Weight Loss Tips & Diet: Paleo Diet Discredited, Should Include Carbohydrates

A new study has revealed that contrary to what the modern Paleo diet has been recommending, scientists reveal that the Paleo diet should include carbohydrates to be authentic. 

The paper titled, "The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution," worked on the premise that "concentrated starch from plant foods represented a powerful selective responsible for the evolutionary increase in brain size in humans."

"Palaeolithic humans would not have evolved on today's 'Paleo' diet," study author Jennie Brand-Miller told the Sydney Morning Herald (via NY Daily News). Paleo diets, which have risen in popularity, typically recommend consumption of meat, fish, and vegetables but doesn't include carbohydrates. 

"Carbohydrates were necessary to accommodate the increased metabolic demands of a growing brain," said the authors write in the Quarterly Review of Biology. The researchers out of the University College London says that the early man didn't shun carbohydrates at all, rather, our ancestors were processing and eating starchy plants which fuelled rapid brain growth. 

Similarly, Telegraph UK reports that Professor Mark Thomas advocates including of carbohydrates. "The global increase in the incidence obesity and diet-related metabolic diseases has intensified interest in ancestral or "Palaeolithic" diets." He adds, "Surprisingly, however, there is little clear agreement on what quantitatively constitutes a healthy diet, or indeed a Palaeolithic diet, with much conflicting information disseminated to the public. 

According to experts, plant-based carbohydrates were integral parts of the dietary components that comprised human evolution. The starch content from plant food were necessary for the growing human brain. 

Experts have warned that the fad diet, similar to Atkins Diet which recommends protein intake an minimal to zero carbohydrates, could help people lose weight but poses the risk of an imbalanced diet. The publication further reported that neglecting basic food groups could be dangerous because too much meat has been linked to conditions like bowel cancer. 

"If one wishes to lose weight it does work but note this is short term but in reality whether one can stick at this and avoid all grains and dairy and potatoes for long term is questionable," said Naveed Sattar, Professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow. "In truth most people who want to lose or change their weight will do well by eating more proper food and limiting snacking on fast foods, crisps, biscuits and calorie-filled drinks."

The Quarterly Review of Biology published by The University of Chicago Press can be found here.