I’ve touched on this topic in recent FaceBook posts nevertheless due to the overwhelming amount of responses I’ve received I felt the subject deserved a dedicated Blog post. The Paleo Diet (along with CrossFit) has taken the fitness world by storm these last few years.
Its’ premise is rather simple: since your average caveman had more muscle than you and diabetes was unknown, therefore you should only eat what they ate and join our $250 a month CrossFit gym to get jacked. This equates to meat, nuts, veggies and fruit (depending on which school of Paleo Diet thought – you choose to follow).
In general, it is not a horrible eating plan as it eliminates all junk and processed foods. It is also Gluten Free which fits the current “only WAR is worse than Gluten” mindset.
But is it the end-all, be all too all dietary questions?
Well, therein lays the issue. One should always be weary of any one dieting or training system that claims to be the solution for all mankind’s problems (unless, it was invented by me).
Not surprisingly – I do have several issues with the Paleo Diet, which are:
- It is too cultish and ‘carbophobic’. A lot of Paleo Diet hacks almost take pride in not letting science diffuse their writings and food choices. Case in point: some Paleo schools allow dark chocolate, which confuses me, since that means there must have been one Swiss Neanderthal with the last name Lindt or Sprüngli who had figured out how to make milk chocolate.
- Nobody has ever met a caveman, so we do not know for certain what they ate. Additionally, there was no “one” caveman. We are not biologically identical to our Paleolithic predecessors, nor do we have the same seasons as them & cavemen living in Europe, ate very differently from their African, Asian and Middle Eastern counterparts, depending on the availability of different foods.
- Caveman ate not for performance but what was there. In other words, maybe they would have liked to optimize their diet by adding some complex carbs before going on those 30 mile marches!!!
As stated above, the Paleo Diet is definitely one of the better diets out there. But one must remember that there is no one diet for everyone. Each individual’s eating plan should be constantly tweaked and updated, based on the specific needs of the athlete.
With that I wanted to thank all my loyal readers for the support I have experienced over the past year, it truly means a lot to me!
Zum neuen Jahr Gesundheit, Glück und viel Erfolg!!
Maik