Paleolithic Nutrition

Criticism/Comparison

The modern Paleolithic type of diet is a good, sound diet, in general. There are critics of this kind of diet, and also some misconceptions, but these are mostly by people who don’t seem to know exactly what the modern version of a Paleolithic diet really is. Before I ask you to accept the concept, let’s take a look at the arguments.

One argument is that there is no single Paleolithic diet. This is true. The original hunter-gatherers ate more than two hundred different plants and animals over a year’s time. The foodstuffs our ancestors consumed were highly adapted to the specific regions they lived in, and each local society learned over hundreds of generations which plants and animals were associated with providing vitality for or bringing sickness to the clan.

Also, studies have shown that traditional diets are radically different between societies. For example, the arctic hunter-gatherers ate a pure animal product diet ten months out of the year. The Amazonian rain forest dwellers and the African hunter-gatherers ate more insects, amphibians, and lizards, and hundreds of different plants. The Native Americans ate a mix of fish, meat, and hundreds of different plants and animals unique to their environment over the course of the year. All these diets were extremely local and seasonal. Because many different cultures have existed as hunter-gatherers, there are likely thousands of diets created by humans that maximize their vitamin, mineral, essential fat, and antioxidant intake per calorie based on the food available in any given locale.

However, all these diets have some commonalities. They are all packed with many more vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids than the typical Westernized diets, which are filled with processed foods, like white flour, high-fructose corn syrup, and other refined sugars; contain minimal vegetables and fruits; and have far fewer vitamins and minerals in comparison. Many critics of Paleo-style diets miss this point. Emulating more closely the foodstuffs of our Paleolithic ancestors is a great improvement over what most people are doing now.

Another argument against the Paleo Diet is that our world has changed and no food we currently eat resembles foods our Paleolithic ancestors ate. It’s true that many of the foods we eat today have been altered through intensive plant breeding into foods that are much sweeter and richer in carbohydrates than they once were. Also, even natural, organic foods cannot escape containing some level of toxins because the world is now so polluted. Soil is also depleted, reducing nutrient content of the food grown in it. Then there is selective breeding and genetic modification aimed at producing a higher number of bushels per acre (not at improving vitamin or mineral content per bushel), and this has impacted our food, too. All of these factors result in plants that are less nutrient-dense than they once were. We can never go back to a planet as pure as it was in the Paleolithic era, but that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t eat the best, cleanest, most nutrient-dense foods available to us. It only means we may need to eat even more vegetables and fruits to compensate for diminished nutrient levels.

Another criticism is that eliminating grains and dairy eliminates important sources of nutrition, and without them, deficiencies will result. This is simply untrue. You can get all the nutrients you need without eating grains, dairy, or legumes. A hunter-gatherer-style diet packed with natural plant foods and natural meats (from grass-fed animals, game meat, and/or wild-caught fish) contains all the nutrients you need.

Finally, a common criticism is that people didn’t live very long in the Paleolithic era. This is true: Our ancient ancestors had a mean age of death in their 30s, but this is because there was a 38 to 45 percent mortality rate for those under the age of 15. Those who survived childhood actually did quite well. Gurven and Kaplan studied this question extensively and published their findings in 2007. The results might surprise you. Hunter-gatherers historically often lived past 60 years of age, and the same is true in the current hunter-gatherer societies that have not yet adopted Western lifestyles. These people are physically and mentally fit without medication, and many are thriving into their 70s and even 80s. The transition from hunter-gatherer societies was associated with loss of height, increased risk for degenerative arthritis of the spine, and tuberculosis, although fertility increased, which led to an increase in population, albeit a less healthy one.

Those populations that converted to Western diets continued to do worse as “progress” marched on. The next major transition came with the Industrial Revolution in 1850 with the wide availability of sugar, white flour, and a steady decline in breast-feeding. This was associated with another decline in health and an increase in chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Now, as societies move from developing economies to developed economies, the early mortality due to infectious disease is replaced by chronic diseases related to lifestyle—that is, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. These impact a population later, but the price is high. Consider obesity alone: According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2010, 69 percent of Americans were overweight or obese.

Put more simply, the extension in the average age of life from the Paleolithic era to the current era has occurred because of the decrease in infectious causes of death, lower childhood mortality, and increased use of medical technology—not because we as a society are enjoying more vitality and vigor.

All these criticisms overlook a simple fact: The modern Paleolithic diet concept is not meant to exactly replicate what our ancestors ate. Instead, it is meant to take the general concepts and apply them to our modern food supply as well as we can in an effort to restore human health and reverse the epidemic of chronic diseases that have plagued humans since the agricultural revolution.

Why Paleo-Type Diets Are Superior Diets for Humans

Any logical person knows that just because humans didn’t do something in early history doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it now. However, a hunter-gatherer type of diet isn’t just good in theory. Research supports the positive effects of a hunter-gatherer-style diet. For example, when healthy volunteers adopted a hunter-gatherer diet rich in animal protein, nonstarchy vegetables, and berries, there was a significant improvement in multiple biological markers of health status with subjects experiencing improvements in blood pressure, blood cholesterol values, and improved sensitivity to insulin. In another randomized crossover trial, subjects were given a standard diabetic diet or a hunter-gatherer diet for three months and then switched to the other diet. Again scientists found that the hunter-gatherer diet was associated with better blood sugar control, better blood pressure, better cholesterol values, and more weight loss than the standard diabetic diet.

There are also many solid scientific reasons why a diet high in grains, dairy, starches, and sugars can be detrimental to human health, and why a diet that more closely reflects the principles of the Paleolithic diet is more conducive to good health. One of the most convincing is what starchy and sugary foods do to your microbiome (the bacterial population living in the human gut).

Most people have more than 100 trillion individual bacteria and yeasts living in their bowels that help digest both the food we eat and its collective by-products. Each of us really is our own ecosystem, and like any ecosystem we can be thrown out of balance. We rely on more than a thousand different bacterial and yeast species to help ensure that we have all of the necessary building blocks for the optimal function of our cells, but when the wrong ones take over, the biochemistry of the body can begin to malfunction.

When we eat grains, dairy, legumes, and sweeteners, all high in starches and/or sugars, our bodies are more likely to grow more sugar-loving bacteria and yeasts because we are eating the foods that feed these particular microorganisms. Consequently, we have fewer of the over a thousand different bacterial species that humans had living in their bowels for the first 2.5 million years that our ancestors existed—the ones suited to the original human diet that are part of the proper metabolism and chemistry that occur in our cells. If our collective health as a society eating the standard Westernized diet with this new ecosystem were still excellent, this might not be much of an argument. Society, however, has been progressively less well. Our new ecosystem is off. Sugar-loving bacteria, like Pseudomonas, and yeasts, like Candida albicans, cause all sorts of problems for human bodies.

One of the most dangerous conditions that the standard Westernized diet causes is called leaky gut. Leaky gut syndrome is a condition in which holes or leaks develop in the lining between the small bowel and the blood vessels. If you have the wrong bacteria, yeasts, or parasites growing in your bowels, particularly the carbohydrate-loving yeasts like Candida albicans, they are more likely to create toxins that interfere with the system that regulates the cement that holds the cells lining the small bowel together (called intracellular cement). Zonulin is a protein that regulates how that intracellular cement functions. When the zonulin is activated improperly, the cement that holds the cells tightly together begins to open little doors allowing the bowel contents to leak into the bloodstream, which is where the term leaky gut comes from. Other things can also cause or increase probability of developing a leaky gut, such as recurrent antibiotic exposure, eating a diet high in sugar and starch, development of sensitivities to specific proteins, such as gluten in grains and casein in dairy, and exposure to man-made chemicals and toxins, like tobacco smoke. Any of these things can further compromise the integrity of the gut lining.

The cement that seals the intestinal lining is the same stuff that lines all the blood vessels, so if it begins to break down, you can bet that the lining of the blood vessels—including the ones that lead to the brain—are likely breaking down as well. You could have leaky gut, leaky blood vessels, and a leaky brain! You can also develop leaky skin. With leaky blood vessels, the immune cells will be more likely to burrow into the walls, deposit cholesterol and inflammation molecules into the blood vessels, and clog and narrow veins and arteries. In the brain, the blood-brain barrier that provides an extra layer of protection for the brain against infecting bacteria will become less effective. The brain is more likely to allow overactivated immune cells in, increasing the probability of inappropriate inflammation and worsening problems with mood disorders and neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis. In the skin, you are more likely to develop all sorts of annoying rashes and skin problems that come and go. This is why leaky gut is not just about gastrointestinal issues—it’s about your entire system and your health overall. This is not a situation you want happening in your body! Yet, it happens in many people, largely because of our processed, grain-based diets.