Every now and then there is an article or a video blasting the paleo/ancestral food movement for this or that. Most recently, there is a TED talk by Christina Warriner that attacks and questions the evolution-based roots of paleo eating. And other articles have criticized paleo for being too meat-filled, too this and too that. And, invariably, some really smart people, like Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser come out and meet the challenge/criticism head-on and effectively.
(In fact, if you want to read Robb Wolf's answer to the TED talk at issue, go here, and if you want to read Chris Kresser's response to the latest anti-red-meat "science" -- which I realize was not an attack on "paleo," but, rather, on red-meat consumption -- go here.)
But what I find fascinating is that the burning urge among some to bring paleo down apparently never drives any of those folks -- from a scientific, or even *anecdotal* basis -- to criticize paleo/ancestral eating because it has actually reduced the quality of health/life of a person (or people). You know... Find the paleo folks who are, in the vernacular, all fucked up from paleo eating. The anti-paleoistas never ever do that.
And I have to think, based on the harshness and intensity of the criticism that they *do* present, that the reason they don't give us concrete examples is that they can't. Yeah, there are likely some folks out there who hated the dietary restrictions of this lifestyle because they missed their bread, bagels or whatever. But where are the people who have tried it and it actually physically messed them up? They don't seem to exist. All I ever hear from are the success stories: type-2 diabetes cured, autoimmune diseases into remission, insulin management restored, inflammation drastically reduced. You know the list.... It goes on and on.
I have said it before and I will say it again: I don't care how *you* eat. But this is how I eat and it has done wonders for me in terms of weight control, energy, insulin management and the like. If you attack this lifestyle, don't chip at the edges. Show us paleo failures, people who were harmed by paleo eating. Compare them, if they exist, to all the success stories. And then let's see where the chips (the bacon?) falls. Otherwise, just fess up that you're pissed off about this lifestyle for some reason other than its actual harmful effect on real people, since, you know, there appears to be none.
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Food, Life, Music -- All Perched Precariously in Balance (or Not)
Howdy! Well one failure here. A lifetime of low carb/Paleo which resulted in obesity, diabetes, and chronic urticaria. Yes I tried tweaking by lowering protein and carbs, increasing, removing trigger foods, going gluten free and I ate ONLY whole foods, free range chicken and meat. Organic vegetables. Zero processed foods. My body just didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteI dropped meat 18 months ago and everything fixed itself. I hold no grudge against Paleo, I just think people should not become so fixated on a style of eating. Its not a religion - we are all different.
Once my mindset changed I began to encounter others who had similar experiences. There are actually many of us out there. I guess we find what we are looking for. And today when I look at some of the low carb "gurus" I personally would not call their physical conditions successful.
I hope you will allow this post as there may be other people are clinging to an eating plan that is not for them and could be helped by adopting a completely different strategy.
That all said - the day I stop thriving eating my mountains of grains and carbs - BACON!