Paleo - 2nd thoughts

[PKFFW]

I've been looking into the Paleo diet lately. Not due to wanting to lose weight but rather because I think many of my health issues relate to lectin intolerance so the reducing of grains, nuts and processed foods sounds like a good place to start.

With regards to how much meat and animal products to consume compared to how much fruit and veg, I saw an interesting documentary recently that went into this very topic. It is called Forks over Knives. As with many of these types of doco's it does appear to be very one sided and all the science discussed should be independently verified but overall it did make for interesting view.

Funnily enough the end result from that doco is that one should eat lots more grains!(along with fruit and veg etc) So I'm trying to combine the two philosophies now with lots of fruit and veg, with meat on a few times a week and mostly fish/seafood and only occasionally red or white meant and cutting out most dairy.

Information about the doco can be found here for those who are interested;

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1567233/

 

[NickW]

I've been looking into the Paleo diet lately. Not due to wanting to lose weight but rather because I think many of my health issues relate to lectin intolerance so the reducing of grains, nuts and processed foods sounds like a good place to start.

With regards to how much meat and animal products to consume compared to how much fruit and veg, I saw an interesting documentary recently that went into this very topic. It is called Forks over Knives. As with many of these types of doco's it does appear to be very one sided and all the science discussed should be independently verified but overall it did make for interesting view.

Funnily enough the end result from that doco is that one should eat lots more grains!(along with fruit and veg etc) So I'm trying to combine the two philosophies now with lots of fruit and veg, with meat on a few times a week and mostly fish/seafood and only occasionally red or white meant and cutting out most dairy.

Information about the doco can be found here for those who are interested;

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1567233/

I had watched Forks over Knives too. I also had been shown some links to show that this was a very slanted documentary and not entirely on the up and up. I think there was a lot of good that could still be taken from it though.

 

[PKFFW]

I had watched Forks over Knives too. I also had been shown some links to show that this was a very slanted documentary and not entirely on the up and up. I think there was a lot of good that could still be taken from it though.

Yes, I agree, it is very slanted and I had heard that some of the science is questionable though I have not had time to go into that too much.

I did notice that the underlying message seemed to be "all meat and animal products are bad....don't eat them or you'll DIE!!!". Yet the actual experiements and research they talk about in the movie doesn't really support that conclusion. At most it suggests that too much meat and animal products is not a good thing but some is actually beneficial.

 

[Bare Lee]

If you look at our teeth and digestive system, they're halfway between what you'd expect for a herbivore and a carnivore, so it seems pretty obvious we were meant to be omnivores. It's just a matter of figuring out the right proportions.

 

[PKFFW]

Agreed, in my opinion too it is more about the proportions than anything else. It is pretty obvious the doco is produced by vegetarians/vegans with that bias firmly in place when deciding what science to include and what not to and that must be kept in mind whilst watching it.

Something I do think bears considering is the fact that from an evolution point of view we have not been eating dairy products long enough to have evolved mechanisms to handle it. I'd be more inclined to reduce dairy products than cut out all meat.

 

[ElyDave]

You've got to remember though, if we don't eat meat we'll die anyway.

Cutting out the flippant though, as far as I know we are the only species that continues to eat dairy after weaning and the only species to eat dairy products from other species. Surely there's something just a little odd about that?

 

[clawhammer72]

Dairy is so delicious. We're also the only species that over thinks its diet.

 

[PKFFW]

Dairy is so delicious. We're also the only species that over thinks its diet.

Agreed but we're also the only species that continually eats things we know are doing us damage.

 

[clawhammer72]

I'll take art and literature over a perfected diet anyday. But, I'm not actually against Paleo. I like the concepts in general, and I'm finding staying away from carbs is very helpful. I'm just being a nudge.