By Rick Mautz
Why a caveman? With all the great food options available today, why would anyone even think of going back to the difficulties of cavemen? Apparently, a lot of people want to. The Paleo (caveman) diet is currently one of the most popular diets. And it is promoted for health reasons, so I’m interested. You should be too—because don’t we all want to be healthy?
But wait—don’t rush down any health path without checking it out. What is true? What information can you trust? With so many conflicting ideas out there, we need to find out what is fact and what is myth.
I have learned, perhaps more from error than trial, that things are usually neither black nor white, but contain aspects of truth that we can learn from. When I first heard about the Paleo diet, I was totally against it. I tried to talk people out of their obsession with it. Then I listened to a cross-fit trainer who was quite convincing about the health benefits of this low-carb, non-vegetarian diet. Even though I was not thoroughly convinced, I did decide I needed to do what I could to discover the truth about this subject.
Before you start thinking that your health ministry director has totally given up on the health message, I need to tell you that I believe we are not, as a church, where we should be in our lifestyle practices, and that our best path to health will be found by going back—not to the caveman, but back to God’s original plan that is clearly described in His Word.
I realize that nearly 50 percent of our church member- ship is not vegetarian much less vegan, and I need to minister to those of you in that group as well. I am hoping that once you get on the path to health—wherever you start—you will continue to make small steps toward the place God wants you to be as you endeavor to reflect Him in your words, actions and even lifestyle.
But there are things we can learn from our Paleo friends. They teach us to eliminate refined and processed foods, to eat only grass-fed, no-hormone-rich meats. We often pride ourselves on being vegetarians, but eat pastries and cakes and processed artificial meat. Our Paleo friends will probably find better health even though they eat meat. As in our spiritual life, so in our lifestyle. It may be that what we do counts far more than what we don’t do. I used to call myself “vegan” until I realized that my dietary focus was on what I wasn’t eating. I realized that I was not getting good nutrition even though I was avoiding some bad things. Now when people ask me about my diet, I tell them that I eat “the most nutritious food I can.” They often want to know more, whereas when I used to tell people I was vegan, that was the end of the conversation.
I do have to confess that it was difficult for me to study the Paleo diet, because the whole idea of going back to the “hunter gatherers” is tied to evolutionary theory, which takes us back to our supposed ancestors, the apes. But if we stick with the research, it is possible to find some valuable help in our quest for health.
Let me address a few of the more important facts you may need to consider in making healthy decisions. High insulin levels are responsible for much of the increase in diabetes and heart disease. One argument for a low carbohydrate Paleo diet is to avoid the high insulin levels that come from eating lots of carbohydrates. It turns out that the meat eaters had twice the levels of insulin as vegetarians. In fact, insulin levels from eating meat were equal to eating pure sugar.
It was a shock to me to learn that even though vegetarians showed an advantage in lower cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, and colon cancer, they had no advantage in deaths from heart disease. Why would that be, since they do not eat much cholesterol? Even though vegetarians are careful to avoid meat, they are not necessarily as careful in other choices, such as avoiding refined and processed foods. These lead to an unhealthy ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids. This factor alone took away the expected reduction of death from heart disease. It was found that a ratio greater than 4 to 1 of Omega 6 to 3 of these essential fatty acids interfered with the production of DHA and EPA, important heart healthy elements. An easy solution to this heart disease dilemma is to avoid all oils but Omega 3-rich olive and canola oil. And to take 1-2 tablespoons of (high in Omega 3) ground flax seed per day. This has been shown to cut death from heart disease by 70 percent.
You may have heard that vegans need to take vitamin B-12 because it is not found in plant sources, but it seems to be helpful for everyone—even meat eaters. It lowers homo- cysteine, a major cause of destructive inflammation, which should be below 10, but averages 12 in meat eaters, 17 in vegetarians and 27 in vegans (not good news for us vegans). You can drop that number to a safe 8 by just chewing one B-12 tablet (2000 mcg) each week. The benefits of adding this health practice is to reduce inflammation, the major cause of heart disease and neurologic deterioration such as Alzheimer’s disease and it has the added benefit of elevating your mood.
If you are serious about being healthy, you will want to avoid the leading causes of death. Research continues to confirm that there is no better way than to enjoy a whole foods, plant-based diet. If you are on the path to health, but haven’t reached the plant-based mile marker in the road, some of the positive ideas of Paleo may be for you. The diet cuts out refined foods and encourages grass fed, “healthier” meat. Of course this is a compromise, but it is a move in the right direction.
So, should you adopt a caveman diet? It may not be the best diet, but it could be healthier than a vegetarian or even vegan diet that includes refined foods. If you do choose to include meat in your diet, you may want to consider what you can add to it in the area of good nutrition, as well as the other positive lessons we can learn from the cavemen.
–Rick Mautz, PT MS, is RMC health director.