A couple of weeks ago I wrote about an incident I had with a friend who was trying to follow the Paleo lifestyle. I mentioned that I had a few objections to the whole paleo idea but that it really didn’t matter since it was a healthy lifestyle anyway. Naturally, a few of you asked what were my objections to this lifestyle, so…

Now, before I give the details, I do want to emphasize that I think the paleo lifestyle is perfectly fine and healthy. I would gladly recommend it to others, especially as part of an overall lifestyle like Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint. So I don’t want to hear any flames in the comments about “dude, you just don’t get it. Also, you suck! Hur hur!” If you want to discuss this post that’s great. I love comments and I enjoy responding to them, but please keep it civil.

Will The Real Paleo Please Stand Up?

So, what’s my issue with paleo? Primarily, it’s one of historical accuracy. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been to a renaissance faire? For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, a Ren Faire is a place where people recreate the middle ages / renaissance by donning old style clothing, eating turkey legs, watching jousts, saying a lot of “M’Lord” and “M’Lady” and strapping on swords. Sounds neat, and it actually is quite fun. However, this isn’t really the Renaissance. If it was, most of these people would be poor peasants. They would live a miserable life of hard labor and die at a young age. They would start having kids in their early teens and most of those kids would die before hitting puberty. Their clothes would be unwashed and they would go for days or weeks without a shower. They would also have lice and variety of other diseases and did I mention that at any time a nobleman might ride by and kill, rape or conscript them into his armies? Doesn’t sound so pretty anymore, does it? The truth is that the Renaissance Faire takes this time in which most people lived rather miserable lives and romantacizes it. They show us this age as we would like to live it, not as it was really lived through.

The paleo lifestyle is a bit like that.  It imagines some sort of tall, muscular caveman, striding next to his tall, muscular swim suit model of a mate, eating steaks, sprinting after prey and lifting heavy weights.  It uses this image in order to justify a diet which is allegedly what we “evolved to eat”.  Unfortunately, this simply isn’t true.

• If you assume that cavemen ate a lot of red meat, that’s just plain wrong.  You can’t hunt big animals without tools and tools are not part of evolution.  Our bodies didn’t evolve spears or bows, that’s learned tool usage similar to plowing and reaping, which the paleo lifestyle seems to abhor.  Without tools, the best you can hope for is the occasional bit of carrion.  So forget that juicy steak.
• Speaking of that steak, cavemen didn’t have fire.  Unless fire starting is some kind of evolved trait then you better start eating your food raw.  By the way, raw food eating does seem to have health benefits, so I suppose this whole “eat what we evolved to eat” does have some merit, but again, that’s not what paleo preaches.
• Speaking of raw foods, what about rotting foods?  That’s right, cavemen don’t have refrigerators, nor are they very squeamish.  So start eating those rotting fruit and vegetables now.  Oh, and don’t forget to mix in a little dirt.
• Milk?  Forget about it!  Cavemen don’t keep cows and cave bears are surprisingly hard to milk.  So that primal cheeseburger you just ate is wrong on several counts.
• Did I mention the bugs?  Oh yes, bugs!  Check out where our close ancestors, the great apes, get a lot of protein.  They eat bugs.  Juicy, slimy grubs and insects, filled to the brim with healthy protein.  Doesn’t that sound yummy?

Get the picture?  The paleo lifestyle is to “eat what we evolved to eat” what the Renaissance Faire is to actually living in the Renaissance.  It’s a cleaned up, romanticized version of something that wasn’t particularly clean or appealing by our modern standards.

That Said…

And yet, even with these objections, I would still recommend something like the Primal Blueprint.  Why?  Because it:

1. Tells you to stay away from junk food.
2. Tells you to add some fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet.
3. Gives you tips on eating in moderation.
4. Tells you to get some kind of regular resistance exercise.
5. Tells you to challenge your heart.
6. Tells you to get some sleep.
7. Tells you to avoid stress.
8. Shows you how to change your lifestyle in the long term.

And these my friends are 95% of what a healthy lifestyle is all about.  If you want that last 5% then sure, you can eat some bugs, start consuming raw meat and add the occasional rotting vegetable to your diet.  As for me, 95% is good enough!