2023: This has not aged well. Pete Evans has fallen down a fairly questionable rabbit hole of misinformation. However, his early promotion of whole food eating is still great.
John Campbell did a small segment on the paleo diet (mostly about Pete Evans promoting it in Australia).
Have a watch – there is a lot I liked about it. I do want to add though – many are promoting paleo as a high fat, very low carb diet. While this approach works for many – especially those who are extremely overweight and have insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes, Paleo is not necessarily low carbohydrate. Active and in fact average people don’t need to go very low carb There are many reasons this is contra-indicated. For example cutting starches can lead to fatigue while exercising especially at high intensities, it can affect hormones associated with fertility in women and lower the thyroid hormone T3. As well starchy carbs have fibre that your good gut bacteria thrive on. Good bacteria affects mind and body, and helps protect your gut cells from toxins. A seminal text book on the effect of the Paleo diet on health was written after extensive research on the Kitavan Islanders – a modern group whose diet comprised large amounts of starchy root vegetables (up to 60% of calories), fish, seafood, pork and coconuts. I highly recommend this text book. “Food and Western Disease; Health and nutrition from an evolutionary perspective” by Staffan Lindeberg
Here is Staffan Lindeberg’s website link to his work using the paleo diet to treat type 2 diabetes: Website and Wikipedia
Click on here or on picture to be taken to TV3 online
In 2013, the world’s most Googled diet was what some would call caveman food – the paleo diet.
But Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans loathes the word diet. He has become the public face of paleo, and in some quarters, public enemy number one.
Mr Evans’ fiancée, Nicola Robinson, formerly known in New Zealand as model Nicky Watson, says the paleo diet has helped her sleep better, given her more energy and has completely changed her life.
Nora Gedgaudus says the paleo diet is no fad, and if it were, it would be the oldest known fad diet in human history.
“It’s a commitment to eating food that is unadulterated, eating food in its most natural state.”
Paleo proponents believe our most natural diet is that of our Palaeolithic cavemen ancestors.
“We are 99.99 percent identical in terms of our genetic expression to our ancestors who lived to 40 1000,00 years ago,” says Ms Gedgaudus. “We have the same nutritional requirements that they did – we’re designed to eat the very same foods that they did.”
Our ancestors ate seafood and grass-fed meat, nuts, seeds, organic fruit, vegetables and fat.
Yes, fat. For 50 years we’ve been told to avoid it.
So what won’t you find in Mr Evans’ pantry? Just about anything processed or containing sugar, milk, legumes or grains and it’s that avoidance of whole food groups that has some dieticians in a spin.
He wants to see paleo principles adopted in childcare centres, school and hospitals.
He has recently secured a television slot and his series will soon screen in Australia.
So, could our health salvation really lie in our evolutionary past?
There’s no denying Mr Evans looks healthy enough living the paleo way – he says his recent blood tests came back fine and in Christchurch, Elora Harre says the same.
The 20-year-old has lost a whopping 52kgs in the past two years. She is sharing her success online and today showed her fat pants to reporter Jendy Harper.
Otherwise known as The Shrinking Violet, at 18-years-old Ms Harre was a size 24. She is now a size 14, having dropped 10 dress sizes.
She says she dropped her weight by cutting out processed, sugary laden foods and drinks, as well as sweet treats.
Instead, she’s filling up on fat, or what she calls good fat.
“I get to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, I get all the meat,” says Ms Harre. “Lots of fat keeps you satisfied you don’t really miss out.”
Ms Harre’s eating habits are enough to get some dieticians hearts racing in panic.
“I worried at first, I would think ‘oh my god I’m having butter, I’m having cream, surely this can’t be good for me’, but I was still losing 2kgs a week at some points and not doing any exercise.”
Her latest blood tests her cholesterol levels all came back fine.
She doesn’t divulge her peak weight, but says it was well into triple figures.
Takeaways were a diet staple and she suffered from severe headaches, anxiety attacks and vision problems.
“After looking around, I came to the conclusion that I might have type 2 diabetes. For someone at the age of 19 to be facing is really not a nice thing.”
She says she tried every diet under the sun and then found paleo, though says she is not a hard-core follower.
“I try not to sweat the small stuff because life’s for living and you’re not going to sit there panicking in the supermarkets over four grams of sugar in something.”
She is still a fan of the occasional treat – she even makes them herself in her own range of Indulge Dessert Sauces.
“Coconut cream, coconut sugar, butter and salt and that’s it,” says Ms Harre. “Nothing nasty and nothing you can’t pronounce.”
Hi there. I produced The Paleo Way TV show with Pete Evans. I want to clarify that this way of eating is not about avoiding carbohydrates, per se, but avoiding processed food. The recipes in Pete’s show are chock full of wonderful vegetables (including pre-biotics like sweet potatoes), fruits, nuts, seeds, and — of course — pasture-raised meats and wild fish. There is also an entire episode devoted to fermentation (sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, coconut yogurt).
Paleo 101 is basically this: Eat natural, recognizable foods, grown in natural, organic soils. And that includes animals raised on the foods they evolved to eat (grass, pastures). Carbs will remain low naturally in this diet, but the carbs you do ingest will be nutritionally dense.
That is good to hear. Nora, who seems to be Pete’s only nutrition advisor is Low carb high fat in her approach. That does not suit everyone.
It’s problematic, sometimes, to sum up people in general ways. Yes, almost all Paleo in summary is “low carb, high fat” but it’s missing the point if you don’t also point out that the fat needs to come from pasture-raised animals or organic fruits, like Avocado. And that “Low Carb” really means avoiding “High Carb” foods like grains, sugar, and processed foods. “Low Carb” certainly does not mean avoiding vegetables.