Despite the great focus from the modern authors of the Paleo Diet, Robb Wolf and Loren Cordain, the reality is that many have used the diet as an excuse to pack on the fatty meats and nuts by the fist-full.
On the Paleo diet and miss your crackers? Just make it out of Almond flour! "It's Paleo!", right? I was guilty, but in my search for the optimal diet and while uncovering what it means to be a "Plant Strong" Vegan, I was surprised to learn that the Hunter-Gatherer societies only consumed approximately 20% of calories in Total Fat.
20% - That's right, 20%. By today's standards 20% is considered a "low-fat" diet, and this quite honestly has been the most challenging aspect of my new diet.
The American Journal on Clinical Nutrition article Essential Fatty Acids in Health and Chronic Disease (AP Simopoulos, 1995) is well referenced by both the Paleo and Vegan community (yes, they do agree in some cases). The article makes the strong argument that the increase in added oils is the source for the heavy imbalance of omega 6:3 ratio.
"Modern agriculture, with its emphasis on production, has decreased the n-3 fatty acid content in many foods: green leafy vegetables, animal meats, eggs, and even fish."
What is "Modern Agriculture"? Many in the Paleo community have pointed the the Agricultural Revolution as the point of decline in human health. I would argue that "Modern Agriculture" is actually Industrial Agriculture, which is completely different than Pre-Industrial Agriculture.
More to come on Industrial Agriculture. In the meantime the focus is on reducing the amount of added oil in my diet, a challenging but not impossible feat for this road warrior
I think you might be talking about an old study by Eaton and Conner from 1985 where 21% fat was sited. Loren Cordain wrote a paper much more recently, and revised these numbers to 28-58%.
ReplyDeletehttp://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/3/682.full?ijkey=KPJ8NPKvC6lVQ
Industrial seed oils are BY FAR the biggest contributor to omega 6:3 imbalance. Cut that, and our bodies can handle the little bit we get from animal foods (especially if we eat cold water fish once a week). The problem is, most of us don't cut the bad oils entirely, because that would mean never eating with friends :(
I think the problem is that Paleos tend to not eat enough veggies. We're supposed to eat them, but we often skimp, because there are other things we are allowed to eat too, like bacon and cheese and coconut flour pancakes slathered in grass-fed butter (and maybe even maple syrup!). 80-10-10 vegans don't have that option. I actually think most Paleos are pretty healthy and have good cardiovascular health as well (despite slightly high cholesterol). We could probably stand to be a bit less over-fed though. It's potentially a very rich diet, and we have to be careful of overdoing it, especially with today's sedentary lifestyles being the norm. But it just doesn't come naturally for humans to turn down delicious food, especially if we know it's nutritious too. Maybe the answer is to go on a whole foods vegan diet once a month for a week. Or take a green smoothie cleanse day when we feel we've been overdoing the fatty foods. I have been looking for a hybrid solution myself, but I think that alternating diets might be easier than trying to combine them. Too many rules and gray areas makes it much easier to fall off the wagon.