“So, like, you only eat meat?”
That’s the number one response I receive after I tell someone I eat paleo. That the paleo diet is a meat driven protocol is easily one of the two or three most common misconceptions. I think the name, an abbreviation of Palaeolithic, conjures up images of a caveman chomping down on a massive slab of brontosaurus. There’s also the powerful personal emotional attachment to one’s approach to food, which has ramped up of late as another one of the tribal signalling calls in our much felt yearning for community. Anyway, if you eat paleo, you definitely do eat red-meat, but you eat a whole lot more. Operative word being whole.
At the crux of the diet, paleo is a natural aka real aka whole food way of eating that is anti-inflammatory and health supporting via focusing on a wide variety of nutrient dense food that humans have eaten since evolution gave our species a chance and eliminating processed, refined and chemically contaminated food. Yes, you eat meat – red, bird and fish – and you also eat tons of vegetables and fruits as well as some seeds, nuts, sea dwelling vegetables and crustaceans and maybe dairy.
You actually eat more of the non-meat stuff.
[This isn’t the niche, controversial yet trending carnivore diet.]
But paleo is not a cure-all, silver bullet. It’s certainly not a dogmatic, non-negotiable approach. It’s not even simply a diet. Being paleo really is a lifestyle, regardless of how cliché that sounds nowadays. [By the way, you’ll come to learn I have profound empathy for the much maligned cliché]. A paleo way of living, including diet, is a starting point or basic template that echoes how humans evolved and naturally lived essentially free of disease for more than 99% of our million year existence. Paleo can also be understood as shorthand for a revival of the ancient and natural wisdom and knowledge of our hunter gather ancestors who lived fitter, healthier and more social lives. It aims to mimic as much as we can within the unavoidable constraints of modernity ancient ways concerning food, physical activity, sleep and connection to others and nature.
It’s very easy to dismiss these ideas. Believe me. I’ve heard all the “But, what about” this and that. Looking around it’s frankly logical to assume that because we seem to have so much more than ever before that we’re inarguably living in humanity’s golden age. [Though I believe these sentiments are waning]. But perusing and digging into the health statistics in particular shows concerning data and trends.
Remember, just because it’s all cheaper, available and appears “normal” does not mean that it is better or natural. As Chris Kresser, a global leader in paleo ideology and my main teacher on the subject, says, we are “overfed but undernourished”.
Another of the frequent pushbacks with paleo is that humans now are not the same as our ancient ancestors. We evolved. Well, besides the fact that is mostly incorrect, there is some truth. There have been unique genetic adaptations since the agricultural revolution some ten to twelve thousand years ago.
But not across the human spectrum. Adaptions were specific to specific environments. So depending on one’s genetic lineage, there is mounting evidence that the kind of foods you may be more and less successful with correlate to your ancestry. That’s why paleo is not a rigid, one-size fits all approach.
Health, diet especially, is extremely personalized. Some cultures not only survive but thrive on almost exclusively carbohydrates where as others thrive on basically only protein and fat! Why? Evolution. Their environments provided natural resources and the people who could adapt to those conditions survived and reproduced more successfully.
Personalization really is the key to your success. No one person is built or expresses exactly like another, so no one solution is the same for everyone. This is the magic, as simple as it sounds, of the new functional health approach of which the orthodox medical paradigm is incapable of offering. Therefore your “paleo” diet will depend on many variables such as your health status, your activity level and personalized experimentationof what makes your feel great and what makes you feel not great.
Sunny South Africa is additionally a paleo cornucopia. We not only have excellent meat options here, thankfully with ever increasing clean-meat options, but we have access to some of the best fruits and vegetables you get anywhere in the world. Trust me, I’ve trotted all around this globe and South African produce kicks ass.
All this isn’t to say other diets aren’t good and don’t have merit. I couldn’t respect vegans and vegetarians more and the ketogenic diet doesn’t have its buzzing reputation for nothing. Though, keto is effectively just a very particular paleo variation.
And now that said, there’s just a simple elegancy to the paleo idea. I’m a human, you’re a human, humans ate an omnivorous varied whole food diet for two million years, 99% of our lineage, 66,000 of the 66,366 generations and were bigger, stronger and healthier. Sounds pretty good to me.
If you connected with paleo and all the cool stuff around evolution and the impact of agriculture and industrialization on the human story, get a hold of Chris Kresser’s The Paleo Cure. His research and knowledge informs this article.
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Disclaimer:
Remember dear reader, I am neither a doctor nor any sort of medical physician in any capacity. None of the information presented above can be construed as any sort of medical advice in any sort of manner. You as the reader is solely responsible for creating and implementing your own physical, mental and emotional well-being, decisions, choices and actions. As such, the reader agrees that the author is not and will not be liable or responsible for any actions or inaction taken by the reader or for any direct or indirect results. This information is simply presented and whatever you decide to do with it is your choice and your responsibility.
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