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Paleo diet dangers: doctors deliver verdict after MKR’s Pete Evans talks about his beliefs

FOR passionate followers of the paleo diet, it’s a miracle lifestyle that can fight obesity and cure all types of ill health from diabetes to autism.

But what do medical and nutrition experts really think about the Pete Evans-backed way of life? The verdict isn’t good.

Paleo is sold as a hunter-gatherer style of eating mimicking the diet of our Palaeolithic ancestors and promotes the consumption of lean meat, fish, poultry and non-starch vegetables while avoiding grains, legumes and dairy.

The World Health Organisation said any diet that excludes whole good groups should be treated with suspicion[1].

“The idea of cutting out grain-based foods and legumes is not backed by science and eating more meat than is needed by the body certainly has risks,” it advised.

It’s a concern echoed by doctors and nutritionists here and abroad. Celebrity chef and TV host Pete Evans is one of the staunchest advocates of the paleo diet[2].

Alex Nella, a dietitian at the University of California, said the typical paleo diet “puts most (people) at risk of deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D”.

Celebrity chef and My Kitchen Rules co-host Pete Evans is a staunch proponent of the paleo diet. Picture: Damian Shaw

“At the same time, saturated fat and protein can be consumed far above recommended levels, increasing the risk of kidney and heart disease and certain cancers,” Ms Nella said.

Chronically low carbohydrate intake could lead to an overuse of fat for energy, or ketosis, and anyone on the paleo diet should be medically supervised[3], she said.

Ms Nella also believes paleo “isn’t effective for sustained weight loss”.

Australian researcher Associate Professor Sof Andrikopoulos from the University of Melbourne last year published results of a study of the diet, which used mice to examine the so-called benefits.

Shockingly, he observed a potential for rapid weight gain and health problems after just eight weeks[4], leading him to warn about “fad” diets with little or no scientific evidence behind them.

“Low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets are becoming more popular, but there is no evidence that these diets work,” Professor Andrikopoulos said. “In fact, if you put an inactive individual on this type of diet, the chances are that person will gain weight.”

The Medical Journal of Australia wrote that any strong conclusions about the long-term health benefits of the paleo diet were difficult to make[5].

Improvements in type 2 diabetes or any other condition couldn’t be demonstrated, it said.

In 2015, US News and World Report placed the paleo diet dead last[6] in its annual Best Diets Rankings.

A panel of experts assessed 35 different diets, examining factors from nutrition and safety to weight loss effectiveness. Paleo failed to meet the grade.

As well as an ineffective weight loss method, many experts are concerned about its potential health impacts.

Prominent nutritionist Rosemary Stanton[7] told Daily Life in 2014 that the high content of red meat and lack of wholegrains promoted by the diet were risky.

“Cancer experts rate a high intake of meat as a convincing cause of bowel cancer while wholegrains reduce the risk. These two factors also increase long-term risk of heart disease,” Dr Stanton said.

RELATED: Paleo Pete’s advice on health and diet slammed[8]

RELATED: Pete Evans’ baby paleo book dumped over health concerns[9]

There’s little scientific evidence to back up the claimed benefits of the paleo diet. Picture: Steve Holland

Physician and nutritionist Melina Jampolis said paleo fell into the ‘fad diet’ category and warned people to steer clear of it.

American nutritionist Bridget Hastings Komosky agreed, saying the paleo-recommended amount of saturated fats could increase the risk of kidney and heart disease.

And Melbourne nutritionist Lisa Renn[10] concluded that the diet had a few pluses.

While cutting down on processed foods is good, particularly white bread and sugary cereals, Ms Renn said eliminating all cereals and legumes means cutting out fibre.

“I had one client who went on the diet, despite being a healthy weight and when she came off it, she discovered she’d messed up her metabolism so her weight went up,” she recounted.

“Meanwhile, her personal trainer, who was recovering from a bowel blockage due to the paleo diet, couldn’t wait to get back onto it because it was so effective for weight loss.

“So it backfires on a lot of people.”

Nutritionist Rosemary Stanton has raised concerns about the Paelo diet.

And the claim that paleo’s principles are based on our ancestors’ eating habits are also disputed, given no one really knows what they ate.

Renn said diets varied wildly depending on geography and season, as well as basic access to sustenance.

“The main thing I can’t get my head around is why you would want to eat like people who never lived beyond 40,” she said.

Gretchen Spetz, a nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic in the US, is equally confused about the touted Palaeolithic association of the diet.

“Guess what? You’ve evolved — and your digestion system has evolved — since our Palaeolithic ancestors walked the Earth a few millions years ago, but the diet works under the assumption that we have the same gut health as our ancestors, which we don’t,” she wrote.

Sydney science and medicine writer Jane McCredie said the diet “borders on ridiculous”[11] and that a thirst for quick fixes to complex problems “can lead us down some very silly paths”.

“The average life expectancy at birth in the Palaeolithic era has been estimated at 33 years, a statistic that doesn’t figure prominently in the (paleo) marketing hype,” Ms McCredie said.

“More realistically, the thing we might best learn from our Palaeolithic ancestors would be to stop searching for miracle diets, get off our backsides and spend more time staring at the horizon than at our screens.”

Earlier today, Evans took to Facebook to attack the Australian Medical Association who claimed his paleo diet was “putting his fans’ health at risk”.

The My Kitchen Rules judge took to national TV on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program to defend his controversial opinions on sunscreen, “bone broth” for babies, dairy and fluoride.

“Well well well. The AMA (Australian Medical Association) has once again tweeted that I am putting people’s lives at risk....WHY?” Evans wrote.

“Because I encourage the following which has shown numerous times to help improve peoples overall health including reversing type 2 diabetes and lowering some medications. Lets take a look at what they think is dangerous advice shall we....

“We promote an organic diet of small to moderate amounts of well sourced seafood and or meat from land animals, an abundance of colourful vegetables and fruit, (lower carb preferably as the majority of your intake) and good quality dietary fat as opposed to the criminal low fat movement. We also encourage breast milk as the number one food for babies (and) about respecting the sun and not getting burnt and choosing a non toxic sunscreen and making are to get adequate vitamin D exposure as so many people are lacking this.”

Evans said he couldn’t understand why the AMA would target him when it is the “role of the AMA be to help prevent illness and reduce medications through lifestyle changes?

“Is the AMA in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industries and are they in the business of helping people get healthy?”

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