A Paleo Diet Primer
Paleolithic or Paleo diet is an effort to get back to foods we evolved on as a species. The basic deal is that we spent about 2,000,000 years of our evolution eating meat, vegetables and fruits and very little else. In contrast, the foods of agriculture – grains and dairy – only showed up about 10,000 years ago.
If you do the math, we have been exposed to agri-foods for all of 0.5% of our evolution. Essentially, we’ve had NO time to adapt and evolve with these new foods. Further, within the last 100 years pesticides and chemicals have entered our food supply in high proportions and food has become highly processed. An average diet in America contains virtually NOTHING our bodies would actually recognize as food from our evolution. This is one reason we’re hearing more and more about chronic inflammation and auto-immune diseases.
So, the basic premise is that feeding your body a whole food-based, organic diet like it was programmed by evolution to eat is going to result in the highest health and performance possible. Our bodies are not going to run best on grains and poorly raised meats.
If I’m getting too much into theory here it’s only because Paleo is more of a movement and a lifestyle than it is a “diet.” It involves sleeping and eating patterns that attempt to recreate the patterns we evolved on. This fits very nicely with brief, intense and infrequent anaerobic exercise because that is the pattern of activity we would have had during evolution. Things like sprinting away from a predator, chasing prey, carrying heavy things and fighting. CrossFit anyone?
As a side note, “Paleolithic Diet” is the catchall term. The Paleo Diet is the book by Loren Cordain. Most of the time, we shorten Paleolithic to Paleo and don’t worry about the trademark or the fact that there are different variations of these diets and some of Cordain’s stuff from the original book has fallen a bit out of favor in some circles. But I digress…
Paleo Diet Foods
Meat – free-range, organic and fed its appropriate diet (cows fed grass not grain for example)
Fish - Wild caught
Vegetables – as much as you can eat, organic and a high percentage raw
Fruit - organic and often in limited quantities (I don’t limit my fruit and eat a “high” volume compared to a Paleo purist)
Nuts and Seeds – Some are big on these, but guys like Robb Wolf and others have come out against them recently due to high omega-6 fats and some inflammatory factors. If you eat nuts and seeds eat them raw as opposed to roasted in vegetable oil. Also, Peanuts are a legume like beans and are excluded from the diet.
Potatoes – White potatoes are out because they are a “new” food. Some guys like Robb Wolf and CrossFit Endurance (CF with an endurance slant) are into Yams and Sweet Potatoes, particularly after workouts due to the high GI carbs.
Grains – All grains are out with Paleo. This includes wheat, rice, corn, quinoa, etc.
Dairy – This is a grey area. Some strictly oppose it’s inclusion and others are huge advocates of Raw dairy from grassfed cows (Weston A Price and his camp most notably). There are also others that recommend goat dairy rather than cow due to its less allergenic proteins. Jordan Rubin (The Maker’s Diet) is a major advocate. Personally, I eat goat yogurt and kefir daily and do very well on it. In general, cultured dairy (yogurt, kefir) is more digestible and less allergenic than the plain milk product. Obviously, stuff like whey protein is out on two counts: 1) it’s from milk 2) it’s highly processed.
Supplements – Most Paleo guys aren’t big on supplements. I’m in this camp for the most part but I am cool with GOOD supplements that serve a real purpose. The reasoning is that our bodies are hugely powerful and intelligent when given good food, low stress, sleep and a proper lifestyle. A BIG supplement in Paleo is Fish Oil. Robb Wolf recommends 20-30g of EPA/DHA total. I do about 6 Tbsp daily of fish oil and an additional Tbsp or two of Cod Liver Oil. There is a difference because of Vitamins A, D and K which are higher in Cod Liver. Robb did a great post about the difference and the Vit A, D and K thing.
I think that’s about it for the nuts and bolts of Paleo. What I’d like to throw out there is some mention of digestive problems and food allergies or intolerance. I’ve had more than my share of both (that’s how I came to this diet in the first place) and have found that the non-Paleo foods are the offenders. Milk and gluten allergies are the most prevalent in the world and I’d respectfully challenge anyone reading this to take a HARD look at what they’re eating and how they’re feeling in relation to when and how they eat and see if they can find patterns of not feeling well after grains, sugar, conventional dairy, processed food, etc. The rabbit hole goes deep…
Paleo also includes what’s called “Intermittent Fasting.” This will be hard for bodybuilder/powerlifting types to get into mentally. It was for me at the beginning due to the “never be hungry” thinking. But short fasts are very healthy and have some really good metabolic effects. Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet goes into this extensively.
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A great overview article on eating paleo. My husband and I made the switch about a year ago and have never felt better! In an effort to help others along in the paleo journey, I started a recipe site sharing information and ideas on how to eat paleo food that tastes really good! It’s at meat-n-veggies.com if you’re interested.
Thanks, Amy! I’ll pass it along!
Adam
A great article on the Paleo Diet. I do have one comment, and it’s sort of an issue of mine as I have seen it in a few articles about the Paleo diet. The comment/issue is the grouping of Quinoa under Grains. I am fine with not having grains in my diet but Quinoa?!?
Quinoa is often confused as a true grain by many people because I guess it looks like one and is often used to substitute many other grains, but what we eat is in fact a seed. Quinoa the plant is not a member of the grass family like wheat or other grains and is in fact classified more as a pseudocereal. So I guess what I am trying to get at here is why exclude Quinoa from the list of foods one can eat following the Paleo diet? From what I know and have researched there is no processing to Quinoa. All you are eating are the seeds from a green leafy vegetable (in fact if you moisten quinoa seeds and place them in a dark cool environment, they will start to germinate and one can see a plant growing from the seeds).
Would love to see anyone’s response as to the reasoning why quinoa is not in the Paleo list.
BTW…great site and info. Keep up the good work
Thanks for the comment, Don! Robb Wolf has talked extensively about Quinoa. The bottom line is that it’s STILL gut irritating even though it’s gluten free, not really a grain, etc.
I do poorly on quinoa myself. There are compounds in it called, I think, sapoins that are phospholipids. They can dissolve the gut tissue. If you google those terms you’ll find some good info.
Adam
Hi Adam;
Thanks for the clarification and info. I am aware of the sapions in quinoa but never knew that it had to potential to irritate one’s gut. Do you know if this affects everyone or only for some people, such as yourself? I will research this some more as quinoa goes well with me and in fact my naturopath had once told me to eat it instead of wheat products some time back (and that’s how I got into eating it). That being said I still have the issue with classifying it under “grains”. It is incorrect and I wish that more authors on the subject pay a bit more attention to this as false or incorrect information does not do well with supporting their claims.
I do see what you’re saying, Don. I put it in the grain category because it always seems to come up when you get on the “gluten free” and “cut out wheat” topics.
Adam
Hi Adam, there’s a lot of good info here and you seem open to questions, so I have one for you. I’m an avid CrossFitter/runner/yogi/former powerlifter. I’m 46, and under 10% bodyfat as measured by a Dexa scan. I already ate very clean, and very carefully, but, based on the recommendations of CrossFitters regarding their energy levels, decided to try Paleo in January. I followed it strictly. I stayed on a month, but it was a complete disaster. I literally couldn’t function, felt like I was in slow motion, and had so little energy I was tripping over the box in box jumps and couldn’t complete my WODs. I have never felt so awful in my life. Everyone said that my system would adjust and I’d convert to burning fats rather than carbs for energy after 2-3 weeks, but I didn’t seem to be burning anything, as I had no energy whatsoever. After a month I had to go back to my regular diet, which does include grains like oatmeal, a little multi-grain bread, and some dairy like yogurt. It has taken me almost all of this month to recover. I read somewhere that some people’s systems just don’t burn fat very well, and am thinking I must be one of them. Ever heard of this happening, or do you have any ideas about what I might have done wrong?
I just started the paleo diet on Monday, I am craving sweets and carbs so badly, when will this stop? I don’t feel better, I actually feel pretty disgusting. Instead of daydreaming about boys i’ve been daydreaming about cookies. When is this going to end.
It depends, Tara. A few days to a few weeks depending what your diet was like before. There was an article by Nicole Carrol in CrossFit Journal called “Getting Off the Crack” that talks about this issue. It’s on CrossFit.com
Good luck! Hang in, you’ll be fine.
Adam
Thanks Adam for clearing laying out in a simple form! After reading some quite detailed book I was overwhelmed with info overload! It’s been great so far, and now that I’m expecting my first child in Jan I’m so excited to introduce this lifestyle and NO other to him or her (its a surprise) Also believing I have a celiac disease I’ve found how even the “health all natural” grocers can be just as terrible as those fast food chains! Its extremely sad what the average person is putting in their body and they have no idea what it actually is or even care!!
Really glad it helped you, Daisy!
Good luck and keep in touch!
Hi! Just found you through Strong is the New Skinny and not a moment too soon…I just went Paleo yesterday after years of vegetarianism and veganism. I bought your Paleo Dieters Missing LInk and can’t wait to read it
Kudos
Crista
Thanks for the kudos, Crista! Good luck going Paleo in 2012!
Keep in touch!
Adam