The "Paleo Diet" and the corresponding lifestyle never seemed to quite add up for me. I continued to have an increasing number of lingering concerns no matter how much I read and listened to others. I think I have finally come to enough clarity about my concerns to now share them.
It does not seem logical to argue that the "Paleo Diet" our ancestors followed provides properly timed nutrition when you have to apply modern science to efficiently and effectively implement it for others like athletes and diabetics to name a few. Then there is the way that the main proponents of "Paleo" Loren Cordain, Robb Wolf as well as others have modified the "Paleo Diet" to include foods such as sweet potatoes, fatty meats and only certain types of processed dairy. And maybe as new science comes out these guys will continue to modify their positions. But at what point exactly do the exceptions swallow the rule? At point does it by definition no longer continue to be "Paleo"? Really, it seems more like a moving target.
A red flag first went up for me when the "Paleo Diet" reminded me of one of the scientifically-based diets I followed many years ago during my competitive O-lifting, powerlifting and bodybuilding days. I was fortunate to have a number of accomplished nutritionists around me throughout the years who all had their own innovative ideas about meal plans that worked for varying purposes. One such friend was Lyle McDonald, PHD widely credited with helping to develop and promote the Ketogenic Diet. Recently, I looked into what Lyle had to say about the "Paleo Diet" because I thought he might be mostly on board with it. But it turns out he has some real scientifically-based reservations. Then there's people like John Berardi, PHD who I came to know while in Austin who also cites research that seems to also call into question what is "Paleo." Even my old training partner and nutritionist to the stars Rehan Jalali shares similar concerns. The list goes on.
However, most telling to me is the ultra and "barefoot" runners such as those in the book Born to Run who the paleo, natural, evolutionary, primal movement crowd tries to align themselves and who are well-known for not consuming a "Paleo or even Primal Diet." Rather they consume carbs like grains quite liberally including pizza and beer. Then there is the actual Tarahumara Indians who actually use persistence-hunting to hunt their own food and who also have a massively high carb intake including from legumes and grains. The list goes on including those from recently and minimally contacted indigenous people still living a "hunter-gather" life who I have lived with in the Amazon, coast and mountains which contradict the myths propagated by those selling the "Paleo Diet". For example, I have seen the subsistence eating required that does not always include meat and when it does it may be a rat or a monkey. And then there's the natural foods that made me sick to my stomach for hours. Is it possible that the 10,000 plus years of not eating like a caveman has caused me to adapt to other forms of nutrition?
Most disturbing to me is the way that the "Paleo Diet" fails to fully distinguish agriculturally and industrially created and developed food from the clear medicinal benefits of natural foods like sprouted legumes and grains, "processed" fermented foods, as well as raw, probiotic dairy. Furthermore, it did not seem logical to me for "Paleo" advocates to say that you can not consume the dairy of domesticated cows while beating one's chest at Wholefoods. Did I mention they sell "Paleo Bread" there now? Proponents like Cordain harp on the unhealthy industrialized cow milk due to lactose without distinguishing it from say non-industrialized, non-hormone and antibiotic-injected raw goat dairy for which there is no lactose issue. You constantly hear proponents like Cordain and Wolf talk about non-domesticated, non-industrialized, free-range meat but where do these guys think that the fruits and veggies come from? And how often do you hear them address the toxins in those foods including those in so called organic?
I am still waiting for proponents to prove that the "Paleo Diet" is truly healthy and sustainable based on scientific results. When I look at the physical health of people like Cordain and Wolf I have some questions. Then there's the time I spent weeks in the jungle with MovNat's Erwan LeCorre eating a "Paleo Diet" only to watch as he later binged on processed deserts for a week once in the city because he was "getting too lean." And that was just one instance. It seems clear to me that there are number of people out there interested in perpetuating myths that sell to the likes of an "alpha-male" while not actually knowing the lives of the people that they claim to represent.
While I do not know Andrew Badenoch personally or all the details of what he actually proposes as a lifestyle, I think he describes today's "Paleo Diet" movement most accurately when he proposed the term: Hyperlithic. As Andrew puts it, "If “paleolithic” roughly means old-stone age, “hyperlithic” roughly means beyond stone age. There’s a nod to the old, and a hint at a modern update." I think I would be less annoyed if "Paleo" proponents would just call it what it is rather than pretending to be purists.
But it all really does depend on one's goals and reality. Proponents of the "Paleo Diet" argue about the importance of not just subsisting, but "thriving" outside "the human zoo" even though subsistence may be the reality for hunters-gathers at times since they do not have access to Wholefoods.
As a lifetime drug-free, accomplished O-lifter, powerlfiter and bodybuilder my goals over the years were all about numbers and how I looked. But for example, there is no question in my mind that at the age of 20 I could not have bulked to 220 at 5'7 without lots of potatoes, grains and legumes and cut to 170 and 5% body fat in three months without cutting lots of those foods out. Still even up to the end, I ate various forms of grains with higher and higher levels of fiber content, as well as lots of sweet potatoes. l also could not have totaled over 1500lbs in a powerlifting meet at 15 yrs old without lots similar eating. And while we're at it, let's also be clear that concepts like "natural movement" such as MovNat alone is not going to help someone to develop optimal strength, nor a large muscular physique (especially with all that running around) if that's their goal, or an optimally strong, muscular and functional physique for that matter if they are say a linebacker. Did I mention that hunters and gatherers don't train and the ones I lived with certainly don't train to fight or "defend"?
But do the numbers I focused on as a goal equal subsisting, let aloe thriving? I no longer think so. As I grew older, I began to train others and went to work in the professional world. It's then that I really began to see how others including how I applied the same adrenal-exhausting mentally from work to "working out" and its negative health effects. While the numbers looked good, I am not sure about the actual physical health, let alone the mental, emotional and spiritual. And since we are talking about thriving here, I do not think thinking of ourselves as an evolutionary monkey or applying a survivalist approach to our eating or movement gets us there.
I can also tell you that the recently and minimally contacted indigenous I have lived with do not have cortisol producing careers that often serve as the genesis for addictions like sugar, smoking and drinking just to name a few. Even John Durant of hunter-gatherer.com, a young guy I first became acquainted with in the jungle shared on his blog how he has been fighting his own cupcake addiction: smoking. He took up the habit recently after quitting his NYC desk job to write his book about hunting and gathering. I already appreciated John for his integrity, and he didn't let me down when he along with Barefoot Ted and others at least attempted to catch their own food in The Red Desert of Wyoming. Then there's Robb Wolf who has a caffeine addiction and whose labs don't seem to substantiate that "Paleo" is working for him. But what angers me the most is reading postings by proponents of "Paleo" that attack people like vegetarians and vegans for having addictions like sugar all the while fighting addictions of their own.
What I can tell you is that what is available to eat among indigenous people then and today was and is strongly influenced by not just "culture," but by the ethno-geographical, socio-economic and geo-political factors. Let's also remember here that Darwin's original book title was "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." That book and Darwin's other writings have been used countless times to justify the arguments of eugenicists to commit genocide against our ancestors the "savages" or people of color. I think it's ironic that some people promoting the Ancestral, Caveman, Evolutionary, Hunter-Gatherer, Natural, Paleo, Primal Lifestyle attempt to use the tenets of Darwin's books to supposedly honor our ancestors as it suits them. And I find it especially silly when I consider the fact that Darwin and others promoted the breeding and domestication of select people and animals. Say reverting to a "Paleo Diet" was successful, then what would happen to the billions of people of color in the third world countries who subsist off of grains and legumes?
You know, I remember when I was a kid before all the commercial influence, I seemed to have a real innate sense of what was healthy to eat and in how to move. For instance, I remember we would play for hours until we were played-out because it was fun and we didn't need someone motivating us or instructing us how to run, jump or climb? We just knew.....and still do. Isn't that the sort of primalness we should strive for in a "goal"? Didn't that feel like thriving? I remember I was pretty healthy, happy, strong and free then too.
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