Paleo diet for arborists

[sloth]

Ok paleophiles, a question or two...

My wife was diagnosed a short while ago with multiple sclerosis, since then this its been recommended we see this, which is very interesting

 

From what I understand its similar to / based around the paleo diet. I am however naturally sceptical of anything new and voodoo-ish. Some of the menus it sounds like you're all eating are scarily similar to the Atkins diet; which I believe caused serious health issues long term. Have there been any longer term studies on this paleo diet, or is it another fad like the fasting for a day thing last year?

And what is wrong with carbs/grains etc? Surely they'd have been available to paleo-people, just not in vast farmed quantities.

Also most available fruits, veg and meat have been selectively bred to the point they probably bear little nutritional resemblance to foods of old. I expect very old or wild varieties would be best to eat, but how to source them without foraging or growing your own (which I guess would be preferable)?

And then there is the question of your own ancestral heritage/geographic history. Do the foods your long ago ancestors had available have any bearing on what your body may have evolved to use best?

 

Ok, that's more than one question I'll just ask one more - would you be entirely comfortable feeding your own dependent children a strict 'paleo diet'?

 

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your views...

[Joe Newton]

Ok, that's more than one question I'll just ask one more - would you be entirely comfortable feeding your own dependent children a strict 'paleo diet'

 

Oof, good question! This'll be interesting to hear from the fathers!

[skyhuck]

Ok paleophiles, a question or two...

My wife was diagnosed a short while ago with multiple sclerosis, since then this its been recommended we see this, which is very interesting

 

From what I understand its similar to / based around the paleo diet. I am however naturally sceptical of anything new and voodoo-ish. Some of the menus it sounds like you're all eating are scarily similar to the Atkins diet; which I believe caused serious health issues long term. Have there been any longer term studies on this paleo diet, or is it another fad like the fasting for a day thing last year?

And what is wrong with carbs/grains etc? Surely they'd have been available to paleo-people, just not in vast farmed quantities.

Also most available fruits, veg and meat have been selectively bred to the point they probably bear little nutritional resemblance to foods of old. I expect very old or wild varieties would be best to eat, but how to source them without foraging or growing your own (which I guess would be preferable)?

And then there is the question of your own ancestral heritage/geographic history. Do the foods your long ago ancestors had available have any bearing on what your body may have evolved to use best?

 

Ok, that's more than one question I'll just ask one more - would you be entirely comfortable feeding your own dependent children a strict 'paleo diet'?

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your views...

 

Personally I much prefer them to eat it rather than a lot of the sweets and fizzy pop that they do eat, but they are growing and so I don't feel the high calories they are eating will harm them and hopefully once they are older they will take charge are there own bodies and control their own diets accordingly.

 

Hopefully mine and my wife's example will help them see its important to look after your body. Its already worked with my 16 year old son, who used to be rather cubby (which I was very straight with him about) he fasts most weeks and had got his weight down nicely and maintains a heathy weight dispite being an academic with a pretty sedentary life stile.

 

As for fasting being a fad, thats a myth, its been extremely common down through time,often of necessity and its heath benefits are IMO more than proven.

[Steve Bullman]

Ok paleophiles, a question or two...

My wife was diagnosed a short while ago with multiple sclerosis, since then this its been recommended we see this, which is very interesting

 

From what I understand its similar to / based around the paleo diet. I am however naturally sceptical of anything new and voodoo-ish. Some of the menus it sounds like you're all eating are scarily similar to the Atkins diet; which I believe caused serious health issues long term. Have there been any longer term studies on this paleo diet, or is it another fad like the fasting for a day thing last year?

And what is wrong with carbs/grains etc? Surely they'd have been available to paleo-people, just not in vast farmed quantities.

Also most available fruits, veg and meat have been selectively bred to the point they probably bear little nutritional resemblance to foods of old. I expect very old or wild varieties would be best to eat, but how to source them without foraging or growing your own (which I guess would be preferable)?

And then there is the question of your own ancestral heritage/geographic history. Do the foods your long ago ancestors had available have any bearing on what your body may have evolved to use best?

 

Ok, that's more than one question I'll just ask one more - would you be entirely comfortable feeding your own dependent children a strict 'paleo diet'?

 

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your views...

 

It might sound similar to the atkins in some ways, but the important thing is that this isn't a losing weight diet, we are not cutting out carbs, just some food groups. Ok there are a few posting who are aiming for ketosis but thats their choice. For me the diet is about just general healthy eating...a blueprint if you like which is helping me discipline myself away from the ridiciulous quantity of crap food I was eating(chocolate, piza, takeaway, chocolate, etc) just because I was too lazy/busy to make myself(and my family) something decent. The funny thing is, I now have the will and the energy to dive straight into the kitchen after a days work and spend an hour preparing a decent meal

 

Ok, that's more than one question I'll just ask one more - would you be entirely comfortable feeding your own dependent children a strict 'paleo diet'?

 

You could ask the same of the hoards of people feeding their kids utter utter crap in places like mcdonalds every single day. Personally i'm not forcing the diet on my kids. Where I can I make them eat paleo purely so I only have to cook one meal. But in most cases, like the other night where we had steak and broccoli, I whipped up a bit of mashed potato for them. They have sandwiches for school pack up...unless they requested something different then they will carry on having sandwiches. They also love milkshakes. As long as they are eating, and not eating too much bad stuff i'm happy.

[skyhuck]

I am finding a little lemon in my tea very nice, I found it a little bitter without milk.

[teepeeat]

Having read this thread I guess I must be invincible - I eat carbs every day and I'm not unhealthy, unwell, or unalive. Perhaps I have 'evolved'...?

 

Seriously - if it works for you, great. However, just for the record it is entirely possible to eat non-paleo and be perfectly healthy.

 

Tony, you are falling at the seemingly unsurmountable human hurdle - short term thinking.

You may be fine and outliving your forefathers, but nature works on a much longer time scale and we dont really know the long term effects we are passing on to our children who in turn pass it on to theirs etc etc.

 

For the record, while I like the general approach of the paleo, I dont jump into these things boots and all, but take an approach of gradual change to anything I do - nature has shown that sudden changes often come a cropper after an initial period of improvement - fad diets being a good example.

In this regard, our change to a grain based diet over the last 10 000 years has been IMO a relatively gradual change in natures terms, but significantly more dramatic has been the very recent change to highly processed grains that are milled and then stabilised chemically to preserve them till we get round to using them. This has all happened in the last 100 years or so - a flash in the pan on natures time scale, and to my mind far more damaging than the previous 9900 years of grain consumption where grains were generally stored whole after harvest and then ground as and when required.

A further recent and very damaging effect of modern food practice is the lack of seasonality. We tend to eat stuff all year round whereas in the past seasons dictated what we ate - ie stuff that was growing in the same conditions we were living in and therefore having appropriate nutrients for those conditions.

 

Personally, I think the human body can cope with all sorts of variations in the short term, but thinking long term, we need to be a bit more circumspect.

Unfortunately, we will not be around to see the results of our choices.

Yes,humans live longer now than ever before, but at what long term cost??

 

I suspect that our short term thinking is probably natures way of ensuring our own downfall as we get increasingly arrogant and play god without understanding the bigger, fuller picture, thereby ensuring the earth goes on long after we humans have shuffled off this mortal coil.

 

So, dont think that answers many questions, just my two pence worth

[Mark Bolam]

I must admit it seems to be working for her....

[ShooTa]

Sloth -

the carbs grains thing

its not that they are truly heinous

 

but it boils down to how man has changed the grains over the last few centuries - and that old wheat found pre-industrialization was a far better product than found today - due to the genetic changes now found (faster growing, drought resistant, mould resistant, etc)

that is the main reason.

 

2nd if strictly paleo is due to the hunter gatherer lifestyle the tribe would not have access to large amounts of wheat/rye etc so they may have enough for a small loaf per month and only when the plant was in season.

 

i shall let others do the more scientific explanation.

[Amelanchier]

Tony, you are falling at the seemingly unsurmountable human hurdle - short term thinking.

You may be fine and outliving your forefathers, but nature works on a much longer time scale and we dont really know the long term effects we are passing on to our children who in turn pass it on to theirs etc etc.

 

For the record, while I like the general approach of the paleo, I dont jump into these things boots and all, but take an approach of gradual change to anything I do - nature has shown that sudden changes often come a cropper after an initial period of improvement - fad diets being a good example.

In this regard, our change to a grain based diet over the last 10 000 years has been IMO a relatively gradual change in natures terms, but significantly more dramatic has been the very recent change to highly processed grains that are milled and then stabilised chemically to preserve them till we get round to using them. This has all happened in the last 100 years or so - a flash in the pan on natures time scale, and to my mind far more damaging than the previous 9900 years of grain consumption where grains were generally stored whole after harvest and then ground as and when required.

A further recent and very damaging effect of modern food practice is the lack of seasonality. We tend to eat stuff all year round whereas in the past seasons dictated what we ate - ie stuff that was growing in the same conditions we were living in and therefore having appropriate nutrients for those conditions.

 

Personally, I think the human body can cope with all sorts of variations in the short term, but thinking long term, we need to be a bit more circumspect.

Unfortunately, we will not be around to see the results of our choices.

Yes,humans live longer now than ever before, but at what long term cost??

 

I suspect that our short term thinking is probably natures way of ensuring our own downfall as we get increasingly arrogant and play god without understanding the bigger, fuller picture, thereby ensuring the earth goes on long after we humans have shuffled off this mortal coil.

 

So, dont think that answers many questions, just my two pence worth

 

I'm not sure how individuals can ever hope to shape the natural selection that may or may affect our distant descendants by avoiding particular foods. Its not something I'm going to lose sleep over. If my children find out the diet I've brought them up on is proven to be harmful they can change it right there and then.

 

And anyway, even if we don't know the long term effects of relying on 'modern grain' on a sufficient timeframe to satisfy everyone (how long is long?) we do know the long term effects of relying on "historic" grains - endless toil, famine and ergotism.

[Amelanchier]

Sloth -

the carbs grains thing

its not that they are truly heinous

 

but it boils down to how man has changed the grains over the last few centuries - and that old wheat found pre-industrialization was a far better product than found today - due to the genetic changes now found (faster growing, drought resistant, mould resistant, etc)

that is the main reason.

 

2nd if strictly paleo is due to the hunter gatherer lifestyle the tribe would not have access to large amounts of wheat/rye etc so they may have enough for a small loaf per month and only when the plant was in season.

 

i shall let others do the more scientific explanation.

 

pre-industrial wheat was better how?

 

More nutrients? More availability? More honesty?

More capacity to host parasites that could drive you insane?

 

Natural stuff can hurt you just as bad as synthetic stuff...