Why I Keep Dissing the Paleo Diet

If I'm remembering correctly, I have mentioned my "strong disliking" (hatred sounds too mean) of the Paleo Diet fad. The Paleo Diet is when you only eat things that "early humans"(cavemen) ate, which is mostly meat, and very few fruits and vegetables. This diet isn't necessarily bad, but it actually kind of is. If you are truly reflecting what cavemen ate, it would be almost 100% meat, and only fruits and vegetables that the cavemen had scavenged - which are very, very few. Personally, I don't really trust a diet that doesn't include a ridiculous amount of fruits and vegetables, and I think it can be very bad for your body to be so protien-heavy in a diet.

We are not this. Courtesy of Crossfit Lakewood

I recently read a book called The China Study that was all about how society is told what to eat and what's wrong with our government. That sounds very pessimist, but it was all about a study that this guy (Thomas Campbell) did in a bunch of little villages in China (hence the name “The China Study”). The study showed that the poor people, who couldn't afford a lot of meat and protein, tended to get bad diseases less often than the richer villagers who could afford meat. After seeing this connection, the scientist did decades worth of studies on lab rats and observed other villages that had prominent health issues. So, essentially the book is saying that you can have a higher risk of diseases like cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases if you eat high amounts of protien. I'm probably completely butchering the explanation, so you should probably read the book. Anyway, Dr. Campbell’s solution to all of this stuff that he had found out was to eat less meat, and more vegetables. Because I trust Dr. Campbell and don't trust the internet, I don't like the Paleo Diet. 

I think that since the Paleo Diet is the exact opposite of everything that The China Study goes into excruciating detail to explain is not good. I’d rather listen to an actual doctor who actually knows what he’s doing than listen to the people who are like, “cavemen were skinny so lets eat like they ate, even though they were starving and they didn’t have houses.” If you are a strong advocate of the Paleo Diet, feel free to leave an angry comment and start an internet fight. Maybe it’ll give me more page views. 

~Mia

P.S. I’m very sorry for completely ranting about this, and I’ll try my hardest not to rant again anytime soon.