Can anyone tell me if Paleo is as healthy as I have read?

[adamsab]

After a recent scare I've been researching the Paleo way of eating and am shocked that this is virtually the complete opposite to what the NHS and doctors suggest as a healthy diet (food triangle) and what I've been eating for the last 38 yrs!!. I've been on it for over a week and I feel amazing but why hasn't more people embraced it. It hardly gets a mention on any government websites including here?

[MikePollard]

It depends whether you subscribe to the cholesterol/heart theory. For my part, after two years of research I find it severely wanting. You will find polar opinions here, and bigleg has the same handle I have.

What I urge you to do is to do serious research and make your own mind up. I now enjoy all the high fat stuff my parents would have given you a puzzled look were you consider giving them up.

Why do people prefer butter to the man made rubbish? It tastes fantastic and nature points us to what will do us the most good.

Anyone considering a lifetime diet change has to make a choice. If you subscribe to the fat makes you fat, then you have to drop the fat and increase the carbohydrate to make up the energy deficit.

Bad news in my opinion!

[Penel]

You have to go back 40 years to the origins of the debate. John Yudkin found that sugar caused heart disease, Ancel Keys found that fat caused heart disease .... The 'fat' camp won and spawned the low fat industry. Cholesterol was linked to heart disease, and as it was a fat obviously must be affected by eating fat. The 'don't eat fat' advice has been repeated ever since, and any scientist that tried to question it was almost guaranteed professional death.

Have a look at Robert Lustig's book 'Fat Chance' or Gary Taubes ' The Diet Delusion'.

I'm glad you are finding that eating paleo works for you. It works for me too, although I can't go very low carb.

[frankcooper]

The Paleo diet has many happy followers. My wife and I are some of them, and we follow it (to the best of our abilities at least) and we can eat anything except grains, dairy and sugar.

As a clinical therapeutic treatment, its the diet I use for patients suffering with IBD such as Crohns and Ulcerative colitis, diabetes type 2, yeast infections, many skin conditions, some of the autoimmune diseases, and surprisingly its very good for anyone worried about cancer. In regards to the last condition about cancer, I recently finished writing my cancer paper and the Paleo diet is included because it has many anti-cancer properties. Those interested in reading this cancer paper can download here: docs.google.com/file/d/0B4X...

adamsab, where your question is really thought-provoking, is that the heart associations low fat and low cholesterol diet being recommended greatly increases our risk of these diseases as mentioned above. Surprisingly few people are aware of this. Even if people hedged their bets and adopted a diet that was somewhere in the middle between low-fat and the paleo diet, they would be much better off.

[adamsab]

As a generally healthy guy all my life and not having to rely too much on the medical profession I'm glad that this is not a fad, and the proof is in the pudding, as I said I feel great following the Paleo principles with significant improvements in sleep quality, stable energy levels, lowered stress effects/levels in less than a week.

But I'm appalled that this up to date advice is not being given out to the general public on a grand scale, and that the typical food triangle hasn't been discarded into the bin where it belongs. Also the evidence I have read is that the current advice on diet is the cause of many conditions, and which your doctor just seams to dispense pills for instead of advising dietary change.

Thank you for your reassuring comments I can keep going now much more confident that my Paleo lifestyle is a good thing and also recommend to my friends and family.

I feel a Louis Theroux documentary or something similar is required, or someone needs to give this more exposure. My dad has had 2 heart attacks if this information was made available this could help countless people around the world including him if he had not been fed rubbish dietary advice.

[Clericus]

How does a high fat low carb diet work if you have high cholesterol particularly Familial Hyperlipedemia?

The theory of this diet makes sense, it's back to basics.

[adamsab]

There is an interesting thread on the subject here

marksdailyapple.com/forum/t...

[Beek]

Just went to the link above and watched this video (there are several other videos there too):

dietdoctor.com/lchf.

We must find as many references as we can and make up our own minds. The drugs companies and food manufacturers have a HUGE vested interest in keeping the status quo. We've all been spun a yarn and now we are paying the price.