Despite the many grain free recipes on this blog and my frequent admonition to eliminate refined grain based carbs from the diet and limit even properly prepared grains to a moderate level, I don’t choose to eat paleo or primal.
I especially don’t want my children to eat this way.
My reasons are pretty straightfoward when it comes to Paleo. They are more subtle with regards to Primal.
Paleo Diet – Misguided from the Get Go
The Paleo Diet as written by Loren Cordain can be quickly dismissed as unhealthy because it makes a number of wild claims that are completely unsupported through close examination of Traditional Societies as studied and documented by Dr. Weston A. Price in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
For starters, he says that wild animals are low in fat, but buffalo fat is more saturated than even beef fat from domesticated cattle.
He recommends canola oil as a source of omega-3 fatty acids, yet most canola oil is deodorized during manufacturing which destroys these delicate fats. It is almost always of GMO origin.
Cordain extols the virtues of lean meats but Traditional Man prized the fatty, cholesterol rich liver and other fatty cuts.
Perhaps Cordain’s most ridiculous suggestion of all is to rub flax oil on meat before cooking. Flax oil should never be cooked as it turns rancid and would be toxic and carcinogenic to consume!
His recommendation against grains and all starchy root vegetables (tubers) goes against discoveries of grains in the ashes and pottery of some of the most primitive humans and widespread use of tubers by many Traditional Societies. For example, ancient hunter-gatherers ate oats as confirmed by archaeological evidence.
Finally, his claim that primitive man did not consume salt is just plain baffling. Just because a salt shaker wasn’t on the dinner table doesn’t mean that salt was not consumed via other methods!
Ashes from salt rich marsh grasses were added to food in African tribes. Salt rich blood from hunted game was used in food preparation after being carefully collected.
In the final analysis, there isn’t a whole lot of paleo in The Paleo Diet!
With so many misguided recommendations in the book as a whole, embarking down the path of the Paleo Diet is clearly fraught with a clear and present danger to health!
Primal Diet – Traditional But Is It Optimal?
My reasons for not eating Primal, however, are a bit more subtle.
Folks who eat Primal typically base it on the book The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. The diet excludes all cereal grains and recommends against all conventional dairy although raw dairy is considered acceptable. Saturated fat and natural cholesterol are rightfully embraced as health supporting. Learning how to make bone broth is advised.
The book warns against soy, transfats, phytates, lectins, processed foods, and of course sugar.
In essence, the Primal Diet does indeed recommend a way of life and eating that is in harmony with Traditional Wisdom and following this approach to eating can be a healthy choice for some.
Remember though, that only a few Traditional societies didn’t eat grains. The vast majority did! Hence, unless you are of Eskimo or Masaai heritage who ate a carnivore diet, it is best to be eating your grains.
Primal Eating Blows Out Thyroids?
As an example of Primal eating not being a good long term choice, let’s examine the case of the former Fitness Editor for this blog, Paula Jager CSCS, who used to eat Primal for several years. She was even featured on Mark Sisson’s website in 2011 as an example of newly minted 50 year old in amazing physical condition. Indeed, Paula eats extremely well and works out religiously. She’s gorgeous!
However, back in 2015, Paula made the decision to go back to eating traditionally prepared, gluten free grains for health reasons. I know several other women who went back to grains due to failing thyroid health after several years eating Primal or Paleo. Women beware! I have not observed a single woman do well on this type of diet for more than a few years, particularly those with children or those who are perimenopausal or menopausal.
Why is eating traditionally prepared grains ultimately a better approach than Primal?
Not All Traditional Diets Are Created Equal
In Dr. Price’s travels, he noted that some Traditional Societies were healthier and had more excellent physical form than others.
For example, during Dr. Price’s travels in Africa, he examined several five cattle keeping groups: The Maasai of Tanganyika, the Muhima of Uganda, the Chewya of Kenya, the Watusi of Ruanda, and the Neurs tribes on the western side of the Nile near the country of Sudan.
These groups were largely carnivores with their diet consisting primarily of blood, meat and milk. Fish was also eaten by some. The liver was highly priced and was consumed both raw and cooked.
Grains, fruits, and vegetables were consumed in small amounts.
These largely carnivorous tribes were very tall with even the women averaging over 6 feet in height in some tribes. All these tribes had marvelous physiques and perfectly straight, uncrowded teeth. Six tribes had no dental decay whatsoever.
On the other extreme, Dr. Price also examined largely vegetarian tribes such as the Bantu. This agricultural group’s diet consisted primarily of sweet potatoes, corn, beans, bananas, millet and sorghum. A few cattle or goats were kept for meat and milk and frogs, insects, and other small animals were also consumed.
These tribes were dominated by their carnivorous neighbors and they did suffer from low levels of dental decay – about 5-6% of all teeth.
The final African group Dr. Price researched were the Dinkas. The Dinkas followed a truly mixed diet of whole foods without the tendency toward the extremes of the carnivorous Maasai or the agricultural Bantu.
While not as tall as the primarily carnivorous, cattle herding groups, they were physically better proportioned and had greater strength.
The Dinka diet primarily consisted of nutrient dense, properly prepared whole grains and fish.
Dr. Price’s close study of these African groups convinced him that the best Traditional Diet – one that encourages optimal physical development in children – consisted of a balance of properly prepared whole grains along with animal foods (especially fish), and not tending toward extremes in either direction.
This is surely one of the most important lessons from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Avoiding of extremes particularly when it comes to the diet of growing children, is the best and most wise approach when their optimal development is the goal.
So while I am not against eliminating grains in the diet particularly when a temporary period of gut healing is called for (such as with the GAPS Diet), the long term optimal way of eating is a balanced one that includes grains as described and noted by Dr. Price.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources
The Paleo Diet, Thumbs Down Book Review
More Information on Maintaining a Healthy Weight
Dukan Diet
Losing Weight with Coconut Oil
Zoe Harcombe Diet
Fasting with bone broth
Raw milk fasting
Bulletproof Coffee Weight Loss Risks
I’m a primal girl, but yes, I believe that Dr. Cordain has significantly softened his stance on low fat in recent years. Sometimes if I go out and there’s literally nothing else to eat I will have white rice. Have you read Mark Sisson’s blog post “not all grains were created equal”? its quite interesting. I also bake with tapioca flour occasionally. But no potatoes for me, those things aren’t too healthy.
Sure… it’s enough for me, too. I don’t see any point in venturing to whacky extremes (nothing but beef and water/ nothing but raw fruit), either, though it is extraordinary how people still manage to survive for extended periods at these extremes.
But I find it odd to imply that a diet of vegetables, meat and fish is ‘extreme’. When I went Primal, I took the grains out of my diet and replaced them with vegetables. You’re suggesting I’d do better to remove some vegetables and replace them with grains.
Well… for me to give up one mouthful of my purple kale or bright orange squash or sprouting broccoli or fresh carrots or roast parsnip or watercress or mizuna (etc, etc…), there’d have to be something pretty amazing about wheat, rice and oats. I don’t mind if it’s illustrated by an epidemiological study, a controlled trial or field studies of traditional diets – or even just some nutrient analysis that makes it seem likely – I’d need some big piece of evidence that adding grains to a diet of vegetables, meat and fish makes people healthier.
Anything?
I honestly believe the sugar and grains in your way of eating are so much more detrimental to children health, and health in all people. I’ve always pointed people to this site but now I’m not comfortable doing so.
As for me, I will be perfectly content if my kids grow up *only* as healthy as the Masai! 😉
I’m in favor of experimenting and seeing what works for you and your kids. A blogger I know cut grains out of her toddler’s diet (they previously ate only soaked and sprouted grains) and he started sleeping through the night! And my son has been having diarrhea for the past month … perhaps he just wasn’t ready for grains yet. (Contrary to what you say, I believe amylase production matures about the time the last molars erupt — between 18 and 24 months.) Initial experiments of cutting out grains for short periods have been helping, but the diarrhea returns when we add them back in. I think grain-free is just necessary for him right now.
In the end, I think our family will be best gluten-free at least. We are Irish in descent, and the Irish are predisposed to celiac. Wheat was never one of our traditional foods … oats grew much better in the Irish climate. But I’m not really convinced gluten is doing anyone any good. Seems everyone I know who tries cutting it out feels better … even if they felt fine before.
The Masai ate GRAINS but small amounts in comparison to the Dinkas.
Well, how about the Eskimos then? There certainly have been plenty of healthy, grain-free cultures!
A P.S. on my son’s issues — we’ve been gluten-free for a week and yesterday went entirely grain-free to see what would happen. What happened is he slept through the night for the first time in two months! His diarrhea has been gone since we eliminated gluten, as are his skin issues. He’s been in such a good mood it’s hard for me to tell when to put him down for a nap — I used to wait for the inevitable “naptime tantrum” and then put him down! You can say what you want about “optimal diets,” but I feel certain that at least gluten-free, and probably grain-free, is the optimal diet for MY son, at least for now. The results are unmistakable.
I never said eating grain free was unhealthy!!!!!!! I said that it was optimal to eat a more balanced and less extreme diet as discovered by Dr. Price.
Sarah, I understand you’re saying that grains provide something necessary for optimal health, something that can’t be found in any vegetables, fruit, meat or fish. Please can you share what that is?
I think you can get everything in grains in other foods. This isn’t the point. The point is that eating mostly animal foods and tending toward extreme eating either toward the carnivorous or vegetarian sides is imbalanced and Dr. Price observed that those that ate a more balanced and mixed diet such as the Dinkas were stronger and had better proportioned physiques than the groups that ate extreme.
Why does everything have to be “named” all the time? Can’t just observing that a particular behavior of eating yields better results be enough? It’s enough for me.
@rnikoley Care to comment om this post.. "Why I Don’t Eat Paleo or Primal" http://t.co/AUrxrRiY So much misinformation ..
Great post Sarah. I know you’re getting a lot of skin rash from your post, but for those who follow neither primal or paleo, it helps understand the differences between the two.
But her article is full of false statements. I really think she needs to edit it or she will keep getting heat about it.
#Healthy Eating Why I Don’t Eat Paleo or Primal – This article may clear up questions you may have on the matter. http://t.co/FV64zdnh
An interesting note from my own upbringing that this debate brings up. I grow up in Iowa and we had three groups of food: Fresh meat from the local farmer, fresh local veggies when you could get them and potatoes. My parents were never into health. They simply ate what their parents ate I guess. We never really ate organic either, we laughed at people who did. We had very limited grains in our diets and junk food was simply allowed in the house. We were allowed to have pop once a week on Fridays.
Interesting results: I literally have perfect teeth, I mean perfectly white and straight. I am not obsessive about my teeth cleaning by any means, as a child the dentist couldn’t believe how healthy our teeth were. I had half a cavity when I was 15 for the first time ever. My cavity healed on its own. The other noted difference between me and my peers was that I was literally never sick! I had perfect attendance though high school. middle school and grade school because I was simply never sick outside of a cold once a year. We didn’t make homemade soup stocks either.
Downside regarding meat: I always noticed that I had horrible body odor, beyond normal. I would shower 2x a day and still have to put on layers and layers of deodorant. I know now that smelling or having OB is a sign of not so good health or toxic chemical overload. I couldn’t wear a t-shirt without a jacket for fear of pit stains being seen. When I stopped eating meat for almost four years, my OB slowly and totally left me.
18-Now
When I moved out on my own, I began to live off of sugar and processed junk for about 2 years. I met my husband and he began to slow change my ways over to sugar free. I began to notice some digestive issues with grains after a three day fast I did. I was fine until I had my three day fast. I began to slowly limit my grains over the course of a year. We weren’t eating super healthy at this time but no fried foods or anything in that nature. I noticed the more I limited the grains the more intense my reaction to them became. I was off of meat due to budget reasons/we were out of the habit of eating it. I felt so much better off of meat for that period but didn’t call myself a vegetarian. AND AND I was so happy, no more smell!!
I am now having my issue with grains but over time, I know things will improve.
What I have learned: No extreme is a good extreme! I think sometimes in order to really balance our system out we have to completely stop something, let ourselves heal, detox or do whatever it needs to do and slowly add it back in over time. I believe in eating grains, I think I just need some time away from it like I did with meat.
Love the story. You are observant and open minded and unemotional about your food choices. You evaluate them objectively and do what works and has been proven by thousands of years of human experience. This approach to health leads to healing.
Why I Don’t Eat Paleo or Primal – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/GqO4Cn37