Media Writting: The Science Behind the Paleolithic Diet By Sean Brown

The Science Behind the Paleolithic Diet

By Sean Brown

The Paleolithic Diet, or the Paleo Diet for short, is the newest health craze to catch the ears and eyes of the masses. It is based on the premise that obesity has gone up because human bodies were not meant to digest and metabolize newer food products. The idea is that until the last 10,000 or so years, humans didn’t eat refined grains and calorie-dense meals.

Participants of the Paleo lifestyle eat meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts -- non-processed food. They do not eat processed foods, nor grains or beans. The list of prohibited foods includes but is not limited to: cereal grains; legumes (including peanuts); dairy; refined sugar; potatoes; processed foods; salt; and refined vegetable oils.

What does all this amount to? The most striking difference is a smaller proportion of carbohydrates and a slightly higher proportion of fats and proteins. Paleo Diet followers end up consuming about 30 percent of calories from protein, 30 percent from fats (mostly unsaturated) and 40 percent from carbohydrates (mainly from fruits and vegetables).

Some people have been quick to label the Paleo Diet the newest entry in a long list of fad diets here in America. Some see it as an amalgamation of two other fad diets, low-carb/high-protein and gluten free diets. Alesh Houdek of the Atlantic claims that it suffers the same pitfalls of the Atkins Diet that there are no long term health or medical studies on the participants. Houdek, while claiming that he has seen a decrease in weight and is feeling better after eating and that hunger has decreased, said he still has reservations.

A US News comparison ranks the Paleo Diet last in a list of diets ranging from best to worst. The methodology for the list included nutrition, easy ability to follow, weight loss and safety. Some hypothesize that the weight loss associated with the Paleo Diet might have to do with portion control than with what people are eating.

Studies have been conducted recently on the effectiveness of the diet and how much better it is versus conventional diet wisdom. Another study, Lindberg, Josson and Grantfelt, showed that people on the Paleo Diet decreased the amount of calories by coincidence. The study showed that people who were on the Paleo diet ate fewer calories and smaller portions without even attempting to do so. Secondly, the drop in blood pressure may because they are cutting out processed foods, more so than cutting out dairy and alcohol.

A series of studies, conducted by Frassetto-Jonsson- Osterdahl, have shown that Paleo participants did not have statistically significant changes in waist size and blood pressure. When compared to other conventional diets, the effects of the Paleo diet weren’t all that dramatic. The differences were minute and from the outside looking in barely noticeable.

Another study showed that women benefited more from the diet that men did. Liver fat is a marker for metabolic diseases. Female participants who suffered from type 2 Diabetes also showed higher glycemic control and insulin sensitivity than before starting the diet. According to Dr. Ryberg of PubMed.Gov “The fat content of liver and muscle cells are a risk factor for metabolic disease. In this study, the women had an average reduction in liver fat of 49%, but no significant effect on the fat content of muscle cells.”

With these studies, one may wonder why the Paleo Diet has become so popular in the first place. The evidence shows that amongst men the results are not statistically significant. That the majority of the benefit could be contributed to fewer calories taken in and smaller portions.

So what does all this mean? That desired results could be achieved by consuming more whole foods and fewer processed and highly refined ones.

Tom Venuto, author of the best-selling diet book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle," claims that whole grains, skim milk and non-processed dairy products are great for your diet. “To condemn natural foods like brown rice (a staple food for centuries in the Asian cultures, well known for being among the healthiest and longest-lived), 100% whole grains, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, legumes and so on for healthy carb-tolerant people, especially those who are highly active and already reasonably lean, doesn't make a whit of sense to me.” Venuto claims that natural grains and wheat are very different from highly processed and refined ones that most people consume today.

How can we be exactly sure what our ancestors had eaten in the past? Venuto goes on to align with what many archeologists have claimed. No one knows exactly what our ancestors ate. As Venuto eloquently puts it “I'm pretty certain that it depended a lot on the culture, climate and geography. Therefore, the amount of carbs eaten could have varied quite a bit, so I don't think there is just ONE type of Paleo diet.”

The evidence doesn’t add up either when you consider diets from around the world. The Finish consume the most dairy per capita in the world, but has a much lower obesity rate than here in the United States where dairy consumption isn’t even in the Top Ten. Dairy is one of the Paleo diets third deadliest sins behind eating grains and lastly processed food.

Studies have shown that humans who consume three glasses of 2 percent milk a day lost more belly fat than those who didn’t. Dr David. Katz of the International Journal of Obesity claims that “Calcium found in milk decreases the level of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3—a vitamin that spurs the growth of fat cells—in your body, helping to accelerate the effects of weight loss, according to a recent study in Obesity Research. Eating lots of dairy helps slow down the growth of fat cells, but only when combined with a weight-loss diet are the effects powerful enough to make a noticeable difference.”

I’m not going to claim that the Paleo diet is completely useless. It has great advice for anyone looking to lose weight. Its advice to eat more organic meats, green vegetables and consume less sugary beverages is sound. Unfortunately,there is no benefit in cutting out all natural grains, wheat and protein-rich dairies. Until studies show that there is a statistically significant difference in Paleo vs Non Paleo I will see it as another fad.