Do not believe this! Loren Cordain is hardly the guru of the Paleo diet!

[Guest guest]

Loren Cordain is hardly the guru of the Paleo diet, he is only

one

of hundreds who wrote something dogmatic about it!

 

 

The only tenable description of the Paleo Diet is " It does not contain very

much of the foods that have been developed by farming.

 

 

I would never accept the following brief report of Cordains interpratation

of the Paleo Diet. Note the Authors point out the inconsitencies and

conflicts they attribute to Cordain!

 

 

Just key " Paleo Diet " into Google and you will get enough references to keep

a fast reader busy for months following the labyrinth of cascading articles.

 

Then make up your own mind. Also Read about Winston Price and his

journeys. I read somewhere that what Price wrote is so thorough and detaild

that it is heavy going.

 

 

This excerpt appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing

Arts,

the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2002

 

This page was posted on 04/28/03 See the Complete HTML version at:

 

http://www.westonaprice.org/nutrition_guidelines/macronutrientland.html

 

 

By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

 

 

Here is the Excerpt:

 

 

 

Similar to the Zone Diet is the Paleo Diet, proposed by Loren Cordain.9

Although Cordain notes in his own published papers that hunter-gathers

" relished certain fatty portions of the carcass including brain, marrow and

depot fat, " 10 his own diet is much lower in fat than the typical Paleolithic

diet (which can be as high as 80 percent of calories as fat).11 The diet is

very high in protein with typical proportions of 33 percent protein, 25

percent carbohydrate and 42 percent fat. He promotes lean meat, shellfish

and some organ meats over cheese, whole milk, sausage and fatty meats,

because they have a high protein-to-fat ratio. Only six eggs are allowed per

week, because the protein-to-fat ratio of eggs is low. The rest of the diet

consists of fruits, vegetables and nuts but no grains or legumes. Salt is

forbidden in the Paleo Diet.

 

Cordain's analyses found a range of 59-66 percent of saturated in the depot

fat that hunter-gatherers relished, but he advises his readers to cut all

the fat off our meat and replace butter and lard with olive oil, flaxseed

oil, walnut oil, canola oil, mustard seed oil or avocado oil, because these

oils contain " heart-healthy " monounsaturated fatty acids. He recommends

organ meats but they don't show up very often in the recipes and the skin

comes off in his chicken recipes, even though chicken fat is rich in

monounsaturates. (We haven't yet figured out why people who write diet books

foster such a hatred for the part of the chicken children love the most—the

crispy, succulent skin.)

 

Cordain admits that his diet contains virtually no vitamin D but he says

that Paleolithic man got his vitamin D from the sun. (How he did that in

cold northern climates is not explained.) There are no good sources of

calcium in this diet either and the vitamin A it supplies is inadequate for

all that protein. No sweets are allowed in Cordain's diet, of course, but

his logic breaks down when he recommends diet sodas instead.

 

The Paleo Diet ends up being lower in fat than almost all traditional diets.

Moreover, it contains no sources of concentrated carbohydrates that the body

could turn easily into the saturated fat it needs. And without grains or

rice or potatoes to provide carbohydrate calories, you have to eat a lot of

vegetables to get the carb proportion up to even 25 percent. Children and

even grown men who hate vegetables might have trouble on this diet, and

there are no high-fat or high-carb comfort foods that make mother's cooking

something they would want to come home to. Like the Zone Diet, the Paleo

Diet is one created by professors rather than food providers faced with the

challenge of putting satisfying meals on the table day in and day out—meals

their families will actually eat.

 

 

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Table 5: Fat Content in Common Foods Coconut Milk 89%

 

Avocado 88%

 

Salad with Oil and Vinegar Dressing 86%

 

Rib Eye Steak 81%

 

Peanut Butter 77%

 

Cheddar Cheese 74%

 

Hamburger 68%

 

Eggs 65%

 

Potato Chips 63%

 

Mackarel 59%

 

Tuna Salad 56%

Caviar 52%

 

Whole Milk 50%

 

Ice Cream 47%

 

Lean Beef (brisket) 43%

 

Apple Pie 39%

 

Cookies 38%

 

Pepperoni Pizza 32%

 

Salmon 32%

 

Oysters 21%

 

Skim Milk 4%

 

Lima Beans 4%

 

 

The only protein foods that can be consumed without surpassing the USDA

guidelines of 30 percent or less of calories as fat are shellfish, skim milk

and legumes. The Alice-in-Wonderland logic of the US Dietary Guidelines

means that apple pie and cookies are healthier than eggs, whole milk and

cheese. Coconut milk, avocado, salad dressing, steak and peanut butter are

off the charts and can't be included in any diet that conforms to the Food

Pyramid unless combined with foods very high in carbohydrate and low in fat

such as bread and pasta.

 

 

 

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