Of Low carbs and High carbs

To summarize this post: I ate some ice cream two weeks prior, it caused some fat gain, I'm doing keto for 2-3 weeks and then adding carbs back in once I start lifting again (80-140g carbs a day).


I've recently been reading some articles from Danny Roddy and Anthony Colpo who are both firmly in the camp of higher carb diets. Anthony frequently makes fun of the LCing people, especially LCing athletes.

Reading their differing views also makes me question my views on carbohydrates, which changed a couple of months ago. Previously when I was in keto, I thought that eventually my body would become "keto-adapted", and that I would regain my athletic ability that I initially lost when switching to keto. I never regained my performance, and after getting a little freaked out about hypothroidism by reading some stuff by Matt Stone, I decided to add some carbs back in.

From that point on I've decided that for those engaging in athletic activities, be it strength or endurance, that carbs are a good thing. But I also think that for many people, who don't engage in athletics, that carbs aren't necessarily warranted in their diet. Like many LC people recommend, 60-100g would be fine for them to consume. I also think that there is some truth to the whole "metabolically damaged" thought out there, that some people's insulin receptors are not quite working optimally, or would handle a high carb diet well. I feel that going LC, then VLC/keto possibly reduced the number of insulin receptors throughout my body, and therefore made my body more insulin sensitive. This is all speculation of course. Warm fuzzy thoughts to help me sleep at night.

Anyway, before leaving for Germany I decided to add a greater amount of carbs to my diet, that instead of just eating fruit, I'd add in probably a little under a half-pound of potatoes a day, which I later switched to ice cream. The ice cream idea was still in my head from earlier, when I experimented with ice cream PWO, and also from hearing Danny Roddy talk about how Ray Peat eats ice cream (it seems to me that Ray is the only person Danny reads due to how often he cites him, but I guess it's no different than other paleo bloggers who can't actually do their own first hand research - but I digress).
       I did this for around two weeks I'd say, with some intermittent lifting (throwing rocks, one back day complete with romanian deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, and 600lb tractor tire flipping), although my activity level was definitely lower than normal. At first I noticed that my muscles seemed to be denser, that they took up more volume, but that could of been myself seeing what I wanted. After the first week, I noticed that my abdominal fat was getting a little more soft, and by the end of the second week there was definitely more of it there.
        I didn't really change the fats in my diet, if anything I reduced them trying to keep my calories the same, but since I didn't record anything, this was just qualitative, instead of quantitative.

After that, I decided that I was going to go keto until I find a gym in Germany, which will probably be two or three weeks, as I want to find a gym close to where I'll be living (although finding a serious gym is proving difficult - I definitely got lucky last time when I was living in Freiburg). Probably my main goal is to lean out a bit, kind of undo what the ice cream did, but a second is just to be in keto. If nothing else I like the idea of running off fats, maybe for the shock factor I get when I tell people what I eat, or when they see what I cook. Then there is also the high energy in keto that I've grown to like. For me, it's fun to be in keto.
    One thing is that I kind of see the dangers in being in keto all the time, being that it can lead to hypothyroidism and other such disturbances in hormone levels. That's also the one reason I've decided to do it for a short time, that I think that the problems of keto can't really manifest themselves over the course of two or three weeks.
    Once I find a gym and start lifting, I'll be adding carbs back in, around 50g every morning for breakfast, and another 50g post workout, with maybe around 30-40g coming from other vegetable sources. I will very rarely be eating fruit, and won't include it in my diet until it comes back into season.

Recent visit to the dentist

Before I left for Germany, I went to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning (I've started to think that "polishing" teeth with an abrasive is a bad idea - my paleohacks question). When I went there I got my teeth cleaned, polished, x-rayed, and then later convinced to get some grooves in my teeth filled in, and some weakened enamel repaired with a filling.

The work done is causing me a little grief, and now I'm wishing that I just did what I wanted to do, and assured my dentist that paleo is fine for my teeth, and just make sure to start eating bone broth, get plenty of vitamin D, and leave it alone. Kind of the whole "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of deal.

In short, next year when I go to the dentist, I'll just have my teeth cleaned, maybe polished, and not have any work done.

Fasting, meal timing and Jet Lag

So, I've moved to Germany for a year, and way back (ok, sometime last year) I remembered reading about fasting as a way to reset a circadian rhythm from Hunter-Gatherer. The actual article that he links to is here, with the "trick" revolving around not eating for 16 hours.

I didn't read the article before leaving, but I remembered the whole fasting deal, so here's what I did:
Day 1: ate at 7:00am CDT.
Day 1: Slept for maybe an hour (broken hour) during the 7 and a half hour flight, probably around 7pm CDT.
Day 2: ate at 8:15am CEST (1:15am CDT). Drank an espresso
Day 2: napped for 15-30min on plane around 10am CEST, drank a coffee at 10:30am CEST
Day 2: ate at 3:00pm CEST (8am CDT)
Day 2: Fell asleep at 4:15pm CEST
Day 3: Woke up at 2am CEST

From this, I don't know if my clock has really been reset or not, being that I pretty much didn't sleep the night of Day 1, and even if I were back in my own timezone, I would have passed out at 4pm after a night of only getting an hour of sleep.

I'm planning on eating at 7am this morning, even though I woke up at 2am. I'm thinking that the timing of breakfast is what's key to resetting this clock.

I'll keep updating until I've decided that I've adapted to the timezone - hopefully only a day or so more.

Update - all times in CEST:
Day 3: Nap from 6:40am to 7am, ate at 7:30am - drank one green tea, Nap from 11:00am to 11:30am
Day 3: ate at 2pm, green tea at 4:30pm, ate at 7:30pm, went to sleep at 8:30pm
Day 4: woke up at 7am, ate at 7:30am had a cup of green tea, drank three glasses of mead and had one bockwurst, and someslamb leg between 11:30am and 2:30pm.
Day 4: felt tired at hell at 4pm, almost fell asleep on the bus ride home, fought through it and didn't take a nap
Day 4: went to bed at 8:45pm
Day 5: woke up at 8:10am, ate at 8:30am had two cups of green tea because I felt like it.

Vegans meddling in the Dairyland

"Warning: cheese can sack your health."

You can read here about a billboard (picture and caption above) being put up in Green Bay, by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Just skimming the article I found out that the PCRM happen to be from Washington D.C., and happen to be vegan.

Well I guess vegans are starting to spread their anti-sat fat/animal products propaganda in the Midwest now. What a load of cow manure.

Revolutionary Health

When I was looking around for a good "intro to paleo" for one of my friends, I stumbled across the 10 revolutionary truths, which relate to a sort of health revolution.

They definitely jive with my views on how the mainstream market culture is "out to get us," and the fact that "the market" doesn't want healthy people per se, only people who have a healthy appetite for consumption.

The 10 truths are nicely digestible, and in a nice format; great for passing on to others.

More about the flux of "Paleo"

What I was talking about in my earlier post on the changing of paleo seems to not have been as well thought out as I would of liked. Or I just didn't think it through enough.

Anyway, for paleo itself, it should be in some constant state of flux, that it's a guiding set of rules, that can/should be manipulated for each person. No "one size fits all" kind of deal. I feel that the need to learn about ancestral nutrition/health and then base one's nutritional ideas off of that is already a little widespread, but the more it's said, the more it gets spread around.

You could say that I've been reminded to say this after I read the PaleolithicDiet's most recent email, which dealt primarily with warning people in the paleosphere not to get emotionally attached to certain gurus, or ideals. I call these overly emotionally attached people paleotards, primarily because I think it's funny, but it's not very PC. Anyway, I try to check myself against emotional attachment, but sometimes I find myself trying to defend something just because I like the way it sounds.

The Evolution of Paleo

A constant evolution is shaping paleo. Many have probably noticed this before, something along the lines of paleo changing until it is "done," or maybe realizing that it's going to be a work in progress as long as it exists. I'm not entirely sure what everyone thinks, but it is apparent that paleo is evolving.

What recently reminded me of the evolution, is a recent string of posts on how carbs really aren't that bad (or at least not as bad as the paleo community has been painting them). This mainly comes from two posts by Danny Roddy, and also Stephan Guyenet's critique of  how Gary Taube's carbohydrate hypothesis is flawed/wrong (I haven't read Good Calories, Bad Calories; or Why We Get Fat yet. This is making me question the worth of reading the two books). Changes in my own diet are partially mirroring the paleosphere, inasmuch that I'm starting to include more carbs and not be in keto as much I as I used to be. From this I would say that my own version of paleo is changing as I learn more about nutrition, and also as I learn more about how I work. 

What I really want to say about the evolution of Paleo, is that is should not really be feared, and in fact it should be embraced. Paleo separates itself from the other "diets" by being able to change, and not be stuck to some kind of dietary dogma that the followers must believe in. In effect Paleo is changing to reflect the current knowledge of human nutrition and it's critical interpretation in an evolutionary light. 

Follow up on Ice Cream PWO

So, it's been a while, but I guess I've sufficiently experimented with ice cream enough to come to the conclusion that it's not for me (at least for PWO applications).

The first time I ate one 14oz container of Häagen Dazs Five mint flavor, and it was pretty hard to finish it off. I felt pretty full after eating half of the container, but pushed through to the end (years of dysfunctional eating came into play there). The ice cream itself was fairly disappointing, being that I remembered ice cream tasting better. I guess I wasn't missing much. I had the other 14oz container PWO later in the week, with both ice cream eatings following a heavy lifting session.

I've recently been doing some sprinting work, and eating a little ice cream after that, primarily just to get rid of some ice cream I bought thinking that I would do more PWO ice cream, but today was that last day I'm doing that. I haven't been lifting regularly, which kind of feels weird, as I moved off of campus, and I don't have easy access to a gym. I'm also traveling a lot, which doesn't help.

I'd say that my body can now handle influxes of carbs better than it used to, since post-ice cream I didn't get any bloat going on, and my weight stayed relatively constant. I don't think I will use ice cream as PWO normally, as I might just save it for when I want to get a couple heavy lifting sessions in, and I will probably use it in conjunction with some higher intensity cardio too.

Ice cream for the first time in a year

Right now there's two half-quarts of Häagen Dazs Five in my freezer (one mint and one lemon - I love mint). I've been seeing some general buzz around about people adding in some ice cream to a weight training diet, with most people citing Ray Peat as why they did it. I eventually decided to add some in as a PWO carb source after reading a paleohacks question about adding back in dairy (in this case ice cream) and noticing recovery of a soft tissue injury.

I've got some good old manual labor tomorrow, and once that's done I'll be off to the gym to lift, so I figure that having 100g of fast absorbing carbs PWO will help my recovery. Also, since I never seem to recover from lifting as fast as everyone else does, I'm hoping that I'll recovery faster with the aid of ice cream.

One thing that I've thought about is that this whole Ray Peat-induced ice cream craze in the paleosphere might just be paleo people looking for an excuse to eat ice cream. I've been wanting some ice cream for a while, so there's that motive in there. Nonetheless I've only got two, and that's for two PWO meals, and after that I'll see how it affects me.

Starting on the Gnoll Credo

Just to keep posting, I've been fairly busy this summer working on coursework, lab work, and also getting ready to apply to grad school, something that I'm getting more comfortable the closer I get to it.

Anyway, I recently decided to get The Gnoll Credo by J. Stanton, and I'm enjoying that it's a fairly short read. I decided to get the book after reading a couple blog posts on his site, and thinking that he's making some good points.

As I'm reading the book, he's developing some of the same philosophies about western civilization that I've been thinking about recently. I'm planning on fleshing these ideas out a bit more, so I'll be writing about them later. I think I'll also analyze more of the book, because the writing style reminds of what Daniel Quinn did in Ishmael, in that to convey an idea, they tell a story. I find this method of idea conveyance quite effective, since it's putting an idea in context, so it can be easily conceptualized. Along these lines I also think Stanton puts a little too much added flesh into the story, but I guess that's me reading it knowing that there's underlying concepts that I should be finding. I'll work this up with more detail later.

Edit: As kind of an afterthought, I'm starting to think about ways to increase my understanding of evolutionary concepts (and how I could possible blend that into what I'l be studying in grad school). There's a lot of evolutionary thought flowing through the Gnoll Credo, and I'd say that if you're approaching paleo right, then you're dealing with a whole lot of evolutionary thought and conjecture. I'd pay not to screw it up.

I'll just add Modern Evolutionary Theory to the list of things I need to read about and learn. Yikes.

Current Diet

Right now I'm eating “lacto-paleo”, that is paleo, except with added dairy. I've noticed that I tend to have a little more mucus production (I've got to blow my nose once a day) than before, but I'm willing to deal with it in order to eat dairy. I've been trying to keep myself in keto since the beginning of may or so, so I've been taking in 50g or lower of carbs a day. I got turned onto some dangers of keto by one of my friends who knew someone who follows the Perfect Health Diet, and I decided to include a small sweet potato post workout now. I then happened upon keto myths over at ketotic.org, showing that I really don't have to worry, although I'm still keeping that post workout sweet potato.

I'm toying with the idea of bringing myself out of ketosis for a day or so over a weekend, just to break up my keto period, although with my occasional drinking of cider and such, I probably don't have to worry about my keto period being long and unbroken. The 'bringing myself out of keto' might resemble the Anabolic diet from Stronglifts, where I eat fat/protein during the week (keto), and eat carbs/fat on the weekends, while limiting my protein (not keto). Having 'fat days', where all I eat are fats, sounded appealing to me, and I'm thinking about trying that. The only thing I'm wary about is restricting my protein, and having it affect my recovery time from lifting. I'll have to get around to reading more about leangains and such, although I'm thinking about implementing a two-meal-a-day plan, where I have a breakfast and a dinner that makes up all my food. I've also been having days where I just don't feel like eating, so I might just do some fasting instead. We'll see.

Anyway, for some samples of what I've been eating:

One Day - a typical work day:

• Breakfast - 3/4 of lean conventional meat, 6oz of grass-fed cheese, 2 TBS pastured butter on brussel sprouts
• ~100g protein, ~84g fat
• Lunch - 1 cup shredded, dried unsweetened coconut, 6 TBS organic heavy whipping cream
• ~20g protein, ~76g fat, 12g carbs (from coconut)
• Dinner - 3/4 of lean conventional meat, 6 oz grass-fed cheese, 2TBS pastured butter on brussel sprouts
• ~100g protein, 84g fat
• Totals - 220g protein, 244g fat, 12g carbs, roughly 3100 cals

Today - kind of went heavy on the cheese:

• PWO (10:00am) - protein shake with half&half (rather tasty), one sweet potato, 2 TBS pastured butter, 5oz conventional cheese, frenched green beans and conventional catfish
• ~120g protein, ~90g fat, ~60g carbs
• Meal 2 (4:30pm) - 4oz conventional Brie with brussel sprouts, 6oz grass-fed cheese
• ~60g protein, 100g fat
• Meal 3 (8:45pm) - 2 TBS pastured butter and brussel sprouts, 4 oz grass-fed cheese
• ~24g protein, ~64g fat
• Totals - ~204g protein, ~254g fat, ~60g carbs, ~3350 cals

Turns out I've got a thing for melted cheese. Today I cubed up the cheese and heated in the microwave, pretty good stuff. I've also melted cheese on pork rinds before, which turned out to be a really great idea, but I really plow through those, so I don't keep pork rinds stocked at my place anymore.

I'm thinking about going back to a more meat and butter/coconut oil based keto, and go away from the dairy, since I'm pretty much using cheese at a main fat source. I tend to think that I feel more 'clean' on just meat, butter, and coconut oil (and also some veg).

Did you have a good Midsummer?

My friends and I celebrated Midsummer last night, complete with a roasted pig shoulder and horns of mead raised to the Gods. Most of the people that came really weren't too keen on celebrating Midsummer exactly, but were there to celebrate the Summer Solstice, which I guess is a pretty good compromise. I'm primarily satisfied with starting to celebrate holidays with pagan origin, or restoring the pagan roots to appropriated holidays (Jul, Eostre).


Anyway, one of my friends was actually fairly important in getting me to start hosting my own celebrations or feasts, instead of looking for ones to join. We were/are interested in some sort of a cultural recreation, something of having a tradition that ties into our (Scandinavian) roots. I was always hesitant to do anything, since I was afraid of doing it 'wrong', not practicing the right tradition or something. I guess the best way to start a tradition, is to just start doing it, and so far I guess it's working well for us. It also gives us structured time and a reason to get together and feast.


Another thing that comes to mind with celebrating solstices in general, is that I think that it would give the celebrators a better feel of the seasons. A better connectedness to nature, so to say.

The take home message being: Go out and celebrate a solstice the next time around.

Also, enjoy some Unleashed:

Paleo and Me

Essentially the setup for paleo and me goes back to when I was in high school, when I was 16. Back then I was carrying around a good bit of fat, and around then I started making modifications to my diet in order to try to lose some of it. I also started lifting, but back then I didn't know that much about lifting, let alone lifting to lose fat. Off to college, and I was still trying to lose the fat, I was still lifting, but I also happened to enjoy the drinking scene there, and it turns out beer isn't a good weight loss aid when coupled with a cafeteria-style food supply, and I subsequently gained some more weight. All this while I was using the “calories in – calories out” theory to try to lose weight, and often times my meals would be rather carbohydrate heavy, the thought being that I could more carbohydrates, than I could of fat, and therefore feel fuller.

Anyway, sophomore year of college I kind of got serious about losing fat, and stumbled across Tim Ferris' “Slow Carb” diet, and did that for pretty much a year. I got smaller, although I'm pretty sure that was mostly muscle mass. Come junior year I joined up with a friend getting ready for a body-building competition, and changed my diet to a heavily controlled structured eating plan. In order to get ready for the “cutting” phase, I went into a “bulking” phase, and gained 20 or so pounds. At the end of the spring semester, I managed to lose around 27 pounds, so I managed a net loss of fat, and I also looked a little more muscular, which wasn't a bad thing.

That fall (the fall of 2009), I went off to Germany for a year of study abroad, and I was pretty much on my own for training and nutrition wise. I still was weighing out my food, but I was controlling how much carbs I ate, which were kept around 150, although it was primarily from dairy, with some post-work grains thrown in for good measure. Sometime during the winter of '09/'10 I noticed that when I would eat my grain serving, I would feel uncomfortably full, and I decided to cut out grains from my diet. Probably a month or so later I came across Mark's Daily Apple when I was reading StrongLifts, and started reading his blog. I was rather surprised about how everything was fitting in, it all made sense, and that I was almost eating paleo already. When I came back to the US in August of 2010, I went full paleo, since I could source grass-fed meat, and I have been eating paleo since.

I still drink beer with friends, although I keep it to one or two a night, any more and I have some digestive issues the next morning. As of now, I consider myself lacto-paleo, since I've added kefir, cheese, and heavy cream back into my diet. I've notice a little more of a mucous problem in my nose, but it's not that bad, and I've decided I can live with it. I also really like eating steak with cheese on it, and I also found grass-fed cheese recently, so I'm excited.

My diet changed over these years, but primarily my philosophy on food and mainstream culture changed too. I'll blog on this later.

Dr. Cordain's rebuttal to the "Best" Diets

This rebuttal to a listing of "best" diets done by US News (scroll down to 20 to find paleo) written by Dr. Cordain has been circulating around, with the first place I saw it being Robb Wolf's site. Anyway, this should be circulated around so that "the word get's out," and there might be a little less misinformation out there.

Here it is:

Hi Doc,

I’m not sure if you’ve seen this or not, but US News ranked Paleo last of 20 diets claiming a lack of scientific evidence and no-long term weight maintenance guidelines. I’m not sure if you’d be interested in defending it or not, but if you’d be willing to provide specific refutations of their claims, I’d like to write a response piece for the Colorado State University Collegian to run next Wednesday, my deadline is Saturday.

Thanks.

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/paleo-diet

http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-overall-diets

Seth

June 8, 2011

Hi Seth,

Good to hear from you and many thanks for your continued support of the Paleo Diet.  I hadn’t seen this piece, but I appreciate that you have brought it to my attention.  It is obvious that whoever wrote this piece did not do their homework and has not read the peer review scientific papers which have examined contemporary diets based upon the Paleolithic food groups which shaped the genomes of our ancestors.  Accordingly the writer’s conclusions are erroneous and misleading.  I feel strongly that it is necessary to point out these errors and make this information known to a much wider audience than those reached by the readers of the U.S. News and World Report.  You have my permission to syndicate my response and or your write up for the CSU Collegian to any of the major news services including AP and UPI.  Additionally, I will copy a number of colleagues and scientists worldwide with this message to ensure that it will be widely circulated on the web, blogs and chat groups.

The writer of this article suggests that the Paleo Diet has only been scientifically tested in “one tiny study”.  This quote is incorrect as five studies (1-7); four since 2007, have experimentally tested contemporary versions of ancestral human diets and have found them to be superior to Mediterranean diets, diabetic diets and typical western diets in regards to weight loss, cardiovascular disease risk factors and risk factors for type 2 diabetes.

The first study to experimentally test diets devoid of grains, dairy and processed foods was performed by Dr. Kerin O’Dea at the University of Melbourne and published in the Journal, Diabetes in 1984 (6).  In this study Dr. O’Dea gathered together 10 middle aged Australian Aborigines who had been born in the “Outback”.  They had lived their early days primarily as hunter gatherers until they had no choice but to finally settle into a rural community with access to western goods.  Predictably, all ten subjects eventually became overweight and developed type 2 diabetes as they adopted western sedentary lifestyles in the community of Mowwanjum in the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia.  However, inherent in their upbringing was the knowledge to live and survive in this seemingly desolate land without any of the trappings of the modern world.

Dr. O’Dea requested these 10 middle aged subjects to revert to their former lives as hunter gatherers for a seven week period.  All agreed and traveled back into the isolated land from which they originated.  Their daily sustenance came only from native foods that could be foraged, hunted or gathered.  Instead of white bread, corn, sugar, powdered milk and canned foods, they began to eat the traditional fresh foods of their ancestral past: kangaroos, birds, crocodiles, turtles, shellfish, yams, figs, yabbies (freshwater crayfish), freshwater bream and bush honey.   At the experiment’s conclusion, the results were spectacular, but not altogether unexpected given what known about Paleo diets, even then.  The average weight loss in the group was 16.5 lbs; blood cholesterol dropped by 12 % and triglycerides were reduced by a whopping 72 %.  Insulin and glucose metabolism became normal, and their diabetes effectively disappeared.

The first recent study to experimentally test contemporary Paleo diets was published in 2007 (5). Dr. Lindeberg and associates placed 29 patients with type 2 diabetes and heart disease on either a Paleo diet or a Mediterranean diet based upon whole grains, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, fruits, fish, oils, and margarines.  Note that the Paleo diet excludes grains, dairy products and margarines while encouraging greater consumption of meat and fish.  After 12 weeks on either diet blood glucose tolerance (a risk factor for heart disease) improved in both groups, but was better in the Paleo dieters.  In a  2010 follow-up publication, of this same experiment the Paleo diet was shown to be more satiating on a calorie by calorie basis than the Mediterranean diet because it caused greater changes in leptin, a hormone which regulates appetite and body weight.

In the second modern study (2008) of Paleo Diets, Dr. Osterdahl and co-workers (7) put 14 healthy subjects on a Paleo diet.  After only three weeks the subjects lost weight, reduced their waist size and experienced significant reductions in blood pressure, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (a substance in blood which promotes clotting and accelerates artery clogging).  Because no control group was employed in this study, some scientists would argue that the beneficial changes might not necessarily be due to the Paleo diet.  However, a better controlled more recent experiments showed similar results.

In 2009, Dr. Frasetto and co-workers (1) put nine inactive subjects on a Paleo diet for just 10 days.  In this experiment, the Paleo diet was exactly matched in calories with the subjects’ usual diet.  Anytime people eat diets that are calorically reduced, no matter what foods are involved, they exhibit beneficial health effects.  So the beauty of this experiment was that any therapeutic changes in the subjects’ health could not be credited to reductions in calories, but rather to changes in the types of food eaten.  While on the Paleo diet either eight or all nine participants  experienced improvements in blood pressure, arterial function, insulin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.  What is striking about this experiment is how rapidly so many markers of health improved, and that they occurred in every single patient.

In an even more convincing recent (2009) experiment, Dr. Lindeberg and colleagues (2) compared the effects of a Paleo diet to a diabetes diet generally recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes.  The diabetes diet was intended to reduce total fat by increasing whole grain bread and cereals, low fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables while restricting animal foods.   In contrast, the Paleo diet was lower in cereals, dairy products, potatoes, beans, and bakery foods but higher in fruits, vegetables, meat, and eggs compared to the diabetes diet.  The strength of this experiment was its cross over design in which all 13 diabetes patients first ate one diet for three months and then crossed over and ate the other diet for three months.  Compared to the diabetes diet, the Paleo diet resulted in improved weight loss, waist size, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c (a marker for long term blood glucose control).    This experiment represents the most powerful example to date of the Paleo diet’s effectiveness in treating people with serious health problems.

So, now that I have summarized the experimental evidence supporting the health and weight loss benefits of Paleo Diets, I would like to directly respond to the errors in the U.S. News and World Report article.

1.            “Will you lose weight? No way to tell.”

Obviously, the author of this article did not read either the study by O’Dea (6) or the more powerful three month crossover experiment by Jonsson and colleagues (9) which demonstrated the superior weight loss potential of high protein, low glycemic load Paleo diets.  Similar results of high protein, low glycemic load diets have recently been reported in the largest randomized controlled trials ever undertaken in both adults and children.

A 2010 randomized trial involving 773 subjects and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (8) confirmed that high protein, low glycemic index diets were the most effective strategy to keep weight off.   The same beneficial effects of high protein, low glycemic index diets were dramatically demonstrated in largest nutritional trial, The DiOGenes Study (9), ever conducted in a sample of 827 children. Children assigned to low protein, high glycemic diets became significantly fatter over the 6 month experiment, whereas those overweight and obese children assigned to the high protein, low glycemic nutritional plan lost significant weight.

2.            “Does it have cardiovascular benefits? Unknown.”

This comment shows just how uninformed this writer really is.  Clearly, this person hasn’t read the following papers (1 – 6) which unequivocally show the therapeutic effects of Paleo Diets upon cardiovascular risk factors.

“And all that fat would worry most experts.”

This statement represents a “scare tactic” unsubstantiated by the data.  As I, and almost the entire nutritional community,  have previously pointed out, it is not the quantity of fat which increases the risk for cardiovascular disease or cancer, or any other health problem, but rather the quality.  Contemporary Paleo Diets contain high concentrations of healthful omega 3 fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that actually reduce the risk for chronic disease (10-18).

3.            “Can it prevent or control diabetes? Unknown.”

Here is another example of irresponsible and biased journalism which doesn’t let the facts speak for themselves.  Obviously, the author did not read the study by O’dea (6) or Jonsson et al. (2) which showed dramatic improvements in type 2 diabetics consuming Paleo diets. 

“but most diabetes experts recommend a diet that includes whole grains and dairy products.”

If the truth be known, in a randomized controlled trial, 24 8-y-old boys were asked to take 53 g of protein as milk or meat daily (19).  After only 7 days on the high milk diet, the boys became insulin resistant.  This is a condition that precedes the development of type 2 diabetes.  In contrast, In the meat-group, there was no increase in insulin and insulin resistance.  Further, in the Jonsson et al. study (2) milk and grain free diets were shown to have superior results in improving disease symptoms in type 2 diabetics.

4.            “Are there health risks? Possibly. By shunning dairy and grains, you’re at risk of missing out on a lot of nutrients.”

Once again, this statement shows the writer’s ignorance and blatant disregard for the facts.  Because contemporary ancestral diets exclude processed foods, dairy and grains, they are actually more nutrient (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) dense than government recommended diets such as the food pyramid.    I have pointed out these facts in a paper I published in the American Journal of Nutrition in 2005 (13) along with another paper in which I analyzed the nutrient content of modern day Paleo diets (12 ).  Most nutritionists are aware that processed foods made with refined grains, sugars and vegetable oils have low concentrations of vitamins and minerals, but few realized that dairy products and whole grains contain significantly lower concentrations of the 13 vitamins and minerals most lacking in the U.S. diet compared to lean meats, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables (12, 13).

“Also, if you’re not careful about making lean meat choices, you’ll quickly ratchet up your risk for heart problems” .

          Actually, the most recent comprehensive meta analyses do not show fresh meat consumption whether fat or lean to be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (20-25), only processed meats such as salami, bologna, bacon and sausages (20).

References

 1. Frassetto LA, Schloetter M, Mietus-Synder M, Morris RC, Jr., Sebastian A: Metabolic and physiologic improvements from consuming a paleolithic, hunter-gatherer type diet. Eur J Clin Nutr 2009.

2. Jönsson T, Granfeldt Y, Ahrén B, Branell UC, Pålsson G, Hansson A, Söderström M, Lindeberg S. Beneficial effects of a Paleolithic diet on cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes: a randomized cross-over pilot study. Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2009;8:35

3. Jonsson T, Granfeldt Y, Erlanson-Albertsson C, Ahren B, Lindeberg S. A Paleolithic diet is more satiating per calorie than a Mediterranean-like diet in individuals with ischemic heart disease. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2010 Nov 30;7(1):85

4. Jonsson T, Ahren B, Pacini G, Sundler F, Wierup N, Steen S, Sjoberg T, Ugander M, Frostegard J, Goransson Lindeberg S: A Paleolithic diet confers higher insulin sensitivity, lower C-reactive protein and lower blood pressure than a cereal-based diet in domestic pigs. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2006, 3:39.

5. Lindeberg S, Jonsson T, Granfeldt Y, Borgstrand E, Soffman J, Sjostrom K, Ahren B: A Palaeolithic diet improves glucose tolerance more than a Mediterranean-like diet in individuals with ischaemic heart disease. Diabetologia 2007, 50(9):1795-1807.

6. O’Dea K: Marked improvement in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in diabetic Australian aborigines after temporary reversion to traditional lifestyle. Diabetes 1984, 33(6):596-603.

7. Osterdahl M, Kocturk T, Koochek A, Wandell PE: Effects of a short-term intervention with a paleolithic diet in healthy volunteers. Eur J Clin Nutr 2008, 62(5):682-685.

8. Larsen TM, Dalskov SM, van Baak M, Jebb SA, Papadaki A, Pfeiffer AF, Martinez JA, Handjieva-Darlenska T, Kunešová M, Pihlsgård M, Stender S, Holst C, Saris WH, Astrup A; Diet, Obesity, and Genes (Diogenes) Project. Diets with high or low protein content and glycemic index for weight-loss maintenance. N Engl J Med. 2010 Nov 25;363(22):2102-13

9. Papadaki A, Linardakis M, Larsen TM, van Baak MA, Lindroos AK, Pfeiffer AF, Martinez JA, Handjieva-Darlenska T, Kunesová M, Holst C, Astrup A, Saris WH, Kafatos A; DiOGenes Study Group. The effect of protein and glycemic index on children’s body composition: the DiOGenes randomized study. Pediatrics. 2010 Nov;126(5):e1143-52

10. Cordain L. Saturated fat consumption in ancestral human diets: implications for contemporary intakes. In: Phytochemicals, Nutrient-Gene Interactions, Meskin MS, Bidlack WR, Randolph RK (Eds.), CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group), 2006, pp. 115-126.

11. Cordain L, Miller JB, Eaton SB, Mann N, Holt SH, Speth JD. Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets.Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Mar;71(3):682-92.

12. Cordain L. The nutritional characteristics of a contemporary diet based upon Paleolithic food groups. J Am Nutraceut Assoc 2002; 5:15-24.

13. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Sebastian A, Mann N, Lindeberg S, Watkins BA, O’Keefe JH, Brand-Miller J. Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Feb;81(2):341-54.

14. Kuipers RS, Luxwolda MF, Dijck-Brouwer DA, Eaton SB, Crawford MA, Cordain L, Muskiet FA. Estimated macronutrient and fatty acid intakes from an East African Paleolithic diet. Br J Nutr. 2010 Dec;104(11):1666-87.

15. Ramsden CE, Faurot KR, Carrera-Bastos P, Cordain L, De Lorgeril M, Sperling LS.Dietary fat quality and coronary heart disease prevention: a unified theory based on evolutionary, historical, global, and modern perspectives. Curr Treat Options Cardiovasc Med. 2009 Aug;11(4):289-301.

16. Cordain L, Eaton SB, Miller JB, Mann N, Hill K. The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: meat-based, yet non-atherogenic. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002 Mar;56 Suppl 1:S42-52

17. Cordain L, Watkins BA, Florant GL, Kelher M, Rogers L, Li Y. Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002 Mar;56(3):181-91

18. Carrera-Bastos P, Fontes Villalba M, O’Keefe JH, Lindeberg S, Cordain L. The western diet and lifestyle and diseases of civilization. Res Rep Clin Cardiol 2011; 2: 215-235.

19. Hoppe C, Mølgaard C, Vaag A, Barkholt V, Michaelsen KF. High intakes of milk, but not meat, increase s-insulin and insulin resistance in 8-year-old boys. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Mar;59(3):393-8.

20. Micha R, Wallace SK, Mozaffarian D. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of incident coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Circulation. 2010 Jun 1;121(21):2271-83

21. Micha R, Mozaffarian D. Saturated fat and cardiometabolic risk factors, coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes: a fresh look at the evidence. Lipids. 2010 Oct;45(10):893-905. Epub 2010 Mar 31.

22. Mozaffarian D, Micha R, Wallace S. Effects on coronary heart disease of increasing polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS Med. 2010 Mar 23;7(3):e1000252.

23. Siri-Tarino PW, Sun Q, Hu FB, Krauss RM. Saturated fatty acids and risk of coronary heart disease: modulation by replacement nutrients. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2010 Nov;12(6):384-90.

24. Siri-Tarino PW, Sun Q, Hu FB, Krauss RM. Saturated fat, carbohydrate, and cardiovascular disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Mar;91(3):502-9

25. Siri-Tarino PW, Sun Q, Hu FB, Krauss RM. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Mar;91(3):535-46