The Paleo Diet is a Plant Based Diet
Recently a friend posted on Facebook that she was adopting a “plant based diet.” Immediately, the comment feed lit up–some some supporters, some detractors, and still more giving friendly advice and encouragement. Even though a Facebook comment debate is the least meaningful use of one’s time, I couldn’t help but throw in my 2 cents. “What exactly is a plant based diet,” I wondered? Is it different from vegan/vegetarian? Is this really the diet we were meant to eat? Are followers of the Paleo diet doing it wrong? Are we ruining the planet and dooming ourselves to heart disease, cancer, and a whole host of chronic health problems?
In a a word: no. In some of my earlier posts we took a deep dive into the misguided dietary recommendations that have been foisted upon us by our government and other “health experts.” But this is different. Everyone can get behind a plant based diet, right? But lets just pause here for a moment. Like me, you may be scratching your head and wondering, “what the heck is a plant based diet anyways?” As best I can tell, it seems the terminology was invented as a more marketable alternative to “vegetarian” by the makers of the movie “Forks over Knives.” It is also used by Tom Brady’s (in)famous meal subscription service, Purple Carrot, which was the first item suggested by google when I performed a simple search for the term. Whatever this is and wherever it came from, it got me thinking. And writing. Initially, I found myself wanting to disagree. After all, humans are omnivores and meat has been part of the human diet for millennia. But almost no one would dispute the benefits of eating plentiful vegetables and other plant products. The more I thought abut it and reflected on my own diet, I began to realize that the Paleo Diet is a plant based diet, or at least should be.
I confess, in my early days of the Paleo diet I was obsessed with eating as much bacon, eggs, and steak as I could possibly stomach. It seemed rebellious and cool; and hell, I even lost weight and got in shape doing it. But the all you can eat meat is decidedly not Paleo, never was, and never has been. Ask Loren Cordain, PhD, who coined the term “Paleo Diet” and has the research to back it up. Better yet, ask a caveman (or perhaps imagine asking): meat was a treat and consumed when available, likely in spurts associated with successful hunts. Without preservation techniques such as curing or refrigeration, eating meat was something everyone in the community participated in until it was all gone. And I mean all. Evidence shows that most ancestral diets consumed the whole animal, not just the “white meat” (and certainly not just the egg whites!).
Modern Paleo diet authorities suggest limiting protein intake to 0.5-1g per pound of lean muscle mass per day. For most of us that’s about 100g protein per day. Admittedly, that’s probably a tough target for me, but I don’t disagree with it. If you’re into building rather than maintain muscle, perhaps a higher protein intake is reasonable, but I wouldn’t shoot for more than 1.5g/lb lean body mass in the long term. Remember, our ancestors ate all the animal, not just the protein-rich meat.
When I look at my own diet these days, animal protein makes its way into 2-3 meals per day, and that’s clearly an area I could stand to reduce to align more with ancestral health principles. But despite the regularity in which I eat animal protein the vast majority of my plate is still something green or plant-based. Spinach and shirataki noodles topped with grass fed lamb meatballs and homemade coconut curry sauce. Wild caught Alaskan salmon with wilted greens and cauliflower rice. Wood-fire grilled asparagus topped with fleur de sel, California olive oil, and a grass-fed/finished filet of beef. And don’t forget the glass of Napa Valley zinfandel and usually a spinach/kale/arugula salad to start.
Paleo is plant based–It’s just not plant exclusive. And that’s not a bad thing, despite what the animal-rights/vegan activist-funded documentaries (propaganda?) would have you believe. Humans are omnivores. While it’s OK to be vegetarian–and there are a variety of good reasons one may choose that way of eating–it is not the only way nor the “right” way. Anthropologists may debate when our pre-human ancestors began to hunt and consume meat. But we can all agree that humans were leaner, fitter, and free of chronic disease despite eating meat until the last 100 or so years. And despite the fear invoked by vegan activists regarding the health and environmental harms of meat production/consumption, the real danger is the modern industrial food system–CAFO’s, added hormones/antibiotics, and industrial farming operations–not the animal products themselves.
If you follow a Paleo/Primal diet, really strive to eat like a caveman. Avoid animal protein at each and every meal. Limit your quantity to a reasonable amount. Eat all parts of the animal (yes, it can be offal) and share meals communally. Source your animal products from local and sustainable farms and demand pasture raised, grass fed/finished, wild caught labelling. And at the end of the day, if you cant call your diet “plant based” you might be doing it wrong.
~Brendan
