This may be a stupid question but what is the difference?
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This may be a stupid question but what is the difference?
They are the same thing, although more "primal" people would consume dairy than "paleo" people, but they are essentially the same diet.
paleo means almost nothing, primal means whatever mark says it does. that's about the most honest answer you'll come across.
Oh man, the forums are worth the price of admission today! LOL
^^ lol
The Primal Blueprint:
[url=http://www.marksdailyapple.com/welcome-to-marks-daily-apple/]Welcome to Mark’s Daily Apple | Mark's Daily Apple[/url]
The Paleo Diet:
[url=http://thepaleodiet.com/]The Paleo Diet[/url]
that's about the most honest answer you'll come across.
Primal Blueprint is easier, since the version accepted here is Mark's version. There are several other Primal concepts floating around the web, some older than PB and some newer.
Paleo is way harder, since the general idea is to eat like ancient humans. Every time somebody tries to answer WHICH ancient humans ate WHAT extinct foods, and what MODERN foods approximate the extinct foods, a new version of Paleo is born.
Both are about eating with an eye to ancestral foods, predominantly pre agriculture. The exclusion of grains and legumes is common to both. Dairy is an "it depends" and generally more accepted on a Primal than Paleo diet.
In the case of Paleo, because it's not a term anyone owns, it's more open to evolution and refining over time. People who are predominantly Paleo eaters may also include various dairy, white rice, dark chocolate and the like according to their wits.
I think it's worth considering Paleo as a base framework that you customize according to your wits. It's a useful guide, but not everything old is good and not everything new is bad. The smart approach IMO is to be 'basically Paleo' altering to your own experiences, goals and science.
One is a diet, one is a lifestyle. I think that's a critical difference.
Both are based on the evolutionary diet of humans, but Mark takes it a step further and links the eating with the lifestyle. Move around a lot slowly, lift heavy things, sprint once in a while -- all key elements of [u]why[/u] the human body evolved the way it did, given the available food sources. So if you just eat the diet, there will be a benefit but it's not the same.
Having read through the Paleo material, I'm also struck by the fact that Mark does a [u]much[/u] better job of laying out the medical and physiological bases for the success of the Primal lifestyle. Not that Paleo is bad -- but I think Primal is more complete and better presented.
YMMV.
Jim