If the Paleo Diet Is So Good, Why Did Cavemen Die So Young? A Look at the Pros and Cons

| October 3, 2013 | 9 Comments
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By Laura Van Wert for HellaWella.com

It’s hard not to be curious about the Paleo Diet — one that encourages us to eat like our hunter-gatherer ancestors did 10,000 years ago — after seeing spliced-together photos of converts shedding more than 30, 50 or 80 pounds. For others, it’s less about losing weight and more about eating healthier in a culture that bombards us with fast-food options.

Still, like many other nutrition fads, the Paleo Diet is a polarized concept with very vocal supporters and detractors. Let’s break down the facts so that you can decide if hunting and gathering is your style.

The history

The Paleo Diet, named after the fresh, unprocessed foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed during the Paleolithic Era, is a concept 2.6 million years in the making. Agricultural innovations 10,000 years ago ended it, bringing about a diet that included grains.

The Paleo Diet became a popular nutritional concept in the mid-1970s, but re-emerged within the last several years with very vocal champions and critics.

paleo-diet-2The guidelines

Also known as the hunter-gatherer and Stone Age diet, the Paleo Diet includes consumption of fresh, grass-fed or free-ranging meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and oils like olive, coconut, avocado, macadamia, walnut and flaxseed.

A true Paleolithic Era diet is impossible to mimic because of the lack of wild game readily available, so don’t give up your jeans for a loin cloth just yet. It excludes consumption of dairy products, cereal grains, legumes, refined sugars, processed foods and — gasp! — alcohol, which makes sense because there wasn’t Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust pizza during the Stone Age (sad for them).

This makes it a diet that is heavy in unprocessed meat consumption. So vegetarians, this is not the diet for you.

The nutritional profile

Those that believe in the Paleo Diet cite weight loss and disease prevention as reasons to jump onboard.

The diet is ideal for combatting disease and ailments, says Loren Cordain, a Colorado State University professor, author of ”The Paleo Diet” and the go-to man on its benefits. Cordain’s claim is that our ancestors didn’t have problems with obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis and other less serious ailments, such as eye sight issues and acne.


Others say that heart problems, which the diet claims to combat, are just as likely by choosing a meat-heavy diet if those proteins aren’t lean. Still more criticize eliminating legumes, whole-grains and low-fat dairy — foods that also protect against osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and lower blood pressure.

Weight loss

Some Paleo converts — like Reddit user Amanda, who was made Internet famous by taking photos of her 88-pound transformation and splicing them together in quick succession, which she documented on the site during the last year — do find that a Paleo diet helps with weight loss.

However, Amanda admitted that she took some liberties in her diet, combining Paleo and Keto concepts, the latter being high-fat and low-carbohydrate, something tried-and-true supporters of both find unusual or incorrect.

The bottom line

You can, of course, make the call based on your own interpretation of the available research and findings, but we personally find U.S. News & World Report’s comprehensive diet assessments to be the most reliable predictors of what you can expect from different weight-loss plans.

In its 2011 assessment — which was developed by a panel of health experts who rated 29 diets in seven categories, including short- and long-term weight loss, ease of compliance, safety and nutrition — Paleo ranked last in most categories, falling in:

  • No. 28 for Best Diets Overall;
  • No. 29 in Best Weight-Loss Diets;
  • No. 28 in Best Heart-healthy Diets;
  • No. 26 in Best Diets for Healthy Eating;
  • No. 28 in Best Diabetes Diets; and
  • No. 24 in Easiest Diets to Follow.

Why did it fall so far to the bottom of these rankings? The experts sided with critics of the diet, finding fault with the lack of dairy and grains, which puts dieters at risk of nutrient deficiencies. They also cited the potential risks to heart health due to the high meat intake, and the fact that sample Paleo menus contain more calories from fat and significantly fewer carbs than the government recommends. On top of all of this, they claimed there’s not enough research to know if it promotes weight loss, and it tends to be tough on the wallet.

If you’re looking for a diet to help you lose weight and you want something a little more balanced, check out U.S. News’ list of Best Diets Overall and Best Diets for Weight Loss.

Reposted with permission.  Originally posted at http://ww.hellawella.com/caveman-craze-pros-cons-choosing-paleo-diet


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Category: Featured Articles, Food & Health, Lifestyle Choices

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  1. Ed says:

    The reason cavemen died so young is because they were usually on some predator’s menu including possibly your neighbor. Articles like these are nonsense. The author presumes the standard American diet is somehow working for most Americans. The processed food industry sponsored food pyramid is a one shoe fits all solution. Since converting to a Paleo, Primal or Real food approach to my diet I have improved almost all aspects of my health. I would start with a 30 day challenge recommended by Robb Wolf’s website and trust your own results not some food industry shill like this author.

    • Douglas Jack says:

      Read ‘Mutual-Aid’, a factor of evolution’ written & published 1905 by Petr Kropotkin, geographer. Kropotkin relates decades in the far reaches of Russia in intimate contact with First Nations there. The 1st part of this books of detailed observations is Mutual Aid Among the Animals, then Mutual Aid Among Humans. Kropotkin lays the foundation, as a concurrent of Darwin, for mutual-aid as the greatest factor for successful animal, between-species & human living & evolution. Observations by Kropotkin & others point out incidences of violent killing as relatively rare of other animals even by carnivore (all species eat some plants especially during the height of summer). Various research is now showing many examples of ancient (6000 year old ++) humans with excellent teeth & no meat protein structured into their bones, only vegetable proteins. Mutual-Aid is available in its entirety for free from the Gutenberg project. Archaeology is beginning to overcome a false sense of humanity’s long ‘indigenous’ history as violent perpetuated by colonial institutions which reflect mostly the morality of colonial invaders & displaced indigenous refugees literally running for their lives. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/home/2-mutual-aid

    • Barrie says:

      Agreed. This article leads the reader in with the tag, “why did they die so young?” Yet it does not explain this in any way. Your reply, that predators would be a factor, is all too true, and still exists, at least in many third-world nations. In addition, Stone-age man lived in very small groups, and depended on, in all probability, on one person who had bee trained by another in treating illnesses and injuries. The lack of doctors and drug stores undoubtedly led to many deaths.
      Robb Wolf’s book is probably an easier sell to a non-believer in the Paleo diet than Cordain’s, which has all the arguments, but doesn’t present them quite as well (Imo).

  2. Douglas Jack says:

    The Paleo-diet is a misnomer. Even though many have adopted this unsupported concept including shallow academics, the archaeological evidence doesn’t support it & points to a far-richer & kinder heritage. 10,000 years ago humanity’s worldwide universal ‘indigenous’ (Latin ‘self-generating’) ancestors were harvesting from the Polyculture Orchard. Polyculture is 100 times or 10,000% more productive than agriculture due to 92-98% solar energy photosynthesis, roots descending 10s of metres into the earth’s substrate, climate generated from continental orchard cold-spots attracting warm-moist ocean winds inland & a human culture of decentralized participation. 2-D ‘agriculture’ (L. ‘ager’ = ‘field’) only photosynthesizes 2 – 8 % of solar energy. Ager roots only descend short centimetres. 60% of ocean to continent water transfer is through condensation on fractal leaf & bark surfaces. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/design/1-indigenous-welcome-orchard-food-production-efficiencies
    On top of these abundant efficiencies, humans as earthly stewards lived in caring intergenerational collaboration with each other in the proximity of multihome Longhouse-apartment, Pueblo-townhouse & village complexes. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/relational-economy/extending-our-welcome-participatory-multi-home-cohousing
    Our ancestors knew, collaboration between species is far more efficient & productive than violent competition. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/design/responsable-health

    Violent competition arises with agriculture, cutting down the Polyculture Orchard, living in scarcity, male dominance over woment, drying of rivers, salting of lands, colonial-living, imperial hierarchal society, adoption of institution over culture. However agriculture-based institutional societies also impose a violent view of history upon their subjects excluding the long memories human communities once cultivated.

  3. Steven James says:

    The reason the average caveman died young was because of the new borns that died. When you take them out of the equation, the average life cycle for cavemen is much larger. This point completely disproves the argument above enough said. There is nothing wrong with paleo.

  4. Ben says:

    As recently as the mid 19th century, some European countries had life expectancies as short as 35. It was the invention of vaccines, antibiotics and advances in modern medicine that has extended life spans. Not outlet amazing modern diets, which obviously suck. It’s a terrible argument that’s been debunked every which way by now.

  5. jc says:

    Paleontologist Dr. Alan Walker, of Johns Hopkins University, led a comprehensive study on the teeth markings on humanoid fossils. A NY Times article, of May 15, 1979, reported his conclusions: “Every tooth of the hominids of the 12 million year period leading up to Homo Erectus appeared to be that of a fruit eater.” So meat eating probably played a very small role in human development. The diets of our closest primate relatives of today may include small amounts of meat and insects, but they probably account for no more than 1-3% of calorie intake. In the last 75 years, animal product consumption in Western society has zoomed to unprecedented levels, and now provides about 30% of our calories. Which would seem to explain why nearly all Americans have cardiovascular disease. Carnivores and genuine omnivores can eat all the animal fat and cholesterol they want without requiring bypass surgery. Not so true for humans…


  6. anon says:

    Hmmm. Everything I’ve read about hunter-gatherers suggests that their meat intake is generally pretty low. Indigenous diets vary a lot by area, and are marked by much greater diversity (i.e. a much greater number of species consumed) than modern diets. Remember that this is also combined with exercise, and historically there would have been low stress, little pollution, and little exposure to disease. Working hours were low, so people would not need much energy. In other words, simply extracting the diet and putting it into modern life isn’t going to work. It’s quite probable that social and environmental demands on bodies in modern settings are very different. People in modern settings are going to need a much livelier immune system and a lot more energy to handle work and stress.

    Archaeologists generally posit low life expectancy among paleolithic people, based partly on surviving skeletons. However, a lot of the low life expectancy is due to high infant mortality. In other words, someone who reached adulthood would live almost as long as modern humans. Some studies of hunter-gatherers suggest they have an age structure similar to western societies, and very different from poor countries. However, hunter-gatherers decimated by colonialism tend to have very low life expectancy. The main causes of premature death in hunter-gatherer bands are things like injuries (which can be fatal without surgery) and death in childbirth. However, it’s often hard to attribute deaths to western-style causes, as hunter-gatherers often interpret deaths in terms of curses and witchcraft. Today, hunter-gatherers often have low life expectancy due to imported problems of disease, pollution, and violence. Low life expectancy among Australian Aborigines, Canadian First Nations, Native Americans, and some Pacific Islander groups is largely due to psychosocial problems such as alcohol and drug use, suicide, and violence. Indigenous scholars interpret these problems as “soul wound” or intergenerational trauma, connected to the impact of colonialism.

    Contrary to popular myths, neither predation by animals nor violence among humans is likely to be a major factor. Large predators generally avoid attacking humans, particularly groups, as a group of humans with sticks and stones is a match for predators. Some indigenous groups practice, or used to practice, anthropophagy (eating other humans), but this is a culturally significant practice of respect for the dead or absorption of their essence or attributes. Given the relationship between food intake and body mass, anthropophagy as a means of survival would wipe out even the current the human population within a few years. Warfare among hunter-gatherers is rare, although some groups have endemic intergroup warfare. Before the introduction of modern weapons, warfare was highly ritualised and generally non-fatal. Some scholars (e.g. Pinker) have claimed that indigenous societies were/are far more violent than modern societies, but they reach this conclusion based on cherry-picked data, much of it from periods of colonial genocide.

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