Some people believe that eating like our prehistoric ancestors can ward off modern maladies such as obesity and heart disease. Our Healthy Skeptic unearths the evidence.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
The Claim: A Paleo diet is the healthiest way to eat.
It’s an intriguing idea: that the secret to heading off maladies of modern living such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease lies in the stone age. That’s the concept behind the so-called paleo diet, which involves eating only foods that cave dwellers did. While certain aspects of the diet have merit, the science behind it is a bit, well, primitive.
Paleo-approved foods include lean meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
Off limits are dairy products, grains, legumes, salt, sugar and other foods not available before the emergence of agriculture ten thousand years ago.
Paleo proponents say that human beings aren’t genetically designed to put these foods into our bodies, and when we do, bad things happen to our health.
Some support for the diet comes from small, short term studies which suggest it may lead to greater improvements in weight, waist size, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar than other diets.
Though these findings are preliminary, they make sense because the paleo diet includes foods that we know to be good for us and shuns things like sweets, refined grains, and processed foods.
But the ban on whole grains, beans, and other lentils flies in the face of modern science which has linked these foods to lower weight and a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.
What’s more, there’s no evidence that ditching dairy products is beneficial for everyone.
The biggest problem with the paleo diet is that we can’t really be sure what prehistoric people ate. Their diets varied widely depending on where they lived and what was available to them. Plus what they hunted and gathered was a far cry from what we can find at the supermarket, even if it’s grass-fed and organic. All reasons why the stone age is best left as a subject for history books, not diet books.
For more on diet and nutrition claims, check out my book, coffee is good for you which reveals the truth about everything from red meat to red wine.
Helping you be a Healthy Skeptic, I’m Robert Davis.