Sat 18 Aug 2007
First Controlled Study of Paleolithic Diet
Posted by Jeremiah under Dieting, Health, Paleo Diet
I can’t believe I didn’t catch this earlier, but it appears the first controlled study of a Paleolithic diet was conducted recently in Lund, Sweden. Several researchers have compared traditional diets that are similar to the Paleolithic diet in nature in the past, but never has a controlled study been performed.
The main conclusion of the study was that a paleolithic diet controls symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes better than a traditional Mediterranean diet. :
The main result was that the blood sugar rise in response to carbohydrate intake was markedly lower after 12 weeks in the Paleolithic group (–26%), while it barely changed in the Mediterranean group (–7%). At the end of the study, all patients in the Paleolithic group had normal blood glucose.
The improved glucose tolerance in the Paleolithic group was unrelated to changes in weight or waist circumference, although waist decreased slightly more in that group. Hence, the research group concludes that something more than caloric intake and weight loss was responsible for the improved handling of dietary carbohydrate. The main difference between the groups was a much lower intake of grains and dairy products and a higher fruit intake in the Paleolithic group. Substances in grains and dairy products have been shown to interfere with the metabolism of carbohydrates and fat in various studies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627225459.htm
(I came across this news on Diet Blog, but personally I hate it when bloggers link only to other blogs and it takes me ten minutes to track down an actual news article.)
Note what they say about caloric intake:
Hence, the research group concludes that something more than caloric intake and weight loss was responsible for the improved handling of dietary carbohydrate.
A large number of diets focus only on how much you eat. They help you lose weight by counting calories, which is difficult, unintuitive, and not necessarily healthy. I like that the researchers admit that exclusion of certain foods plays a very important role and not just how much the subjects ate.
I am glad someone has finally conducted a study on this. The Paleolithic diet gets ignored too often.
