why i wouldn't go on the paleo/ caveman diet

A diet should be three things in order to be a good weight loss/ weight maintenance plan. It should be healthy, sustainable, and effective. I am going to use that criteria to examine the caveman style diet craze that I've been hearing so much about.

Benefits:

-get rid of simple carbs (processed foods). These are often high in calories, fat, sugar, and salt.

- reduce dairy intake. This is not bad because it reduces your fat and sugar intake. Dairy products are higher in saturated fat (the bad kind of fat) and low fat dairy products have a lot of sugar. By eliminating or reducing dairy products you are reducing a lot of calories from your diet. 

- eat fruits and veggies. This is always a good thing.

- eat until you are full. This is a good guide IF you eat slowly to allow the hormone signals reach you brain to tell you that you are full. Satiety is triggered in the brain hormonally and takes 20 minutes to reach your brain. If you eat to fast then you will end up eating past the point of satiety.

Negatives:

-reduces dairy. this could be bad for your calcium levels if you don't make sure to compensate by eating lots of vegetables that have calcium. 

- gets rid of grains. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates which means they are high in fiber. Fiber is very good! It helps you feel full and your body doesn't use it for fuel. This means that fiber is a free food. When foods are high in fiber you consume less calories due to it's magical ability to move the food through your digestive tract faster. Faster movement means less time for your body to absorbs calories. (You may worry that you would be deprived of nutrients this way but don't worry. With the amount of food we eat in a typical American diet it is very rare for a person to not get enough nutrients.)

Also fiber binds with low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol which is the bad cholesterol. Reductions in total and LDL cholesterol in women with higher fiber intakes. (Mumford, 2010) Whole grains increase HDL cholesterol levels which is a good thing. Fiber's effect on your cholesterol does wonderful things for your heart. I wouldn't want to give that up. 

Whole grains are higher in calories than fruits and vegetables so I could see maybe that is why they eliminated grains from the diet.Most foods are going to be higher calories than fruits and vegetables. I think that the fiber content and the health benefits from eating whole grains make it a food group you do not want to cut back on. 

- focuses on eating a lot of meat- bad, red meats and animal sources of food are high in saturated fat which is very bad for you. High cholesterol is about the fat you eat . A diet high in saturated fats will increase you risk for hypertension, and cardiovascular Diseases. "Red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of total, CVD, and cancer mortality. Substitution of other healthy protein sources for red meat is associated with a lower mortality risk." (Pan et. al., 2012) Fish is a good choice when eating large amounts of meats due to its omega 3's.

- its premise is that a high fat, high protein, low carb diet will make you lose weight. It may be effective in the short term. I assume it's becoming popular because people are seeing results in the short term. I would like to explain that this premise is not sustainable, healthy, or effective in the long term. The way our body utilizes the 3 macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein) is key to understanding why this isn't a good idea. When we eat carbs our body has very little storage space for them so all the carbs we eat are basically just used for energy. You do store some in the form of glycogen but it's very little compared to our body's fat storing capability. Protein is not really used for fuel, it's used for amino acids and different proteins the body uses for structure and function. Fat is not typically used for fuel unless we have depleted our carbohydrates sources. So the fat we eat typically goes straight to our adipose cells (where we store fat in our body). A high fat diet equals high fat deposits in our bodies. The reason this diet works for people is because your body has to use your fat stores in order to fuel your body. Sounds good right? Well with the high fat diet you are just supplementing you fat stores whenever you eat. So after a while I imagine you would plateau or begin to gain weight again.

-this caveman diet teaches poor hunger management. http://www.cavemanpower.com/food/caveman_power_diet_stage_two.html Starving yourself is not a good idea. It leads to more binge eating. In stages 1 and 2 you are basically starving yourself all day and binging at night. "Among adolescent girls... who practiced the most extreme weight control behaviors like reducing their meal frequency and/or starvation... were more engaged in binge eating." (Akkermann, 2011)

-My husband (who is forever scarred by his microbiology class) would like to point out eating with your hands can lead to you eating a lot of bacteria. Which could mean you could become violently ill. My advice is to wash and sanitize your hands if you decide to do this.

My overall review:

If you don't eat healthy this could be a way to ease yourself in. The foods they avoid eating could be a good starting place for people who need to cut out refined and processed foods. I personally would not do it and especially not for a long period of time. I love my heart and want it to work for a long time. I know there are healthier ways to drop some pounds. I especially would not follow the eating plan outlined in the three stages.

My recommendation for healthy, sustainable, and effective weight loss:

 focus on plant based food. grains, fruits, veggies all are very good for you and have wonderful health benefits while they are also lower calories. 

if you eat meat, eat it sparingly. As meat intake increases, risk of heart disease increases. Meat increases risk of stomach, colon, blood and lymph cancer as well. 

eat slowly. You need to allow time for your brain to recognize you aren't hungry anymore.

drink water.  Water has no calories which is perfect when someone is trying to reduce their calories. 
exercise. You will increase the gap between the calories you spend and the calories you take in. Plus you already know its good for you.

Works Cited
Akkermann, Kirsti, Kelli Hiio, Inga Villa, and Jaanus Harro. "Food Restriction Leads to Binge Eating Dependent upon the Effect of the Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism." Psychiatry Research 185.1-2 (2010): 39-43. 30 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://sfx.lib.byu.edu/sfxlcl3?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_tim=2012-05-16T18%3A57%3A17IST&url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=infofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rfr_id=info:sid/primo.exlibrisgroup.com:primo3-Article-medline&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Food%20restriction%20leads%20to%20binge%20eating%20dependent%20upon%20the%20effect%20of%20the%20brain-derived%20neurotrophic%20factor%20Val66Met%20polymorphism.&rft.jtitle=Psychiatry%20research&rft.btitle=&rft.aulast=Akkermann&rft.auinit=&rft.auinit1=&rft.auinitm=&rft.ausuffix=&rft.au=Akkermann%2C%20Kirsti&rft.aucorp=&rft.date=20110130&rft.volume=185&rft.issue=1-2&rft.part=&rft.quarter=&rft.ssn=&rft.spage=39&rft.epage=&rft.pages=39-43&rft.artnum=&rft.issn=0165-1781&rft.eissn=&rft.isbn=&rft.sici=&rft.coden=&rft_id=info:doi/&rft.object_id=&rft_dat=%3Cmedline%3E20537407%3C/medline%3E&rft.eisbn=&rft.pub=&rft.place=&rft.date=20110130&rft.edition=&rft_id=>. 

Mumford, Sunni L., Enrique F. Schisterman, and Anna Maria Seiga- Riz. "Effect of Dietary Fiber Intake on 

Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels Independent of Estradiol in Healthy Premenopausal Women." American Journal of Epidemiology 173.2 (2010): 145-46. HBLL. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/173/2/145.full>.

Pan, An, Qi Sun, Adam Bernstein, and et. al. "Red Meat Consumption and Mortality Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies." Archives of Internal Medicine 172.9 (2012): 555-63. Print.