A little over a year ago I wrote a post about why I am not Paleo. I’m still not Paleo, but I have realized that I was wrong about Paleo.
Paleo is a diet that is right for lots of people out there. It’s not a diet that I personally follow, but I completely understand why many people out there embrace it and I support them fully.
Some people will accuse me of flip flopping on this matter. And that’s fine. (Seems like some people find a reason to accuse you no matter what you do. 
.) I do not agree that I am flip flopping — I think I have evolved on this one.
When I wrote that original post, I was coming from a place of ignorance. Since then, I’ve learned a lot, met a lot of new friends, and grown a lot. I think it’s important to admit when you are wrong. Hence, this post.
Why I Heart Paleo
I personally follow a Weston Price diet. In other words, I practice the dietary guidelines of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Now, I’m not perfect and I’m not perfectionistic about it. I just try to do 80/20. That means, yes I eat white bread and French fries when I go out to eat at a restaurant. Which is often. But the vast majority of the time, I eat according to WAPF. Grass-fed meat and dairy, wild-caught fish, cod liver oil, bone broth, whole grains, fermented foods, organic fruits and vegetables.
The thing is, Weston Pricers and Paleo dieters have more in common than not. As Diane Sanfilippo’s (of Balanced Bites) very smart graphic illustrates:
Paleo is about traditional food. And the Weston Price diet is about traditional food.
The only thing we disagree on is dairy (although Primal and some Paleo folks eat dairy, particularly raw and fermented dairy — see this recent post by Chris Kresser on dairy and bone health) and whole grains (although many Paleo and Primal people now eat some white rice and occasionally other grains).
Here are some reasons why I have changed my mind about Paleo, and have come around to loving the Paleo movement. Even though I still eat bread and pasta, I am a now a card-carrying Paleo advocate.
Paleo Embraces Sustainable Farming
What we need more than anything in this day and age is for folks to come together and give their support to small, family farms. The Paleo movement has championed small farms.
The recent Baconpalooza event hosted by one of my favorite organizations, the Farm to Consumer Foundation, was a tribute to the 3 Ps: pork, Paleo and Polyface Farm.
Check out this post on Bill and Hayley Staley’s blog, Primal Palate: Sustainable Dish Paleo Farm Dinner.
And this post on Mark Sisson’s blog, Mark’s Daily Apple: Small and Not So Small Farms You can Trust.
And this post about a farm tour on Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low Carb blog.
Paleo Embraces Fitness
I’m so grateful to my new Paleo friends who have helped me get motivated to get in shape. Their advice and inspiration did a number on me!
Since April, I’ve lost 30 pounds and 4 dress sizes! I was a size 16 when I started and now I am a size 8.
30 pound weight loss — back in my pre-baby jeans
Vanessa Romero, low carb advocate and author of Healthy Living How To was the one who first inspired me with her story during our Healthy Life Summit back in March.
In April, I decided to take action. I figured if Vanessa could do it, I could do it, too. I started using my Fitbit to get my daily 10,000 steps like Vanessa does.
Vanessa also inspired me to get a treadmill desk, which was, hands down, one of the best purchases I’ve ever made in my life. (My husband agrees — he lost 35 pounds this summer. He swears by his Fitbit and uses the treadmill desk daily.)
Since then, I’ve bonded with a number of other Paleo friends who have treadmill desks: Chris Kresser, Diane Sanfilippo of Balanced Bites, Sylvie McCracken of Hollywood Homestead.
I also follow other Paleo bloggers on Instagram and I get inspired by their efforts to stay in shape. I especially love keeping in touch with with Stacy Toth of Paleo Parents.
You should follow Paleo Parents on Instagram — Stacy is awesome!
I also bought some Vibram FiveFingers. It was John Durant of HunterGatherer.com who first inspired me to give barefoot running a try. I NEVER thought I’d ever be able to run — but now with my Vibrams, I’m doing it! I am actually training to run a 5K.
Paleo Is Necessary for People with Food Allergies
Paleo is absolutely the right path for all the folks out there with food allergies (and there are many — and the number of people with food allergies grows every year).
If you are allergic to gluten, dairy, soy, or react to sugar or other foods, then you need to avoid those foods. Paleo is an allergy-friendly diet that makes it easy to avoid all these things.
I had to go off gluten and sugar for two years when I was in my 20s. Restricting my diet and taking strong (therapeutic-grade) probiotics are what helped me to reverse my gluten intolerance, arthritis and chronic fatigue. So I know what it means to suffer from food allergies. And I know what it means to avoid certain foods for an extended period of time. Restricting my diet was hard at first, but in time, I adjusted and got used to it.
I meet people often who say they have food allergies and other digestive issues and can’t recover. They even say they have tried probiotics (even the therapeutic grade variety) to no avail. Nine times out of ten, I believe they are not recovering because they have not yet removed the allergens from their diet. If you are allergic to gluten, you simply cannot eat it.
If you need to avoid certain foods due to your particular health issues, you’ll find lots of good company in the Paleo movement. And nobody will judge you for skipping the bread or taking a pass on the milk.
Paleo Kids Need a Paleo Diet
There has been criticism in the blogosphere that Paleo parents are needlessly restricting their children’s diet. I do not agree with this.
The fact is, Paleo kids need this diet.
Kelly Brozyna of The Spunky Coconut blog has kids with food allergies. Read The Paleo Mom’s story here: Gluten Free Diets Can Be Healthy For Kids.
Most Paleo parents I know have kids who are allergic to gluten and/or dairy (and oftentimes other foods as well). They have their kids on a Paleo diet because they have to. And I applaud them for making that very important decision — it’s the best thing they could possibly do for the health of their children.
Dietary Preferences Are a Personal Matter
In closing, I want to say that I don’t think any diet is better than any other diet.
Yes, there are healthier ways to eat. Eating foods that are less processed and less refined, eating organic, doing your best to avoid chemicals and pesticides and GMOs. But honestly, it’s no one’s business how anyone else eats. We all need to do our best to eat healthier, but that is up to US as individuals.
It always makes me think of that clip from Woody Allen’s brilliant film, Annie Hall, in which Alvy Singer’s mother says, “What is that your business?”
Bottom line: Like religion, dietary preferences are a personal matter.
The thing is… I could have just as easily written a post called, “Why I Heart The Vegetarian Diet”. Because I think vegetarianism is the right diet for many people. Not me, personally, but there are lots of people out there who do better eating a vegetarian diet.
I have met a number of vibrantly healthy people who were raised in India and grew up on a vegetarian diet (no meat or fish but they did eat dairy and eggs). These people had “piano key” teeth (never had braces or a cavity; never had their wisdom teeth pulled) and they had never been sick a day in their lives. Of course, they cooked everything in grass-fed ghee and also ate liberal amounts of grass-fed yogurt.
Likewise, there are lots of folks out there who thrive on a Paleo diet.
Here’s what I think… It’s not the particular diet or the specific foods that we do or don’t eat that we eat that are important. It’s the way we raise the animals and how we grow and process and prepare the food that makes a huge difference in our health.
Let’s End the Dietary Holy Wars
I think it’s time we put an end to the Dietary Holy Wars and start accepting each other’s personal and private dietary choices. If someone wants to go primal or become a vegan, that’s their business! It is not up to you or I to judge them and tell they they are right or wrong.
Instead, let’s look for all the stuff we have in common. Vegans and Paleos and Weston Pricers can all be friends. We have so much more in common than not (Like Diane Sanfilippo’s brilliant graphic above illustrates.)
I went to dinner recently with a group of mostly Paleo bloggers including Caitlin Weeks of Grass Fed Girl — plus a vegetarian, Hannah Healy of Healy Real Food Vegetarian. And you know what? We all got along just fine!
Caitlin Weeks of Grass Fed Girl and Hannah Healy of Healy Real Food Vegetarian
The thing is, we are so much stronger together!
I say we stop the infighting and join forces.
Let’s go shop at the farmer’s market together. Let’s put Monsanto out of business!
And let’s break bread together.
Because you know what? Coconut flour bread and almond flour bread are both vegan AND Paleo.
Thanks, my friends, for reading, and thanks for being on this very important and exciting journey with me. I’m so grateful for this awesome community of like-minded folks who are hell-bent on changing the world for the better.
Now let’s get back to work! (Time to make the donuts eradicate GMOs from the planet!)
Photo Credits: Meat Heart on Flickr