Modern Paleo Diet

Recently, I received the following e-mail from Nick, a college student considering going paleo. I’m hoping that some college students can offer him some advice on sticking to the diet in college in the comments.

I’m nearing completion of a summer internship in Africa since late May, and have noticed that the change in diet (in living with a host family in a rural town) has also dropped my weight and I have lost fat. As a college student who has been putting on the pounds with an unhealthy diet, this is awesome news! I largely attribute it to the fact that the food I’m now eating here is ACTUALLY food, not processed (although the diet in Uganda is extremely high-carb). As an Objectivist and follower of your blog, I knew of your connection to paleo and wanted to explore it more. What I’m afraid of is going back to

As you might have seen elsewhere, David Csonka of Naturally Engineered invites you to participate in the 2011 Paleo Community Survey:

The purpose of this survey is to collect information about paleo diet community members, including demographic information, medical conditions, dietary preferences, and physical activity.

The resulting data will be invaluable in terms of understanding the nature of the paleo movement. It will be provided to other bloggers and researchers with the goal of providing a clearer picture of how the paleo diet has affected the lives of its adherents.

Survey respondents will remain anonymous, your name or other identifying information will not be collected. The survey itself is relatively short and should only take a couple of minutes to complete.

Several incentives for completion of the survey have been provided, and will be explain further at the end of the survey. These include a coupon code for Paleo Treats

The paleo diet was recently the subject of an article in Boulder’s newspaper, The Daily Camera: Paleo diet advocates claim increased energy, health benefits. Very unexpectedly, Modern Paleo was mentioned!

With more than 90 active members, the Denver paleo group on Meetup.com provides a way for paleo dieters to connect, support each other and share tips. In Boulder, more than 45 people are on a waiting list anticipating the start of a similar group. With the objective of creating an online community, University of Colorado graduate Diana Hsieh started ModernPaleo.com.

The article is pretty good, as much as I groan at the paleo “pancakes” featured in the opening and the closing.

Modern Paleo…

On occasion, I’ve noticed some consternation in the paleosphere about what constitutes a truly “paleo” approach to diet. Undoubtedly, I’ve got my own share of pet peeves. I’m annoyed when paleo advocates disparage saturated fat, recommend canola oil, or insist on lean meats. I don’t like that many people equate paleo with low-carb, as if potatoes are on par with wheat. I regard talk against “processed” or “industrial” foods as seriously misguided, since foods are not rendered more or less healthy by mere processing or mass production per se. I’m not concerned with whether cavemen ate some particular food or not.

However, I try not to get too fussed over my disagreements with other paleo eaters and advocates. That’s because, in my view, paleo is a school of thought based on early science. Let me explain what that means and why that matters.

First, “paleo” is a nutritional school of …

• Here’s some interesting debate on the value of Vitamin A between Dr. Cannell of the Vitamin D Council and Chris Masterjohn writing for the Weston A. Price Foundation. Personally, I’m pretty solidly in the pro-cod-liver-oil camp with Masterjohn. I suspect that he’s right on the science, and personally, I’ve seen huge improvements in my overall dental health thanks to cod liver oil. Even more remarkably, the inflamed and painful section of my gums from last summer’s gum surgery is now only a tiny bit sensitive thanks to rubbing two drops of fermented cod liver oil on it every day or so.
• Dr. Kurt Harris on The Only Reasonable Paleo Principle: “a food being evolutionarily novel was a likely condition for it being an agent of disease, but that novelty was neither necessary nor sufficient for agent of disease status.” See also The Paleolithic Principle: The Panu Version and Health

Mark Sisson’s newsletter the other week says:

It’s nice to have goals, but you have to have a plan of attack to succeed. Full health is achievable, certainly within a year. But break it down, start with a few specifics. Make this “the year I stop drinking soda!” or “the year I go camping once a month!” Let total health blossom as a result of achievable goals.

For me, this was the encouragement I needed to proceed with a plan that I had made for myself. A while ago, I blogged about the advice I gave my dad to start paleo gently. Recently, I have taken a page out of my own book and relaxed the requirements I had set for myself initially, focusing on the following principles:

• Paleo

1. is a

high-fat high-protein diet

. I tell my kids, “meat is what gives you energy to do

Someone recently asked,

My boss and I got her to go paleo after reading Taubes’ books. She training for a 120 mile bike race at high elevation (10,000 ft and above) and she’s wondering how that’s going to work into the paleo lifestyle. She usually loaded up on carbs before a big ride. Is that still what she should do now? She has several 50 mile rides planned before the big event, so she’s willing to experiment with different things.

This is a great question! I am an endurance runner and have been eating paleo for a couple of years now. Nutrition while running was something I needed to tackle early on when I switched from the SAD to eating low carb, then to paleo. Traditional endurance-athlete foods never really sat well in my stomach (Gu, Power Bar, Hammer, etc), and I was making do with consuming granola bars and …