Choosing the right diet: Paleo
In Disney Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” Remy, the protagonist, espouses the thought that, “If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff.” For a rodent like Remy, that could mean diverging in essentially any way from the norm of eating bricks and garbage like any other rat, making him an outcast from his family as a result. For humans, however, this means something very different, though embarking in a different dietary direction is often met with similar skepticism from others. The paleo diet is an example of this.
Paleo is a widely popular diet that is said to provide at least some health benefits, but what exactly is it? UC Davis Health suggests that the paleo diet, or “caveman diet,” is a method of eating which holds that the whole foods that were eaten by our distant ancestors are a necessity to the health of individuals today. The article goes on to mention the foods that are encouraged on the paleo diet, including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, low-sugar fruits, vegetables, healthy oils and a variety of nuts and seeds. Common foods that are discouraged on the diet include dairy, legumes, cereal grains, refined sugar and excess salt.
The paleo diet is far more reliant on meat and poultry than other diets, but this cornerstone of paleo is well-founded. According to the Australian dietary guidelines, an average person should consume one to four servings of protein a day, with at least half of that being red meat. Additionally, Better Health claims, “Meat and poultry are great sources of protein. They also provide lots of other nutrients your body needs, like iodine, iron, zinc, vitamins (especially B12) and essential fatty acids.”
Another keystone of the paleo diet is the heavy consumption of low-sugar fruits and vegetables. The distinction between high-sugar fruits and low-sugar fruits is necessary, as some fruits such as mangoes, cherries and grapes have 13 to 50 times the sugar of an avocado or a serving of strawberries. This separation of even fruits into categories notes the specificity with which the paleo diet approaches health.
An aspect of this diet that may seem rather odd is the elimination of certain cooking oils. Paleo Ranch lays out the many oils that are not welcome into this diet, including corn oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil and canola oil. The reason for disincluding these rather common cooking ingredients revolves mostly around the fact that these products are highly refined in the United States and are often made using GMO produce. Considering the paleo diet is supposedly meant to follow that of our ancestors, any lab-assisted growth or manufacturing of foods is not welcome.
As any strategy to eat healthily, however, paleo comes with its drawbacks. Firstly, in consideration of the rather rigid limits on what is and is not allowed on this diet, UC Davis Health notes, “It’s very difficult to stay committed to any diet that’s too restrictive of one or more food categories.” The article goes on to say that this diet makes it difficult to maintain correct levels of calcium and consume enough carbohydrates to sustain energy. These arguments would be well-founded for a person who makes poor dietary choices such as eating a limited number of foods or simply just not enough. However, for one who is following the paleo diet as it is suggested, these things most likely would not be an issue.
When Remy diverted from the typical rat diet, he was met with the criticism of almost an entire colony of rats. But he understood that his eating habits were more beneficial to his lifestyle than what the others were eating. For those who follow the dietary guidelines of paleo, there will be those who disagree with this lifestyle, especially those who oppose the consumption of meat, poultry, fish and eggs. However, if a diet yields health benefits to an individual, the decision to continue or discontinue is no one’s concern but the practitioner’s.
Kilker is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion