Dr. John Day, Cardiologist

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8 Things You Need to Know about the Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet remains one of the most popular diets.  Despite this popularity, the Paleo Diet consistently ranks as one of the worst diets according to the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings.

In this article, I’ll cover the latest medical studies on the Paleo Diet.  I’ll also discuss the benefits and possible risks of the Paleo Diet.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet is really simple.  If something wasn’t around during caveman times, you shouldn’t eat it.

One unique aspect to the Paleo Diet, compared to other diets, is that the Paleo Diet is considered a lifestyle by most followers.  Indeed, there is an entire culture now built around this “Paleo Lifestyle.”  With a strong paleo culture in place, it makes it much easier to stick with this way of eating long-term.

Specifically, the Paleo Diet avoids sugar, processed foods, legumes, dairy, and grains.  While no one would argue with cutting out sugar and processed foods, the controversy really centers around legumes, dairy, and real whole grains.  This controversy has spawned modified Paleo Diets which may include sprouted legumes, some dairy, and some whole grains like brown rice.

Is the Paleo Diet safe?

If done right, the Paleo Diet can hit on all key nutrients for health.  Animal meats should ideally be wild or lean, organic, and non-processed cuts.  Also, vegetable intake should be dramatically increased.  Probably the biggest benefit from the Paleo Diet comes from just eliminating added sugars and processed foods.

8 Things You Need to Know about the Paleo Diet

Based on the latest medical studies, here are the top 8 things you need to know about the Paleo Diet.

1. It Is Not Any Harder than Any Other Diet

According to the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the Paleo Diet is just too hard for most people to follow.  This is the main reason why the Paleo Diet typically ranks as the worst.

Yes, avoiding grains is hard.  What do you eat at your next social gathering or birthday party?

Despite this perception, the medical science doesn’t support this.  Indeed, medical studies show that a low carb eating style is not any harder than any other diet.

2. You May Lose Weight

Studies show that people lose weight fast when they cut out added sugars and processed carbs.  Studies also show that people tend to feel very full on the Paleo Diet.  Is it any wonder then that studies show that people lose weight fast when following the Paleo Diet?

Of all the Paleo Diet weight loss studies, my favorite is one from Australia.  In this study, researchers took 10 overweight and diabetic aborigines eating a Western diet and put them back in the bush eating only what their hunter gatherer ancestors would have eaten.  After just seven weeks of roaming the bush looking for food, their diabetes resolved and they lost an average of 18 pounds.

3. You Must Eat a Lot of Vegetables

By eliminating legumes, dairy, and whole grains from your diet, you are missing out on many key nutrients.  To make this up, you will have to dramatically increase your vegetable, as well as your fruit intake.

Vegetables are especially important with the Paleo Diet.  Vegetables need to be a part of every meal, including breakfast.

When it comes to nutrition, studies show that the biggest risk of the Paleo Diet is a lack of calcium.  Calcium is critical for bone and other body functions.  Fortunately, there is much more calcium in green leafy vegetables, nuts, and seeds than the dairy industry would like you to believe.

To easily determine if what your diet is nutritionally sound, I highly recommend downloading the free Healthwatch 360 app.  With this app, you enter in the foods and the app will tell you what percentage of 39 key vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional markers you have hit for the day.  If you can’t get enough nutrition, you may need a “modified” Paleo Diet, which includes sprouted legumes, some dairy, or real whole grains, like brown rice, to hit on all key nutritional parameters.

4. Your Saturated Fat Intake Will Go Up

As covered in a previous blog article, there is a lot of confusion about the risk of saturated fat.  Historically, saturated fat was believed to be one of the major causes of high cholesterol and heart attacks.  That thinking is changing.

Based on a recent review in the British Medical Journal of 73 studies and 339,090 people, researchers concluded that saturated fat is neutral when it comes to heart disease.  The real risk is from replacing saturated fat with processed carbs.  In contrast, if saturated fat is replaced with omega 3 fats, cardiovascular risk can be reduced.

While modern day Paleo Diet followers are mostly meat eaters, studies show that the real paleolithic people were primarily vegetarians.  Thus, to be nutritionally safe, and be a true follower of the paleolithic eating style, you will likely need to significantly eat more vegetables and fruits.

5. Your Blood Pressure May Go Down

Studies show that 90% of people will have high blood pressure by age 55.  High blood pressure is one of the main causes of disability and premature death.  Fortunately, as I discussed in a previous blog, high blood pressure can be prevented or reversed.

Fortunately, studies consistently show that blood pressure goes down on the Paleo Diet.  This blood pressure drop is likely due to weight loss, the elimination of added sugar and processed foods, less sodium, and more potassium in the diet.

In every study I reviewed, the blood pressure lowering effect of the Paleo Diet seemed to be 3 to 10 points (mmHg).  If you consider that the typical blood pressure pill only drops blood pressure by about 8 points (mmHg), this really is quite impressive.

6. Your Diabetes May Resolve

Reversing diabetes is probably the main selling point of the Paleo Diet.  Indeed, all low carb diets dramatically improve glucose and hemoglobin A1C.  For example, one small study of 29 people with heart disease showed that the Paleo Diet was even better than the Mediterranean Diet for the treatment of diabetes.

7. Your Cholesterol Numbers Might Improve

Quite surprisingly, in a very small study of only 20 people, the non-grain Paleo Diet was shown to be better than the grain-based American Heart Association (AHA) Diet for cholesterol numbers.  While this study was quite interesting, there was not enough information for me to draw any firm conclusions.

For example, the study did not report vegetable or fruit intake of either group.  Nor did it report which grains and dairy the AHA Diet followers ate.  There also was no mention if legumes were even eaten in the AHA Diet group.

Based on this lack of information, this study could have simply compared the Standard American Diet to a diet comprised of lean meats and lots of vegetables and fruits.

8. Your Cancer Risk May Go Down

In another interesting study, the Paleo Diet was shown to be as good as the Mediterranean Diet for preventing colon cancer.  In a careful read of the study, people had to report eating a lot of vegetables and fruits to be considered followers of the Paleo Diet.  As high consumption of vegetables and fruits are well know to boost fiber intake and lower colon cancer risk, the findings of this study came as no surprise.

Take Home Message

The take home message of this study is that any way of eating that minimizes or avoids added sugars and processed foods can be very healthy.  As long as followers of the Paleo Diet eat large quantities of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, they should be able to get all the nutrients they need from food, including calcium.

Based on my careful review of the medical literature, the U.S. News and World Report ranking system is flawed when it comes to their assessment of the Paleo Diet.

Have you tried the Paleo Diet?  Did it work for you?

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