I did Paleo for several years before magically fixing my Non-24 with keto. I’ve mostly maintained a paleo-ish outlook on nutrition. That recently c

Experimental Fat Loss

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2024-05-09 22:30:07

I did Paleo for several years before magically fixing my Non-24 with keto. I’ve mostly maintained a paleo-ish outlook on nutrition. That recently changed.

I never lost a pound doing paleo, even when I was doing CrossFit 5x a week along with it. It did help with acid reflux, so I guess I had that going for me.

After listening to an interview on the Mind and Matter podcast with an evolutionary geneticist recently, I realized that even the last remnants of my belief in Paleo as a useful heuristic are gone.

Obviously it never helped me lose weight, and it didn't in any of my friends who tried it. But I always thought that, while not sufficient, Paleo was a good "conservative baseline" of what to eat. I don't believe that any more.

Strong evolutionary pressure can produce very impressive genetic adaptations in 1,000 years or less. And we can absolutely lose the ability to process certain foods.

That means what Grok the Caveman ate isn't necessarily optimal for us, or even doable. Sure, it might work for some people - those whose food adaptation hasn't changed much since the paleolithic. But I now believe Paleo only works by accident, like a broken clock if you happen to be one of those with mostly hunter gatherer ancestry. Although, to be fair, if it works 1/3 of the time that’s better than a broken clock.