Paleo Explained
The paleo diet is known to be a lifestyle rather than a diet. If you follow me for long enough you probably know that all lifestyle changes that cut out food groups are still diets, unless applied for specific medical conditions.
Paleo is characterised by the exclusion of grains and processed foods, based on the reasoning that these foods weren’t eaten by our ancestors and are therefore, unnecessary to us now.
To begin with, let’s acknowledge that paleo people lived all over the planet, with different resources available. This means that their diets were different based on what was available in their environment at a given point in time. There was no single Palaeolithic diet, because there was a variety of paleo people and environments.
Secondly, most of the food we eat today has changed genetically, due to the natural genetic selection (not the same as genetically modified foods), so even if you try, you wouldn’t really be eating like our ancestors.
Also, the farmed meat eaten today cannot be compared to the wild animal meat eaten years ago. Similarly to food undergoing natural selection, animals have been selected and changed by evolution, making the modern descendants of the paleo animals almost entirely different species. In addition, animals are now bread and farmed specifically to weigh more, which defies the Paleolithic nature.
Moreover, humans have evolved to have multiple biological adaptations to be able to consume a wide variety of foods and survive in unpredictable and ever-changing environments. Elimination diets should only be applied when medically necessary, as our physiology did not foresee some of us getting so privileged to be cutting foods out on purpose.
While it is true that highly processed foods are less nutritious and contain large amounts of sugar, salt and fats to improve palatability and flavour, saying that all processed foods should be avoided is too extreme. Keep in mind that processing includes cooking, soaking and blending, all which increase nutrient absorption. While it is better to base your diet on whole and lightly processed foods, all foods serve a purpose, whether it is nutritional or emotional. It’s all about balance :)
When it comes to cutting out grains, it may mean you’re cutting out an important source of a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Globally, grains are one of the major sources of fibre, B vitamins, iron, selenium and magnesium. If this is not enough to convince you, keep in mind that as our brains increase with evolution, they require more energy. Since the main fuel of the brain is glucose (carbs), cutting out complex carbs is unnecessary to say the least.
Before you mention keto - yes, we can use ketones for energy too, but it is an extremely inefficient way of powering your brain (refer to how the Kreb’s cycle works & read my previous post on the keto diet for more info).
