two factors: too much of the wrong type of food and not enough exercise.
It is true that our modern lifestyles are almost unrecognisable from those of our caveman ancestors. During the palaeolithic age, humans were fairly nomadic, travelling long distances to hunt and gather food. We ate with the seasons, and in times of plenty we would have eaten as much as possible in order to survive leaner times.
This was a pre-agricultural age when meat came from animals that fed on grass and dairy and refined grains were not available. We would only have had access to primitive fruits, berries, nuts and some seeds, the odd bird and egg and a bit of fish and shellfish.
Our lifespan was short and our energy only used to provide food, water and shelter, and to procreate. In contrast, today we are surrounded by high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, which require little energy to acquire, and because our caveman bodies are hard-wired to overeat fat and sugar when it is available, we also have an obesity epidemic.
The way we live now – surrounded by food and doing little or no exercise – is simply not what our bodies were designed for. With this in mind, any lifestyle, including paleo, that eliminates processed food and refined sugars, and contains plenty of wholefoods and vegetables has to be a good thing. But does this mean we should go all-out paleo?
The paleo diet removes grains, dairy, grain-fed meat, refined sugar, salt, potatoes, legumes, vegetable oils and all processed foods. The regime assumes that our gut is not designed to cope with these foods and that they will cause weight gain, lack of energy, bloating and allergies.
But, while dairy products were not available during paleo times, most Europeans have, in fact, evolved to tolerate dairy well as they have acquired the enzyme lactase to break down the lactose in dairy. Many Asian people, however, who have not been exposed to much dairy in their diet do not have this enzyme.
Best of both
Any food plan that makes us lose weight and feel better is bound to be popular, even if it is not nutritionally sound for long-term use. If you stop eating cake, bread, cream, fries and lollies, of course you will feel good and lose weight. But will a paleo diet provide you with enough B vitamins, fibre and calcium?
Any diet that eliminates whole food groups is extreme and not necessarily good for you. I would hate to lose legumes from my diet as they are a great, fibre-rich meat alternative.
Evidence shows that there is no single ‘best’ diet for us. Our longest-living populations come from Japan, Scandinavia and Greece. These countries have three very different diets and lifestyles, so our bodies do adapt to what is available.
