There is nothing wrong with eating a basic, whole-food diet. Avoiding processed “junk food” is something that would likely benefit many people. However, many people run away with this idea by encouraging a diet that is “primal” or “ancestral”.
This comes in many forms, including raw carnivore, carnivore with cooked meats, and an animal-based diet with some restricted plant foods. Of course, there are others on the opposing side that preach a herbivorous diet as being most
consistent with human development. Both miss the mark.
Humans are an omnivorous species. More than that, humans have had a diverse diet throughout evolutionary history, with more fragmentation in diet
patterns as the species spread into different geographical locations.
Moreover, how humans ate throughout evolutionary history is not as strong an argument as many think. Firstly, their idea of how humans ate is wrong. And secondly, evolution optimises for traits that confer reproductive success. Longevity (e.g. living to 90 versus 75) is not one of those traits. Therefore, a diet could both support reproductive function and harm longevity, and thus the claim that “we ate like this throughout history” is only partially informative of decisions we
make today.
In addition to this, simply “feeling good” does not inform decisions for health either. One may feel good when engaging in a behaviour that ultimately leads to demise. For example, the weight
of the evidence suggests that consuming a diet rich in saturated fat leads to elevated risk of atherosclerosis and thus heart disease. One cannot feel this process, and thus we would not expect someone to feel worse by virtue of consuming such a diet, at least not for multiple decades. Therefore, the decisions you make regarding diet need to be informed by more than just feelings, as feelings can lead one astray.
Does this mean that those consuming a “primal” diet are eating crap? Is that what I’m saying?
No. Not at all. Eating a diet high in animal foods, with some fruit, berries, and dairy, is likely to be a large improvement on the Standard American Diet (SAD) which dominates the developed (and increasingly developing) world. People often think that criticism equals total opposition, but this is not the case. What I propose instead are a few tweaks that can help one optimise this diet
even further, including the prioritisation of dietary fibre, adjustment of fat sources (more unsaturated, less saturated), and inclusion of vegetables. For health, it needn’t be a dichotomy of carnivore vs vegan, there is a wide spectrum of diets between that could be an improvement on your current diet.
There are some great examples of people that put this into practice. I recently came across a fantastic video (that I can't link right now as I don't know the guy's name, but I have the video saved for a reaction video, so keep an eye out lol). He didn’t allow himself to be wed to carnivore ideology. He noticed his high LDL-C, and made a few diet tweaks, while still maintaining the core of
his animal-based approach. This is a sensible adjustment to a diet that was working well for him.
Overall, our message at Triage is not rigid. We don’t propose any one diet. We also don’t support the
free-for-all approach of “if it fits your macros”. Food quality matters, as does food quantity. And both a plant-based or animal-based diet could be an improvement on where your diet is currently. We don’t deny that, but what we do deny is that there is one way of eating that will be optimal for everyone, and that this can be reduced to a simple, restrictive, exclusive diet.
For most people, the following should be prioritised:
- Eat a range of plants, including fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, etc., facilitating a nutrient and
fibre-rich diet.
- Eat a range of protein sources, mostly lean but some fatty sources (e.g. white meat, lean red meat, salmon and oily fish, yoghurt & dairy, plant sources such as tofu, seitan etc.).
- Choose unsaturated fat sources such as avocado, nuts, olive oil, oily fish, etc. over saturated sources (e.g. butter, cream, fatty meat).
- Minimise snacking and eat at a meal frequency that suits your schedule, preferences, and enables you to stay full throughout the day
while fueling your workouts.
- Adjust your portion sizes to meet your calorie needs, allowing for management of bodyweight over time.
- Minimise consumption of processed foods, particularly those that are calorie-dense and rich in sugar, fat, and salt.
- Minimise consumption of liquid calories, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, unless deliberately adding carbohydrates for sports performance.
Deviating a little from the above is perfectly fine, these are general rules, but you’ll find that most suggested diets for health, performance, and body composition satisfy these requirements, despite variation at the extremes (e.g. exclusive carnivore or restrictive whole-food
vegan diets).
I hope you now understand some of the misleading thought processes that can lead one toward a "primal" or "ancestral" diet. If you’d like to follow-up with any questions, you are always
welcome to respond to this email.
Yours in health,
Dr Gary McGowan
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