Foodie Friday: The Challenge of the Caveman

About a year back, I did a 30 day challenge diet.  It sucked.  My job was to eat like a caveman for a month and see how many fleas I could pick out of my friends hair before the month was over.

Yes friends, I did the Paleolithic diet.  And seeing that I operate on varying levels of extremes, I did blood work before and after to see if the suffering was really worth it.  And seeing that I am pathologically desperate for attention, I wrote it up in a magazine called OnFitness.  Here is what I said:

I had been hearing of a plan called the Paleolithic diet from a few sources and started getting interested.  After asking around to health professionals I trust, it was becoming increasingly recommend.  I tried it; here’s what happened.

What is the Paleolithic diet?

       The short answer to this question is a diet in which you eat anything a caveman would have eaten.  This includes meats, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.  That’s it.

       Food groups specifically off of the list include dairy, grains, and legumes.  While all grains are taboo on this plan, those containing gluten are especially cautioned against.

The science behind it

       Books have been written on this topic delving into great detail the biochemistry of the forbidden food groups and their interactions with the human body. 

       Mainly, the justification comes down to proteins that our bodies are not able to properly digest.  These proteins are said to cause damage and inflammation to the gastrointestinal tract, and subsequent systemic immune dysfunction.

       Lectin is one of these molecules.  Instead of breaking down into amino acids for absorption as a normal protein is expected to do, lectins remain intact and cause a series of deleterious effects. 

       These proteins are found in beans and grains and have been associated with inflammatory bowel conditions, obesity, and auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

       Similar proteins are also found in dairy products causing equally harmful reactions in the human body.  The biochemistry behind this diet is complex and worthy of further study and examination.

       Aside from the biochemistry however is the justification of the plan by evolutionary reasoning.  According to proponents of the Paleolitic diet, we as humans did not evolve eating dairy and grains.

       Over the course of many millennia of evolution, human ancestors did not exist on dairy farms and agricultural sources.  They thrived on what they could go out and hunt or forage.

       This, along with the biochemical science, is the basis for this diet.  It is proposed that if the agricultural revolution has only been a very small period of time when compared to the entire human evolution, perhaps it is bad for us.

30 days of caveman

       After reading multiple sources on the science and justification for this diet, I decided to try it for 30 days.  I had my physician order some blood work for later comparison, cleaned out my cabinets, and got to it.

       The results forever changed how I would think of food.  What I had originally thought was a diet of moderation and general health was in fact quite the opposite. 

According to my pre-diet blood profile, I was quickly approaching necessary medical intervention.  My total cholesterol and LDL levels were far too high.  HDL levels were quite low as well.

A quick snapshot of me personally is relevant.  At the time of this experiment, I was a 31 year old healthy looking guy, completed an Ironman race the year before, and was in training for another Ironman that year.

After 30 days of eating only approved foods, every blood value I had tested had improved.  The test ran values on 15 various markers and every single test came back healthier.

Ideal total cholesterol is below 200.  Mine went from 221 to 154.  LDL cholesterol, otherwise known as the dangerous type, should be lower than 100.  My values went from 140 to 73.

Small sized LDL, the really dangerous type, went from 699 to 387.  Ideal here is lower than 117.  Triglycerides dropped from 93 to 47, and large HDL cholesterol rose from 2.1 to 8.3.

       My physician, nutritionist, colleagues in the health professions, along with me were pretty blown away by these results.  This went against most of what I learned about nutrition in 8 years of undergraduate and graduate level schooling.

I said a bunch of other stuff too, but by you reading my usage of the word deleterious, I feel smart enough to end it there.

Not only do I feel smart, I felt HEALTHY!  And so, I would like to challenge all of you to join me in this animal skin wearing, club wielding, carnivorous journey!

We've got some lead time, but no season fattens us up like the holidays.  I might be setting us up for EPIC failure here, but I am planning to do a 45 day challenge from November 15 through the end of December.  Wouldn't it be nice to not start off the New Year looking and feeling like a pork rind?

Details will follow, but right now I'd like to get a role call.  Who out there is stupid enough to say no to pumpkin pie and dressing?

The good news about this plan is it is a daily scored system.  If you know you are going to botch it on Thanksgiving day, which lets face it most of us will, you can start afresh the next day.

I dare you.  Join me.  Chase down an animal and eat it in public... ok, don't do that.  Who's in?