Paleo = ?¿?¿?

For me this is going to be difficult to explain without upsetting too many people. Please hear me out and feel free to discuss.

I want to talk today about “Paleo” foods. Paleo is a nutrition guideline that basically has the followers eat only food that would have been available in Paleolithic time. This means meats, veggies, fruit, some nuts (not peanuts), no legumes and a few more restrictions. There’s hundreds of references online, check it out.

Is Paleo healthy? Absolutely! You are eating only foods that are completely natural and the human body was originally intended to digest. There are a couple difficulties associated to this style of eating (getting enough carbohydrates) but that’s for a later discussion. The discussion today is the relationship between “Paleo” and “Healthy”.

Just because the word “Paleo” is tacked on to the end of a word, doesn’t make it necessarily healthy. Just as someone who watches UFC and wears a Tapout shirt isn’t necessarily a good fighter.

The intention of eating Paleo should be; being healthier and achieving goals etc. That means, alog with eating “Paleo”, portion control and proper food choices are still incredibly important. Paleo cupcakes, even though they’re called paleo, are not healthy. Yes, the ingredients alone are better then there alternative but put together in such dense amounts is counter-productive. Read that again… Yes, the ingredients of your cupcake are good, but how much? Usually a LOT! Don’t get me wrong, having a treat now and then is not a bad thing at all and I agree if cavemen had cupcakes theyd eat it too… but a cupcake is a cupcake… Don’t believe me? Check this:

1 Paleo cupcake: Carbohydrates=14g, Protien=3g, Fat=26g

Average cupcake: Carbohydrates=28g, Protein=2g, Fat=1.6g

So yes, the carbohydrates of the Paleo cupcake is half the average cupcake. The fat however is, wait for it, 16.3 times higher!!!! Fat is a good thing im not arguing that (small but proper amounts of fat are imperative to healthy eating), but fat slows everything down and are risky at high amounts. Also carbohydrates are way easier to burn off!… Therefore if we look at an estimated “proper” meal for the average person (27g carbs, 21g protein,  4.5g fat) you are better off eating 3 normal cupcakes then 1 Paleo cupcake. Let’s say you eat 3… you could have eaten 9 regular cupcakes… and let’s be honest, no one eats only one.

The point im trying to make is a cupcake is a cupcake, brownies are brownies and just because something says Paleo, doesn’t make it incredibly healthy. Let’s stick to “paleoizing” (making beloved healthy food paleo by means of exchanging ingredients) actual healthy food like “zucchini lasagna” or “spegatti squash and meatballs” and understand that although it says “Paleo” you still have to be aware of portions and especially amount of fat and lack of carbohydrates!