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Monday, May 16, 2011
Paleo Diet-Pros and Cons, Yeas and Nays-excellent Article!!
A very interesting article discussing the Paleo Diet. It will also help us explain what the diet does and does not allow, the reasoning behind it,etc...
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It's an okay article in my opinion. Most of the "problems" he has with the diet are things he simply has wrong.
ReplyDeleteFor example, he says fermented foods are “off the table,” and cites this as some big contradiction, but every Paleo website or book I’ve seen says fermented foods are fine. He says that yams and tubers are excluded, they're not. He says, "The assumed diet of the hunter-gatherers modeled by the Paleo's is reflective of cave people living in Northern Europe in cold climes where plants did not readily grow." Again, not true. The diet is not about what one particular group may, or may not, have eaten but rather what we know they didn't eat, i.e., processed foods, excess sugar, processed seed oils, grains, dairy and legumes.
In addition, food quality is very important. He says, "While it is true that some Paleo advocates advise eating only lean cuts of meat that are either hunted in the wild, or grass-fed, most do not." Simply not true. There is a reason I buy all grassfed beef and pastured animal products, and it's not to flush more money down the toilet. I agree that many people that follow paleo don't buy grassfed beef due to convenience and price, but it is absolutely a recommended part of the Paleo diet. Criticizing the paleo diet due problems with factory farmed meat would be like criticizing a vegetarian diet because a lot of vegetarians eat oreos, snackwells and Morningstar fake meat patties.
I could go on, but you get the point. Robb Wolf once tweeted, "paleo is a logical framework applied to modern humans, not a historical reenactment." The article makes some good points but really just creates a straw man for the author to criticize rather than a true evaluation.
All good points Todd. I agree with you but I think it is sometimes important to show others opinions and conclusions, whether we agree or not. Thanks for commenting, Karen :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree. You definitely don't want to live in an echo chamber where all you hear are opinions that support what you already believe.
ReplyDeleteI commented mainly because several people have forwarded me this article in the last week and it seemed like it was gaining some sort of momentum as an authoritative discussion of Paleo. Maybe it was just a coincidence. :)