Another Dietician Gets it Wrong About the Paleo Diet

Recently, Samantha Heller, a registered dietician frequently seen in the media, issued a condemnation of the Paleo diet in a video on Business Insider.  The video can be seen here.  The Sphere of Health would like to take this opportunity to issue a rebuttal and refutation.

In order to draw a conclusion on the merits of a particular diet, or the merit of any issue, it is very irresponsible to do so without understanding it.  Many dieticians, either as a result of ignorance, or dishonesty, or in some cases, maybe a mixture of both, have condemned the Paleo diet on the grounds of what it is not, rather than what it is.  To a large extent, that is exactly what has been done in the video above.  The only two points that Samantha Heller got right when describing the diet is the theory behind it, that we should eat what our Paleolithic ancestors ate, and the fact that it excludes grains.  To an extent, she is right in that wine is allowed.  Wine, however, is not universally accepted by every Paleo advocate.  The reasoning behind wine is covered thoroughly in this link.  Every other aspect she listed was fallacious.  They will be covered point by point below.  This article will only cover the misrepresentations.  The merit of excluding grains, the theoretical axiom, will be reserved for another time.

This is a Paleo compliant meal, containing primarily plant food and no red meat.

Author: RussellTn, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

 Source http://www.cutbodyfatfast.com/2012/04/caveman-diet/ http://www.cutbodyfatfast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FinishedMeal-300x225.jpg

"The Paleo diet is high in meat."

No.  Not necessarily.  There is no one exact composition of the allowable foods.  There are only very rough approximations.  While the Paleo diet is rigid in its exclusion of certain foods, it is rather loose when it comes to combinations of the three macronutrients of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.  A meal of a 10 oz. steak, with 3 oz. of avocado, and 4 oz. of assorted vegetables is a Paleo meal.  However, a 6 oz. steak with 5 oz. of avocado and 6 oz. of assorted vegetables is also a Paleo meal.  Data that was collected from 229 hunter-gatherer communities listed a variance of anywhere between 28-58% fat intake.

"The Paleo diet is high in processed meat."

That is perhaps her most ridiculous claim of all.  "Processed" is a figurative four letter word in the Paleo community.  The exclusion of chemically processed food from your diet is one of the most, if not the most stressed rule of the Paleo diet.  Detractors of the diet may bring up bacon and sausage, however, there are two distinct differences.

• First, it should be noted that there is a disagreement within the Paleo community.  Bacon and sausage are not universally accepted by everyone.

• There is a major difference between the simple curing of meat, and what takes place during the procedure of typical commercially processed meat such as bologna and other cold cuts.  For those on the Paleo diet who eat bacon and sausage, they recognize that not all sausage and all bacon are created equal.  For instance, a sample recipe for organic, uncured bacon would be pork belly, pepper, sea salt, and maybe a few other spices.  Contrast that with this recipe of Oscar Meyer bologna:  Mechanically Separated Chicken, Pork, Water, Corn Syrup, Contains Less Than 2% Of Salt, Sodium Lactate, Flavor, Sodium Phosphates, Autolyzed Yeast, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Erythorbate (Made From Sugar), Sodium Nitrite, Dextrose, Extractives Of Paprika, Potassium Phosphate, Sugar, Potassium Chloride. 

 All of the ingredients of the bacon are Paleo compliant.  They are naturally occurring, ancestrally eaten, and nutritionally packed.  The bologna contains several artificial chemicals that are absolutely forbidden under any and every criteria that Paleo followers have.  You can read here further for a more elaborate explanation. 

"The Paleo diet is high in red meat."

Again, no, not necessarily.  Referencing the first point, if a Paleo compliant diet is not required to be high in meat, period, then it definitely is not required to be high in red meat.  Of course, some consumption of red meat is absolutely recommended, however it does not need to be your primary source of meat.  One major tenet of the Paleolithic diet is variety.  There is nutritional synergism in variety.  You should eat a variety of vegetables - not just an abundance of one or two.  You should eat a variety of fruits, mainly different types of berries with a sparser amount of fleshy fruits.  And, conversely, you should eat a variety of meat - red meat, chicken, turkey, fish, and other seafood.  Organ meat is also recommended.

In Addition

It is important to realize that the Paleo diet is not an exact reenactment.  A complete exact reenactment is not possible.  There was a mass extinction at the end of the last Ice Age, and there are no doubt many animals that were hunted before that are no longer available.  There are some types of fruits and vegetables that are more readily available now with the spread of humans, trade, and commerce.  However, though the balance of fruits and vegetables that are readily available may be different, and some the types of meats available today may be different, they still share the same types of nutrients and general brand of genetic code that makes them compatible with our systems that evolved over a period of two million years.  The pushing of grains, bread, and cereals to the base of the modern American food pyramid has resulted in obesity, along with many diseases of affluence.