Look out folks – there’s a newcomer on the block. But wait, double take…it’s not new, it’s a re-do (of high protein, low carbohydrate weight loss fallacies). Enter the Paleo Diet, yet another attempt to persuade us that modern day diet disasters are a result of our denying our roots as hunters and gatherers. Never mind that gatherers gathered tubers (oh no, the cursed potato or yam) and grains (yes – it’s true) and that hunters didn’t separate the fat, skin or feathers (for that matter) from the meat, they sought out the fat as animal fat was the basis of their diet. We’re supposed to believe this professor (of exercise) when he tells us that primitive man did not eat salt, but that he used balsamic vinegar to bathe his chicken breasts… and it goes on and on.
Cordain’s Paleo Diet is devoid of all dairy (read calcium), salt (even sea salt which was available in many parts of the world from brine, salt flats and marsh grasses), and grains (read healthy carbohydrates that help prevent diabetes, heart disease and intestinal disorders) – and dangerous. High levels of meat can lead to a host of problems, and while eating such a restrictive diet can promote weight loss, it’s neither long term or healthy.
I could say I’m reading the writing on the walls for this one, but wow, that’s really corny…