What type of diet, Paleo, low carb or?

Introduction

I am often asked if my diet is a low-carb diet, the answer is both yes and no, I have not focused directly on any "type" of diet, my desire was to find a diet that would be healthy, taste good, be relatively easy to make, with a focus on diabetes and allergy friendly diet, made with natural ingredients.

Along the way in my search for knowledge about natural diet, I became familiar with two types of diet that have and continue to inspire me, paleo and low-carb diet, or more correctly a combination of these two, where I would say that it is distributed with about 60% paleo and 20% low-carb, and the last 10% just my imagination😀, but it works for me.

When I started my lifestyle change, I was probably more on the paleo diet than low-carb. I don't think that if I'm going to manage and maintain a good diet over time that suits me, that low-carb is the right thing for me. The body needs carbohydrates to function optimally, but it needs the right carbohydrates. In a correct paleo diet, you shouldn't eat grains, legumes and dairy products at all, and again, I don't feel like it's quite right for me either, so it became a combination of paleo and low-carb with my own twist 😊.

I would say that after many years of experience with my diet and the results I have achieved, it is clearly the Paleo mindset that has inspired my diet the most and continues to do so, but with an adaptation, but the basic philosophy around Paleo but pure ingredients I strongly believe in.

But i think that as in most of things in life you need to be flexible and adjust to whats suit your needs and availability.

Paleo is not a diet but a lifestyle where diet is the foundation.
The traditional idea behind paleo is that you should imitate the diet that humans are evolutionarily adapted to eat. Like in the millions of years we lived as hunters and gatherers, i.e. the period before the agricultural revolution.

Although the word paleo comes from the term “paleolithic”, which refers to the era of the early Stone Age, paleo does not mean that you should live like Stone Age people.
Paleo was popularized by Dr. Loren Cordain who published the book “The Paleo Diet”. He says:
« It really isn’t a diet, but rather a lifetime program of eating to improve health and well-being and minimize the risk of chronic diseases that plague the Western world.”

By eating paleo, you focus on eating nutritious and natural food that provides a strong and healthy body.
By paleo and natural food, we mean food that is similar to how it is in its natural state, food that is often minimally processed.

Using the word natural food can be both a little provocative and confusing. But it is still a word that I use often, so let me explain in more detail what I mean.

Natural food is, for example, meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and berries.

I will also call certain foods such as butter and coconut oil natural food even though these are man-made products. The nutrients in such foods are well preserved and do not contain unfavorable additives.

You can also argue that sugar is natural food. But sugar can hardly be considered food for humans with its minimal nutritional content and empty calories. Therefore, sugar is not part of a paleo or mine diet.

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts and seeds
• Eggs
• Lean meats, especially grass-fed animals or wild game
• Fish, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna
• Oils from fruits and nuts, such as olive oil or walnut oil

What to avoid:

• Grains, such as wheat, oats and barley
• Legumes, such as beans, lentils, peanuts
• Dairy products, such as milk and cheese
• Refined and added sugar
• Added salt
• Starchy vegetables, such as corn, jicama, peas and white potatoes
• Highly processed foods, such as chips or cookies

Questions about paleo diets

Some people doubt the idea that the human body didn't change, or adapt, to foods that came with farming. Some people are also worried about the foods the paleo diet cuts out.

Concerns about nutrition

The main concern about paleo diets is the lack of whole grains and legumes. These foods are considered good sources of fiber, vitamins, proteins and other nutrients. Also, low-fat dairy products are good sources of protein, calcium, vitamins and other nutrients. The potential risk of eating a paleo diet is that you may not get all recommended nutrients.

Whole grains, legumes and dairy also are generally more affordable and available than foods such as wild game, grass-fed animals and nuts. For some people, a paleo diet may be too costly. Or the cost of some paleo foods may lead to unintentionally getting less of certain essential nutrients.

The long-term risks of a paleo diet aren't known. Data from many studies of popular diets showed that a Mediterranean diet was the only one with many benefits without the risk of possible harmful effects. A Mediterranean diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, whole grains, legumes and low-fat dairy products.

Also, the potential benefits of a paleo diet may not outweigh the benefits of other healthy diets. One long-term study of self-reported diet patterns showed that closely following either a paleo diet or a Mediterranean diet led to similar drops in cardiovascular risk factors.

Questions about the paleo diet theory

Some experts have argued that the idea the paleo diet is based on isn't the full story. Arguments for a more complex understanding of how our dietary, or nutritional, needs have changed include:

• Many things — not only farming — shaped how human nutritional needs changed. Diets in early humans were varied because of differences in geography, climate and the availability of food.
• Archaeological researchers have found tools for grinding grains at 30,000-year-old sites — well before the introduction of farming. Researchers also have studied microfossils of plants found in the dental remains of Paleolithic humans and Neanderthals. These studies have shown that their diets included wild grains.
• Genetic research has shown that important evolutionary changes continued after the Paleolithic era. These include changes in the expression of genes related to the breakdown, or digestion, of starches in grains and lactose in milk.

The bottom line

A paleo diet may help you lose weight or keep a healthy weight. It also may have other helpful health effects. But there are no long-term clinical studies about the benefits and potential risks of the diet.

You might be able to achieve the same health benefits by getting enough exercise and eating a balanced, healthy diet. Be sure to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.

Final thoughts

My experience is that the paleo philosophy is good, but again we have moved on from the Stone Age, so we need to adjust and adapt the fundamentals to the availability of products we have today, but be critical of what and how we choose our raw materials when we shop. I don't think there is one type of diet that is the right answer, but a mix that you have to adapt to your needs. Good luck with your choices, I believe in you 🫶❤️, Jørn