The Paleo Diet Analysis

The Paleo Diet, an increasingly popular meal-plan in which people are taking it back to the beginning, the very beginning. The meal is based entirely off of the premise of the hunter-gatherer era. Mostly focused around high-protein intake and low-carbohydrate and sugar intake, the diet is a great way to drop those couple extra pounds, for the most part. Although The Paleo Diet says to cut back on fruit and cut out white potatoes, these two foods can actually play a part in one’s health in more than a singular role. Fruit can assist with weight loss and with controlling out blood sugar, while potatoes manage to help with weight loss, protection against cancers, and higher potassium intake. So, although this diet has a immense following, it is
possible it should have stayed in the stone-age.
The Paleo Diet says to cut back on fruit because of the tremendous sugar content. They say that cutting back on fruit if better for insulin resistant and overweight people (2016). Their website claims that the ‘high’ sugar content found in fruits are capable of causing delayed weight-loss or even weight gain. It reads that one should substitute vegetables instead of the fruit, and in some cases, low sugar fruits need not be removed from the diet.
This may be true, in some cases. However, Michael Greger, an M.D. associated with Nutrition Facts, posted a video in which he analyzed different studies regarding fructose. The information he discovered was very surprising and interesting. He said “If you compare the effects of a diet restricting fructose from both added sugars and fruit to one just restricting fructose from added sugars the diet that kept the fruit did better,” (Greger, 2014). Meaning, when participants diet was restricted to only the fructose from fruit they lost more weight than those whose diet was restricted to no fructose. Therefore it is ridiculous for The Paleo Diet to assume that because fruit contains sugar it is going to delay weight-loss.
In addition, one minute and eighteen seconds into the video, Dr. Greger talks about an experiment done with water containing enough sugar to equal a soda. He says that after drinking the altered water “Our body freaks out and releases so much insulin to drive down this spike we actually overshoot and 90 minutes in we’re relatively hypoglycemic,” (Greger, 2014). Basically, after drinking the sugary water our body releases too much insulin causing out blood sugar to plummet rapidly, causing an individual’s body to crave more sugar. Then, after eating more sugar, blood sugar levels start to rise again, trapping the body in an unending cycle of hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic blood sugar levels. Interestingly, they did the experiment again, this time adding berries to the liquid. Although there was an additional tablespoon of sugar from the berries, Dr. Dreger says “not only was there no additional bloods sugar spike, here’s the critical part, no hypoglycemic dip afterwards,” (2014). So even though fruit has a ‘high’ sugar content, it aids in regulating different sugars and hardly affects blood sugar content. The natural fructose in fruit can obviously be beneficial to one’s health; therefore, The Paleo Diet should not suggest that insulin resistant and overweight individuals stay away from fruit.
Other than suggesting a cut in fruits, The Paleo diet also suggests that white potatoes should not be involved in one’s meal-plan.
“I ate potatoes for breakfast, and they caused my blood sugar levels to spike – only to fall drastically below their original levels shortly thereafter,” reads The Paleo Diet referencing why potatoes are not Paleo (Cordain, 2014). In addition, Cordain talks about the steep glycemic index of white potatoes; he even references a chart which reads that a white peeled baked potato contains a glycemic index of 98 (2014). The article also reads “So, in effect, eating potatoes is a lot like eating pure sugars, but even worse,” furthering the point that white potatoes are bad for one’s health (Cordain,
2014).
Potatoes may have a lofty sugar content; however, potatoes have many more health benefits that compensate for the fact that they are elevated in sugar content.
However, a white baked potato contains only 161 calories, which, according to “Calories in Foods”, is close to 40 calories less than a chicken caesar salad (2008). In addition, a chilled, cooked potato is an extremely fibrous food rich in resistant starch which could actually help with weight loss. Along with weight loss, some potatoes are capable of increasing heart health and protecting against some cancers (Ansel, 2011). If those very convincing reasons are not enough to convince someone that potatoes are great for their health, “one medium baked potato (including the skin) provides 20% of your daily potassium, a known hyper-tension fighter,” reads the Prevention article (Ansel, 2011). An altitudinous potassium level is even a singular goal of The Paleo Diet. So, despite what the weight-reduction plan insists, potatoes can be great for one’s
health.
Finally, even though the well followed Paleo Diet insist that potatoes be avoided and fruit eaten with caution, one should take into accounts alternate possible benefits of consuming these superfoods that could outweigh the cons. Maybe one should consider pairing potatoes with fruit, in order to regulate their blood sugar and make sure they do not become hypoglycemic. This is a classic case of people believing everything they read on the internet. While some studies prove Dr. Cordain right, others disagree. Also, even though some research shows that although Dr. Cordain is right, he is focusing on the wrong aspect of the foods. So, even if the Paleo Diet is correct in every other way, continue to enjoy fruit and potatoes.