Ben Balzer's Paleolithic Diet Site

BASICS OF THE PALEOLITHIC DIET-

Dr. Ben Balzer, general practitioner

Beverly Hills Medical Service

109 Morgan St

Beverly Hills NSW 2209

Tel 02 95023355 Fax 02 95024243

Beyond the mainstream 7 dimensions

Phenotype (i.e. states of health and disease) is related to a complex interaction between itself and genes diet exercise sunlight toxins social psychological and other factors.

For millions of years, humans and their relatives have eaten meat, fish, fowl and the leaves, roots and fruits of many plants. One big obstacle to getting more calories from the environment is the fact that many plants are inedible. Grains, beans and potatoes are full of energy but all are inedible in the raw state as they contain many toxins. There is no doubt about that- please don’t try to eat them raw, they can make you very sick.

Around 10,000 years ago, an enormous breakthrough was made- a breakthrough that was to change the course of history, and our diet, forever. This breakthrough was the discovery that cooking these foods (grains, beans and potatoes) made them edible- the heat destroyed enough toxins to render them edible. Grains include wheat, corn, barley, rice, sorghum, millet and oats. Grain based foods also include products such as flour, bread, noodles and pasta. These foods entered the menu of New Stone Age (Neolithic) man, and Paleolithic diet buffs often refer to them as Neolithic foods.

The cooking of grains, beans and potatoes had an enormous effect on our food intake- perhaps doubling the number of calories that we could obtain from the plant foods in our environment. Other advantages were soon obvious with these foods:

· they could store for long periods (refrigeration of course being unavailable in those days)

· they were dense in calories- ie a small weight contains a lot of calories, enabling easy transport

· the food was also the seed of the plant- later allowing ready farming of the species

These advantages made it much easier to store and transport food. We could more easily store food for winter, and for nomads and travelers to carry supplies. Food storage also enabled surpluses to be stored, and this in turn made it possible to free some people from food gathering to become specialists in other activities, such as builders, warriors and rulers. This in turn set us on the course to modern day civilization. Despite these advantages, our genes were never developed with grains, beans and potatoes and were not in tune with them, and still are not.

Then followed the harnessing of dairy products around 5,000 years ago, which allowed man to obtain far more calories from the animal over its lifetime than if it were simply slaughtered for meat. Dairy products are interesting as they combine a variety of components- some of which our genes were ready for and some not. Whilst cows milk is ideal for calves, there are several very important differences between it and human milk. For example, the brain of a calf is only a tiny fraction of its body weight whereas humans have very big brains. Not surprisingly, cows milk is low in critical nutrients for brain development, particularly omega 3 fats.

Paleolithic Diet buffs refer to the new foods as Neolithic foods and the old as Paleolithic Diet foods. In simple terms we see Neolithic as bad and Paleolithic as good.

Since then, some other substances have entered the diet- particularly salt and sugar, and more recently a litany of chemicals including firstly caffeine then all other additives, colourings, preservatives, pesticides etc.

Grains, Beans and Potatoes (GBP) share the following important characteristics:

· They are all toxic when raw- there is no doubt about this- it is a fact that no competent source would dispute- they can be extremely dangerous and it is important never to eat them raw or undercooked. These toxins include enzyme blockers, lectins and other types. I will talk about them in detail later as they are very important.

· Cooking destroys most but not all of the toxins. Insufficient cooking can lead to sickness such as acute gastroenteritis.

· They are all high in carbohydrate, and once cooked this is often rapidly digestible- giving a high glycemic index (sugar spike). They have greatly increased the amount of carbohydrate in the diet and therefore the demand for insulin and this creates a strain on the body with a strong tendency towards diabetes. Europeans are more used to these foods, yet 20% of Europeans will develop diabetes. Races who have more recently been introduced to these foods are much more prone to diabetes which may affect of 50% of some groups of Aborigines, Polynesians and Eskimo and American Indians.

· They are extremely poor sources of vitamins (particularly vitamins A, B-group, folic acid and C), minerals, antioxidants and phytosterols.

Therefore diets high in grains beans and potatoes (GBP):

· Contain toxins in small amounts

· Have a high glycemic index (ie have a similar effect to raw sugar on blood glucose levels)

· Are low in many vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytosterols- ie they are the original “empty calories”

· Have problems caused by them displacing other foods

As grains, beans and potatoes form such a large proportion of the modern diet, you can now understand why it is so common for people to feel they need supplements or that they need to detoxify (ie that they have toxins in their system)- indeed both feelings are absolutely correct.

Eat none of the following:

· Grains– including bread, pasta, noodles

· Beans– including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas

· Potatoes

· Dairy products

· Sugar

· Salt

· Processed factory manufactured foods

Eat the following:

· Meat, chicken and fish

· Fruit

· Vegetables (especially leafy greens and root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes)

· Eggs – preferably omega 3 enriched types.

· Nuts –eg walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)

· Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.

Try to increase your intake of:

· Root vegetables- carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, Swedes

· Organ meats- liver and kidneys (I accept that many people find these unpalatable and won’t eat them)

1. Fat- medium amount. Excellent omega 3 and omega 6 amounts and ratio. Low in saturated fat. No trans-fat.

2. Protein- high levels of top quality protein from fish, meat/offal, nuts, eggs.

3. Carbohydrate- low to medium. Low Glycemic Index.

4. Fibre- 47g very high

5. Micronutrients:

Minerals:

Iron=5.82x current (2)

Zinc= 2.74x current(2) .

Calcium=1.67x current(2)

Sodium= 768mg/day =0.136x current(2) BUT difficult to obtain this low level in Western supermarket foods.

Potassium= 10,500 mg/day =2.97x current(2)

Na/K= .073 excellent (2) BUT difficult to obtain this low level in Western supermarket foods

Vitamins:

Vitamin A & beta-carotene= very high (liver, kidney, root vegetables). 2.71x current (2)

Vitamins B= vitamin B1would be 4.6 mg or 417% the RDA, for B2, 281% theRDA, for B3 374% the RDA, for B6 369% the RDA, for B12 513% the RDA, for biotin 174% the RDA, for folate 506% the RDA, for pantothenic acid 209% the RDA (1)

Vitamin C= ~600mg excellent 8.38x current (2)

Vitamin E= excellent 3.11x current(2)

Antioxidants:

High in quantity and variety

Phytosterols:

High in variety. High levels in root vegetables. Although these levels aren’t as high as in soy products, it is not yet known which phytosterols are most important, particularly after bioconversion. Root vegetables also have lower antinutrient levels than soy products.

Antinutrients:

Enzyme inhibitors (protease/amylase inhibitors)= very low compared to

Standard Western Diet

Lectins= very low compared to Standard Western Diet.

Allergenic substances= generally low in Paleolithic foods.(3).

Undiscovered micronutrients and antinutrients:

Anyone who hasn’t changed their diet in the past 10 years on the basis of discoveries in antioxidants and phytosterols need not read this. If asked to guess which diet will have optimal levels of these, one can only resort to logical tools such as Occam’s Razor (“that the proposition with the least number of assumptions is most likely to be correct” is one common interpretation). As the Paleolithic diet is based on only one or two assumptions (eg ” the oldest diet is the best” or “the most natural diet is the best” or “The ideal diet for any animal is that which it eats in the wild. Humans are no exception.”). It then follow that it is the diet most likely to have optimal levels of undiscovered factors.

Associated illnesses:

Hunter-gatherer tribes eating a paleolithic style diet exhibit extremely low levels of the following illnesses that are major Western health problems:

Heart disease and stroke

Hypertension

Diabetes mellitus

Overweight and obesity

Osteoarthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Depression

Cancer

Paleolithic Diet References:

www.paleodiet.com has many links and email groups

The Paleo Diet book by Prof Loren Cordain www.thepaleodiet.com has many references.

Eaton SB, Eaton SB III, Konner MJ Paleolithic Nutrition Revisited:A 12Year Retrospective on its Nature and Implications. European J. Clinical Nutrition (1997)61,207-216

Shahidi, Fereidoon ed Antinutrients and Phytochemicals in Food 1997,Culinary and Hospitality Industry Publications CHIPS

Cordain L, Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double Edged Sword.

Evolutionary Aspects of Nutrition and Health. Diet, Exercise, Genetics and Chronic Disease World Review of Nutrition & Dietetics, 1999;84:19-73 www.thepaleodiet.com

Cordain L. Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans. In: Early Hominin Diets: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. Ungar, P (Ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006, pp 363-83 www.thepaleodiet.com

Loren Cordain, S. Boyd Eaton, Anthony Sebastian, Neil Mann, Staffan Lindeberg, Bruce A. Watkins, James H. O’Keefe, Janette Brand Miller. Origins and evolution of the western diet: Health implications for the 21st century. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:341-54 www.thepaleodiet.com

Freed, D. BMJ 1999;318:1023-1024 ( 17 April )Do dietary lectins cause disease? (editorial) http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7190/1023

Simopoulos, Artemis and Robinson, Jo The Omega Diet. Harper Perennial 1999 The Omega Plan (Australian Edition) www.eatwild.com