Comments | footnotefetish: Dookie of Earl

footnotefetish

Dookie of Earl

Jan 19, 2012 21:20

It was a surprise to see how much weight my sisters had lost when I saw them on my trip. Both have been doing the paleo diet for a while, and the results have been dramatic for them. I'm normally skeptical of trendy diets, but inasmuch as anecdotal evidence can convince me of anything, I'm now convinced. Of course, I'll always be a vegetarian ( Read more... )

food, family, travel

Comments 8

alsoname January 20 2012, 04:52:06 UTC

Pretty much any diet will be a weight-loss diet, at least at first, until you figure out how to eat on it. Something super-restrictive like the paleo diet will result in a decrease in calories. Then they figure out how to put together satisfying meals, and they might be back to their normal amount of calories.

Sorta like how when I became vegan I was eating lima beans and brown rice. Because what the heck else was there to eat?

footnotefetish January 20 2012, 05:03:01 UTC

That's true, although I did see them eat quite a bit while I was with them. I have a fairly large appetite, and they pretty much kept up with me in terms of volume of food. Actually, there was one day that they were outsnacking me by a longshot.

I should probably clarify that they aren't incredibly strict paleo dieters. One makes no exceptions to the no-grains rule but allows other things like salt and dairy that are supposed to be forbidden; the other makes exceptions to all of the rules and is paleo about 80% of the time. Exercise might be part of the explanation, although only one of my sisters really increased her exercise significantly.

ally_h January 21 2012, 20:43:45 UTC

I heard an argument that a more genuine paleo diet wouldn't include much meat because from an evolutionary standpoint, it's very recent that humans managed to procure large quantities of meat through hunting. This scientist argued that most of our body's evolution was for scavenging/gathering, so while that would include meat occasionally, it would be mostly plants. There would have also be periods of true want, so if you really try to recreate the conditions your body evolved to handle you should have periods of time where you don't eat or eat very little. Obviously no nutritionist is going to endorse this, nor did the scientist... I think her take on it was just pointing out that using it as a basis for a meat-heavy diet isn't very sound logic.

footnotefetish January 21 2012, 21:00:49 UTC

Yeah, I would guess that most paleo dieters are picturing scruffy people sitting around a fire, tearing pieces of meat from the day's hunt (hanging over the fire). For them, the paleo diet is just a newer and savvier version of the Atkins diet: a way to be an excessive carnivore and convince yourself that you're doing the right thing for your body ( ... )

ally_h January 22 2012, 17:29:16 UTC

I can get on board with your arguments re: fruits/veggies, although I think the biggest problem with a modern diet is that our bodies are simply evolved to cope with scarcity and hold onto as much weight as possible. I've struggled with my weight and it really does come down to a matter of too many calories. That said I've been most successful in losing weight and felt better when I increase my fruits/veggies and cut out processed sugars. I don't think it's just a calorie reduction, I think the type of calories seem to make managing what I eat easier. Also if you think about what food scientists have determined we need for vitamins and minerals, there's no way you're going to get that unless you eat a lot of fruits and veggies. I've pretty much stopped taking a multivitamin because I go back and forth on whether or not I believe a pill can reproduce the nutrition present in real food ( ... )

footnotefetish January 24 2012, 01:59:21 UTC

I agree about the adaptation to scarcity. I once read something about a link between meal regularity and weight. The idea was that people who are very irregular eaters--skipping breakfast some mornings, working through their lunches a lot of days, eating dinner really late some nights--are more likely to have weight problems. Essentially their bodies store calories as efficiently as possible because their bodies can't depend on regular caloric intake ( ... )

spacemonkeypunk January 24 2012, 01:29:05 UTC

I have an acquaintance that's super into the paleo diet. I think it has some good points, and I don't see it as being extremely HARMFUL by any means. My acquaintance however seems to think it is the only way to eat, and everyone who disagrees is just brainwashed by mainstream dietary information (and I think she has a particular problem with vegetarians too, maybe because she knows a fair number of them and they may have voiced some disagreement with her "paleo lifestyle." -_-) It's funny though, because while I can believe that this diet might help with heart issues, diabetes, etc, I personally have problems with colon health (family history too) and lactose intolerance, and the recommended diet for people like me is in some ways OPPOSITE of the paleo diet - lots of easy to digest, soluble fiber, cook your veggies instead of having them raw, avoid any meats but lean meats, no dairy, etc. So when I hear her shoving her perspective on everyone around her, I just want to roll my eyes. Ironically, she's making me LESS inclined to care ( ... )

footnotefetish January 24 2012, 02:17:31 UTC

She sounds like someone who has found something that works for her, but I can see how annoying it must be when she assumes everyone should adopt her diet. I'm a proponent of vegetarianism, but I also know there are many cultures (especially mountain- and arctic-dwelling cultures) that could in no way make vegetarianism practical or even feasible ( ... )