Post by contributor, Kathleen Quiring
If you spend any amount of time reading about health, nutrition, or cooking, you’ve no doubt come across the Paleo Diet.
In case it’s new to you, the Paleo Diet is based on the premise that humans are best adapted to eat the foods our Paleolithic ancestors ate, before the dawn of agriculture. This means excluding grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined sugar, and processed oils. (Yow!) That leaves you with meat, seafood, vegetables, eggs, and some nuts, seeds and fruits. (You can read more about the Paleo Diet here.)
The Paleo Diet makes intuitive sense to me, and anecdotal evidence suggests that it can really improve our health. I totally respect the movement. I’m always interested in learning more about this dietary framework, and have incorporated many principles and recipes into my repertoire.
That being said, our family doesn’t eat Paleo.
Instead, we generally eat according to a Traditional Foods / Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) paradigm. Like the Paleo movement, the traditional foods movement recommends eating in a way more closely aligned with that of our earlier ancestors, emphasizing whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods, and eschewing highly processed foods.
In our family we eat lots of healthy/traditional/saturated fats and fermented foods, as per WAPF recommendations. However, unlike Paleo, the WAPF framework does allow for grains, legumes, and full-fat dairy products (if prepared properly . . . but I won’t go into that here.) So oatmeal, cheese, beans, rice, potatoes and ice cream are still regular parts of our diet.
Here are the 3 main reasons for why we don’t eat Paleo:
1. Because We Don’t Have To
The most important point in the matter is that we simple haven’t found a need to eat Paleo.
I know that a lot of people truly cannot tolerate gluten and/or dairy. Instances of autoimmune disorders are skyrocketing, and many cases can be greatly improved by cutting out grains, legumes, and/or dairy products (not to mention sugar and other fake foods). Many people report incredible improvements in their health when they switch to a Paleo diet. For this reason, I have a high regard for the Paleo movement, and think it’s a great option for many, many people.
But we don’t seem to need that in our family. While I haven’t personally tried the Paleo diet, I haven’t found a reason to, because we all seem to tolerate dairy and grains just fine. None of us suffers from any real health issues on our current diet. As long as we stick to mostly unprocessed foods, traditional fats, and a limited amount of natural sweeteners, we all feel great.
I realize we’re lucky. That might not always be the case – we might discover problems later in life, or have more kids who would benefit from a change in diet. But so far, so good.
If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
2. Eating Paleo is Hard on the Budget
I’ve chosen not to work outside of homemaking, so we’re a single-income family . . . and even that income is unimpressive. (My husband runs his own small business with fairly large overhead costs.) So we’ve got to be very selective with how we budget, just in order to survive.
The Paleo diet emphasizes meat, seafood, eggs, and vegetables. These all tend to be among the costliest grocery items we buy. They become even more expensive when you choose to buy organic, free-range, etc.
I’m very meticulous about the ethics of my food choices – I strive to consume foods that contribute to the flourishing (rather than the degradation) of my planet and fellow creatures. For me, that generally means buying and eating pesticide-free, local, fair-trade, humanely-raised, nutrient-dense grocery items where possible.
This means I often pay much more for many items than most people do. So I can’t always afford to eat only the most expensive items out there – namely, meats and fresh vegetables.
When it comes to meat and eggs, it’s important to me that I only consume humanely-raised and slaughtered animals (i.e. healthy animals that have been able to move around outdoors and feed on pesticide-free pasture). This kind of meat is both hard to find and expensive – I rely almost solely on the meat my parents raise. My parents simply cannot raise enough – and I can’t afford to get it elsewhere – to make animal products the only source of protein for my family.
That’s why I often turn to legumes and whole grains for additional protein. These foods are a much less expensive source of protein to supplement meat and eggs. Since we don’t have any intolerances to them, I’m happy to use them, though I try not to overdo them (and I try to soak or ferment them as much as possible to reduce the antinutrients). We regularly eat beans, lentils, popcorn, and rice. Sometimes we even eat pasta. I’m glad we’re able to enjoy these inexpensive foods to keep our budget down.
Especially here in Canada, where our growing season is so short, fresh fruits and vegetables can get pretty pricey, too, especially in winter. Which leads me to . . .
3. It’s Hard to Eat Locally and Seasonally on the Paleo Diet
I’ve become increasingly convinced that eating locally can go a long way in restoring the health of our planet, our local economies, and our general well-being as a species.
Again, here in the snowy north, we can’t grow fresh fruits and vegetables for most of the year. If we want them in the winter, we need to either ship them in (Boo!) or preserve them. Preservation is great, to a certain extent, and I definitely do plenty of it; but freezing and canning do use up substantial amounts of energy. It’s also very hard to preserve and store enough to last us all the way to spring.
Local seafood is also a challenge for those of us who don’t live near the ocean.
However, we can grow our own grains and legumes here in Canada, and they store easily with little to no energy use. (Same with potatoes, another non-Paleo food.) So they make excellent, inexpensive winter fare when the larder gets low.
Local dairy products can be another great source of protein and other nutrients throughout the winter months (since cows and goats can live off of hay through the winter, which also stores well).
These great winter foods — grains, legumes, dairy, and potatoes — are all off-limits, though, with the Paleo diet, making local/seasonal eating very challenging.
I’ve noticed that a lot of Paleo folks rely heavily on coconut products and other imported foods (like bananas), which concerns me. I love me some coconut oil, but I try to balance it with locally-acquired fats, too (like butter and lard.)
I just don’t see how we can sustainably subsist on only meat and vegetables throughout the winter here in Canada. It might be possible, but so far I haven’t figured out how to make it work.
I’m sure it would be easier in a warmer climate, and I lean towards a more Paleo-friendly diet during the summer when fresh produce abounds. But it’s a real challenge to stick to it here where our growing season is only a few months long.
* * *
In short, I’ve found the Paleo diet very hard to harmonize with my attempts to be a good steward of the earth. It might be possible if our family had a higher income or we lived in a more tropical climate, but our current circumstances make it very difficult (and thus far, as far as I can see, unnecessary for us).
Circumstances might change, of course. But for now, our family won’t be eating Paleo.
Daphne
I turned to the Paleo diet as a healing diet because I have an autoimmune disease. I was able to justify the increased food cost with a decrease in medical expenses. I try to eat in season and local as well. However, I developed hypothyroidism and have found adding soaked/ sprouted grains and legumes have helped greatly with that. My body still won’t tolerate dairy, but I’m hoping eventually that will change!
Emily
Hi! How did adding grains in help?
Tory Trombley
I loved this article! These are my thoughts exactly. I love your blog, keep on posting!
Carmel
I like the WAPF diet, but am allergic to dairy (except clarified butter), so I sort of follow it with some adaptations. I plan to try raw dairy to see if I can tolerate that, but it is a hard to get commodity where I live. Some people also think my gallstones are what makes me allergic to dairy, but surgery is something I would love to avoid. I agree with most here, and think a primal type diet is more realistic for most. Then again, one has to eat for how they feel, and that should be their diet. Chosen because they feel good and are healthy, and not because someone says it is good for everyone. A couple things I think of is too much protein can actually be harmful to some people, importing a lot of items is hard on people’s carbon footprint, and too many green veggies (high in oxolates) are not good for everyone. My grandparents and great grandparents all ate according to what would be considered a WAPF diet, and 6 of them lived to be 96 years old plus, in good health (one lived independently until 101 years old). One thing I noticed in your article is that you mentioned ‘sugar and other fake foods’. Organic, pure cane sugar is not fake, and was eaten in moderation in home cooking by many generations without problems (like the 6 people above who lived healthy lives into at least into their late nineties). I think it is the amount and quality of sugar that causes problems now (it’s in too many convenience and junk foods). That all being said, I do have a daughter who thrives on a paleo diet, and has health problems on other diets. Her diet is expensive to follow. I also have three grandchildren who were advised to add more grains to their diet, after not doing as well after grains were suggested to be limited.
Sandra
We feel a lot better when we cut out highly processed foods. Our menu consist of grains, legumes, dairy , meat, and fruits and veggies.
I am thankful that we can consume whole grains without any problems. It keeps the food budget manageable.
MarlisB
I have for quite a while now puzzled at the Paleo diet. Human beings began agriculture around 13,000 years ago (some evidence found in the last two years suggest it may have begun as early as 15,000 years ago, but that is still contested). Is someone really going to tell me the human body hasn’t adapted to a larger variety of food items during this time? I think avoiding the food items added in the last say, 50 -100 years is a good idea. People started to cultivate a variety of plants all over the globe between 8,000 and 9,000 BC, and even plant varieties before that eaten by hunter-gatherer nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples would have varied depending on where they are from. And even that changed depending on the migratory route their ancestors would have taken over the course of tens of thousands of years in pre-agrarian times. In a nutshell, the ‘logic’ behind the Paleo craze is faulty.
Eat a healthy balanced diet, whether vegetarian or moderately omnivorous. Avoid refined sugars and anything other than occasional dairy. Avoid refined wheat. Even the vegan bandwagon makes no sense. There are no cultures that have been vegan now or earlier. We call it the yuppie diet in our home.
Jenna
Haha, I think I “accidentally” started using the Traditional Foods type of diet…as in those are the foods that work best for us and so I’ve just fallen into making them and feeding them to my family all the time. It’s good to know that a) this is actually a thing, b) I’m not just following a thing for the sake of following a thing, and c) that there are other people out there whose bodies respond like ours do to these types of diets (because I was seriously starting to wonder whether we were SUPER weird for not being able to handle these other diets).
Jenna
(and I have tried eating both Paleo-style, though never got 100% as I just can’t give up dairy, as well as a nearly-vegetarian diet…both those attempts made me feel tired ALL THE TIME)
Meghan
I highly suggest going Paleo for at least 30 days; it did me wonders! It’s quite the experience and puts your willpower to the test! I love cheese, bread, cheese on bread, pizza, buttery bread, french fries, cheese fries; anything disgustingly delicious that will clog your arteries. My problem was, that was all I ate; crap food. Nothing to energize or nourish my body. I was overweight and ate my feelings (which tasted very good, I might add). Luckily, I am not a picky eater. I love my veggies, fruits, and all types seafood. I read up a lot on the Paleo way of life, and decided, why not. I was unhappy with my weight and how tired my body always felt. The first week or so is hell. I swear, all I dreamed about was cheese, that is, when I was able to sleep. That’s the detox part. After that week of almost-giving-up, I felt amazing. I was working out (actually wanting to work out), feeling energized, slept through the entire night, and feeling genuinely healthy. Yes, I still craved all those yummy greasy foods, but it was much easier once I was on a roll. I lost 25 lbs in 30 days, looked great, and never felt better. Give it whirl, Kathleen. You’ll be VERY surprised!
annie
There is definitely no one diet that was eaten by all peoples in the Paleolithic era. Depending on where you lived you might have eaten only meat and veg but many peoples ate legumes and starchy tubers of various sorts. It just depends on what kind of ecosystem you were living in. For this reason alone I’d be suspicious of Paleo even if it weren’t for the fact that I’m suspicious of “diets” generally. That being said, if eating Paleo makes you feel good then by all means go for it. We pretty much eat what we’re craving (listen to our bodies). If my body says it needs potatoes then I eat potatoes. As it works out, our diet is very heavy on the veg and legumes with meat and fish as we can afford it (way, way below the amount most Americans eat) and as much grass-fed fats and olive oil as our bodies ask for. Seems to keep us pretty healthy and my toddler is developing extremely well.
Kathleen Quiring
I’m SOOO with you, Annie, in listening to our bodies rather than what some diet dictates!
Lola
My family and I have eaten a very paleo-ish diet off and on and we’ve done one month long trials that where beneficial because I realized how strongly gluten and dairy aggravate my psoriasis and migraines. But my kids do great on raw dairy. When I strictly eliminate starches for too long (rice, potatoes etc) I get cold, cranky and skinny. As soon as I add rice back in, I’m a new person. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching autoimmunity and the gut and the biggest drawback of the low carb or low fiber paleo diet is it’s inability to feed the butyrate producing bacteria in the gut. These are the bacteria that seal the gut lining and produce butyric acid and other long worded acids 🙂 that decrease inflammation in the gut and the whole body. Resistant starch is found in cooked and cooled potatoes, legumes, lentils and rice and it causes a bloom of bifidus bacteria that greatly increase health and ironically stabilize blood sugar. Some people do well on a paleo diet but there are still many factors to health that need to be studied. We love our WAPF diet here and my children are thriving. We don’t eat seed oils, genetically modified foods or sugar and that seems to be working great. So after saying all of that, I could have just said… us too. 🙂
Kathleen Quiring
Interesting stuff, Lola! Thanks for sharing that research!
Amy C
I had the EXACT same problem when I went Paleo! My nutritionist kept urging me to stay away from rice and starch, and I just got, exactly like you say, skinnier, colder, and crankier. When I finally added rice back in I was a whole new person. There are lots of people who thrive well without starches, but am NOT one of them and they will be pried out of my cold dead hands, lol!
Sarah Mueller
I have a kid who is allergic to eggs, nuts and coconut (also wheat) so paleo would be very hard to do with him. I’m just grateful that he can tolerate dairy, rice, potatoes and fruit and veggies.
Kathleen Quiring
Yikes — those are a lot of tricky allergies! Good thing we have so many options available to us so we can find what works for us, right?
Nicole S.
I don’t see how it is “hard” to eat seasonally and locally on the Paleo diet, unless you don’t live anywhere near a grocery store. Is that true in your case? And isn’t it part of the WAPF diet to eat seasonally? Like in winter eat potatoes, cabbage, onions, root vegetables, greens, etc. We have been purchasing carrots and potatoes in bulk and storing them long term. If you have space or an area that would work to turn into a “root cellar” of some kind it could be very helpful to eat fresh produce throughout winter. And I do agree that it can be hard to freeze, can, and preserve enough food to last through the winter. Our family certainly doesn’t do that! But I would like to someday. To fill the freezer up with produce, meats, fruits. It would be great!
We eat a Paleo diet for health reasons, and we are all doing very well on it, but it is true it is expensive, which I dislike greatly. I buy almost everything in bulk which lowers the cost. Have you heard of Azure Standard? They deliver fresh foods and other grocery, pantry, health items. I don’t know if they deliver to your area but it might be worth looking into.
Kathleen Quiring
Hi Nicole! We do have a grocery store nearby, but it isn’t necessarily stocked with local produce. Very, very much of it is imported. And the number of vegetables available in winter are quite limited — mostly the ones you listed. That’s why we often supplement with grains and legumes during the winter months. You can only get so creative with potatoes, carrots and onions. 🙂
I totally hope to eventually reach a place where I preserve enough food to last me all winter, too. I’m slowly getting there!
Rachel R.
I agree with you 100%. I also personally believe it’s a fallacy that there was ever a time when our ancestors did NOT eat any grains or legumes.
Emily Davis
My personal experience is that none of these diets Paleo, Atkins, etc… make sense.
I believe a well-balanced organic, seasonal diet is the best option.
We don’t eat a lot of dairy because it upsets our tummies. But we do eat organic yogurts, etc. They have great amounts of probiotics. Which brings me to a big question I have with Paleo, How do you get natural probiotics? And I am not a fan of TOO much meat either. I tend to like fish, veggies, fruit and super grainy breads…
It’s a fad. If it helps people – great. But I wish people would just learn their own bodies and stop changing it up with the next fad.
Blessings,
Em
Nicole S.
You can get probiotics from fermented foods like saurkraut. I make my own cortido, which is like a latin saurkraut. I use the recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Or homemade sour pickles, or kimchi, too.
Nicole S.
sauerkraut! totally spelled that wrong!
tracy
I’m not long started the paleo diet. It took a lot of thinking about but I’m not sorry I did. I’ve noticed really remarkable improvements on my health and even my ‘completely out of touch with his body’ partner has too.. I completely agree with what you have pointed out though. I’m def a little gluten intolerent but I’m going to slowly re introduce dairy and see if I get affects. I live in scotland. Fresh local produce is avalible year round and relatively inexpensive. I’m also particular about where I buy my meat from and meat eating is emphasised on paleo. That has increased our food budget by about £30 a month alone. I like coconut but yeah everthing is coconut oriented which annoys me and would be expensive if I cooked like some paleos do. There are so many people trying to replace or replicate gluten full recipes. I go with the attitude that if a recipe needs more than 4 main ingredients its too much drama. I embraced the idea of wholefoods and ran with it. Im going to reintroduce some legumes nd see how I get on. I’m not trying to bake paleo bread or make pizza dough using ground almonds. That gets expensive quickly. There are many paleo nazis out there that slam everybody as not being true paleos. I find that attitude infuriating. If you wanna make lentil soup once in a blue moon that’s fine its about moderation. People forget about that when their up on their high horse. Don’t judge all paleos the same. Some of us are sane! I thunk xx
Molly
These discussions always make me wished for a well funded, in depth study of genetics, regionally available food and diet. Basically, I want folks to track my ancestors and then tell me what I’m inclined to process better or worse based on those genetics. I wonder if there isn’t a genetic link between which eating habits/”diets” work for certain people. x
Alena@TheHomemadeCreative
I’m with you, Molly. I think knowing about specific genetic predispositions would be a better option than trying to shove every human on earth into a one-size-fits-all diet. That’s why we don’t eat Paleo – or any other “diet”, in general. We eat as many whole foods as we can, work organics in as much as we can afford, and try to listen to our bodies.
Terry
Dr. Mercola has done extensive work into what he calls “Nutritional Typing”, which I’ve found very useful. While this isn’t exactly what you suggest you’d like to see studies on, it is pretty close, and it recognizes that the way bodies handle foods varies significantly from one person to the next. I’ve found this to be true in my family. We basically eat traditional foods similar to what the article describes, with a heavy focus on organic grass-fed meats, high-quality fats and seasonal produce from a local CSA mixed with imported produce. And while we love to shop locally for a host of reasons, I have to disagree with the idea that sourcing food locally has any net benefit on the economy in general, and is an oversimplified “first-layer-only” view.
Fiona Lynne
Love seeing your face here! And love that you addressed this. Paleo has become a religion to a few of my friends and I always had a few doubts but didn’t know how to address their charismatic evangelism for their beliefs… now I can point them here 😉
Sarah
This is really well-considered. I’m not Paleo-compliant myself, mainly because it would be impossible to do so with my workout regiment (you’d need sweet potatoes at the very least.) Recent evidence also indicates that our ancestors ate root vegetables; they grated them and incorporated them into foods to increase the caloric load. The Pacific Islanders eat a diet that consists mainly of fish, coconut and root vegetables and they’re one of the longest living people in the world. I really loved Gary Taubes “Why We Get Fat” – great read. He talks about how vegetables and fruit may not really make much of a difference in our diets since the Inuits and the Maasai subsist namely on animal products (meat/fat/dairy) and modern diseases are essentially non-existent within them. I still recommend eating a lot of veggies and some fruit, but it’s an interesting perspective.
Perfect Health Diet (bad title) by the Jaminets goes into detail as to why we need starches – namely to produce glycoproteins, which are required to make mucus. Constipation is a common problem on Paleo either because the participant isn’t consuming adequate fat or because they aren’t producing sufficient mucus for the intestinal tract. I prefer The Primal Blueprint (Mark Sisson’s baby) over more traditional forms of Paleo for these reasons, since it permits for sweet potatoes and other root veggies as well as full-fat (preferably raw) dairy. I’m obviously gluten-free due to having Celiac’s Disease, but I try to derive most of my carbohydrates from sweet potatoes, Silver Hills gluten-free chia bread, plantains, taro, quinoa, lentils, and the occasional bit of brown rice, if only because a lower carb diet makes me feel best. Everyone is so unique. The most important thing (IMO) is to eat a good amount of fat. Those who thrive, whether they adhere to a strict vegan diet or a nearly carnivorous one, all have that in common.
Kathleen Quiring
Thanks so much for your input, Sarah! Those other titles sound really informative.
Rebecca
I just found this book on a Facebook post — about doing Paleo on a budget and thought some of your readers may enjoy it. It is a free download today on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Paleo-Diet-Budget-Paleolithic-ebook/dp/B00FR1FHKK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389792672&sr=1-3&keywords=paleo
Kathleen Quiring
That looks like a really valuable resource, Rebecca! Thanks for sharing.
Rebecca
I live in Panama currently. I never thought of a tropical climate being better for the Paleo diet so this article was interesting, bringing on that concept.
http://trypanama.com/listings/unique-costa-grande-condo-for-sale-in-gorgona/
Here is a link to the closest picture I could find, of where I live. That is two blocks away from me but the same distance to the beach.
We have fishermen (fish mongerers) that sell their fish twice a day at that beach. Super cheap, too. #10 for about $5. I wish I enjoyed fish but I rarely eat it. We have free range chickens and the cows here are all grassfed. The chicken is delicious but the breed of cows we have are not one for eating a nice juicy steak.
There are tons of produce stands and we buy papaya, pineapples, citrus, veggies, etc and know that they are grown organically, not because they label organic foods here, but because that is how everyone does it here in this 3rd world country. 🙂
Kathleen Quiring
Wow, Rebecca — sounds like you have access to some of the best food imaginable! Awesome!!
Marissa
We have tried a mainly Paleo diet in the past and for most of the same reasons that you mention do not do so now. We have our own raw dairy which is wonderful for us and also I actually found that I feel much better when I have some rice, legumes and potatoes regularly in my diet. We are gluten free due to Celiac Disease so that does cut out many whole grains which has been a good thing for us.
For us, following a WAPF diet has been the most sustainable, nourishing, and stress free for our family.
Kathleen Quiring
Interesting to hear that you actually feel better with some rice, legumes and potatoes. Some day I’ll have to give Paleo a try — even just temporarily — just to see how my body responds. Oh, and I could never totally give up dairy. Raw milk is the best!!