Dispelling the Paleo Treats Myth by Paul Nobles Paleo, Primal, clean, whole…Whatever you want to call a nutrition methodology based on eating mostly real foods, make no mistake about it…I probably agree with it! Eating whole, nutrient-dense foods is actually a central part of Eat To Perform. If you are eating near your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) and want to clean things up for 30 days, I love the idea and I think you’ll see some positive changes in your performance, body composition, but most importantly, your health. I do however have a couple issues I wanted to bring up. First is the idea that strict adherence to Paleo is something magic. This should be obvious to most of our readers, but Paleo is not magic - it’s simply a convenient way to intuitively eat real food, at a low calorie point, that keeps you in an energy deficit. It very effectively satisfies the most important elements of a weight loss diet without any guesswork or counting. That’s it. Second, the topic of this article, is the idea that within the Paleo framework, there’s no room for treating yourself to high carb foods – that even a dessert made with Paleo ingredients is going to plateau your fat loss and put you back at square one. The folks preaching this idea believe that your cravings are a sign of weakness and you need to toughen up. In this way, there’s a huge disconnect between Paleo as a “diet” and Paleo as a lifestyle. Frankly, it’s become pretty damaging to people who don’t know any better and just want to lose some body fat. When you demonize even whole food carbohydrate sources and treats, you screw things up big time – you make it impossible to adhere and see long-term progress. Why Treats are OK! When you go to a mostly low carb version of Paleo and maintain a high level of activity, your body simply adapts over time. That’s why 30 day challenges work so great, but it’s also why when you extend them to 90 days or longer, you plateau. There’s no longer a stimulus for further adaptation. When you attempt to keep the joy of food in your life but you can’t go for the processed “feel good” foods you’ve been eating your entire life, you resort to Pumpkin Bars and nuts for treats. This is a natural response and you should go with it! The simple fact is that active bodies need plenty of energy and it’s kind of hard to do that with just sweet potatoes and grass fed beef. An equally important consideration is the fact that eating the same thing over and over again gets really boring – your brain actually loves some level of diversity. I’m getting tired of high profile Paleo bloggers/authors trying to throw a bunch of people on the scrap heap and guilting them into an unhealthy approach to food. This is not unusual though – pretty much every “diet” author out there pulls out the “It’s not the diet, it’s the way you did the diet” card to dump the blame on the end-user. You’re dieting all of the time and that’s the problem. Although eating Paleo and avoiding processed food has provided you with plenty of vitamins and minerals, your metabolism has no energy to work with! In that way, “paleo treats” are the answer to your plateau; have some dark chocolate, have some red wine, have a damn cupcake, and you’ll be surprised at the results! It’s Time to Get With The Program I’m writing this because I am tired of “poo-bahs” screaming the rules of eating meats and veggies from atop the Paleo mountain, seemingly without respect for basic nutrition science. The initial idea was to provide an easy template to follow that would work for the majority of people. If the idea is to simply eat meats and veggies all of the time, just write that book and see how many people buy it. It’s slightly more complicated than that – people are more complicated than that. Eating food can and should be a joyous experience, and it should provide your body with energy that allows you to become a more whole person. If your approach to nutrition resembles a disordered eating pattern – if you’re avoiding food in fear that you’ll mess up your diet and ruin your progress – you might want to rethink things. Is it truly healthy for your body and mind to avoid food simply because it’s not on “the list?” Look, I am all for nutrient dense foods and I think they should represent the majority of what you eat, but the body needs a certain amount of Calories as well as vitamins and minerals each day to function properly. Energy requirements are different for each of us, but every person should have a basic understanding of what that means for them. This is a big reason why partitioning foods into “good” and “bad” lists is an unhealthy approach – not everybody has the same needs or sensitivities. If you think you might be allergic to a specific food, get a food allergy test done. If you are carrying too much fat and eating a lot of processed convenience foods, try a focus on real food and preparation of meals in advance. You should always look at the big picture; always pay some level of attention to energy balance. If you are going to avoid making “pumpkin bars” because you have “plateaued,” then yes; maybe the pumpkin bars are the problem, but probably not in the way you are being told. Your body may just want some energy dense options because you’re down-regulating important hormonal processes by maintaining a chronic energy deficit. You shouldn’t ignore cravings or think of yourself as weak – you have evolved to be this creature for a reason. Constantly eating less and making food “joyless” is simply the wrong approach and the “poo-bahs” need to get the memo. ________________________ If you eat by the principles of the Metabolic Flexibility method, you can eat foods that you enjoy – you can be excited about your meals! 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Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:30:00 +0000
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