Proponents of the Paleo diet, which focuses on lean meat, fruits, vegetables and nuts, promote it as a way to avoid many of the chronic diseases present now that were absent in hunter-gatherers of olden times.
They may be right, say researchers from the City of Hope National Medical Center. They reviewed 13 studies on the diet, including 4 that looked at people with type 2 diabetes, and call it promising for reducing chronic disease risk and for weight loss and other health improvements.1
I think it is the answer for some and I hope they will study it more and point out how to figure who benefits from it so one doesn't have to go through unnecessary diets.
Food can be medicine and in this case avoiding certain type of food is the cure for certain illness.
Thanks for posting. It was an interesting link but it goes on to say:-
"He stops short of recommending it at this time, however. "These are small studies with short study duration, so we need to have larger and more robust data before we can truly make a recommendation regarding the Paleo diet for people with type 2 diabetes."
The studies each included only 10 to 30 people each, he says. Researchers compared the Paleo diet to a variety of other diets. Hyon and his colleagues evaluated the effects of the diet on the potential to prevent type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer risks."
Some members, I believe, have said they found a benefit from Paleo diet.
Why wait to have it proved? Studies about eating real food are not in food manufacturer or pharma's interests to succeed and are notoriously difficult to do - too many variables. Low carb/real food has worked for me. n=1 the only study that has any relevance!
My GP is pro paleo, as is Chris Kresser, however it's a wee bit difficult to adhere strictly on a veggie diet. I mainly stick to the fruit veg & nuts bit, with lots of kefir.
It makes absolute sense to me that sticking to natural foods has health benefits. All readily absorbed and nutrient dense. Problem is it's expensive. I spend a fortune on food and have started to grow my own fruit and veg to see if I can save a bit that way. Eating healthy is expensive and eating cr*p is cheap so that's why the vast majority of squeezed Middle England do so and remain unhealthy. Just saying 😀
My comment on your point about "squeezed middle England" is that it's not actually expensive compared to going out to cafes and ordering latte and cake or generally eating out and drinking lots of coffee and alcohol.
I've been doing the AIP diet for 7 weeks now and lost 3/4 stone despite my hypo matabolic sluggishness.
I'm slowly moving from AIP to Paleo so have just reintroduced eggs and nuts and cut down greatly on all the dried and fresh fruit I was previously consuming.
We can't eat out or stop off for coffees or snack on bowls of cereal or toast + spreads now or eat cheese or chocolate or drink milk or booze or coffee. So despite being very low income, it works out that we are saving lots of money despite buying the best quality food we can locate. Also some supermarkets sell "wonky" fruit and veg at a reduced price.
I feel that it's not just about money that people eat so much rubbish - it's more about short term gratification. Children should be taught nutrition in school as a curriculum subject and we should be like Scandinavia and tax rubbish foods not the other way around.
And, as well as Levo 125mcg, I'm on a powerful immunesuppresant plus BP med, Ranitidine. I can't tolerate any pain meds at all, even paracetamol makes my liver enzymes soar. So my motivation is part weight loss (I was near obese) and part improving my health overall so I can perhaps slowly come off these medications I reluctantly take. You do have to be seriously unwell enough to be motivated to do this AIP diet - but I think the benefits are as much financial as they are to my health.
Clutter I'm glad for the link to these studies and hope the promising reflections continue to be born out. I think the vegan diet is equally good for some as long as people follow the right nutritional guidance re B12 and don't eat loads of rubbish just because it's vegan. I also think the low GI diet and Fodmap diets all have equal credibility. So perhaps, in the end, it's a matter of finding the one that best suits your own personal inclinations/ lifestyle and then slowly heading towards a Mediterranean diet in the longer term? That's what I'm doing anyway and I do feel better for it - not cured of my autoimmunity - but definitely happier!
I don't eat out or buy lattes or even buy my lunch out but still manage to spend 120/150 per week on food BECAUSE I eat this way. I'm advocating it not disagreeing with it. Merely pointing out that a nice apple is the same price as say a whole loaf of bread (50p cheap loaves) or a large bag of white pasta, 2 packets of biscuits etc. But as you say it's a mindset and I am not interested in eating cakes or biscuits as I know I'd balloon. I'm small framed and hypothyroid so my options are to get fat or fight it with a combination of exercise and calorie/carb limitation based on whole foods.
I take your point of course, but judging from trips to large supermarkets people eat twice as much on a high carb diet as we do on a low carb.
And you only have to walk past the supermarket cafes to see people drinking lattes, feeding their kids pizzas and eating great big slabs of cake, to know that they are spending more than I am on weekly food. Half the plates seem to go untouched so the wastage is extraordinary too.
And I can buy a free range chicken for £7.50 or some brisket or salmon, cook with loads of roasted sweet potatoes, kale, wonky asparagus and broccoli and make any one of these last for 3 main meals and a few soup lunches between two of us. In a way it's a bit like the war time rationing diet of the 2ndWW. Less is more?
And I'm also a small frame and have active Sjögren's, historic RA as well as Hashis/ Hypo and Hypertension so incentives at every turn!
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