Difference between Paleo and Primal page 2

[Tarlach]

I eat meat and some fruit, veg, and nuts.


If you count the paleo diet as over about 40,000 years (which we aim for), then there was not many geographies for man. None of our forbidden foods from other continents were being consumed by our ancestors.


It is possible that some of the food paleo man didn't have access to are ok, but I'm not going to gamble my health on it. It takes too long to find out the hard way that you are getting sick. Paleo man wasn't exposed to it, so we didn't evolve to eat it.


I do think we are better off than the average PB'er (not that our diet is very different). Even though the average PB'er is vastly better off than the average SAD eater.


For one example - My wife has found out that her asthma is directly caused by dairy and she has been pretty much medication free since cutting it. We have also met a few other paleos that have fixed their asthma by cutting all dairy. Even a tiny bit causes attacks and the effects are long lasting. It was very hard to pin down.

I would encourage any asthmatic to go dairy free for a month to see if it fixes their asthma.


It also appears that dairy may be part of the cause of MS. I'm certainly not going to experiment with that either.


Saying that cheese or yogurt are fine is untrue.


maba - From Wikipedia "Primitive forms of spinach are found in Nepal and that is probably where the plant was first domesticated. Other than the Indian subcontinent, it was unknown in the ancient world"


Paleo man didn't add salt to food, so why should we? There is plenty of salt in the food we eat. One reason to avoid salt is that excessive dietary salt causes calcium excretion and is a cause of osteoporosis.


I have been eating paleo for almost 4 years and I have researched diet and nutrition almost every day since we started. My wife and I refined our list over the first year or so, while experimenting with our reactions to foods.


Since eating strict paleo my wife has lost her asthma and no longer gets migraines (which used to be common). I don't get joint pain in my knees (which I used to), we sleep better, we feel better, we lost our excess body fat, I am putting on muscle easier, and the list goes on.


We will never go back.

[OnTheBayou]

If you are happy, I'm happy for you.


Don't confuse one person's reaction to a food group as a reason everyone should avoid that group. Bad science.


And don't forget, this trying to duplicate a diet that we really, really know very little about is shooting in the dark. I doubt very much if Grok got many vegetables or nuts out there on the Serengeti.


I find the PB diet restrictive enough, forgoing many things pleasurable. I'm not going to your extreme. I hope you can be happy for me, too.

[SerialSinner]

I think Paleo is pretty straight forward. There is no reason to think we *need* anything non-paleo, and there are a lot of reasons to think that eating modern foods cause modern chronic diseases.


The more we diverge from paleo, the higher the risk of being unhealthy.

[Tarlach]

OnTheBayou - I'm not confusing one persons reaction to a food to the population. I was giving you one example. You just need to read the posts here to see that there are plenty of PB'ers having other issues with dairy.


If you think you are fine with it, good for you. I'm convinced it is not good for me and my wife has a fantastic reason to avoid it.


I found paleo restrictive until I lived it for a while. Now I just crave a good steak.


I'm happy that everyone here is doing PB as it is much better than SAD. I'd love to see everyone eat paleo, but I know it is never going to happen.

[OnTheBayou]

I repeat what I said to Tarlac, SS, if you are happy, I'm happy for you. I don't know what the need is for humans to have everyone think like them selves.


Please don't tell me what I should do. I've eliminated 90-95% of the bad crap as Mark defines it. It's good enough for me.


Zealots come in all stripes and when it comes to health and diet, there is a whole ark full of them. No doubt worse in quantity and intensity than ex-smokers, objectivists, and evangelical Christians.

[SerialSinner]

OTB I think we are all capable of deciding for ourselves what to eat. Today, the question "What should we ideally eat?" *can* be answered *objectively*, it's not a matter of opinion. While It's our choice to decide how much to diverge from the ideal, that doesn't mean we shouldn't call a spade a spade.

[OnTheBayou]

I question how much of the Paleo religion is objective. It's mostly best guesses and some bone and cartilege analysis, AFAIK. I could be wrong.


Diet selections are subject to a "diminishing returns" syndrome. Outside of the junk food industry, I don't think that there are many people who would say sodas, lot of fries, or Twinkies are good for you. But when you get over to the "All solana are bad for you," well, there may be evidence but it is sketchy and/or bad science in many cases. Or, someone says so, so it must be true. Again, AFIK. Or a given person or a few people have an intolerance, so everyone should avoid Substance X.


When we get into the "fringe" areas, there also may be good reasons to eat some foods. Lypocene, best found in watermelon, grapfruit, and tomatoes, may be worth it to your body.


And it's quite possible that a super high muscle meat diet will get you in the end with some other illness caused by it, and not eating the heart, brains, and blood. We just don't know, there are SO many variables in diet.


You are right, we are capable. I was just reading a lot of evangelism into your posts. Maybe I misread.

[SerialSinner]

We can objectively say that new foods are not paleo. The argument that a deviation from what we evolved to eat will probably tamper with your health is, I believe, perfectly rational.


Calling Paleo a religion and supporting the consumption of new or artificial foods by saying that they might not necessarily harm you makes me think that you might be looking more for emotional comfort and less for an objective dietary north. But then, I also think we are all entitled to that.


Selective skepticism can be very appealing, but can also mislead people.


Amen

[kjake55]

I'm just happy to be getting healthy and being able to eat well. One question, what is SAD? :-(

[Tarlach]

SAD = Standard American Diet :-(