Paleo: the dubious joy of dieting
[NOTE: Here I am, venturing again into the dangerous topic of dieting. I guess I just can’t resist temptation.]
I seem to recall that quite a few of you swear by the paleo diet, but I cannot imagine treating food in as complicated a way as Sébastien Noé«l seems to do at this website for paleo aficionados.
Remember nuts? Once upon a time when I was a kid they were just—well, they were those little yummy things that people put out in small bowls when company came, or shelled and ate at the circus, or put in stuffings or fruit cakes at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. You didn’t have to worry all that much about whether they were good or bad for you because food was food and anyway nuts were kind of expensive and they weren’t around in such great quantities or too often.
Then they became bad for you—too fattening, too fatty, too much fun, too something. And then they were rediscovered and became really really really good for you, although you still couldn’t eat as many as you might want. Something like an ounce a day was considered optimal. But how many people stop after an ounce of nuts—especially when they’ve become afraid that at any moment nuts will be declared verboten again (in mid-bite, as it were), so best eat up while you can?
But Noé«l makes the situation so complex, turns it into such a lengthy process of weighing pros and cons and the minutiae of each type of nut and its idiosyncratic effects that it’s hard to believe any enjoyment whatsoever could be salvaged from the process of ingesting these over-analyzed nuggets. I’m all for paying general attention to what we eat and the health consequences, but do we really know enough to fine-tune our health to that degree? And after it’s done, what’s left of the gusto of life?
If I want to eat, I eat. If I want to study biochemistry–well I passed up that choice years ago. I guess this sort of stuff makes people seem intelligent so others will buy their books.
It’s a miracle that ancient people survived at all, given how little they knew about biochemistry. They were taking their lives in their hands with every mouthful of food.
I’m with expat: I eat the things I like when I want, in the quantities that satisfy me. Protein tends to satisfy quickly and with a smaller amount.
Nuts, on the other hand, I could eat by the pound. Since I have no discipline in regard to them, I tend to not have them around.
They were taking their lives in their hands with every mouthful of food.
How long did it take before the figured out what plants they could eat, and what plants would kill them if they ate them?
Whoops, there goes Uncle Joe, best not eat that plant.
I’ve switched to a modified Paleo diet and try to consume only grass fed beef and wild fish and the good chickens, the ‘good” chickens. And since I really don’t like greens, I juice them. I’m a two month old baby on this diet and the results have been great.
But here’s the rub and why I don’t follow a strict Paleo diet, which as Neo states, is somewhat difficult due to knowing exactly what the Paleo diet is. (For instance, to salt or not to salt)
But here’s the rub: the diet is grounded on evolutionary biology. Because the evolution of our ancestors was informed by their diet, which supposedly was consistent and unchanging for 2 million years, ie., the Paleo diet, our bodies have evolved to that diet and the late grain change does not find purchase.
I don’t agree with that. I believe in a Creator who provided foods such as grains, and they have a place in our diet. And epigenetic evolution allows for an incorporation of diet change and in much quicker fashion than millions of years.
I think the main benefit people are experiencing is the elimination of toxins and of sugar.
We take that gusto and bite it into the shape of a gun.
“Whoops, there goes Uncle Joe, best not eat that plant.”
Probably used young children.
And whatsherface does go on and on and on in boring blather about nuts but she’s probably just hacking out or pasting in a chapter from a present or future book. A real writer, she ain’t.
“I’m all for paying general attention to what we eat and the health consequences, but do we really know enough to fine-tune our health to that degree?”
Yes, this is very sensible for most people. For people like Sébastien Noé«l, I think diet is a kind of hobby. Like any narrow interest, the minutiae of the subject provides them pleasure.
Near starvation situations undoubtedly made it necessary over the millenia to try just about everything growing and alive to see if it was edible. If it didn’t kill you it was a potential food source. Tasting good was a side benefit.
I’m all for eliminating processed foods and sugars, and eating a substantial range of fresh vegetables and fruits every day. Meat? Sure, in moderation, and I personally prefer range fed/truly free range for ethical as much as dietary reasons. The Paleo Diet strikes me though as just another in a long series of pseudo scientific dieting methodologies someone comes up with, pushes and makes money upon, until the next one surfaces.
There’s always someone who insists that eating “x” will kill you or bring you low enough for something else to kill you.
Coffee is bad, coffee is good, eat this, eat that, don’t eat this, don’t eat that…. its endless. And please pass that bowl of chili-lime cashews.
“Sébastien Noé«l”
Are accents over your name good for you? Bad for you? Fattening? What?
The Paleo Diet strikes me though as just another in a long series of pseudo scientific dieting methodologies someone comes up with, pushes and makes money upon, until the next one surfaces.
This.
Yet people continue buying them. All the authors have to do is make sure the mumbo and jumbo waves never cross.
The notion of a “paleo diet” is particularly amusing. I’m sure paleos ate anything they could outrun or outsmart, or pull their mouths over (“Twas a brave man indeed that ‘et the first oyster”). Of course, paleos probably only lived to be about 20, something those following their diet might want to consider.
I’m sure our ancestors ate carrion as long as it was not too far gone. I may write a cookbook on the benefits of carrion. Baked dead skunk in the middle of the road with nuts and berries. (Remember to remove the scent glands and make sure to wear eye protection and gloves.) Grilled 2 day old dead oppossum with arugula and sun dried tomatoes drizzled with basil infused balsamic vinegar. Tire pounded squirrel with apricot-almond chutney and roasted parsnips. The possibilities are as endless as the line of diet gurus.
Keep the mumbo jumbo, I’ll take the gumbo.
parker Says:
March 22nd, 2013 at 7:45 pm
A couple of the chicken recipes I use involve pounding the chicken breast flat so that it cooks evenly. This could be a labor-saving alternative.
“A couple of the chicken recipes I use involve pounding the chicken breast flat so that it cooks evenly. This could be a labor-saving alternative.”
Put your chicken, at least 1 day dead of course, in the road.
http://tinyurl.com/afqtbnl
You have got to be kidding! i got as far as the almonds in the article Neo linked. You’ve got to be a chemist to even start this stuff.
I don’t happen to be looking to diet — I keep incredibly active with gardening and relandscaping our property and that seems to solve any weight problems I might have. But if I were, I could NEVER deal with the biochem studies required for maintaining this Paleo stuff.
I agree with those who point out the ever-changing proclamations of what’s good and bad to eat and the neuroses this can cause. I love red meat so I wasn’t going to give it up even when the doctors and dieticians, magazine articles and foodies pronounced that is was the equivalent of poison. And, ta dah! now it’s not! Then there were eggs — or rather, egg whites vs. those horrid yokes. I’m not a big egg eater except when cooked into food, so I could take’em or leave ’em. But again, ta dah! now they are good for you again! Then there’s debate about coffee, colas, salt, drinking booze, saturated fats vs. unsaturated fats (I’m not even sure which transfats allude to, but I really don’t care enough to look it up!) And why should I? Wait long enough and Mayor Bloomfield of NY tell you what you are no longer permitted to eat legally!
I realize there have always been the “in” diets and not only were you cool if you were on such, it made for great cocktail party talk. (But who wants to talk diets, when we have so many derogative things to discuss about our fool of a President?)
Fortunes have been made creating diets and managing the P.R. for them is akin to launching almost any new company. Dr. Arthur Agatson & his wife (from where I grew up) successfully created & promoted “The South Beach Diet” — which was based on proteins and the chemical interaction of different foods vs. simple calorie counting as in Weight Watchers. His use of the words “South Beach” latched on to the craze of South Beach as a hot destination (which happened to be another made up name for the Southern part of Miami Beach which had never before used any special reference. (Interestingly enough, “the moniker “South Beach” was thought up by the same developer who developed “Soho” in New York city to add to the neighborhood’s caché. Marketing tools that worked big time!)
And, of course, Jean Nidetch, creator of Weight Watcher’s had almost a lock on the diet industry for decades, until others realized how lucrative it could be. Ironically enough, I went to high school with her niece, Barbara Nidetch who was a pudge ball. Nice and smart but very chubby, and eager to announce her relation to her aunt of Weight Watcher fame.
Out of Weight Watchers came the basic understanding that dieting need not be a strict list from a restricted food list, but rather the common sense concept of eating moderately and maintain some physical activity. In other words, the more fatty foods one consumes in great quantities, the fatter you’ll become!.
Then there was that Susan something-or-other….was it Powder? She had short platinum blonde hair, always wore pink leotards and yelled a lot on her own TV show warning of the danger of FAT in foods.
And can’t forget Richard Simmons — the workout king (little prince?) who still remains popular with certain populations. He stressed working out and moving ad the secret to losing weight and didn’t even talk about food.
Bottom line: every successful diet creator has some “shtick” (=gimmick) to peddle their concept and if it takes in the marketplace, there’s lots of money to be made.
Now the current craze seems to be the delivery of food service. The dieter just has to pay & eat; all the figuring of number of calories, fats, proteins or whatever is done for you. I laugh when they all claim the food is so fresh and good, and then they tell you
the meals are delivered once a week. You just remove them from the freezer and warm up!
This “Paleo” stuff is way too complicated not to mention, depriving of lots of good stuff (like nuts, for one!). Who wants to return to college science chemistry to understand and follow a diet? Is not the thought of a diet and commitment thereto hard enough?
And, as for the concept that “the diet is grounded on evolutionary biology,” that isn’t too good a sign for living a long life, since life spans back in the time were a heck of a lot shorter! (Heck! they were less than 1/2 the current lifespan in colonial times. Can’t imagine what they were millions of years ago! But then, there wasn’t nearly so much to do without computers, Gameboys, and Google to fill the hours!)
I think we can all agree, cashews are to be snarfed down as soon as encountered.
paleo diet? eat like the cavemen did? come on, that’s just plain “nuts”!
SCOTTtheBADGER Says:
Cashews are good, just not good for you; I like them in my stir-frys. But give me macadamia nuts for sheer soft, fatty, tasty goodness. Macadamia nuts are the asparagus of the nut world.
Oh, and peanuts go great in cooking as well, not to mention as a snack right out of the shell. So if you open peanut shells as you eat the nuts, does the physical activity cancel out any calories? That’s my story and I sticking with it.
I know there are Paleo sites that have all the complicated nutritional stuff. I really don’t deal with any of that. The two cookbooks I use are Well Fed and Paleo Comfort Foods. Well Fed is heavy on cooking veggies and protein. Paleo Comfort Food replicates home cooking without the grains and legumes.
Both my boyfriend and I lose weight on Paleo. We’ve been off diet a few months, because I’ve been sick. When we add back grains and legumes, the weight loss stops. And he even notices that he feels better on Paleo. The biggest problem is that it requires a lot of prep and cooking time. That’s hard to do when you are sick.
I’ve made some of the bread and desserts using almond flour from Honeyville Farms and I like it a lot. It’s more satisfying and filling than using regular flour. Some of the Paleo folks object to trying to replicate regular foods like bread. I don’t buy into that. People want to eat the foods they grew up with. They will not look forward to a big bowl of braised kale 😉
I’m sure our ancestors ate carrion as long as it was not too far gone.
Hence curry. The spiciness was designed to hide the flavor of meat that had gone off. Curry is one of those cuisines you definitely don’t want too authentic.
People like to think they have control over their fate. So there’s the low-sodium ukase even if it doesn’t make any difference. Low-sugar. High something else.
And when somebody under the age of, say, eighty dies, the question is what he did wrong. Separates those hoping for The Answer from the potentially dead.
First, no refined carbs and no beer. Second, lift heavy weights three times a week. If you want to lose weight, then no alcohol except four ounces of wine with dinner. Works for me, ymmv, of course.
That’s enough info, but for more, see Taubes and Riptoe. Especially if you haven’t lifted weights.