of paleo diet Inspires us to mimic the food choices of our prehistoric ancestors. In practice, this means avoiding dairy, cereals, legumes, and processed sugars, and instead consuming vegetables, fruits, nuts, pasture-raised meats, and wild-caught seafood.
Proponents of the Paleo diet claim that eating this way will help you lose weight and reduce your risk of chronic disease.
Here are the roots of the Paleo diet: dating back to the 1950sbut owes its current popularity to the following book by Lauren Cordein. Paleo diet: lose weight and get healthier by eating the foods you were designed to eatthe first edition was released in 2001.
In the 22 years since Cordaine’s book was published, the Paleo diet has been adopted by millions, A multi-billion dollar industry As a related development, premium priced food and certification system.
Paleo Diet Health Claims
A multi-billion dollar industry has developed around the Paleo diet, including premium priced foods and certification schemes. (Amarella Raffetto), Provided by the author
Although the Paleo diet has many proponents, its health benefits have yet to be substantiated by clinical studies.
In the first place, it does not appear to be more effective than traditionally recommended diets as a means of losing weight in the medium to long term.the only Multi-Year Study Evaluating Paleo Diet’s Impact on Weight Loss Following the paleo diet Official Nutrition Recommendations for Nordic Countries 2 years later.
This is a similar story to claims about the effects of the Paleo diet on chronic disease. for example, recent reviews They found that studies investigating the effects of the paleo diet on type 2 diabetes were “inconclusive.”
Similarly, 2020 survey reported that the paleo diet resulted in relatively more gut bacteria that produce chemicals associated with cardiovascular disease, but this is not the claim that the paleo diet reduces the odds of developing chronic diseases. Inconsistent.
With the claimed health benefits of the paleo diet, why are they not backed up by clinical studies? As evolutionary anthropologists, we believe the paleo diet is based on flawed assumptions and erroneous data. is a problem, and below we will show why our study led to this conclusion.
flawed premise
The idea behind the Paleo diet is The ongoing surge in obesity and related diseases in many countries is the result of a mismatch between the foods we eat and the foods our species has evolved to consume..
This discrepancy reflects the time between the advent of agriculture 12,000 years ago and the time evolution adapted our species to cope with high-carbohydrate, low-protein diets and process domesticated foods. There is an argument that it is the result of being too short. .
This argument seems reasonable given the perception that evolution is a very slow process. However, it is not actually supported by studies of diet-related genes.
work on Lactase persistence This is demonstrated by their ability to continue to produce the enzyme lactase into adulthood. Lactase persistence is beneficial in diets containing dairy, as lactase enables the digestion of milk sugar lactose. Lactase persistence is found in only a few regions, one of which is Europe. ancient DNA research Lactase’s survival history in Europe is less than 5,000 years old.
Similarly, Analysis of genetic data from African populations published last year We found evidence of recent adaptations in gene families related to alcohol metabolism. In this case, natural selection worked within the last 2,000 years.
This evidence indicates that genetic studies do not support the discrepant rationale for adopting the Paleo diet. Such studies demonstrate that evolution can produce diet-related adaptations in much less time than the time that agriculture first emerged.
flawed data
Paleo diet recommendations regarding the contribution of the three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) to the human diet are also problematic.
The current paleo diet calls for a diet of 19-35% protein, 22-40% carbs, and 28-58% fat by energy. Thus, the Paleo diet can be compared to conventionally recommended dietary regimens (e.g., Health Canada and the US Department of Agriculture.
The range of macronutrients recommended by the Paleo diet is: study since 2000 It estimated macronutrient proportions for over 200 hunter-gatherer populations. but, recently we found There are problems with this study.
The problem lies in the macronutrient values that the researchers used in plant foods. They used multiple sets of macronutrient values for animal foods, but he used only one set of macronutrient values for plant foods. They obtained plant data from analysis of foods traditionally eaten by Aboriginal Australians.
In our study, we evaluated the impact of this decision using two plant macronutrient datasets. Both consisted of plant values consumed by hunter-gatherers on multiple continents.
Using plant data from multiple continents produced significantly different macronutrient estimates. These have produced a broader range of macronutrients than those recommended by the Paleo diet. Our calculated ranges are 14-35% protein, 21-55% carbs, and 12-58% fat by energy.
These ranges overlap the ranges recommended by Health Canada (10-35% protein, 45-65% carbs, 20-35% fat) US Department of Agriculture (10-30% protein, 45-65% carbohydrate, 25-35% fat).
That the range of macronutrients in the hunter-gatherer diet overlaps with the range of government-approved macronutrients calls into question the idea that the Paleo diet is healthier than the traditionally recommended diet. increase.
It’s time to move away from the paleo diet of the past
Given that the rationale for adopting the Paleo diet is not supported by available scientific research, and that its macronutrient recommendations are not scientifically sound, the diet’s claimed health benefits We suggest that it is not surprising that is not supported by clinical studies. .
The Paleo diet was a worthy experiment, but at this point it seems more likely that people practicing the Paleo diet are simply wasting their money.Similar results with government-recommended conventional diet at a lower cost. In our view, it’s time to make the paleo diet a thing of the past.
Mark CollardCanadian Research Commissioner for Human Evolutionary Studies, Professor of Archeology, Simon Fraser University and Amalia Rafettoarcheology doctoral students, Simon Fraser University
This article is reprinted from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
