NAFC NewsBlast - October 2017 | Ed 2.1

The Truth about the Paleo Diet

Written by: Dr. Max MacCloud, DO, ND, PhD, The Health, Fitness & Nutrition Ninja

Source: My Body Symphony

Copyright: arleevector / 123RF Stock Photo

I founded a company

a while back that makes some of the best plant-based nutritional products on the planet. A key focus was on creating super-nutritious and delicious PLANT-based protein that was also PALEO. As a result of becoming the Leaders in Paleo, Plant-Based Nutrition, people often ask me about various aspects of the PALEO (Paleolithic) Diet. Here are some of my thoughts and opinions on it.

First off,

the vast majority of everything written on the Caveman or Paleo Diet is speculation. By definition, the Paleolithic era predates recorded history. That means there are NO written records and the actual data is extremely limited. I want to be very clear that my speculations and opinions are at odds with some of the better-known paleo writers and advocates.

The Paleolithic / caveman diet

has been around for a LONG time. And I don’t just mean the actual diet since we don’t really know what that was, I mean people speculating about it, writing about it, and promoting it… all that has been going on for many decades.

The biggest issue

I have with many of the “born-again” Paleo gurus out there is the extremely heavy reliance on meat and animal products. The evidence simply doesn’t support those prehistoric people could possibly have consumed as much meat as many claim.

Conspiracy by the Meat Industry

Honestly, it almost seems like the latest Paleo craze is a conspiracy by the meat industry to get Americans back to consuming obscene amounts of meat, pork, and poultry. Over the past few decades, people were finally starting to cut back on their meat consumption based on decades of studies that showed us that too much of it was simply not very healthy. On top of that, we finally came to the realization that people’s obscenely high consumption of meat is the BIGGEST contributor to destabilizing and destroying our environment.

Many books have been written

So, just when people were finally starting to “get it” there is this insane resurgence of high meat consumption. Much of the frenzy was fed by the “CrossFit” phenomenon. That will be the topic of another post (yes, I have some issues with it as well).

Back to the Paleo craze,

I strongly believe that the evidence points to a quite modest intake of animal protein that supplemented a largely vegetarian diet. Do your own research and think about it. Even today, hunters with the highest tech equipment often find it challenging to stalk and kill large animals. Given the primitive weapons of the Paleolithic era, do you really think that they gorged on meat all that often?

Now, meat does have

some very important nutritional benefits, there’s no denying that BUT it is totally possible to get all of those vital nutrients from non-meat sources (at least today). There are in fact, 11 vital nutrients that ONLY occur in meat, nutrients that aren’t the focus of any protein completeness scoring system.

For those who would like more details

If you’d like to learn more about those nutrients and how to get them from a plant-based protein source goto the following link to request a copy of the info to be sent to your email address.

Click here for our Website: My Body Symphony

Written by: Dr. Max MacCloud, DO, ND, PhD, The Health, Fitness & Nutrition Ninja