What is the Paleo Diet?

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1. […] (Image from Dr Kate) […]

2. Dear Dr. Cate,

   What is your opinion of the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) and GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diets? They are both similar to Paleo but not exactly. I eagerly await your enlightened reply.

   Fondly,
   Mia

   1. I’ve heard more success stories w/ GAPS that SCD.

      1. Thanks, Dr. Cate. Just one more question: what is your opinion of the use of daily enemas for constipation on the GAPS diet?

3. Hello Dr Cate,

   I’ve been following your terrific blog for a while and Paul Jaminet’s one. As AHS 2012 occurred, I was wondering what was your answer about “safe starches” in an “optimal” diet. (Health and weight loss goals).
   Assumling VLC can be damaging for optimal health, would you recommend,per se, white potatoes,rice and bananas on a regular basis, as Paul J. does all along his argumented blog.
   Amélie.

4. Dear Dr.Cate,
   I’m quite confused… On one side I hear “eat less carbohydrates and more proteins”, on the other side – “animal protein causes cancer/red meat causes cancer”.

   Professor T. Colin Campbell Phd, based on his research, claims that high intake of animal protein causes really bad things.. — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfsT-qYeqGM

   Thoughts that crosses my mind: “Why Dr.Cate says nothing about this “side effect” of meat in DN? Is animal protein good or bad for me? I’m lost!”

   1. There are so many flaws with Dr Campbell’s argument that a lovely young woman, Denise Minger, who probably had far funner things to do was inspired to spend in-countable hours dismantling it. Still, her discussions only scratch the surface and Luke created this video to highlight one of the most dangerous ideas in the book.

      1. The video link is missing. Could you please repost it?

5. In your research, do you have any comments regarding the Okinawans’ diet, health and longevity as well as the Mediterraneans’? I have lived with Japanese friends and the difference in our diets was very surprising and the opposite of Mark Sisson’s low carb/high protein (they eat very little red meat and dairy). Just curious if you’ve looked at this in your studies…

   1. We describe the common elements of all traditional diets in Chapter 7 of Deep Nutrition, and the reasons these traditions are fading around the globe. In Japan, as here, real foods are increasingly being replaced by fast/cheap foods. The replacements tend towards high carb/processed fats.

6. I thoroughly benefited from reading your books. As a slim woman with PCOS and mild IBS, I have cut out all refined sugar, starches and most grains. However, now I am reading that I may not get enough magnesium and other minerals by doing this and I could harm my adrenals. Can you comment on this? It’s hard to know who to follow and I don’t want to be “harming” my children by not feeding them enough grains. Thank you!

   1. Ann,
      Wanna feel good about what you’re doing? Step one: Recognize that grains are just a kind of seed. Step two: Go take a look at some other seeds, for example notice the magnesium content in a handful of pumpkin seeds; the selenium content in something like three Brazil nuts; the vitamin E content of sunflower seeds. Step three: Now tell me how you feel about making room in your diet for these more nutrient dense seeds by taking away those seeds that we call grains, which are mostly carb-delivery systems.

7. Jeff

   It’s about time someone took up this issue! And just in time, because with the changes to healthcare law physician “performance” is far more regulated, which means the government is going to be in the room with you and your doctor, and far more people are going to be encouraged to take drugs for more chronic diseases.

   (BTW all communication-giftedness comes from Luke, not me)

8. Dr. Cate: I’m currently making a documentary shooting under the temporary title “Medical, Inc.” It’s about the hijacking/industrialization of our current medical system, along the lines of a medical version of Food, Inc. My last documentary was short-listed for an academy award; I believe this will be a high profile film. Would you entertain the thought of being interviewed on “pay for performance” and “number needed to treat” information, as well as anything else you might have insight on? Regardless, terrific book (Deep Nutrition.) Great info, well presented. You (and Luke?) are a gifted communicator. Thank you!

9. Kay, fat is not a food, it’s a category of nutrient. And not all fats are the same, in fact trans fat is extremely unhealthy. I would advise you to read a little more before changing your eating habits. Best of luck to you!

10. what foods are good for our health? Fat and Veggies?? is that it?

11. Yuval
    Mark Sisson does deserve big kudos for creating an easy-to-grasp persona (Korg) and making a cogent, convincing argument that got millions of people off their empty-calorie diets. You will probably enjoy the perspective of the Ancestral Health Movement (http://ancestryfoundation.org/AHS.html), which also takes a broader, leaning-towards-traditional diet view of the whole what’s-good-for-us-now question. Thanks for visiting!

12. While the advice given by the “paleo diet” folks is almost all excellent, the premise itself is a bit shaky. Genetically, we are very different from our paleolithic ancestors–our evolution has sped up tremendously over the last 10,000 years. The agricultural revolution changed our genes significantly (see, among many other books on the subject, The 10,000-Year Explosion). I admit that trying to eat like cavemen makes more sense than trying to eat like chimpanzees, but I like your emphasis on traditional nutrition–the way traditional people have eaten over the past few centuries–much better than Sisson’s emphasis on the way they ate 40,000 years ago.

13. It may help to know, if you don’t already, that your liver does still produce bile as usual, it’s just not stored for release on demand as it should be. So you can eat fat, just maybe you need to do it in smaller, more frequent doses. Food Rules actually has a couple tips on food combining that may help you! One is, before you eat anything fatty have a little bit of a fermented pickle (actual pickle, kimchee, saurkraut). These foods can jump start your pancreatic digestive enzymes, which should still be working normally, and you may need a jump start because one of the jobs of bile acids is to activate pancreatic enzymes.

    I bet you have a local naturopath or at least a supplement store in your area where you can get some guidance on digestive enzyme supplements that contain bile acids, that will help–if (that’s a big if) your current symptoms are due to the gallbladder removal. Remember that you had some symptoms before your GB was removed and not all may have been due to gallstones, so it’s good to get with a real competent diagnostician and make sure to sort things out from scratch.

14. I had my gallbladder removed a few years ago and ever since, I have had serious digestive problems. I’ve been told by doctors and specialist that I need to eat a low-fat diet because the gallbladder’s main function is breaking down fats into bile and since I no longer have a gallbladder that my body isnt capable of breaking down fats. And then I’ve been reading your book and blogs and I feel so confused about fats! Should someone who has their gallbladder removed eat a “paleo” diet when it focuses so much on animal fats? I am finding your blog posts and book to be very informative but I have this question screaming at me in the back of my mind. I will be honest, I am not entirely finished with your book so I hope this isn’t directly answered and I’m just not there yet. But I am worried about starting this and becoming even more ill than I already am (though at this point I am desperate because a low-fat diet doesn’t seem to be making a difference).

15. Mike,
    I think “Paleo” is used so much because it’s such a catchy little word. And it rhymes or alliterates nicely: Go Paleo, Paleo-power.

    Eventually we may all be using something like the term ancestral, traditional, or heritage, or preindustrial. Wouldn’t it be nice if if we could find a word that is more inclusive and just as fun to say as “paleo?”

16. Hi Dr. Cate, Although my diet is pretty much paleo (w/dairy), I prefer terms like ancestral and traditional. Or how about “pre-industrial”? Whatever the label, the focus is on whole food. Minimally processed with maximum passion.

    I started reading a great book about how we, as a nation, lost our traditional connections with our food. It’s called “Kitchen Literacy”. Here’s a nifty video interview w/ the author:

    http://cookingupastory.com/kitchen-literacy

    Thanks, Mike

17. Josh,

    Of course I have an opinion! And thanks for giving me an excuse to link to my response to Jimmy Moore’s invite to the conversation:

    http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/is-there-any-such-thing-as-safe-starches-on-a-low-carb-diet/11809

    Scroll down to my name and the discussion of Starch Safety 101

18. Here’s a list of posts on low-carb diets on Paul Jaminet’s website. The first one specifically goes into both Dr. Kurt Harris’ and Paul’s ideas on starches, low-carb and so on. There’s also some posts on carbs and thyroid health, and on zero-carb diets (with green vegetables) and the possible dangers.

    http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?cat=82

    Check it out if you have time. There’s some really interesting and well-researched stuff there, and I’d be curious to see your opinion.

19. You are the inquisitive one! So I can answer your question with a question: what do you suppose you mean when you say “inherent stickiness”… where would that come from? And you might end up answering your own question.

    I’m not sure if there is a solid substance that is truly fully solid and feels sticky.

    The reason sugar has to be in solution has to do with the nature of dissolved sugar molecules, which opens the closed chair conformation and greatly facilitates both ionic and covalent bond formation. This ties in to why water is so important for life.

20. I have a question regarding this statement:

    If sugar-protein glycation is the mechanism primarily responsible for the feeling of stickiness (rather than the inherent stickiness of those substances), why doesn’t white sugar produce the same result? It seems to me that the viscous nature of jelly, syrup, honey, etc. is responsible for the tackiness, rather than the chemical bonds of glycation.

    Is there some non-liquid sugary substance that will demonstrate glycation in this way?

21. @I.G.
    My comment widget does not allow me to arrange comments properly, so I apologize if I responded to you out of order over on the zero carb post.
    As for IGF-1, many of the conclusions on the health effects of dairy are based in research not on milk but on isolated components of milk, so it’s very difficult to extrapolate what they mean. For example, calcium alone (from supplements) is poorly absorbed and rather than building bone tends to end up calcifying arteries.

    More here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/730867_5

    Furthermore consider this, the fact that dairy can trigger an IGF-1 response may be beneficial; it may be one of the reasons dairy promotes bone growth.

    This is part one of my Paleo diet discussion. For part two of, I will cover the reasons I think dairy might have been influencing our gene expression since the paleolithic era.

22. Hi Dr Parker. Good analagy. I’m curious about all my fellow evolutionary MDs practice styles. Do you have an equally fast and easy explanation for why statin drugs are harmful?

23. I would like to ask a question concerning dairy: I have found so many conflicting information on dairy and IGF-1 levels in the human body. It seems to be agreed on that they raise with dairy consumption and that high IGF-1 levels seem to be related to some types of cancer (and multiple ovulation leading to multiple pregnancies). However, fermentation seems to lower IGF-1. Do you know exactly in how far and if the raise in IGF-1 fermented dairy produces is still significant?

24. Thanks for this summary, Dr. Cate.
    When my patients have difficulty understanding the paleo concept, I use this example. Let’s say you find an injured bird in your yard and want to help it heal. You put in in a cage and must feed it. But what? You have to do research to find out what it eats naturally, then provide THAT. A bird that survives on insects, grubs, and worms will not do well on birdseed.
    When my wife and I had salt-water fish tanks, we had to do research to find out the ideal diet, temperature, food, light, etc., that was required for each species. Otherwise, they do poorly and die prematurely.
    Humans have limitations and requirements, too, based on genetic heritage.

    -Steve

25. I still say pay attention to source and tradition. The quality of the soil matters, how it was treated matters and how it’s cooked matters. Beyond that, as long as you’re not allergic, the total sugar content of your day matters too, and these starchy/sweet foods put a big bump in that number. Sugar is going to do very little for your body except possibly assist w/ glycation in those whos metabolisms have down regulated their ability to make glucose from protein due to atrophy of the metabolic pathway. (I call it tissue micro-evolution)

26. What’s your take on other starchy plants, like bananas, plantains, white rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes?

    The main differences in opinion between forward-thinking health authorities seem to stem from this gray area. Mark Scisson and other paleo-esque gurus still advocate most meat and vegetables, with a little fruit, nuts and starches mixed in. Dr. Kurt Harris and Paul Jaminet, however, are lean more towards starch intake and smaller quantities of vegetables.

    That seems to be the major source of disagreement right now…that and raw milk.

27. Dr. Cate,
    Thank you! All through my nutrition journey I’ve done my best to answer my own questions by doing research and applying what I’ve learned. This time I was just stumped by the length of fermentation. I will be sure to always consider source and tradition first.

    Deep Nutrition is helpful beyond words, and I will share it with as many people as I can. I’m also looking forward to your third book.

    Thank you again so much for your time.

28. Kykphosis is an age-related deterioration of posture. I’m not sure why you are asking about lactoferrin unless you are referring to a report on the potential ability of lactoferrin to stimulate bone growth? To answer your question, raw dairy contains functional lactoferrin whereas the function of lactoferrin may be lost once milk has been fermented, pasteurized, or homogenized. Only dairy would be a significant source of functional lactoferrin.

29. I have kyphosis. Could you please tell me what foods have lactoferrin.

30. Michele
    Let’s see how two of our rules (pay attention to source and tradition) can help answer your question.

    Source: Should be organic, BST free, preferably from milk from pastured cows. Stoneyfield does what it can to positively reinforce these practices among the source Farms in NH, where I used to live and had the occasion to speak with one or two of their farmers who told me they do make every effort to use grass and avoid antibiotics.

    Tradition: Fermentation uses up the lactose sugar and creates proteins and other nutrients making yoghurt even more healthful than milk. Fermentation for 1-4 hours may seem short, but because there’s no treatment to kill the bacteria, their activity does continue, albeit slowly, during refrigeration. And because these yoghurts contain live bacteria, eating them will still give you the probiotic effects.

    So next time you have a question, after you’ve finished our books, I guarantee that you’ll be able to figure a good bit more of the answers yourself. At least that’s our intention!

    I this has been helpful to you, please share (with the share link) among your friends and family!

31. I just bought your book; thank you so much for writing it. I am very interested to read your next post about how dairy fits into the Paleo movement. Although this is a bit unrelated/premature and I realize this isn’t a Q&A forum, I am desperately seeking an answer this question: Am I getting no nutritional benefit at all from eating (quality) commercially made yogurt if it is only fermented for 1-4 hours? I’ve read that it needs to be fermented for 24 hours to get the health benefits. However, I don’t have access to a small farm that makes it, and I don’t have time to make it myself at home. If you have time, I would really appreciate a reply.

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