There have been a ton of articles popping up that apparently “debunk paleo” or somehow prove it isn’t scientifically accurate.
I won’t even link to them because I’m not going to drive traffic to these agenda fueled articles that are poorly researched and even more poorly written. That being said, I am occasionally hesitant to call myself paleo for a few reasons. The first is that I really don’t like labeling the way I eat and pigeonholing it, and more accurately I follow a Perfect Health Diet
. But paleo is more about what you don’t eat than what you do. We don’t eat vegetable oils, toxic grains, gluten, processed food, genetically modified food, etc. As long as you are eating whole foods that are easy on your digestion and are good for you, what the hell is the problem?
The foundation of paleo is simple: Eat unprocessed foods.
Eat pastured meat, wild seafood, healthy fats, organic veggies and fruits, some nuts and seeds, bone broth, even grass-fed dairy and white rice. This is what paleo is to me. It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. And it’s going to be a little different for everyone within the confines of healthy eating. So what exactly is the problem with people giving up processed foods in favor of whole ingredients?
Do people find it too restrictive? Majority of us follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time we eat well and the other 20% is for less paleo approved foods. Potatoes are still fine, wine, even chocolate, and cheese. Do people hate paleo because of the paleo police? The annoying internet trolls who comment on a grass-fed burger with a side salad and say, “The cheese on that burger isn’t paleo!” I don’t think so.
There are vegan trolls. And yet, societally, veganism is synonymous with health, with green living, with environmentalism, and is it one of the furthest lifestyles from all of these things.
I don’t see mainstream media bashing veganism (although I do see former vegans who found the meat-eating light doing it, like myself). So why has a way of eating that emphasizes real, whole, unprocessed foods that are organically grown and GMO-free come under such scrutiny?
Well, I don’t really know, but I have an idea. I think it’s because we challenge what has been so widely accepted for so many years. Low-fat, high grain, processed diet foods are not good for you, America. I think it’s because we eat our steak and our egg yolks and liver. We don’t eat low-fat dairy or wheat based cereal with genetically modified ingredients.
I think people are afraid to let go of their antiquated notions of health.
If people actually put in the research, they would realize that a paleo based diet is the healthiest. Eat what your ancestors ate. If your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, you should not eat it. And you can bet your boots she wasn’t drinking skim milk.
Let them eat their low-fat dairy. Pass the sustainably raised bacon.
