Paleo Diet Review: Is It Healthy?

Unless you’ve been hibernating in an actual cave, you're likely to be familiar with the Paleo diet. “Eating Paleo", as those following the regime often refer to it, is by no means a new concept. It has gained increasing attention over recent years and has become particularly mainstream in the health and fitness world. It's now the subject of thousands of books, websites and blogs and has been further popularised by high-profile celebrity advocates including Matthew McConaughey, Megan Fox and Andrew Flintoff. Entire Paleo-focused food brands have been created, and Paleo-friendly cafes and restaurants have emerged.

Paleo Diet: How Does It Work?

The Paleo diet is based on the principle of only eating the foods cavemen were thought to have eaten during the Paleolithic era – the hunter-gatherer diet. This consists of lean meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, fruit, non-starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds. This is a stark contrast to the typical Westernised diet, which is rich in refined carbohydrates, grains, sugar and processed foods, all of which are omitted from the Paleo diet (as well as dairy, starchy vegetables and legumes).

A typical day's menu on the Paleo diet may look like this:

Breakfast: Grilled mushroom omelette with tomatoes

Mid-morning snack: Handful of raw, unsalted nuts and fresh fruit

Lunch: Salmon and avocado salad with boiled eggs and rocket

Dinner: Chicken breast with steamed broccoli, spinach and a tomato and basil salad

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Advocates of the Paleo diet (also called the Caveman, Hunter-Gatherer or Stone Age diet), believe that our digestive systems weren’t designed to process the modern diet rich in refined, processed foods. Dr. Loren Cordain, one of the world’s leading experts on Paleo nutrition, argues that certain foods only entered our diets with the agricultural revolution (around 10,000 years ago), not leaving enough time for our bodies to adapt to them. Cordain and other proponents of the Paleo diet believe that eliminating “modern and processed foods and replacing them with the natural foods our ancestors would have been able to forage for can dramatically improve our health and well being. Some of the claimed potential health benefits of eating Paleo include reduced risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, weight loss, clearer skin, improved sleep, increased energy levels and better mental clarity.

However, many health experts argue we shouldn’t model our diets on the hunter-gatherers as they were not models of pristine health, and that the entire concept of the Paleo diet is flawed. Paleolithic humans suffered from parasitic and infectious diseases, and even atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and they also had a much shorter lifespan than we do today. “What human beings eat has continually evolved over the past 2.5 million years (since the Paleolithic era began), as the environment on the planet and the available food sources [where human beings lived] changed. A key factor to our survival as a species has been our ability to adapt," says Robyn Flipse, a registered dietitian and cultural anthropologist who believes there is no biological evidence to justify the adoption of the Paleo diet.

Paleo Diet Pros

• Puts an emphasis on vegetables, fruit and lean protein and eliminates refined and processed foods.
• Emphasises the consumption of the highest quality proteins you can find (e.g. grass-fed beef, wild game, wild seafood), which can have both health and environmental benefits.
• Doesn’t restrict calories and doesn’t rely on meal-replacement shakes or supplements.
• The Paleo diet is rich in both fibre and protein, both of which are very satiating, so dieters shouldn't feel hungry.

Paleo Diet Cons

• Many health professionals believe that it is far too restrictive, and unnecessarily cuts out entire food groups such as dairy, legumes and whole grains, arguing that this could be putting individuals at risk of nutritional deficiencies.
• Such a restrictive diet is very hard to maintain, and is particularly difficult (if not impossible) for vegetarians and vegans, with animal protein being a key part of the diet.
• A high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is not suitable for everyone.
• Strictly following a list of “good and “bad or “allowed and “not allowed foods is not a healthy approach to eating, and can cause food issues to develop.
• There are also many definitions and versions of the Paleo diet, which cause confusion.

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The Verdict

There are only a small number of human studies on the Paleo diet, and they are all of a small sample size, making it difficult for any definitive conclusions to be drawn.

“The concern is that [the Paleo diet] encourages restrictive eating, which is often not sustainable in the long-term. By banning certain nutritious foods, followers of this diet will be at a greater risk of falling short of important nutrients. People are looking for a shortcut to weight loss and good health, but unfortunately there is no magic bullet," says Dr. Trent Watson, dietitian.

Despite the controversy, there is one key principle of the Paleo diet that is unquestionably good for our health: the compliance to a largely unprocessed diet, and the emphasis on eating more “real food. And limiting the consumption of refined sugar, which offers no nutritional benefits and has been closely tied to a vast array of chronic illnesses, is advocated unanimously by all health professionals. However, this one-size-fits-all approach is not going to be suitable for everyone, and creating a regime full of rules can be very problematic for many people by putting a negative spin on eating. The Paleo diet also restricts entire food groups, which not only makes long-term compliance difficult, but could also put individuals at risk of nutritional deficiencies.

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