The Problem with the Paleo diet.

[Richter]

The point's been hit already: stop eating stupid amounts of salty carb snacks.  Watch what you put in your face.  Roger summed as much up in the Recipes forum, and with a balance of foods that won't turn your torso into roiling hatred.

Didn't mention that did they?

Paleo will fuck with your guts.  Your intestines will be trolled.  You will take some truly messed up dumps.  Not car tire material like the "Cleanse" products claim to make you - just meatshit power deuce that would make a snake jealous. 

It's OK.  REALLY.  Eat more oranges.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm on a low-carb paleoish diet because I wanted to. I had a carb-heavy lifestyle and I was getting too close to 200lbs for my comfort.

I'm not doing it because of a fad, I'm doing it to lose fucking weight, damnit. And I can't stand it when I get the preachy types trying to alter what is currently working for me. No, leave me alone. I'm losing. My ass is 8" smaller than it was on Memorial Day. I'm back in size 12's for the first time since 2009. I'm working my ass off to do this. I don't care about evolution, or what we should or should not be eating, all I know is that this is what is good for me right now.


...I especially can't stand  the Gluten-Free Mafia.

Where did I say anything about low carb dieting? I don't see that anywhere in my OP.

[LMNO]

It was implied if one read with a bias. Please don't take it personally

To insert another problem, I've got a problem with sodium. Which really sucks when you're using g asian and Mediterranean foods to cut fats.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It was implied if one read with a bias. Please don't take it personally

To insert another problem, I've got a problem with sodium. Which really sucks when you're using g asian and Mediterranean foods to cut fats.

You should try my current diet.  It's very good for you.

IT'S VERY GOOD FOR ME.

I'M TOLD.

[LMNO]

Have you researched severL studies?

[Suu]

I'm on a low-carb paleoish diet because I wanted to. I had a carb-heavy lifestyle and I was getting too close to 200lbs for my comfort.

I'm not doing it because of a fad, I'm doing it to lose fucking weight, damnit. And I can't stand it when I get the preachy types trying to alter what is currently working for me. No, leave me alone. I'm losing. My ass is 8" smaller than it was on Memorial Day. I'm back in size 12's for the first time since 2009. I'm working my ass off to do this. I don't care about evolution, or what we should or should not be eating, all I know is that this is what is good for me right now.


...I especially can't stand  the Gluten-Free Mafia.

You also aren't preaching at us that this is how humans are supposed to eat.

Notice the subtle distinction.

No. I'm joining in on the goddamn rant fest though. Because this shit makes me fume.

The first thing people ask me is if I'm eating gluten-free. And when I tell them that I have eliminated wheat, but I am not specifically avoiding gluten (it is, after all, a protein) I get this amazing, poorly researching diatribe on the benefits of going gluten-free rather than the general reduction of all complex carbohydrates. I think Nigel had a gluten-free rant like this a few years ago. You can't just go GF and expect to lose weight. Sure, you're reducing some calories, but hell, sugar is gluten-free. Rice is gluten-free, which gives you all sorts of reasons to still eat like crap when you think you're benefiting yourself by jumping on some bandwagon that only exists because of a serious allergy. Yes, Celiac Sprue does run in my family, I have been tested, but I don't have it.

What I also cannot stand with the "paleo" crowd, is that my recipes are never good enough. Or, anytime I post something about food or discovering a new meal on something like Facebook, I get a barrage of negativity thrown my way. Way too much of, "UR DOING IT WRONG" without any rhyme or reason, and it annoys the shit out of it. I got excited over finding low-carb hot chocolate at the grocery store last week, and I got insulted for even trying it. The community is full of a bunch of self-serving know-it-all's that make Requia look civil.

The bottom line I've discovered, is that if I don't stop through CSAs or WholePaycheck, and spend hundreds on organic non-GMO overpriced kale, I'm just not "paleo enough."  This is why I just tell people I'm on a ketogenic diet. It sounds more medical and less "I found this on the internet."

Point me at these threads.  I have urges.

As soon as the next one comes up, I'll let you know. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Have you researched severL studies?

I DON'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT.

I WANT REAL FOOD.  JUST SOME REAL FOOD.  JUST A LITTLE BIT.

MAYBE SOME GRUEL OR SOMETHING.  NOT MUCH.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It was implied if one read with a bias. Please don't take it personally

To insert another problem, I've got a problem with sodium. Which really sucks when you're using g asian and Mediterranean foods to cut fats.

Yeah, being middle-aged with hypertension is a total shithole. Hate it.

This thread, BTW, was inspired by one on the "science" forums, where everyone apparently hates science. Seriously, that place.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It was implied if one read with a bias. Please don't take it personally

To insert another problem, I've got a problem with sodium. Which really sucks when you're using g asian and Mediterranean foods to cut fats.

You should try my current diet.  It's very good for you.

IT'S VERY GOOD FOR ME.

I'M TOLD.

It makes me cranky and I'm not even on it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The gluten-free thing pisses me off and it pisses me off even more because I actually do have some kind of problem with wheat, which makes me angry and I don't even want to admit it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's not fucking GLUTEN though.

[Demolition Squid]

I hate gluten free because if someone asks for gluten free rolls with their soup, I have to run my ass to the other end of the store, into the freezer, dig around to find a packet of two, bring them back, defrost them, then prepare the soup. During this time the rest of the food queue will have piled up and I'll be crushed to death by a teetering tower of cheese and ham toasted sandwiches.

Then the bastards complain that the roll is warm.

[Dildo Argentino]

I fully agree that the reasoning (some might say 'propaganda' or even 'incompetent mix of sciencey-sounding things and wishful thinking') behind the Paleo Diet^TM is suspect, for several reasons.

1. The primate-microbial symbiotic congolmerates we are in the habit of glossing as humans have evolved, the ability to digest lactose, for instance, is now thought to have arisen on two distinct occasions,

2. Even on the basis of the rather indecisive knowledge we have of it, the actual paleo diet was probably quite different from what they are pushing, also, it is likely to have been quite varied (I would love to see a show in which Paleo fans are subjected to actual paleolithic meals).

3. Humans and their gut flora vary so much that it is extremely unlikely that 'one size fits all' would apply.

On the other hand...

Given that roughly ten thousand years have passed (about 50 generations, I guess), we can't have evolved all that much (I mean the primate bits, of course the microbial component is capable of evolving much faster), and with the advance of cultural evolution, the selective pressures on humans have changed quite radically, in general character. I would say that the average modern diet is actually quite a strong selective pressure on us: if you survive that, you survive most anything

And whenever I manage to resist my addiction to the sweet stuff for just a week or so and stay on a paleoish diet (largely vegetables and animal protein, minimal carbs, those with low glycaemic index), I begin to feel great, particularly in the gut area.

Best diet advice I've seen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[P3nT4gR4m]

The main problem with the "paleo diet" in my mind is the same problem shared by all diets - if one's goto source of reward nuerotransmitters comes from eating, the solution is not to sit on ones fat ass and obsess over food.

[Dildo Argentino]

The main problem with the "paleo diet" in my mind is the same problem shared by all diets - if one's goto source of reward nuerotransmitters comes from eating, the solution is not to sit on ones fat ass and obsess over food.

That's certainly true and very near the root of the matter. But it seems that a large number of people are stuck with exactly that: using food as the goto or main source for pleasure obsessively, unhappy about it but unable to stop. Telling them to just quit may not be very effective: it may reinforce an existing inferiority complex and make it even harder to quit. What's more, it seems quite clear to me that in some cases (I'd say most cases, actually), the bizarre and self-harming relationship with food was acquired at a very early age and hence it was practically hardwired into a developing brain, so it is very difficult to shake (not impossible, thankfully, because very few things are 'hard' hardwired into human brains by social experience).

Also, a fucked up digestive system that responds poorly and unpredictably to a great number of things is also often a carry-over from childhood: antibiotics and bizarre child-feeding fads, mostly. Something that does need to be sorted out if a stable and reasonable relationship with food is to be achieved.

So those people (and I certainly include myself in their number) need workarounds. The diets that are not primarily about weight-loss but about restoring gut flora and not eating crap that is just unfit for human consumption are (or can be, if applied correctly) one such workaround. Fasting is another one, an excellent one in my experience. Extended walking tours while fasting I've also tried, and it is even better. 'Cold thermogeneration' may also be one such hack, though I haven't tried it. Yet.