I’ve been in the fitness and nutrition industry long enough to remember when the paleo diet was all the rage. You couldn’t come within two miles of a CrossFit-style gym without hearing somebody talk about paleo, and it was certainly popular in other circles as well. Over time, however, I’ve noticed people getting away from the idea of a paleo diet, even in circles where it used to be the standard. While there are probably a lot of reasons for this, I think that the primary reason is the mainstream idea that we aren’t supposed to eliminate entire food groups. Whoever came up with this idea (I’m looking at you, American Dietetics), I’m here to say that it’s a terrible one. And it’s untrue.
Before we go any further, let’s make sure we all have the same understanding of what it is that we’re talking about. The paleo diet, which is short for the paleolithic diet, eliminates commonly eaten foods like grains, legumes, dairy, white sugar, and industrial seed oils. The idea of the diet, and the reason for its name, is because it comes close to mimicking the diet of our ancestors (think paleolithic era).
The common response when people first hear about the paleo diet, or hear that someone follows it, is something like “that’s way too extreme!” But let’s take a beat to think about that reaction. Is it really? While a paleo diet may seem extreme to some or even most, this modern perspective neglects the fact that it is in fact the most “normal” way for humans to eat.
Let’s look at this above claim in more detail. After the Homo genus evolved around 2.4 million years ago, there were roughly 84,000 generations who lived as hunter-gatherers. These generations of people ate meat, poultry and eggs, fish and seafood, nuts and seeds, vegetables, fruits, roots, and tubers. It wasn’t until very recently in human history, roughly 350 generations ago, that we developed agriculture. Over time with this new development we started to see the mass consumption of grains, which have increased exponentially over the centuries. Furthermore, modern refined foods like industrial seed oils and high-fructose corn syrup - which now comprise over 30% of calories in the Standard American Diet - have only been around for about three generations.
Here is another way to look at this timeline (shout out to practitioner Chris Kresser for the example): Let’s pretend that human history is a football field - 100 yards long. If you started walking from one end zone toward the other, the first 99.5 yards would represent the amount of time we lived as hunter gatherers. Agriculture, and the processed foods it introduced into our diets, only showed up in that last one-half yard. Highly processed foods like Dritos, Mountain Dew, and Cliff bars didn’t become available until the last few inches of that final half-yard.
When you look at it this way, one can see that the diet that most people call “normal” today is in fact the thing that is extremely abnormal. It is also fairly easy to observe that if we stray from this evolutionary template, we’ll have problems. In other words, there is an important difference between what’s common and what’s normal. The Standard American Diet may be what’s common for us today, but it’s far from normal. A paleo-based diet, on the other hand, is much more normal for our species and therefore going to make us much healthier than if we primarily eat modern and common western foods.
Now, as is almost always the case, the disclaimer. Here I go again with my damn nuance! Eating strictly paleo might not fall in alignment with your goals and priorities, and that’s ok. What remains true, however, is that the more we can eat real, whole, paleo-style foods the healthier we will be. Even just making small swaps - dried fruit instead of fruit snacks, eggs instead of protein shakes, water instead of soda - can make a big difference in all areas of our lives.
If you’re still skeptical, I encourage you to try it. Not necessarily forever - it can be a month, or even a couple of weeks. Leave out the foodgroups that are making you less healthy and more sick - like processed snacks and grains - and see for yourself how you look, feel, and perform.
You can thank me later.