Paleo than thou
I have worked in fitness and nutrition for a long time. You see trends come and go and there is always a fringe set that takes a current model and uses it as a reason to look down on someone.
If you look around you can see this is most any communities; a side group of individuals that cannot believe others would not get on board with them and jump at the opportunity to let them know.
This seems to be alive and well in many areas; Apple users, Android users, vegetarians, im sure there’s even some loose cannons in the macrame community…
I have noticed this phenomenon reaching into the paleo movement.
What is Paleo?
If you are unfamiliar with paleo, or ancestral eating, it is simply following a diet that our paleolithic ancestors would have followed up until the agriculture age. The paleo age ended around 10,000 years ago and therefore the paleo diet revolves around meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds etc and discludes any grains, dairy or processed foods.
Paleo diets are definitely beneficial and something to consider as they focus on foods that are familiar to the body and eliminate those that are not. Our modern age has clearly created an environment and foods that have caused a plethora of issues and disease.
I don’t want to call paleo a fad because it is definitely not, however when a new movement arises people seem excited to share but then look down on the people not jumping on board. Basically the same person they were before they themselves became aware.
I notice now followers of the paleo diet are quick to jump all over anyone who has not taken up this lifestyle. It is great to encourage and recommend but these paleo need to be aware that it is impossible to eat a true paleo diet..
What they are eating is in fact a very modern diet.
MODERN FOODS
The majority of the fruits and vegetables e consume today has been so hybridized and altered over the centuries that it bares little resemblance to its paleolithic ancestors.
Take for example bananas; ancient bananas were short, tough, pale and so full of seeds you might not even recognize it let alone be able to eat it.Compare this to todays large, yellow, sweet and virtually seedless development.
Another example is kale, the cornerstone of most peoples vegetable consumption these days. The problem is kale never existed in paleolithic times. Neither did broccoli or cauliflower. These modern plants have been cultivated from Brassica Oleracea which is also where we get cabbage and brussel sprouts.
Similar to how we have bred many varieties of dog out of a single species so have we done with our food. A person eating kale and cabbage believe they might be eating an ancestral food when it is not and also they are not even consuming a variety as the two plants are of the same species.
Beef is another cornerstone of all paleo dieters and the cow provides us with great ground beef, steaks, tenderloins etc. But the cow again is an animal that was not around in paleolithic times. The ancestor of the cow is the aurochs which can be observed in a lot of the great cave paintings. It was more of a spanish bull type animal, taller, leaner and more athletic with large outfacing horns.
REGIONAL DIETS
With the foods that did exist at the time they would be choices that would be extremely local. Today I can have a paleo breakfast including fruits from all corners of the world. Something not possible for a paleolithic ancestor.
An individual in eastern Europe was not eating the foods of the Southern Hemisphere. Today it is no problem and that moves us very far away from actual paleo eating as a lot of people are rarley eating foods from their own region. And in most cases not even within a few hundred miles.
I bought four items at my local supermarket a few days ago and not one of them was even from my own country.
These are just a few examples among many. The point is when you look around the produce section of your grocery store or market the foods you are looking at would be unrecognizable to a paleolithic ancestor, a majority would not even have existed and a lot they would never even have access to.
WHAT IS IT WE ARE UNDERTAKING WHEN EATING PALEO?
It is important to reclassify the paleo diet of today as “new paleo” or “modern paleo” as it is a diet as modern as the alternatives we need to avoid.
It still is superior way of eating though as it is not what is in the diet more as what is NOT in the diet.
It is definitely an ideal style of eating as it allows your body to process and digest foods that are more recognizable than the modern, processed, chemically laden garbage we expose ourselves to.
However it needs to be recognized that it is almost impossible to eat as our paleolithic ancestors did and there is no need for those in the paleo community to condemn others for not following what they themselves are unable to follow.
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