As a nutritionist who for whom clinical studies are important to back up any advice or anecdotes, it is important for me to add this proviso:
These stories are from those who have had personal success on a paleo style diet. This is not a controlled clinical study, so there are obviously no people who tried it and failed or tried it and it didn,t make much difference. We need those studies. If you try a paleo diet and it does not work for you, don’t persist is trying harder or longer. Please do not change your diet without medical advice, particularly if you are on medication or have health problems which may be affected by a change in diet.
Note that some people do have a ‘reaction’ changing diet and this often occurs in the first 3 weeks, it is typically an adjustment to changes in food, and may be unpleasant, gut changes, headaches, feeling tired and achy, this for some is normal and does not mean the diet is toxic or bad for you. Once adjusted you will feel normal again, if not better. If you do not feel better after an adjustment, this may not be the right way of eating for you.
After I discovered paleo eating made a significant impact to my health, I emailed my list and asked if there were volunteers who wanted to test this out for 6 weeks, and do before and after measurements and blood tests. I needed some assurance for myself that if I was to recommend this way of eating for clients – was I doing the right thing by them. Did it have a good chance of working?
Twenty people signed up to do it for 6 weeks and the results were beyond what I expected.
The 6 week Paleo Trial in New Zealand with 20 people has finished, with amazing progress in health and weight loss. E.g most have lost 4 – 6 kg in 6 weeks, and are thrilled with how much better they feel.
Paleo trial results – stunning – blog post here
Further Paleo results from my clients include stories on remission of auto-immune diseases, lupus and HLA-B27 arthritis.
Loren Cordain gets a large number of people writing to him with their results and health improvements.
You can see them on The Paleo Diet website.
Whole 9 Life have a testimonial page with many success stories:
Robb Wolf also has many on his blog:
From Mark’s Daily Apple:
Marks Daily Apple Success Stories
Perfect Health Diet
Perfect Health Diet: Readers results
For Testimonials for the success of the Zone Diet with NZ clients see Zone Diet Testimonials
My observation is that the Zone is far more successful when people use most favourable / Paleo food choices: lean meats and seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, good fats, and cut out the less favourable foods – processed meats, grains especially wheat, and bad fats.
New Zealand Paleo success stories – blog links
Richard Beddie’s 30 day paleo result http://www.whiteandblack.co.nz/2011/05/paleo-diet-an-update/
