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Another January, Another Paleo-Bashing Session… Or Was It?

This Year the Annual Diet Reviews Didn’t Have Their Usually Sharp Teeth Out for the Paleo Diet It’s January. Which means another flurry of online diet rankings and reviews. At the Paleo Diet®, we await them with the rapt anticipation of a school boy sweating his double-dare challenge punishment. You don’t know what it’s going to be. You just know it’s going to hurt. In a strange way, we came to wear our dead last ranking at US News & World Report as a badge of pride. Instead of discouraging paleo dieters, the ranking seemed to make them feel part…

The Oldest Human or the Greatest Scam of All Time?

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Mark J. Smith, PhD — No Comments ↓

Russian researcher claims 122-year-old Jeanne Calment was actually a 99-year-old imposter. Jeanne Louise Calment was a woman from Arles, France who has long been documented as the oldest human being. Her longevity has not surprisingly attracted much interest in her lifestyle and eating habits, including those of us here at The Paleo Diet®. She was born on February 21st, 1875 and died on August 4th, 1997, equating to a lifespan of 122 years and 164 days. Or at least, that is what the current records show. However, on December 19, 2018, Nikolay Zak, Ph.D. a Russian mathematician, published a research…

Two New Studies Show the Many Potential Anti-Inflammatory Benefits of the Paleo Diet

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Trevor Connor, M.S. — 3 Comments ↓

The increased abdominal fat that many women develop after menopause due to hormonal changes and the skin disorder psoriasis are divergent health concerns that would seem to have little in common. But two recently published studies found a common ground – chronic inflammation. More importantly, the anti-inflammatory properties of the Paleo Diet were found to improve both [1, 2]. After menopause, women have a tendency to “redistribute” fat around the abdomen which increases the risk for metabolic disorders such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease [3, 4]. In the first study, which was published in Obesity, researchers placed 70 obese postmenopausal…

Bill Nye – The Science Guy?

Posted on August 30, 2017 by Trevor Connor, M.S. — 8 Comments ↓

As a fellow Cornellian, I’ve had a long-standing admiration for Bill Nye The Science Guy. Alright, I admit that I was a fan-boy. I was pretty excited when Nye returned to Cornell during my time there, to take a guest professor post. Here was a scientist who was charismatic, made science exciting for the masses, and had the “science chops” to teach at the Cornell science department. So, I was all too disappointed when I watched Bill Nye take on the Paleo Diet in his new Netflix show Bill Nye Saves the World. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t disappointed…

Is Your Brain Hardwired for Junk Food?

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Casey Thaler, B.A., NASM-CPT, FNS — 1 Comment ↓

While the title of this article may at first seem implausible (and somewhat scary), a new scientific study seems to show that an inborn preference for junk food is not only possible – it may be affecting more of us than ever could have possibly been imagined. For the first time in history, researchers for Obesity Society have identified two genetic variants, which help to change how the brain responds to high-calorie foods.1 2 While this is potentially terrible news for those of us who struggle to resist highly processed and manufactured foods – it also means there is possibly…

Reversing Nutritional Deficiencies by Eliminating Entire Food Groups

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Christopher James Clark, B.B.A. — 2 Comments ↓

Do you believe that “our modern lifestyles, including nutrition, are the cause of current health problems?” If so, you could be susceptible to “fad diets,” according to the United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM). Last week, the organization’s Technical Advisor for Nutrition, Lois McBean, wrote that those who follow the Paleo diet “are likely setting themselves up for nutritional deficiencies by eliminating entire food groups such as dairy, grains, and legumes.”1 McBean went on to observe, “Such restrictive diets are not consistent with current dietary recommendations including USDA’s MyPlate or the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” It’s interesting that she…

“Eating Meat has Known Health Benefits” — WHO

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Christopher James Clark, B.B.A. — 15 Comments ↓

As you probably already heard, earlier this week the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer agency, categorized processed meat as “carcinogenic” and unprocessed red meat as “probably carcinogenic.”1 What you might not have heard is that in an accompanying Q&A document, the IARC also said, “Eating meat has known health benefits.”2 Those who read the IARC’s statement and its Q&A document are likely to conclude that this story is nowhere near as dramatic and consequential as headlines from The Guardian, The New York Times, and other news outlets have implied: “Processed…

Quit Getting Tricked Into Sugar

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Casey Thaler, B.A., NASM-CPT, FNS — 1 Comment ↓

Sugar – is there a more popular word for dieticians and nutritionists? Interestingly, economists have also been talking about the pure white stuff – but in a different context than the standard ‘insulin and cravings’ discussions. A new piece in The Atlantic discussed just how much money is spent on selling Americans sugar, every single day of our lives.1 Though nothing truly shocks me anymore, in the sleazy world of processed food marketing, I was a bit taken aback to realize that Kellogg’s spent $32 million on advertising their (truly awful) Pop Tarts last year. With that money, we could…

Charismatic Paleo Bloggers: Rigorous Caution Required

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Loren Cordain, PhD, Professor Emeritus — 20 Comments ↓

INTRODUCTION Some of the most well recognized names in the “Paleosphere” surprisingly maintain few professional, academic, or even experiential credentials which would qualify them as scientists, researchers or even lay experts in the discipline. These self proclaimed, charismatic authorities have influenced and continue to influence hundreds of thousands of people based upon nothing more than their untested subjective opinions and limited understanding of the scientific, peer review literature. Most have never been trained in the research process, few maintain anything more than a bare bones understanding of the scientific method and don’t have even the slightest inkling of the statistical…

New Financial Study: The Smart Money’s On Paleo

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Christopher James Clark, B.B.A. — 2 Comments ↓

For a nutritional concept to gain traction and remain relevant, nothing matters more than its ability to generate cold, hard cash. In the past, this usually meant governments (and their allied health institutions) would promote certain theories (e.g. the low-fat theory of cardiovascular disease), thereby creating consumer demand, and food manufacturers would respond, formulating products to meet that demand. Whether or not the theories were scientifically sound was relatively unimportant. In the future, this demand creation model will reverse. Consumers will access scientifically sound nutrition advice, either directly through scientific journals or via independent health advocates, educators, and journalists. This…

LOREN CORDAIN, PH.D.