The back to the future diet

Like all unusual diet plans, it has its fair share of celebrity advocates.

Miley Cyrus and Jessica Biel are both firm fans. Megan Fox credited it with helping her drop to her pre-pregnancy weight within two months of giving birth. Jeb Bush says it was why he was able to lose around 20kg ahead of entering the race to become US president.

Yet unlike so many health crazes this is no fad based on new (and, often, debatable) theories. Rather, the paleo diet dates back to the very beginning of human history. It recommends we all eat like the Stone Age man. That means lots of meat and fish, large amounts of vegetables, nuts and seeds for snacks, and plenty of water throughout the day. Simultaneously, all processed foods like carbs, grains, cereals, unsaturated fats and dairy products should be avoided. Fruit and chocolate are acceptable but only in small portions due to their sugar content.

The diet is built on the belief that during the vast Palaeolithic period – spanning from 2.2 million years ago to 10,000BC – humans evolved specific nutritional needs that still exist within us today. The best way to meet those needs, stay healthy for longer and make the most of our bodies, advocates say, is by following a similar (if occasionally modified) eating pattern to our prehistoric ancestors.

‘Among the benefits’, says Christopher James Clark, a Dubai-based nutritionist and one of the world’s leading authorities on the paleo diet, ‘are increased energy, stronger muscles and bones, clearer skin, improved digestion, sounder sleep and a reduced risk of issues such as obesity, type two diabetes, heart problems, cancer and even Alzheimer’s disease.’

More of that shortly.

For now, though, if you think there’s more chance of another ice age than a Neanderthal diet catching on, think again. It’s a craze that’s sweeping the globe and is fast on the rise in the UAE too…

It was back in the Sixties and Seventies that the idea of eating what early evolution has programmed into us started to gain scientific traction. Nutritionists and gastroenterologists like Walter L Voegtlin advocated the practice. But because its central principle – that natural fats found in meat were good for us – went against accepted theory, it remained a largely minority belief until 2002.

That was the year Dr Loren Cordain, then professor in health and exercise science at Colorado State University, published The Paleo Diet, the definitive text on the subject. The tome was 288 pages long but – compared with healthy eating theories like the Atkins plan and 5:2 diet – its central thesis was incredibly simple. It argued that certain foods only entered our diets some 10,000 years ago when humans moved from hunter-gatherers to settled farmers, and that this wasn’t long enough for our bodies to adapt to eating them.

Instead, Dr Cordain wrote, we should stick to what the caveman ate – meat, fish, veg, fruits, seeds and nuts – and avoid anything he wouldn’t have recognised. Cereals, grains, breads, pastas, dairy products and any kind of processed foods were, as a species, damaging our bodies.

‘If it has a food label,’ some of his more enthusiastic followers declared, ‘don’t eat it.’

Significantly, the thesis was built on three pillars: that, contrary to popular thinking, there is actually no direct evidence saturated fats found in meat lead to heart disease or other illnesses; that Nineties’ research suggested not all cholesterol was bad for the body; and that eating carbohydrates meant more sugar in the body, which could have a negative effect on long-term health.

Along similar lines, diet delivery company DinnerTime – based in Sports City – reports that it introduced a paleo option in January this year. It now accounts for 30 per cent of all business.

All of which perhaps leaves one question: just why exactly is it thought a caveman’s diet is so good for us?

Christopher, who is a regular columnist for Doctor Cordain’s website ThePaleoDiet.com, himself may offer part of the answer. The American nutritionist is 38 but when Friday meets him at his Sports City home, he looks a good decade younger. ‘I definitely put that down to eating this diet,’ he says.

Advocates, like him, say lean meat and fish support strong muscles and healthy bones while also improving our immune system.

Because the diet is crammed with fresh vegetables – broccoli, cabbage, kale, asparagus, lettuce, tomatoes and the like – it is also rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Those have been repeatedly shown to reduce the risk of cancer, type two diabetes, cardiovascular problems and neurological decline.

The high fibre from non-starchy veggies, meanwhile, boosts digestion. Increased water intake results in healthier hair, clearer skin and better sleep. Avoidance of carbs means no post-meal bloated sensations. And a three-week trial at Karolinska Institute in Sweden recorded an average loss of 2.3kg amid participants. Blood pressure also dropped.

Here in Dubai, one advocate is Lamis Harib. The 29-year-old Emirati businessperson turned to paleo in 2011. ‘I was very stressed completing my thesis and just never felt 100 per cent,’ she explains. ‘I had a friend who tried it out and, at first, I thought it seemed strange, but I decided to give it a go.’

Except, like so many diets, there are also questions about just how healthy it really is.

Should health-conscious men and women in the 21st century, sceptics ask, really be eating a diet similar to the humans who walked the planet two million years ago?

Many nutritionists – such as Yale University’s Dr David Katz and University of Illinois professor Stuart Jay Olshansky – say there is no hard evidence to support claims that going paleo has long-term health benefits. The Swedish study that suggested it helped with weight loss was conducted with just 14 people.

The fact that early humans didn’t tend to suffer from heart disease, cancers or neurological issues, meanwhile, really proves nothing. They simply didn’t live long enough for such issues to be a problem.

Indeed, the British Dietetic Association was particularly cutting in its own conclusions about the craze. It named the paleo diet as among the five worst celebrity-endorsed diets of 2015. It risks being ‘unbalanced, time consuming, and socially isolating,’ it said.

And according to new research headed by the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain, carbs were one of the reasons the human brain has exponentially expanded over the past 10,000 years. To cut them out of diets, it concluded, is to actually go against evolution.

So, is it worth doing?

The evidence is mixed but one thing that seems to be true is that those who give it a go very rarely have anything bad to say about it.

‘Flexibility and moderation is the key,’ says Christopher, back in Sports City. ‘I think if you go with the view that you won’t eat anything that wasn’t available to Stone Age man then it may be going a little too far.

‘But if you make an element of paleo part of your overall diet and see how you feel after two or three weeks… I don’t hear of many people saying it didn’t work for them and they didn’t feel better afterwards. I honestly believe this is the future of healthy eating.’

Breakfast: A couple of poached eggs served with seasonal vegetables such as spinach or kale.

Snacks: Nuts and seeds. Occasionally a small piece of fruit.

Drinks: Herbal tea. Lots of water.