I was listening to the healthy gut summit presentations today and they touched upon a very important point that I think needs to be addressed.   That point is that the Paleo diet is a hoax?   There are many different Paleo diets and frankly -none of them are anywhere close to what our paleolithic ancestors would have eaten. We see two schools of thought; those that call it a fad diet and those who honestly believe that it is the cure for a significant number of diseases.

There doesn’t seem much doubt that it is a fad diet.   As a society, we tend to latch onto the latest diet trend that’s been presented and most of us don’t understand the underlying fundamentals of the diet research (if there are any).  We treat a fad diet as all or nothing and perceive that it should be suggested for an entire population of people.  This simply isn’t true.  There’s no diet that is actually good for everybody.  Think about different climates and daily environments we exist in are highly variable. This is no different from in the Paleolithic era.  The type of foraging, meat and vegetable consumption greatly depends on the of availability of the plant life, and the climate and animals in the area.  Research shows that some of our Paleolithic ancestors did eat grains and legumes.  Just look at mortar and pestal from that era that were obviously used to grind down grains.

The Paleo diet is a great diet for one reason –it cuts out all processed foods. This diet is a whole,real food-based diet. Whether were eating more meat or cutting out legumes, we are vastly improving the plant-based component of our diet and cutting out junk carbs.  I can’t argue with that.  The biggest point I make is that our society’s food supply is based on processed foods that are stripped of the vital nutrients and minerals. So is any Paleo diet actually Paleo?  NO of course not.  You wouldn’t have seen a caveman walking around carrying a Paleo Kind bar.  The berries, seeds, and vegetables that were forging for are nowhere near the equivalent of the berries we buy at the supermarket. 

Here’s a great presentation based on some real science of what Paleolithic ancestors were actually eating. 

 Just you watch this quick TEDTalk that is a thorough evaluation of why the Paleo diet is a hoax.

 No single diet is good an the entire population people. There many factors that come into play.  Our gut microbiome is incredibly important as well.  We are just now beginning to discover  this huge complex microrganism community that plays such a huge role in our immune health. I do like the Paleo diet because it’s a clear concise diet shows you exactly what to eat based only on real food.  I do recommend this to a lot of my patients because the Paleo diet in of itself is probably 90% better than what most of us are eating right now.  #JERF  Just eat real food!!!