Mike Weis wrote:

>Is there any "evidence", other than the junk science that most on this list
>are well aware of, that eating paleo would NOT be healthy for someone? Have
>any studies been done, or is all the evidence anecdotal about the benefits
>of this diet? Last time I had my cholesterol checked, my cardiologist told
>me that the diet obviously appears to be working for me (it was 150), but
>that he didn't think I should necessarily go around recommending it to
>everyone.
>
>

The problem is this: Although the paleo diet makes good sense, it
actually hasn't been tested much, if at all, in any sort of an
intervention study.  We may look at this or that population of
hunter-gatherers and see that they are healthy, and infer that if we eat
as they do, we will be as healthy as they are.  But this hasn't been
shown to be the case.  It's quite possible that some of us who have
eaten in a very un-paleo way for decades acquire conditions that are not
fixed by reverting to a paleo diet.  There's simply no way to know a
priori whether that is so; it has to be tested.  While it may be
reasonable to suppose that if *not* eating paleo causes condition X,
eating paleo will cure it, or at least ameliorate it, but it remains an
untested hypothesis.  That's one reason why a lot of medical types would
hesitate to recommend it, no matter how reasonable it may sound.  Of
course, paleo is not the only untested diet out there...

Cholesterol is a case in point.  There is disagreement on this list as
to whether cholesterol readings have much or any significance for
health, but let's suppose for the sake of the argument that they do.
Will following a paleo diet bring everyone's total cholesterol down to
around 150?  It hasn't been tested, but anecdotally it's pretty certain
that it won't.  We have all sorts of opinions as to why not, which lead
to disputes about the fine points of paleo, but the bottom line is, we
just don't know.   On this list we've had people with weight problems
who hoped that they would be completely resolved by paleo, but it hasn't
worked for everyone.  And once again, this tends to lead to debates
about whether the person is doing paleo right.  But it's also possible
that overweight people are metabolically damaged in a way that the paleo
diet doesn't (completely) reverse.  We don't know.  One such person who
used to be active on this list was Dori Zook.  She was a true believer
in the paleo diet approach, and tried many variations on it.  And she
lost weight, but, as I recall, remained some 40 or so pounds overweight.

Add to this the disputes about the actual composition of the paleo diet
and you have reason not to be "against" it but to be circumspect in
making claims for it.

Todd Moody
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