omega-3

When I started out on paleo, I used to buy a container of almond butter every couple of days. Some of you might be thinking that it's a lot of omega-6, others might be thinking...what's the big deal? I think at the beginning of your paleo diet you shouldn't worry about omega-6 from whole foods like nuts. You will probably see great improvements, as I did, even on a diet dominated by nuts. I don't want to turn people off from paleo by making these foods seem problematic, but as time passes there might be issues you are still having and it make be worth going closer and closer to the diet of the Stone Age.

I think it's worth mentioning the economic concept of diminishing marginal returns here. The idea is that inputs initially contribute a great deal to production, but eventually the return per individual added unit decreases. It can be a useful analogy in dietary philosophy as well. I'm betting that the very basic first steps towards an evolutionarily appropriate diet are going to be the most significant for us- the removal of soda, candy bars, whole wheat bread, pasta, and other food that's mostly just bad. Beyond that we might get diminishing returns. I personally have cleared up a few minor problems by reducing my intake of omega-6 fatty acids from even whole foods, but they certainly aren't as significant as the ones I got from not eating vegetable shortening and high fructose corn syrup. We all have to look at how close we can get to our ancestor's food and how much is worth it, which can be very individual and can seem nitpicky and obsessive.

But people in the Stone Age didn't have to worry about these things because they simply weren't exposed to them. Nuts were a seasonal food, olive oil didn't exist, and humans simply didn't encounter avocados until we migrated to South America. Even if they are pastured, domestic hogs and poultry require significant amounts of legume and grain rations, so they are going to have very different fatty acid profiles anything our ancestors encountered. One of my friends who processes poultry told me the sad story of a farmer who tried to do pastured chicken without grain/legume rations and they were miserably sickly and thin. Domestic poultry isn't built for surviving on that diet.

I'm not saying that these foods are bad, but if you are on a paleo diet and you are still having some nagging problems, it might be worth limiting them.

This is the diet I've moved to personally. Nuts are there, but I'm no longer eating bags of them. I'm also through with my "lets eat every type of salted/cured pork for every meal" stage. A "basic" paleo diet took care of most of my problems, like GERD, but I still had some lingering IBS issues. Minimizing these foods that are on the borderline made a big difference, but it required trial and error. I've met people who can eat as much bacon as they want, but no tomatoes. When I eliminated nightshades...nothing happened that I could discern and I missed the taste. It just wasn't worth it.

I do think that just because we know saturated fat isn't the worst thing in the entire world means that we should eat as much as we want.

This interview with Cordain points out that while the Inuit were healthier than many modern Americans on an almost all-meat diet, there is evidence they had arterial plaque and lower bone density. I also think Kurt Harris has been a great voice of reason from the other side and his recommendation of mostly animals that eat grass has worked well for me. Probably because I am already thin, I have had good results with a "medium" saturated fat, low omega-6, and medium-carb diet. I don't need to count any calories or do any micromanaging if I eat mostly seafood, coconut, vegetables and things that ate grass...and treat the rest as dessert and flavoring.

What has been your experience? 

Edit: Just want to clarify that I don't think saturated fat is bad. I certainly get more than any mainstream recommendation and get much of my calories from it, but I think there is an upper limit to how much is optimal.

The gate of knowledge is closed!

Oh how ungrateful I was back then when I was enrolled in a big university. I didn't realize how annoying it would be to not have access to a large academic library. Sciencedirect now asks me to pay five gazillion dollars for the studies I want to read. It almost makes me want to enroll in school again. 

I live in freaking NYC, but the library here doesn't have the richness of that library in the middle of Illinois. 

When I did have access to the wonderful online research databases, I remember seeing that some misguided nutritionists and anthropologists cited papers by S. Boyd Eaton when they tried to say the paleolithic diet was plant-based and low-fat. So it's nice to see Eaton himself in this recent article about the paleolithic diet in Macleans eat his hat:

He says he had failed to consider the contribution of non-muscle meat like brain and fat depots, and thus underestimated the amount of fat we need. “It makes me feel stupid!”

Oops. Also on display is tehstupid 

Konnor still thinks that was the right call, and believes his original concerns about fat were prudent. “You can’t just go to the supermarket and buy meat loaded with fat and say you’re doing the Paleolithic diet. You’re not.” 

Ugh, such an annoying misconception perpetuated by restaurants that serve miserable cuts of miserable game for miserable prices. Yeah, that wild boar tenderloin roast at terrible overpriced restaurant is lean because the company that sold it is feeding the public's desire for "lean" healthy game. Any real hunter can tell that that game varies in fat content by species and season. Some game is very very fatty! And the cuts served at Green Meadows Fancy Golf Course Grill, typically lean cuts, are not representative of the real richness of game. This Hazda article speaks more to traditional consumption

Bones are smashed with rocks and the marrow sucked out. Grease is rubbed on the skin as a sort of moisturizer. No one speaks a word, but the smacking of lips and gnashing of teeth is almost comically loud.

Speaking of bones, I just finished reading the excellent cookbook Bones, by Jennifer McLagan. A full post on this excellent book is due, as bones are absolutely essential for a successful paleo diet, providing ample amounts of fat, calcium, and other important nutrients. 

Also, what's the deal with lacto paleo? I must say I'm not a fan of this trend or term. A paleo diet with dairy is not a paleo diet, it's a nomadic pastoralist diet. Such pastoralists are pretty healthy, but they are not representative of stone agers. There is absolutely no convincing evidence that dairy is paleo. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it does lead to some dilution of the paleo terminology. 

Also annoying is this NY Times article about some who argue that depression is somehow an evolutionary adaptation. In my opinion it's like arguing that heart disease is an evolutionary adaptation. I think it's fairly clear that depression is a disease of civilization caused by living inappropriately to our evolutionary heritage whether it's working inside all day staring at a glowing rectangle or not getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately this viewpoint is not in the article. The opposing view is that it's a hopeless disorder that can only be treated with modern drugs. 

I thought about that when reading the graphic novel bio of logician Bertrand Russell. He is devastated by the schizophrenia that seems to be an inevitable part of his bloodline. But there is increasing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids play a role. That this type of research is being done in the age of drug fixes is very hopeful and I would bet that scientists will eventually find even more nutritional factors that govern mental illness. 

 One of the best part of the paleo diet is that unlike the Zone, tracking your food is not a requirement of the diet. Paleo is about foods rather than numbers. But sometimes I actually do track my intake. Not often, but it's a good check up. I use a freeware tool called Cron O Meter every so often and it's often very interesting. For awhile I had issues with fatigue, but when I did a Cron O Meter check in I realized I wasn't getting enough calories! That's actually an easy mistake to make on paleo because of all the foods we aren't eating. Often when I eat at restaurants my meal is a normal one with the bread or pasta subtracted. Sadly, it's not like they are giving me more meat to make up for it. It's a great way to accidentally undereat yourself into tiredness and irritability. 

Also it's a good reality check on hard to get nutrients like calcium. I realized last year that I simply wasn't getting enough and that was a major motivator to start eating stock and bony fish. It's also a reality check on cheats! Putting in that slice of cake and seeing your numbers mess up really makes you question whether it was worth it.