Health-conscious folks all over the western world maintain that the key to a long, salubrious life is kicking it old school – at least 12,000 years old-school. It’s called the Paleo diet.
Well everybody’s favourite bespectacled scientist, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, is here to tell us that it’s all a load of old baloney.
The Paleo concept (heroed by celebrity chef Pete Evans) centres around the idea that our bodies weren’t designed to consume processed foods, or indeed anything produced by agriculture, leaving you to make your meals out of little more than meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. That means no grains, no dairy, no table salt, nothing at all processed.
Responding to a listener’s question during his weekly radio segment on Triple J, Dr Karl crushed the whole ‘caveman’ culinary philosophy in four simple points.
- There was no single diet during the Paleolithic era. People ate different things depending on where they lived.
- “We actually have evolved a lot in the last 12,000 years.” Consider lactose intolerance, for example.
- “We can’t eat what they ate, because it’s not around.”
- It’s “way out of kilter” with the recommendations of professional dietitians.
He went on to clarify that last point, by saying: “Now, I’m not talking about somebody whose job is being a professional celebrity, but somebody’s whose job is to spend four years at university to get their bachelor’s degree, then their master’s degree.”
Ouch.
One of those well-educated experts is his co-host nutrition and dietetics expert Professor Clare Collins, who chimed in to point out “the paleo man isn’t here today for a reason.”
“The positive is the big diversity of vegetables and fruit, so that’s one of the most positive things, and it’d be a pretty high-fibre diet,” said Prof Collins. “But there isn’t actually any evidence for paleo-specific.”
Top Comments
I have done so much personal research on nutrition and diet over the years that I can now confidently say, there is no expert on this planet who can tell us what we should be eating. I would particularly avoid listening to anyone who is a 'trained' anything for the simple reason that for decades they gave us the food pyramid, which has now been revealed as an ever-changing marketing tool for the big food manufacturers. 'Trained' experts have also not kept up with all the additives and chemicals being added daily to our foods. There are simply no experts on diet.
What I have decided is that I will let my body tell me what it should eat based on how I feel. Therefore, I am a very happy vegan whilst my hubby is a very happy paleo type. We all should educate ourselves as best we can and take charge of what we put in our mouths, rather than allow ourselves to be led by marketing or research that is funded by vested interests or science that has long been influenced by who is paying the bill for their particular institution. Modern medicine is just as limited in what they know. Biology gave us everything we need to be able to decide what makes us feel good to eat - or not. We should tune in to it.
I don't follow Dr Karl for food advice or chefs or Dieticians. Eating plenty of plant foods, non dairy, avoid wheat, eat traditional foods rich in nutrition are the best thing for my family. We cannot access most of our original plant sources (Indigenous plants). We have to eat western vegetables and fruits. Our main meat source is kangaroo. Once we eat these foods our issues of high blood pressure are gone instantly. High carb foods are no good for our family. We are not waiting for research or an association to prove this. We have extremely high rates of diabetes and need to find solutions now. We did not have cows 200 + years ago and many of us still have lactose intolerance. I doubt we have adapted in those 200 years to eat the modern wheat either. It makes sense to me to eat food unprocessed as possible and coming from the tree, plant or ground.