The Paleo Diet Has Its Fair Share Of Haters. Here's Why They're Wrong. (2024)

I'm not usually very trendy. I've never done hot yoga, kale made me gag once, and for the life of me, I can't comprehend why anyone would ever do a juice cleanse.

But somehow I've become a willing participant in one of the biggest dietary movements of the decade: the Paleo diet.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about Paleo, the most Googled diet of the past 2 years (6.5 million searches in 2014 alone). The rules are, in short: Stop eating all grains, soy and other legumes, dairy products, refined sugars, and any processed product containing those foods. Instead, eat lots of organic (when possible) vegetables, grass-fed animal meat, fresh seafood, nuts, seeds, berries, and anything else our Paleolithic ancestors could have scoured off the earth.

That may sound restrictive and, well, soul-sucking, but plenty of people have credited the diet with helping them lose weight as well as boosting their health and energy. Of course, it helps that many celebrities now tout Paleo's primacy: Matthew McConaughey, Uma Thurman, LeBron James, and even former-vegan-turned-steak-eater Anne Hathaway.

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But why on prehistoric earth would you give up yogurt, beans, oatmeal, hummus, and all the other healthy foods that have been advocated by nearly every other diet in the past 4 decades but are no-no's on Paleo? The theory is, our bodies haven't evolved to properly digest these "modern" foods, which became widely consumed only upon the advent of agriculture 12,000 years ago—a relative flash in the pan in the scheme of human history. Nutritionists, doctors, and scientists who support the diet maintain that these recent foods have contributed to the systemic inflammation, digestive problems, heart disease, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes that now top the list of our medical problems.

That premise may feel gimmicky, but it's also intriguing, right? That's what I thought in 2012 when, after zero deliberation, I decided to give the diet a whirl in an attempt to find something (anything!) to alleviate the crippling joint pain I'd been dealing with for 2 years—or at least something that would stop the cycle of bawling and kettle-corn consumption I was caught in as a result of my able-bodied life grinding to a halt. Before I reveal how my achy ankles and fragile mental state fared, let's look at all the reasons I probably should have asked around before embracing my inner cave girl.

Indeed, some really smart people, legitimate giants in the nutrition world, think Paleo is a load of bull. Some anthropologists take issue with the mere premise of the diet, arguing that there was never one common eating approach among Paleolithic man but several based on geography and food availability. One of the most vocal to argue this is Marlene Zuk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota, whose book Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live argues that as human evolution didn't stop in the Paleolithic period, no one should assume this is the ideal diet for everyone. Another part of her rationale: Evolution isn't always excruciatingly slow, taking place in "tiny steps over hundreds of thousands of years," she writes. "In just the last few years we have added the ability to function at high altitudes and resistance to malaria to the list of rapidly evolved human characteristics." If that can happen, she argues, then we've probably evolved to handle a little bread and pasta now and then. (Cook quick meals at home that taste great and fight fat! Sign up for Chef'd and get all the ingredients and recipes delivered to your doorstep.)

Beyond those who call Paleo flawed in its premise, there are scores of doctors and nutritionists who rail against the plan for health reasons. Earlier this year, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Paleo diet dead last in its annual Best Diets rankings. According to its panel of experts: "By shunning dairy and grains, you're at risk of missing out on a lot of nutrients." They also questioned the diet's effect on heart health, adding, "If you're not careful about making lean meat choices, you'll quickly ratchet up your risk of heart problems."

When I asked a nutritionist if she agreed, she said yes. "Diets void of dairy could be lacking in calcium and vitamin D, and numerous studies show the health-promoting and weight loss benefits of whole grains," says Jen McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "Further, meat eaters tend to have higher BMIs, which are associated with a number of chronic diseases."

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One of the biggest household names to endorse the sentiment that more meat and fat equals higher health risks is doctor Dean Ornish, who, as founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, has for years been touting the benefits of a plant-based diet low in fat and high in whole grains. In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, Ornish vehemently argued against Paleo-type diets, citing a handful of observational studies showing that "animal protein may significantly increase the risk of premature mortality from all causes, among them cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes."

The list of experts challenging Paleo got even more distinguished when nutritionist Marion Nestle, author of the blog Food Politics, questioned the diet in a Wall Street Journal article titled "Is the Paleo Diet Healthy?" For Nestle, the diet asks people to give up too many foods for too dubious health benefits to be advantageous or sustainable. "Restricting whole food groups can take some of the joy out of eating by forcing people to give up foods that they love or that are part of their cultural heritage," she said.

Those cons leave aside the diet's seemingly least defensible attribute—its environmental unsustainability.

"An emphasis on meat, whatever the kind of meat, is simply not tenable for a population of 7 billion—period," says David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University. "So Paleo is a diet for a very select few. Why not instead transition to a diet known to be both healthy and sustainable?"

Yikes.

After all that, any logical human might wonder why we haven't collectively excommunicated the diet. I likely wouldn't have tried it if I'd known all of the above before diving in. But then I wouldn't have had the joy of following what might be called a backlash to the backlash. Recently, alongside critics citing flaws, loads of other intelligent people began marshaling the evidence that it's one of the healthiest ways to eat. These megafans not only cite the growing body of research on the diet's disease-fighting benefits, but also point out that the superstrict version of Paleo that's drawn so much fire is simply a starting point. Paleo's refreshing secret, they say—and I say it, too, after talking with doctors, scientists, and the real women who have lived it—is that it can and perhaps should be done flexibly, like any other healthy way of eating. This notion of a modifiable Paleo has been lost in the wilderness of finger-pointing. But it's excellent news for those desperate to find a diet that finally "works for me, gosh darn it!"

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To reduce inflammation, stabilize your blood sugar, cut LDL ("bad") cholesterol, help prevent chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease, and even shrink belly fat, consider Paleo. That's the conclusion, at least, made by the authors of several randomized controlled clinical trials and studies of the diet. One from JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions showed that, compared with those who followed the Mediterranean or DASH (a plan heavy on whole grains and low in fat designed to lower high blood pressure) diet, people who followed a Paleo or, ironically, a vegan diet for 60 days showed the greatest improvements in heart disease risk factors like high LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and lost the most weight.

That's right, Paleo was comparable to a vegan diet, which shuns all the animal-based products that we've been told are associated with heart disease. Another recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that over6 months, obese postmenopausal women on a Paleo diet lost more fat, particularly stubborn belly fat, than those on the much-touted Nordic diet, which allows grains, dairy, and beans.

Wait a few more decades, predicts Gary Taubes, and the evidence in favor of Paleo should be more conclusive. The author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, he's an investigative journalist whose writing has helped shift the blame for obesity and chronic disease away from dietary fat and onto carbs and sugar. Right now, says Taubes, long-term clinical trials that can establish the diet's risks and benefits are too expensive to conduct, so little data on Paleo's long-term effects exists outside of the personal success stories. But, he says, "I'd predict that 20 years from now, you'll find that the people following Paleo-style diets will be healthier."

In the meantime, many physicians aren't waiting for bigger, longer studies to confirm what they know from experience. According to the Paleo Physicians Network, hundreds of doctors are prescribing Paleo-style diets to patients with health issues like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis.

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Among these docs is Terry Wahls, assistant chief of staff at the Iowa Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Wahls's experience with Paleo is personal, after a modified version of the diet helped her reverse her own progressive case of MS, enabling her to go from a wheelchair to an 18-mile bike race within a year. Her approach to the diet, outlined in the book The Wahls Protocol, includes moderate protein from grass-fed meat, organ meats, and fish; fermented veggies; and loads of leafy greens, sulfur-rich veggies like broccoli, and berries. In a recent study, patients on her version of the diet experienced the largest drop in MS-related fatigue ever reported.

Get the easy recipes for all the delicious Paleo dishes shown in this article here.

In addition, Wahls says, Paleo has helped her treat patients with obesity, diabetes, and other autoimmune problems like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. "Results you get from this type of diet depend on how you structure it," she says. "But a vegetable-heavy version like mine helps on several fronts, decreasing the carbohydrate load by getting rid of the sugar and white flour, so we're improving insulin sensitivity and, for some people, eliminating the dietary trigger to their autoimmune disease—gluten. And we're shifting the bacteria that live in your gut to a healthier mix."

Gynecologist Debra Ravasia also prescribes a Paleo-style diet to help obese patients lose weight at her clinic in Spokane, WA. "I have not found it possible to accomplish these same goals on a low-fat or low-calorie diet," she says. "A low-refined-carb diet is needed, with adequate protein and fat and little to no sugar or starch."

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Wait a minute, though. If you cut healthy carbs like whole grains, dairy, and legumes, won't you lose out on key nutrients, as theU.S. News & World Report argued in its scathing ranking of Paleo? Not if you follow the diet responsibly, says Laura Schoenfeld, a holistic nutritionist who prescribes a Paleo-style diet to her clients. "With Paleo, as long as you eat a variety of plant and animal foods, including nutrient-dense superfoods like liver, eggs, fatty fish, bone broth, and fermented foods, you'll get all the nutrients you need," she says.

"Most of my female clientsactually do better on a moderate-carb, not low-carb, version of Paleo that provides consistent protein at each meal—only about a palm-size serving from meat, fish, eggs—along with two handfuls of nonstarchy veggies, one handful of starchy veggies, and one to two thumb-size portions of fat," says Schoenfeld. What her approach might translate to: a fillet of salmon served with zucchini noodle "pasta," roasted sweet potatoes, and beets with crumbled bacon—all drizzled with olive oil. The meal is far lower in refined carbs and higher in fat and protein than what most Americans eat.

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But even if doctors and nutritionists are recommending the diet, can Paleo really be considered Paleolithic if you're consuming things like almond butter or cashew milk? Absolutely, says Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet, the book recognized as introducing Americans to the diet. According to Cordain, eating Paleo doesn't mean you eat exactly what our ancestors ate—because, he agrees, ancient man's diet varied enormously—but, rather, the food groups they ate.

The truth is, as I've discovered in reporting this article, many experts advocate a strict Paleo diet and then encourage personal experimentation. "The goal is really to get in tune with your body, not to blindly subscribe to a set of beliefs," says John Durant, author of The Paleo Manifesto. His advice, with which many agree: Eat strictly Paleo for 30 days, but then reintroduce foods that are important to you, one at a time, to see how you feel. And when you end up with a diet you thrive on that's not strictly Paleo (Durant confesses to eating grass-fed dairy), that's fine.

When I connected with other Paleo followers, most said they'd naturally adjusted the diet to suit their needs over time—with big results. "I follow a Paleo template, not strict Paleo—I occasionally eat yogurt, cheese, and oatmeal because they don't cause me any dietary discomfort," says Robin Gregory, 38, from Gainesville, FL, who has lost 30 pounds since she started eating mostly Paleo in 2011.

Keri Brewster, 41, from Kansas City, MO, has used a modified Paleo approach to treat her rheumatoid arthritis and IBS. "I eat sour cream occasionally and don't feel bad about it," she says. "But grains containing gluten set off my IBS symptoms. Before this, I had no idea how my body was reacting to individual foods."

Carey Rossi, 44, a former vegetarian in Manhattan, found that Paleo was the only thing that helped alleviate her migraines and fatigue. After trying a strict 30-day Paleo plan, she decided to follow it mostly full-time. "Occasionally I have dairy, grains, and legumes, but they leave me feeling tired, dopey, and bloated," she says. "So when I eat them, I do so knowing how they will affect my body."

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Others do stick to the purest Paleo and can readily explain why. Michele Klepac, a 56-year-old from central Texas, decided to adopt a Paleo-style diet in January 2012. Since then, she's eliminated the extreme fatigue, burning nerve pain, and leg tremors associated with her MS and lost 50 pounds in the process. "I needed a strict overhaul like this to reset my palate and discover that I actually enjoy things like veggie-loaded salads," she says. She will not do dairy and grains again, she suspects, aside from a once-in-a-blue-moon crème brûlée.

As for me, a month on the strict Paleo plan was the palate reset I needed—I no longer craved bread, or sugar in my coffee.

For the first time in, well, ever, I felt in control of what I ate. No more magnetic pull to Girl Scout cookies. As a bonus, I was less bloated and oddly happy despite being nearly crippled and living with my parents.

While the diet didn't alleviate my joint pain completely (I was later diagnosed with Lyme disease), it helped diminish flare-ups, and it redefined my relationship with food. I finally appreciated the flavors of nourishing whole foods and lost my desire to eat everything in sight when stressed. The rules of no refined carbs or processed junk were not deprivation when I could eat all the fruits and veggies I wanted and never count calories.

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After 6 months of strict Paleo, I figured out what I could reintroduce without feeling like garbage or triggering a binge: peanut butter, hummus, and wine are among the non-Paleo foods I tolerate happily. I allow myself my mom's brownies on special occasions, which makes them, and the occasions, more special. And this is how I've been eating for 3½ years.

So, yes, I'm a convert to the Paleo diet—or lifestyle, as I call it. I'm convinced of its benefits and scientific legitimacy. It may not be for everyone, but it is keeping me and many others at a healthy weight without much effort, easing our pain, and helping us disassociate food and guilt. In short, it's been tough love, providing structure in a surreal world of processed food and perfectly sugarcoated kettle corn. The backlash against it is illuminating but doesn't seem likely to last, especially for those of us who've finally learned how to love the foods that actually love us back.

Want to join me? Starting September 1, I'll be doing a 30-Day Paleo challenge. Here's how you can join me.