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-   -   Why the Paleo diet stays so popular (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=481736)

Demi Tue, Dec-18-18 03:05

Why the Paleo diet stays so popular
 
Quote:
London Business News
17 December, 2018

Why the Paleo diet stays so popular

The paleo diet has been around for many years, and despite the usual trend of diet fads fading after a short-lived period of hype, this one seems to be sticking around. It was first introduced as a concept in 1975, but became popular in 2002 when it was brought to the public’s eye in the book The Paleo Diet.

Today, millions of people still participate in the paleo diet, attempting to restrict their foods and beverages to items that would have been available in the Paleolithic era, such as seafoods, lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. The diet also prohibits most dairy products, grains, and other processed foods.

As a result, thousands of businesses, including paleo meal delivery companies and paleo-themed restaurants, have arisen and thrived.
But what is it that keeps this eating plan so popular? There are several potential explanations.

Back to Basics

Part of the appeal of the paleo diet is how simple it is, especially compared to the complex food products and drinks we’re used to consuming. One look at a nutritional label can be overwhelming to the average consumer; there are probably dozens of ingredients that are hard to recognize, including complex chemical formulas that the average consumer doesn’t understand.
It’s illogical to assume that a chemical compound is dangerous simply because it has a complex name, but the average consumer isn’t looking for a complete, logical, scientific understanding of the world. Instead, they trust their intuitions—and their intuitions tell them that a piece of meat, or a fruit plucked straight from a tree is automatically healthier than something that was created in a factory. They can even use anecdotal and correlational evidence to support this; after all, the obesity epidemic is a product of the modern world, and not something Paleolithic humans had to deal with.

Corporate Support

As mentioned in the introduction, there’s no shortage of businesses hoping to cash in on the paleo craze. It’s relatively easy to adopt a paleo menu for your restaurant, or adapt your meal delivery business to focus on paleo-eating customers. And with more viable eating options, paleo dieters are more inclined to stick with the diet for the long term.

Financial Feasibility

Compared to other fad diets and eating plans, paleo is relatively inexpensive. Fad diets are often prohibitively expensive because they require you to buy specific meals, or eat specific foods that cost more than traditional foods. Accordingly, if money’s an issue, consumers may only last a few weeks to a few months on a cost-intensive diet. Paleo, on the other hand, relies on a wide range of different foods, most of which are inexpensive—or at least approachable for the average consumer.

Results

The core concept behind paleo eating isn’t supported by science; our digestive systems aren’t comparable to those of our Paleolithic ancestors, so it doesn’t necessarily make sense for us to eat the same foods and beverages as them. However, the eating plan associated with the diet can have positive results. Eating lean meats instead of processed meats, and fruits and vegetables instead of processed grains can result in a net decrease in total calories consumed, and an increase in the average nutritional value of what you’re eating. Moving from the average Western diet to a paleo diet can, therefore, come with massive benefits.

Flexibility

Paleo eating plans aren’t super restrictive, the way other fad diets are. Instead of being limited to only a specific number of foods, or ruling out some foods entirely, the paleo diet cautions its participants to make good eating choices most of the time, and adhere to the diet’s food standards as best they can. It’s okay if you occasionally deviate from the eating plan, or if your fruit isn’t truly wild. This makes it easier for people to stay consistent with their eating and decreases participant turnover for the diet.

Celebrity Endorsements

It also doesn’t hurt that many celebrities have spoken up about their paleo eating habits. Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Biel, Channing Tatum, and Jessica Alba are just some of the popular celebrities that have endorsed the paleo diet. And considering those celebrities happen to have impressive, lean bodies, it certainly makes an impression on people.

The Bottom Line

The paleo diet has resonated with people in the United States, and it’s likely that its momentum will continue for at least another several years. The philosophy behind the diet is suspect, but the eating plan itself is valuable for anyone trying to lose weight and stay healthier, and there’s ample public support for the plan—from the celebrities who sing its praises to the businesses that continue to make it easy to stay consistent with eating paleo foods.



https://londonlovesbusiness.com/why...ays-so-popular/

teaser Tue, Dec-18-18 08:51

Quote:
The core concept behind paleo eating isn’t supported by science; our digestive systems aren’t comparable to those of our Paleolithic ancestors, so it doesn’t necessarily make sense for us to eat the same foods and beverages as them.



Hopefully this will be the stupidest thing I read today. There may have been some changes since the paleolithic period. I guess this is the basis for the above statement about our digestive systems not being comparable;

Quote:
The organisms with which we share our bodies have evolved even faster, particularly the billions of bacteria living in our intestines. Our gut bacteria interact with our food in many ways, helping us break down tough plant fibers, but also competing for calories. We do not have direct evidence of which bacterial species thrived in Paleolithic intestines, but we can be sure that their microbial communities do not exactly match our own.


Before that there's some stuff about changes in immunity, which certainly could be important given that our greatest exposure to potentially harmful microbes is through the gut, and also mention of the development of lactose tolerance.

There's a problem here, in that "paleo" or "paleolithic" not only describes a period of time, it also describes the state of a society--there are many paleolithic societies that were still around in the last couple of hundred years, and the Paleo diet as championed by Loren Cordain and others is based on the diet of these peoples, and not what bugs thrived in people's intestines thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago. Anyways, steering things by gut bugs at this point is premature. We don't really quite know what our gut bugs ought to look like on any diet, so singling out Paleo is kind of silly. The way we know we have a healthy gut biome? If we're healthy, our biome is at least not preventing that.

That source also gives an example of a modern paleo group not doing so well;

Quote:
Hill and Hurtado calculated that foods hunted and collected in the wild account for 95 percent of the Hiwi's total caloric intake; the remaining 5 percent comes from store-bought goods as well as from fruits and squash gathered from the Hiwi's small fields. They rely more on purchased goods during the peak of the dry season.

The Hiwi are not particularly healthy. Compared to the Ache, a hunter–gatherer tribe in Paraguay, the Hiwi are shorter, thinner, more lethargic and less well nourished. Hiwi men and women of all ages constantly complain of hunger. Many Hiwi are heavily infected with parasitic hookworms, which burrow into the small intestine and feed on blood. And only 50 percent of Hiwi children survive beyond the age of 15.


So undereating paleo foods doesn't prevent malnourishment? This sounds like a people whose way of life is being destroyed because the habitat that supported it is vanishing.

GRB5111 Tue, Dec-18-18 11:29

Quote:
Originally Posted by teaser
Quote:
The core concept behind paleo eating isn’t supported by science; our digestive systems aren’t comparable to those of our Paleolithic ancestors, so it doesn’t necessarily make sense for us to eat the same foods and beverages as them.


Hopefully this will be the stupidest thing I read today. There may have been some changes since the paleolithic period. I guess this is the basis for the above statement about our digestive systems not being comparable;

Beverage on the keyboard after reading this. My sentiments exactly :D

deirdra Tue, Dec-18-18 15:13

Our digestive systems have not evolved as fast as Frankenfoods, so the SAD is not supported by science either. I'll take real food over animal fodder anytime.

M Levac Tue, Dec-18-18 16:57

A quote from the Scientific American article, linked to in the main article, to support the argument that "The core concept behind paleo eating isn’t supported by science; our digestive systems aren’t comparable to those of our Paleolithic ancestors...":
Quote:
Such processed foods often offer less protein, fiber and iron than their unprocessed equivalents, and some are packed with sodium and preservatives that may increase the risk of heart disease and certain cancers.
...
But the Paleo diet bans more than just highly processed junk foods—in its most traditional form, it prohibits any kind of food unavailable to stone age hunter–gatherers, including dairy rich in calcium, grains replete with fiber, and vitamins and legumes packed with protein.
...
Our gut bacteria interact with our food in many ways, helping us break down tough plant fibers, but also competing for calories.

I could argue here that the single most significant difference any two different guts could have is the ability to break down plant fiber. Ours doesn't have that, and if I take my crap as evidence (corn goes straight through intact, for example), neither do the microogranisms that live therein. So, whether our gut is comparable or not rests on that single difference.

Since our gut doesn't have that ability now, then the only way we can demonstrate that our gut is not comparable to theirs, would be if theirs had that ability, which would make them herbivores (like all hominids), not hunter-gatherers (like all homo sapiens). And the vague allusions to evolution of our gut (vague cuz no specifics that tie in to the other arguments, i.e. fiber therefore grains therefore official guidelines) is just flash, no substance.

Otherwise, yeah I agree, results is why it sticks around, just like Atkins et al. Indeed, if we point a finger at just one thing in common with all them diets that stick around, it's that they all omit refined grains and sugars to some extent.

M Levac Tue, Dec-18-18 17:10

Teaser, that Scientific American article also mentions that the Hiwi eat modern foods. As we know from Price's observations, every single instance of a traditional population that did that suffered from all the same ills we do. So, the Hiwi are an example not of a traditional population that eats a traditional diet, but of a traditional population that eats modern foods in addition to their traditional diet. So, that's a fail for Scientific American.

And, also from Price's observations, every single instance of a traditional population that ate their traditional diet suffered exactly none of the ills we do. So, that's another fail for Scientific American.

teaser Tue, Dec-18-18 18:46

They do emphasize that the modern foods are a minor component of the diet, though. Also reading elsewhere, the Hiwi's ill health generally comes down to infectious disease, not "diseases of civilization." If there's one thing calorie restriction isn't particularly good for, it's fighting infectious disease. They aren't suffering the ills we do, they're suffering high infant mortality, high mortality in childbirth. Also a high level of violent death.

Nancy LC Thu, Dec-20-18 09:09

Maybe because people feel better? I dunno, just venturing a guess.

Dodger Thu, Dec-20-18 18:42

I've been eating Paleoish (I eat cheese, butter, and yogurt) for over 15 years. It, obviously, is bad for me as I've shrunk for 225 pounds to only 170 pounds. Another downside is that I no longer get sleepy after lunch. I also no longer need to constantly be eating carby snacks while riding my bike long distances. Earlier this year I rode my bike 117 miles and didn't eat anything because I was not hungry and still had energy left. That must be unhealthy.
I'm sure that the fact that I'm the longest living male in 3 generations of my family have nothing to do with my foolish avoidance of sugar and grains and eating mostly meat only meals.

WereBear Sat, Dec-22-18 07:15

I have come to see criticisms of the Paleo Diet as two things: one is certainly panicked shilling by paid journalism (ie, propaganda) from the processed food corporations.

But the other thing is even stranger: it’s the human sugar addiction talking.

This is all over Taubes’ work: researchers since the dawn of processed foods just aghast at the thought of their beloved treats being taken away. These men of science turn into children with a birthday cake held out of reach.

A close friend just showed me the handful of pills sha takes every day. A typical lineup:

2 diabetes
1 high blood pressure
1 for anxiety
1 for sleep
2 steroids for the autoimmune rash that is appearing

And she has seen me take the opposite path. But as she put it, she would “have to turn her life upside down” to do what I do, and she’s exhausted and sick.

It seems utterly strange and overwhelming to someone who has been born into our modern food culture.

cotonpal Sat, Dec-22-18 07:20

Quote:
Originally Posted by WereBear
I have come to see criticisms of the Paleo Diet as two things: one is certainly panicked shilling by paid journalism (ie, propaganda) from the processed food corporations.

But the other thing is even stranger: it’s the human sugar addiction talking.

This is all over Taubes’ work: researchers since the dawn of processed foods just aghast at the thought of their beloved treats being taken away. These men of science turn into children with a birthday cake held out of reach.

A close friend just showed me the handful of pills sha takes every day. A typical lineup:

2 diabetes
1 high blood pressure
1 for anxiety
1 for sleep
2 steroids for the autoimmune rash that is appearing

And she has seen me take the opposite path. But as she put it, she would “have to turn her life upside down” to do what I do, and she’s exhausted and sick.

It seems utterly strange and overwhelming to someone who has been born into our modern food culture.


It is so weird to me, how there are so many people who are clearly suffering from the many diseases of civilization but cannot imagine their lives without the substances that are poisoning them.


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