The Paleo Diet
As the name suggests, it is derived from the diet followed in the Paleolithic era. It is the time of early Stone Age humans. This era is characterized by humans using stone tools. They were mainly fishing and eating wildly grown fruits and vegetables, plants and seeds. They also used to hunt wild animals extensively.
The Paleolithic man developed into Middle Paleo and then to Upper Paleo man over several thousands of years. Most of it was a pre agricultural era.
Now coming back to the “Paleo diet”. You can now imagine what would be the nature of this type of dietary approach. It is aimed at eating natural, unprocessed, whole foods which were eaten at that time. It is based on the idea that one should follow the diet that our ancestors during the Stone Age used to follow as they did not suffer from disorders and diseases of today’s time such as Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Diseases.
There is a certain list of foods to be included and excluded in the paleo diet.
Foods included in Paleo Diet are
1. Lean Meats
2. Fish
3. Fruits
4. Vegetables
5. Nuts
6. Seeds
Foods excluded from Paleo Diet are
1. Dairy
2. Processed Foods such as breads, pasta and many such products available in today’s world
3. Grains
4. Beans, Lentils and Pulses
5. Sugar
As processed foods are excluded in this diet regime, it does not have any unhealthy or junk foods in it which are majorly responsible for the lifestyle disorders and diseases. There are a few researches carried out on Paleo diet proving it right and showing its multiple health benefits such as lowering of cholesterol, reduced fasting blood glucose levels, may help in weight loss, managing blood pressure as well. However, the studies conducted have a lot of loop holes in them.
First of all, there are only a handful of studies on this dietary approach. Secondly, the number of participants in the studies is too low, ranging from 9 to 29 participants only. Thirdly, the studies’ duration is again, quite less i.e. from a few days to a few weeks only. Also, the comparison between the groups following paleo diet and the groups following normal/other diets is shown hardly in a couple of studies, otherwise the rest of the studies have no control groups to compare at all.
As you take a look at the exclusion criteria of foods in this diet, major food groups such as cereals and whole grains, pulses and beans, milk and milk products are completely missing. It is suggested by experts and researchers that a healthy diet is the one which is balanced with all the main food groups including Whole Grains and Cereals, Pulses-Lentils — Beans and/or Lean Meats/Fish/Poultry , Fruits and Vegetables, Low fat Milk and Milk Products (or their healthy substitutes), Nuts and Oilseeds.
Whole grains, cereals are an excellent source of a very essential nutrient, fiber along with many other nutrients such as B vitamins etc.! Intake of fiber is absolutely necessary in the recommended amount. Lack of which may lead to various health issues, to list a few: imbalances in the blood glucose, digestion and excretion related issues such as constipation/diverticulitis/diarrhea etc. Beans-Lentils-Pulses are good source of vegetarian protein, again fiber and various vitamins and minerals — which is also lacking in paleo diet! Not to forget, low fat milk and milk products provide excellent quality calcium required to maintain your bones and muscle mass in the body along with various other health advantages!
If one or more food groups from the above are absent it is not considered to be a nutritionally balanced diet. Long term effects of such diets may not be favorable on the body and may be responsible for any nutrient insufficiency/deficiency in the long run which may be hazardous.
Hence more researches are required to prove the beneficial effects of paleo diet in the long run without any side effects.
If you are a vegan or a vegetarian, following paleo diet becomes all the more difficult and there will serious issues with full filling your day-to-day protein needs which can be massively detrimental for health!
When it boils down to following a particular diet (which is not balanced or advocates only a certain type of foods) the acceptability and adherence to such a type of diet is of great importance. If a diet is not feasible for a person to follow for more than only a few days or a month or so, it can be considered as a “fad” and not a way of life. It may show its good results, however, only with a “yo-yo” effect!
Conclusion…
A paleo diet may have certain health promoting properties and may also assist in reducing or maintaining your weight. But the fact remains that, there are no longstanding scientific studies proving the benefits and probable hazards of the paleo diet as yet.
Instead, if you consume a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet and do the required amount of exercise, you may be able to achieve similar health advantages as this diet!
Please Note
For any blood tests or various health checkups in Mumbai, please visit www.healthdekho.com
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2787021/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-paleo-diet
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/5-studies-on-the-paleo-diet#section2
