Paleo diet and why I don’t follow it

The Paleo Diet seems to sweeping the nation like crazy. It seems to be the diet to be on. I’ve seen tons of new books, articles, magazines, blog posts about how the Paleo Diet is the smart way to go. Well, I don’t buy it. There are parts of the Paleo Diet that I think are wise but part of the diet seems to be unwise.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet claims to follow a diet based off of our caveman ancestors. The diet includes fresh fruit, veggies, fish, and grass fed beef. It excludes dairy, grains, and processed foods.

Haven’t we learned anything?

Through my MANY diet fails I have learned eliminating food groups is not the key to healthy living. Remember when egg yolks were evil? How about the low fat diets ?The Atkins Diet  or The South Beach Diet which pushed low carb, high protein? How about the absurd diets like Grapefruit diet, HCG Diet, or the Cabbage Diet? The horrible calorie counting that is “simply science”? Let’s not even get started on the diet pills or if milk is good/bad for you. Through all these many fads, they always promise results with some scientific evidence that guarantees weight loss and healthy living. But America (which seems to be the place where these “great” diets become very popular) is the most overweight, unhealthy nation. If ANY of these diets would have worked, this nation would be slim, fit, and healthy. But we’re not.

We are SO desperate to lose weight, and look good that we put all of our logical reasoning aside in hopes of a slimmer body. This is called vanity in the Bible. We will go through crazy diet fads in order to drop a few pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for healthy living. Living a healthy lifestyle and taking care of your body brings about a more enriched life, clearer thinking, and you feel better overall. Who doesn’t want to be healthy? It is in your best interest to BE healthy. But these diets are far from healthy. You may drop a few pounds at first and gain all them back plus some in the end. And the cycle starts over again the next time you start the new best diet.

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But the Paleo isn’t new. It’s the diet of our Ancestors.

Actually, no. Our ancestors ate grains and dairy. Archaeologist have found grinding stones that ancient civilizations used to grind grains. Even without the evidence, think about it. If you were starving (when I say starving, I am not talking about starving from eating lunch and ready for supper) and you tried to go hunt for meat but failed in killing an animal. You then try to find some berries but also are unlucky. You then stumble upon the “all dreaded” wheat or the “evil” dairy cow. Would you eat it or drink it? I know I would. You see, our ancestors lived in a time where they hunted and gathered their own food. They didn’t have the luxury of driving to the grocery store and deciding that grains and milk/dairy was bad for you. You can even look to the Bible to see that as far back as the Egyptians were eating, harvesting grains.

When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”  And he said, “Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die.” (Genesis 42:1-2)

Remember the story of Ruth in the Bible? She was gleaning grains during the time of the harvest. Don’t believe the bible? Well look at some of the ancient Egyptian drawings. They were clearing harvesting grains and eating them. The Egyptians were also drinking milk. They kept cattle, sheep, and goats. They stored the fresh milk in jars to be consumed immediately. If they didn’t consume it immediately, they processed the milk into quark or yogurt-like labaneh.

Ancient cultures like the Chinese are know for their consumption of rice. The Indus Valley Civilization, Mayans, Egyptians, Chinese, Japenese,  Romans, all ate grains and drank milk. You look at all these different cultures and you will see they all enjoyed both grains and dairy. Can you imagine trying to explain to these ancient cultures how milk and wheat was bad for them?? I’m sure they would glaze over and continue doing what they always had done, eating grains and dairy.

My mom talks about an ancient time (ok, not so ancient but ancient to me haha 🙂 ) when they grew everything they ate. And what they didn’t have, they bartered for. They were very poor. I am talking about a time when they were so poor they actually had dirt floors. No, I am not kidding. They were a family of 12 struggling to survive. They worked hard sun up to sun down. Every single one of them worked hard. She likes to tell me of times when all they had to eat was wheat muffins with honey and washed it down with milk, and how delicious this simple meal was. The milk was freshly milked from a cow or a goat. The wheat muffins were made from fresh wheat they had grown, harvested, and ground. My grandpa had robbed the honey from the bee hive. And the muffins were made from scratch by my grandmother. They were poor, worked hard, ate fresh grains and veggies grown from the soil they tilled, the meat was from the animals they grew on the farm, and most importantly, they were healthy.

But the caveman dated way before Egyptians..

So you mean to tell me that the Egyptians just decided to start eating grains and dairy? The reason I chose the Egyptians is because there is mountains of evidence on the modern science viewpoint and biblical accounts. Like it or not, they are still an ancient civilization.  There is hard evidence that the Egyptians ate grains and dairy. Both the biblical viewpoint and science both recognize the Egyptians as an ancient civilization. There is scientific evidence and the Bible also speaks of their time. I have a very different viewpoint than most. I am a Christian and take the Bible as truth. The caveman era that modern science teaches is off when aligning it to the Bible.  We all know science changes all the time. Simply look at the fad diets and you will see how science isn’t consistent. But that is another rabbit hole I will not go into detail right now. I think there were caveman but the time frame was not as modern science states and they are missing some details. I look to the bible for my answers. If you’re interested, read Answers in Genesis’ article When did caveman live? So to sum it up, the “caveman” can be found in Genesis. Where you can clearly see they ate grains and dairy. Even if you don’t believe the bible, archaeologist have dug up mills from ancient civilizations that they state were during the Caveman era. Like I said above, I have a different viewpoint on the Caveman era. But it still remains that an ancient civilization before the well documented and studied Egyptians, were still grinding grains.

As far as evolution goes. We do not just decide and/or evolve one day to begin eating something we never had to previous times. That is like saying we can evolve to eat grass. Grass has no nutrients to the human body. Our body can’t just automatically begin to need grass. It is undeniable that grains and dairy have nutrients that the body needs. Grass, on the other hand, doesn’t. Think about this for a second. If you saw a man out in his front yard eating grass, what would you think? You would think this man is mentally disturbed. Science would probably say, this man has some kind of disorder. Let’s say he comes to you and says, “Try some, it tastes like chicken.” Would you try it? Probably not but for the sake of argument let’s say he talks you into it. You try it and make a face, spit it out, and realize he is a little crazy. Let’s put that scenario to a “time when they didn’t eat grains and dairy.” Now apply that same scenario to the caveman. Civilizations all around the world would not just decide to start eating wheat and dairy just because they felt like it especially if it didn’t have any beneficial nutrients. It wouldn’t happen. You couldn’t convince civilizations around to world to eat grass so why would you think you could convince them to eat wheat and dairy if they weren’t already consuming it?

We have evolved to drive cars. We have evolved to manufacture food to be sold at the local grocery store. We have evolved to do many things but it does have limits. I do not believe we evolved from monkeys. I honestly think this is a disgrace to man to think we were once monkeys. I mean, monkeys eat their own poop. I am not kidding.  My husband didn’t believe me until I pulled up multiple videos on youtube. Again, another rabbit hole I am not going to journey down today. If your interested and this is a new viewpoint for you, check out Answers in Genesis’s article; Theory of Evolution.

What the Paleo diet got right….

I don’t think all of the Paleo Diet is wrong. I think they got a few things right. Most of our foods are highly processed, genetically modified, growth hormone induced, nutrient lacking, picked before its ripe, sprayed with gas to make it look nice,  and probably a few other problems I’m missing. Our food is literally a science experiment and as far from natural as you can get. We are a nation that is overfed and undernourished. We take supplements to counteract the foods that are seriously lacking vital vitamins and minerals. Our health is declining but McDonald’s is making the big bucks.

Eliminating processed foods and grains that have been stripped of their nutrients, growth hormones, GMOs, choosing organic, growing your own food or buying from local farmers you trust, and avoiding toxins such as pesticides, are all on the right track to eating healthy. Don’t fall into the lies and fad diets that are going to destroy your health even further. Trust me, give it 5-10 years and the Paleo Diet will be tossed out for the next diet that comes along to promise health, weight loss, and some kind of science to back up the claims.

 

When I wrote the blog post, I didn’t know the information I know now. Stay tuned for the next blog post. I will be covering why many are having reactions to wheat. *** Hint*** It’s not the gluten! 😉

So what are you thoughts on the Paleo Diet? Is it a do or a don’t?

 

 

 

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