I was reading through the latest Paleo diet study earlier. In just ten days, the Paleo diet lowered insulin resistance and improved insulin sensitivity to normal levels. This is remarkable, but what I find most interesting is the amount of carbohydrates that were consumed.
Subjects in the Paleo diet consumed an average of 249 grams of carbohydrate per day. Yet in spite of this "high" carbohydrate intake, they were able to normalize insulin function. According to the low-carb gurus, this shouldn't be possible.
I still am baffled why some low-carb proponents suggest that low-carb is the only way to lower insulin levels. Clearly, based on this study it is not. You need to look at the type of carbohydrate being consumed. Low-carb is more of a sledgehammer approach – by removing almost all carbs, you are likely to remove any bad carbs.
The Paleo Diet blog also picks up on this recently:
"So, for instance in Kitava they eat a lot of carbohydrates and still have no obesity, so it seems as if some bioactive substances of neolithic foods are responsible for hormonal disruption rather than merely carbohydrate content."
There's more to good eating than just low-carb.
thanks for your comment over on my blog at http://www.weighlessandweightless.blogspot.com! I checked out your website and that’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I would prefer to do! BUT we have had nothing but rain rain rain since July…it’s November in Canada and this zoo human WANTS to shovel snow but it’s still raining! When we had sunny days a few weeks ago my children had the flu! I gave up! I’m joining my little gym for now because I’m completely out of shape! I love your site, love your whole philosophy and now I’m off to explore this place
Breeze
I have noticed that the paleo/primal people seem to hate endurance sports as well. I don’t think this makes sense because we know of a lot of primitive peoples who use endurance hunting.
I think the paleo lifestyle advocates make some incorrect assumptions about human beings in general based upon human beings living the way they do in the modern world.
It could possibly be due to the balance of diet. When carbohydrates (complex or even simple sugars in moderation)are eaten with a meal (protein/fat) they all tend to compliment each other. It seems most of the people that have problems with insulin resistance and type II diabetes do not eat complete meals regularly, instead getting by on mega size candy bars and sodas with very little good fat or protein.
In the abstract, they specifically mention potassium and fiber. I read something a while back where some single cell organisms can use ammonia as a nitrogen source to make protein, but only in a potassium-rich medium. The potassium molecule is just the right size to control the influx of ammonia into the cell, keeping it from building to toxic levels.
Replacing potassium with sodium chloride probably has some pretty profound effects on gut bacteria.
Matt, that’s a lot of carbs—like 10 bananas! I couldn’t access the full text, but I wonder if the insulin levels were really optimized, as opposed to normalized.
Dr. Kurt Harris (PaNu Blog) has a different idea about a modern version of the paleo diet: http://www.paleonu.com/
He extirpates all of the Neolithic agents (omega-6 oils, excess fructose, grains, and most legumes) and uses dairy fats in place of brains, bone marrow, and kidneys (presumed paleo fat sources) for palatability and also to replace carb calories. He uses a lot of pasture-grade butter, crème, and half and half.
His current post discusses his own food choices, but click on “Get Started” at the top and read the basic “12 steps”. He believes that cutting out sugar and flour (1st step) provides 50% of the benefits.
His diet philosophy has a different slant—he’s less interested in increasing maximum life span than preventing the actuarial deaths like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes which reduce maximum life span. No, he doesn’t think that saturated fat causes heart disease (and he owns a radiological imaging lab).
There’s also a lot interesting material in his answers to blog comments if you’re interested in paleo diet theory.
Donny,
Thanks for this. I wasn’t aware of the connection of potassium to gut bacteria. I will look into it more.
Yes, I have read some of his material. It’s an interesting approach, but it’s not conclusive in my opinion. I view his high-fat version of Paleo as another variation just like the Kitavan high-carb version. I don’t see any compelling evidence that one version is superior to the other.
I think the more imporant factor is how an individual reacts to the variation. People find a version of the Paleo diet that works for them individually, and then they generalize and say it will work for everyone. I think there’s plenty of room for variation.
You are absolute right, Matt. Good to see that you put on your thinking cap. I think that a problem with Paleo/Primal hardcores is that they assume that a diet or lifestyle based on presumed paleo people is good for us while ignorong the fact that paleo people lived/live the way they did because they did not have a choice not because it was optimal or even good for them.
Like you said, we as individual must find a way of life that works for us.
Hey Matt,
Thank you for all your great thoughtful posts! I think I am going to review this one soon too. I believe the authors were trying to control all factors including the % macronutrients — protein fat and carbs so that the isolated change would be the Paleo vs. Neo components IMHO.
From the immunity perspective — the TG only reduced a little and the HDLs stayed pretty much the same on this high carb diet, translating to high small dense LDL still. Not good. The sat fat content was too low IMHO to raise the HDLs significantly (mine incrased from 89 to 105 mg/dl in only ~4-6wks).
Love all your insights!
-G
A diet low in carbohydrates, moderate in protein and moderate in fat is formulated as the “Insulin resistance diet”. Table sugar, ice cream, honey, alcoholic beverages, fructose, artificial sweeteners should be avoided. Grain products like popcorn, breads or refined grains like white flour products, white rice should also not be included in the diet. However, wheat, whole brown rice can be included in small quantities. Non-starchy vegetables should be planned as the main source of carbohydrates. These may be raw or lightly cooked. In case of proteins, chicken, beef, lamb, wild fish, buffalo and wild fish have to be ingested in medium quantities. Eggs have to be limited to maximum 7 in one week, as the amount of fat is more. Raw nuts like walnuts, cashews, almonds and seeds like sunflower are also allowed. It must be remembered that as the quantity of fat in the milk decreases the blood sugar increases. This diet also includes medium quantities of healthy oils like monounsaturated oils, polyunsaturated oils and saturated fats from vegetable sources. Hydrogenated oils have to be totally absent. Fried foods must be kept to a minimum. Any processed food would hamper the aim of this diet. Carbohydrates should always be consumed along with proteins. Use of salt must be kept to a minimum.
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Joseph Marck
Weight Loss