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 don’t have have a problem with eating some properly prepared grains now and then, but the hassle to do it or buy them just out weighs the convenience of avoiding them completely…. my 2cents.
There is a lot of info on paleo out there generally speaking i like a lot of the concepts i do eat wheat but limit it to 2 a week with grains i don’t do dairy as i am lactose intolerant 🙂 it works for me and that is good enough.
Hi Sarah.
There are a lot of comments so maybe I missed your comment on this.
Your reasons for eating grains “properly prepared” grains seems to rest on two reasons; The need for magnesium and because of someone’s passive observations of a tribe in Africa.
First, there are many other natural sources of magnesium other than grains. Seeds, spinach and beets to name a few.
Second, the premise that simply observing the physical characteristics of a small tribe in Africa that happens to eat a small amount of grains means that small amounts of grains are healthy, with all due respect, is absurd.
If anything, the many observations of Dr. Price lie more closely in line with the Paelo/Primal eating movement than do not. Low to no sugar/carbs and good saturated fats.
In exchange for some small amount of magnesium you completely discount all of the other modern research into the inflammatory damage caused by grains. The chemical, biological, and hormonal damage when grains are ingested certainly must be taken into account.
Obviously there are a multitude of processes that take place in the body when eating various foods and the dynamic relationship that exists when foods are eaten together. One must look at a multitude of research data to weigh the positive and negative effects of various foods and their effect on the body.
Again, I’m sorry if I missed it and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t see any nutritional reason other than magnesium for ingesting “properly prepared” grains.
My problem with this blog post, Sarah, is that you obviously have a pretty large following of people who respect what you write, which makes you somewhat of an “expert,” whether you call yourself one or not. So writing a post describing Paleo and Primal the way you did gives many people who respect you, the wrong idea about those “diets.” I eat mostly paleo and love Mark Sisson’s blog. I would never, ever describe Paleo or Primal in the way you did. There is so much more to it. It’s about listening to your body and giving yourself the chance to get off of grains, since most people have never tried that before. It’s doing research to discover what is the best for your body. And the argument that because the diet has evolved, you shouldn’t listen to those experts, is absolute nonsense. There is not one theory in life that hasn’t evolved in some way. Humans are constantly learning new and improved ways of doing things. Just because the original theory isn’t exact, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is what I love about Paleo: Most people start it because they want to change something. You get rid of grains, legumes, dairy, processed food and sugar for 3 to 4 weeks, then add something back in to see how it makes you feel. If it makes no difference, then add it back in regularly! If it makes you gassy and bloated, consider leaving it out!
Please, as an expert, if you are going to put down a way of eating, do a little more research first. I know you are saying that this is just your opinion, but then you went on to define paleo and primal based on some very limited information and no other sources. Your very first sentence: “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.” That is where, I think people are feeling like you are putting down a pretty awesome way of eating for some people.
Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf are very open to discussion and different points of view. Considering most human history is unrecorded and was spent hunting and gathering…not planting and growing grains… seems to be lost on Sarah. Discovering how to grow, harvest, and prepare grains is the only reason there are so many humans on the planet today. Rice, beans, potatoes are a staple in nearly every cultures diet. Does that mean it is necessarily best for you? I wouldn’t go that far. You can slam the crossfit crowd all you want. Let’s see you hit the gym and compete with that crowd on your diet.
…. all debate aside. If you want to be healthy. Hang out with people who want to be healthy. Most likely you will mind up very healthy. That is by far the most important thing you can do. I think Sarah is way too critical and narrow minded in her opinions. Nobody has complete knowledge of this Earth and this life except maybe our political class..lol… but if your heart is in the right place and you but your energy into it you will find better health.
By the way, there seems to be a little bit ofspam on your blog. Nevertheless there is still lots of excellent knowledge here!
Dr. Cordain doesn’t advise using canola oil in his book, he says not to use it.
Hi Jacqi,
Based on this post Sources list, this info was based on the first edition of The Paleo Diet. Later editions change the canola oil recommendation and the recent Paleo Answer book has some info on saturated fat from animal is okay, although if I recall correctly dairy saturated fat from butter/cream was still not recommended.
Good discussion.
Thanks,
Mark
I am adamantly not paleo, but do consider myself primal. Though I started out with the whole “Nourishing Traditions.” What I discovered is that properly soaked/fermented grains and legumes do not digest well for me. Which is obviously different for others. I do drink raw milk, yogurt and kefir though. This is what has worked for me. I don’t think the nourishing/primal lifestyles are inherently wrong for one reason or another. They are very similar, but people should probably experiment and figure out which works for them.
I cannot afford to cut out grains completely nor can I get my family to only eat dairy, meat and healthy fats. But I do not think it is healthy to do a lot of grains with a lot of animal fats. I soak, sprout, dehydrate and grind into flour buckwheat groats. Then I ferment the flour overnight to make it as easy to digest as possible. I sprout brown rice. Those are the two grains we eat most. Again, I think a high carb high animal fat is dangerous for the body.