The paleo diet, AKA the hunter-gatherer diet, has recently resurfaced in both the commercial and scientific communities. The paleo diet consists of “avoidance of processed food, refined sugars, legumes, dairy, grains, and cereals, and instead it advocates for grass-fed meat, wild fish, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and “healthy” saturated fat” (Andrikopoulos). This is based on the idea of a “hunter-gatherer diet” –anything that can be found in the wild is fair game.
Paleo, short for Paleolithic, is a reference to a period in human history that occurred over 2 million years ago. The diet plan seeks to resolve present-day health issues by utilizing dietary plans from our ancestors.
The creators of this new diet claim that our body’s needs haven’t changed since this era, so cutting out modern cuisine is a healthy choice to make. During the Stone Age, processed foods were a thing of the future. They didn’t have nearly as many artificial foods or preservatives as we have today—which some believe made their diets optimal.
Not only does the paleo diet cut out gluten, but also all grains and cereals. This comes down to the belief that the agricultural revolution has made our bodies too dependent on grains and cereals that we farm instead of the natural bounty surrounding us.
The agricultural revolution tore humanity away from being hunters and gatherers and pushed them towards farming. Farming has fundamentally changed the way we interact with nutrition, and we have gotten further from “natural” with each step.
Questions have arisen regarding the trend’s legitimacy – such as “Is the diet safe?”, “How do I follow the diet plan?”, and “What are its benefits?” Although the paleo diet says it promotes only natural foods and a healthy lifestyle, the philosophy behind it is restrictive and damaging.
Restrictive eating is a poor nutritional style and is a basis for disordered eating which is anything but healthy. It may only be truly beneficial for those with Celiac’s disease, in which the body is unable to process gluten, as it restricts all cereal intake as per The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition. Like any new fad, your own personal research should be conducted to decide if it is safe and beneficial toward your own health goals.
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, humans still require a dense number of vegetables, fruits, carbohydrates, and proteins in their diet. Food groups should not be eliminated for the sole purpose of popular “dieting”. All food groups have a purpose in the human body and must all act in harmony for proper nutrition, according to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
According to literature on the paleo diet, it is clear that it is not approved by experts nor considered “healthy”, but it has been approved to be trendy. People often wrongly assess their nutritional needs as they compare them to others’ diets and figures. Everybody is different, and not one diet will fit an entire group of people. Therefore, your diet should be a mix of various food groups, but also an inclusion of foods that make you feel good! Eating should never be a restrictive action, and no food group should be given the axe without cause.
