Paleo or Raw Food diet. Wait I thought Paleo was raw food...
22 Aug 2014Paleo Diet
The Paleolithic (Paleo) diet has increased in popularity recently, and is especially popular with Crossfit devotees. The Paleo diet is based on whole foods, but excludes grains, beans and legumes, dairy, salt and sugar.
The Paleo diet claims to reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, assist weight loss, and improve energy levels. There is some evidence to support these claims. The obvious benefits of the Paleo diet are that it emphasises whole foods, fruits, vegetables and lean protein. It also encourages organic produce, free of pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics and hormones.
The Paleo diet incorporates a lot of meat. While this meat can be lean, there is a potential to be consuming too much saturated fat, which can lead to complications like heart disease. Eating too much protein also means excess energy will be converted and stored as fat. The diet also excludes entire food groups, such as wholegrains, legumes and low-fat dairy, which have many noted health benefits.
If managed well, the Paleo diet can be healthy. Any followers, however, should be careful to avoid high intakes of saturated fat, and should consider whether they want to miss out on the health benefits of the excluded food groups.
Raw Food Diet
One thing everyone seems to agree on is that we should eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. But what about cooked?
In essence, the raw food diet is exactly as it sounds: no food is cooked. The diet is based almost exclusively on plant foods. Sometimes it includes animal foods, but they are consumed raw (for example, unpasteurised milk). Some versions eschew all animal products, and so are vegan.
The clear benefit of moving to a plant-based diet is that fruits, vegetables and nuts are some of the richest sources of essential nutrients. The raw food diet also excludes most processed foods, eliminating trans fats and reducing levels of sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. Many foods are also most nutritious when eaten raw, as heat destroys many nutrients, including some water-soluble vitamins and unsaturated fats, including omega-3s.
Claims that raw food is better, however, because cooking destroys plant enzymes, are questionable. The hydrochloric acid used in digestion also destroys most plant enzymes. Some foods are also more beneficial when cooked, for example cooked tomatoes provide more of the antioxidant lycopene than raw tomatoes. And some beneficial plant foods, for example beans and legumes, are largely indigestible raw.
Cooking also can remove harmful bacteria from some foods, like salmonella and E. coli. While raw milk may be on trend, pasteurisation does greatly reduce the risk of ingesting these harmful bacteria.
While most of us should be eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, rejecting cooked food completely may lead to missing out on valuable vitamins and minerals.
Coconut Oil
In contrast to the low-fat diets of the past few decades, many have started to incorporate high levels of fats and oils into their diets. Many aficionados of high-fat diets say that it helps with satiety, energy, and strong hair and nails. One of the most popular fats is coconut oil.
Fat is an essential part of a healthy diet. It helps the body absorb some nutrients, and is a source of energy and vitamins. Fat also provides essential fatty acids which the body can’t produce itself. Most nutrition guidelines recommend limiting food high in saturated fat, while eating more unsaturated fats (for example, oily fish, nuts and seeds, sunflower and olive oils).
Coconut oil is becoming extremely popular, despite being made up of more than 90 per cent saturated fats. The majority of the saturated fats in coconut oil are medium-chain saturated fats, which the body tends to use quickly to produce energy. This means that less of it accumulates in fat tissue. Some researchers consider that because of the structure of the saturated fat, coconut oil does less damage than other saturated fats, such as those found in animal products. Coconut oil is also free from cholesterol, which makes it a better choice than butter and trans fats.
The evidence on coconut oil is still emerging, and isn’t yet convincing. At this stage, most nutritionists seem to recommend that that coconut oil is treated like any other saturated fat, and is used in moderation.