Paleo Principles
Eat whole foods
Healthy fats are good (nuts, seeds, oils)
Animal protein is good (grass-fed, organic beef is especially enshrined)
Non-starchy veggies and leafy greens are good
Avoid dairy
Avoid sugar
Avoid grains
Avoid legumes
Avoid carbohydrates (5% or less of your diet if ketogenic)
Minimize fruit (a carbohydrate)
Keto and Paleo
The Ketogenic and Paleo diets are closely related. Think of Keto as being a more restricted version of Paleo (kind of like WFPB is a restricted version of a vegan diet). They eat similar things, but Keto is much more focused on reducing carbs with the goal of getting the body into a state of ketosis (definition forthcoming).
Ketosis
“Ketosis” simply means that ketones, a byproduct of your body burning fat, are present in your blood. The body prefers to use glucose has its primary fuel, but when none is available, fats are used instead--hence ketosis.
You may have heard a similar sounding term, “ketoacidosis.” This is ketosis that has gone out of control, where the levels of ketones in the blood are extraordinarily high and as a result, the PH level of the blood has become very acidic. This condition can be fatal, but it almost always happens only to diabetics, and especially Type 1 diabetics. For non-diabetics, this condition is considered a non-issue.
Claimed benefits of Paleo:
Weight Loss: You are teaching the body to burn fat as a fuel. Fats are satisfying, so you feel full
Lower Triglycerides. High levels of triglycerides are strongly associated with heart disease. A Paleo diet lowers this risk factor.
Reduce blood sugar and insulin production levels: Carbs are broken into simple sugars which cause blood sugar spikes (and the need for more insulin). By not ingesting carbs, blood sugar is more steady, and less insulin is needed to regulate the blood sugar. This means people who already take diabetic medication can take less by becoming Paleo.
Two Fuel Sources for the Body
It is a testament to the resiliency of the body that it can run for periods of time in ketosis. The body has a limited ability to store glucose (it is stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles). Depletion of glycogen is what is happening when you hear athletes speak of “hitting the wall.” In times of food scarcity, the ability to burn fats as fuel is a survival mechanism.
Problems with Paleo
This survival mechanism is stressful on the body, and it comes with consequences:
Fat is a “dirty fuel” in that its by-product, ketones, are acidic. The only by-products of using glucose for fuel is carbon dioxide and water.
When the body is acidic, the bones and kidneys are affected
Accelerated loss of bone minerals to balance the PH (osteoporosis)
Uric acid production by the kidneys (can lead to kidney stones and gout)
Already stressed kidneys are even more stressed with the high animal protein portion of the diet. It is standard practice in nephrology (study of the kidneys), that in cases of chronic kidney disease, patients are switched to a low protein diet to minimize stress.
Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). When you eat a diet heavy in animal protein, you are self selecting the microbes in your gut microbiome that can break down and process these animal proteins. These bacteria produce a molecule called trimethylamine which makes its way to your liver which transforms it into TMAO. TMAO acts as a gateway that allows cholesterol to move from the blood into the artery walls. This explains why cholesterol appears to drop on this diet. The measurement of cholesterol is done via lipid panels using a blood draw. The cholesterol has moved from the blood into the arteries.
Endotoxins: Endotoxins are chemicals released by dying microbes found in the guts of animals. Slaughterhouses are endotoxin factories in that everything is contaminated by them as part of the slaughtering process. Endotoxins are heat stable--you can’t cook them out! Endotoxins have been shown to cause “leaky gut” syndrome by damaging the cells of your intestine walls. A healthy gut wall stops larger toxic molecules from entering your bloodstream, while a compromised gut wall allows toxins into your bloodstream.
What You Aren’t Eating
Fruit: The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) found the #1 cause of death in the United States is because of diet. It also found that the #1 dietary risk factor is inadequate consumption of fruit.
Beans/Legumes: The largest study linking cancer and diet was performed in 2007 by the American Institute for Cancer Research. One of their recommendations is to eat whole grains and/or legumes with EVERY SINGLE MEAL. Legumes are that important!
Environmental Scalability: If Paleo is a great diet for everyone, how could grass fed meat possibly scale to 8 billion people? Is this a diet only of the “elite”?
Ignoring the Healthiest Populations in the World: While there has been no known sizable populations that have thrived on a Paleo-like diet, Blue Zone populations around the world all share heavy consumption of complex carbohydrates and vegetables.
Note: Inuit and Maasai are often cited as have nearly zero heart disease despite their animal protein centric diets. This simply seems to be a myth. Autopsies have shown that these populations are rife with heart disease, but they often don’t live long enough for the disease to fully manifest. In fact, an autopsy study of 50 Maasai concluded that the amount of heart disease uncovered was on par with an “elderly American man.”
Low Carb Diets and Type II Diabetes
Type II diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance, meaning the insulin receptors on muscle cells have lost their ability to bind to insulin effectively. We now know this is caused by intramyocellular lipids, or fat within the muscle cells. The well known analogy here is that insulin is the key that allows sugar into the muscle, but in Type II diabetes, the lock has become gummed up with fat.
When Paleo advocates speak of benefits of their diet for diabetes, their results are due to minimizing blood sugar spikes as a result from consuming so few carbohydrates. Note that this isn’t addressing the underlying mechanism of the disease--instead it is minimizing the symptoms. Going back to the analogy, Paleo advocates are saying that when your lock is gummed up, simply try to use the key less often, whereas WFPB advocates are saying, let’s remove what’s gumming up the lock.
Ironically, the Paleo diet is actually causing the condition they are trying to ameliorate. There are two very large studies, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), and the Nurses’ Health Study, show that meat consumption is a major risk factor for diabetes. The EPIC study, which followed 521,000 people for 12 years, found that meat (and especially processed meat) is significantly associated with the development of Type II diabetes, while fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a decrease in diabetes development. The Nurses’ study, which followed 238,000 nurses, found that consuming just half a serving of meat a day increases the risk of developing Type II diabetes by 48%.
The Atkins Study
Amazingly, there was a study following Atkins diet participants, funded by the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, that included the following findings about the participants
68% reported constipation
63% reported bad breath
51% reported headaches
10% reported hair loss
53% increase in the amount of calcium excreted via the participants’ urine
Never fear, though, because Dr. Atkins writes of his patients, “Add to the [antioxidants] the vita-nutrients known to be useful for each of the myriad medical problems my patients face, and you’ll see why many of them take over thirty vitamin pills a day.” The cavemen were sure fortunate to have their prehistoric supplements!
Sources:
The source of this material was taken from the following:
Dr. Michael Klaper, “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me in Medical School About Nutrition” (YouTube)
T Colin Campbell, “The China Study” Chapter 4 (Print)
National Institutes of Health, “Trimethylamine N-Oxide: The good, the Bad, the Unknown” (PMC5127123)
Atkins, “Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution”, 1999 Pg 103 (Print)
American Journal of Medicine, 113 (2002), “Carbohydrate Diet Program” Pg 80-82
National Institutes of Health, “Low-protein diets for chronic kidney disease patients: the Italian experience” (27401096)
Dr. Michael Greger, “How Not To Die” Pg 276, 298
Dr. Michael Greger, “Omega-3s and the Eskimo Fish Tale” via NutritionFacts.org
Thomas Campbell, “Masai and Inuit High-Protein Diets: A Closer Look” via NutritionStudies.org
Dr. Garth Davis, “Proteinaholic” pg 103, 146, 147