Last week, the quarterly article I write for the Training Peaks Blog spurred some commentary, as the topic of Paleo often does.
The first was from a scientist who, being said scientist, wanted more hard evidence that, specifically, there is indeed proof that even when one does not suffer from Celiac Disease, they are still harming their GI tract by ingesting gluten.
There is also a comment (cut and pasted verbatim from the post, without having corrected spelling/grammar errors) from a gentleman who feels that what I wrote was “…an irresponsible post and the owners of Training Peaks, who by posting it implicitly endorse it, should exercise more caution.” He goes on to add, “Our daughter has a serious case of Crohns disease. For those who are unfamiliar with the disease it is an autoimmune disease in the colon. She sees among the top specialists in the world who treat her. By inference in the blog post above if the foods listed caused the issues discussed, including micro tears and inflammation, my daughter’s doctors would be aggressively telling her not to eat them. Yet, they say nothing of the course. The allegations made above against certain food types are being made by someone uncertified to make such claims and have no place in a forum such as this.”
To which I replied that his statement saddens me because if, solely due to your doctors not having suggested you eliminate the foods that are not part of the Paleo diet (grains, legumes and dairy), you have not, it does not mean they are safe to eat or healthy to eat, for anyone.
Click the link above to read the rest of the dialogue in its entirety, but you see where I’m going with this.
When I make statements about the health benefits of following the Paleo diet, these are, indeed, factual, both from an observational as well as experimental perspective.
I do not tout the benefits of the Paleo diet for any ulterior motive or for any other reason than the simple desire to want to help people get healthy!
I wrote about this the other day, but felt there was still more to discuss.
Why are people so bothered? If someone opts to follow the Paleo diet and someone else chooses otherwise, why would the first person’s choice ruffle the feathers of the second person so greatly, unless the second person felt that for some reason, they were personally going to be affected by it?
I simply don’t understand the defensive approach as the go-to methodology in making an inquiry.
Sure, there are going to be those who read something I wrote that suggests endurance athletes don’t need pasta the night before a race and think that sounds odd as it’s so contrary to what we, in the endurance community, are led to believe we need to prepare our bodies for the long haul. But why wouldn’t that person simply write in and ask for some more information, rather than making a comment (also uncorrected, again) like, “…statement like those better have some good backing, otherwise the credibility of the whole thing goes down.”
Comments such as the last one convey the antithesis of open-mindedness in my book.
If I’m asked a question for which I don’t have an answer for, I have no problem saying so, and then doing whatever research I need to do in order to learn something which will not only allow me to reply to the question, but continue to educate myself .
Further, if I know that I’ve got valid information about something that I’m presenting and someone doesn’t agree with me, and claims they have information to prove something else, I’d be curious to see their reference and yet again, learn something new.
I’m not remotely inclined to use a hard sell on someone or attempt to force my beliefs upon them.
Yes, there are things that make me angry that I feel compelled to say or write something about, such as the idea that Medicare will soon begin to pay for some extreme, for-profit, MD run weight loss clinics while they aren’t paying for the care of others under duress and advanced illness. But that’s something that is affecting many people negatively.
How and why would Paleo be seen in that light?
Let it go! Either give it a try and see for yourself, or leave it alone. It does no harm to anyone and promotes nothing other than what should be common sense: (here is is again…)
Eat food.
Don’t eat things that are not food.
Move.
That’s it.
Love your post today. Stay motivated in helping people reach their optimal health through Paleo. It all makes sense to me and when I switched from a heavy grain dependant endurance athlete to a Paleo/Primal athlete, the benefits really were night and day.
Take care,
Billy
Thanks, Billy! I am definitely never lacking in motivation to continue to teach Paleo, you can rest assured of that!
An open internet forum brings out the real nutbars. Seriously. Not saying that every person who has a different point of view is a nutbar…just an observation that nutbars ATTACK! Haha.
I am so grateful to you and your blog. I stumbled across your site almost a year ago and there is no way I will ever go back to eating bread and pasta and dairy. (Ok, like I’ve said before, I am not 100% Paleo, but pretty close). I don’t have Celiac disease either or Crohn’s or anything for that matter.
What I do know, is that my body responds well to Paleo. If I do eat some bread for example, its not too long after that I am tooting away and stinking up my house. And the first thing my boyfriend will ask is, “What did you eat?”
My body has leaned down (ON ITS OWN!!), I don’t have cravings for sugar/junk food, my skin is awesome, and I have the energy to train for iron-distance races like you.
Thank you for your blog and all your information. Information is power. Haters gonna hate.
Love this, Julie! Thank you for sharing. It’s really not that hard, is it? Eat one thing, feel crappy and don’t eat it again. Eat something else, feel great and choose to eat that again. How hard is that?
I had all the test done and they found nothing wrong with me so they just said I had IBS (which we all know is just another term for we don’t know what is wrong with you) and recommended some pills to deal with the different problems. So my body should be fine with gluten, dairy etc, but I know from experience that eating those things wreck havoc on me. When I indulge in something like ice cream or bread I will feel so bad the next day: Can be certain my knees will be sore after my run, they will sound like an old man when I walk on stairs, I will get a small bout of acne, and I will look like I am 4 months pregnant. So yeah do what you feel is best for your body not what everyone else say you should do.
This is so well put, Lonnie; thank you for sharing this! I agree with what you wrote completely.
Hi Nell,
I have suffered with colitis since I was 14. I have been to every doctor in this big city of New York. Four years ago I went to see an integrative doctor who put me on the SCD diet. It changed my life. It took nine months to really kick in and I have not had any symptoms since. The last two years I have been Paleo. I am now 49 and have never felt better. Diet plays a major role with these issues. So to that dad… Look further. Western medicine is not the end all.
Alana
I am sorry to hear how you suffered for so long but glad you found your way to a diet that best supports you! I have a client whose young daughter has a colostomy bag due to her colitis that was never addressed with diet and now it’s too late as she already has had surgery and has an artificial colon. Such a shame…
Hi Nell, I am so glad that you are doing what you do best! Paleo info is really starting to get out into the mainstream, and it will no doubt ruffle the feathers of quite a few! But stick to your positive attitude and the factual info about paleo, and as more people switch to paleo, the results will tell the story! You go girl!
Thanks, Audrey! Don’t worry, I have no intention of stepping down from my Paleo mission any time soon! Ruffling feathers… who cares! The more, the better! It’ll get people talking!
I blog about this at least once a month. For some reason paleo pisses more people off than any other diet. I think it’s the sense that when we tell people that many of the things they’ve been told by doctors and the government is actually bad for you they get angry rather than inquisitive. It’s beyond their understanding that a doctor might actually want to keep you sick, so they could actually keep getting paid. No doctor ever got rich by treating healthy people. The food and pharmaceutical lobbyists work hand in hand to keep the public ignorant, and the masses are happy to stay that way, and get angry if you make them work for their health!
Have you seen the latest reply to my Training Peaks article?
“Doctors are never wrong. Even the top specialist in the world are never wrong. I think we should give up educating ourselves and just only do what doctors tell us. How can Nell be right versus a doctor? Seriously Nell needs to stop making claims like this because she has to be a doctor to do so. Doctors know more than anyone and thats why we trust them.”
Not sure what to say. Can’t tell if this person is being facetious or not!
Absolutely! If someone chooses to eat a certain way, that’s their right to do so! However, I can’t be a hypocrite and say that I no have a problem with someone on a vegan diet, but i would be open to their choice and openly discuss it with them, instead of approaching them angrily with it
Agreed! What on earth would getting angry do?
Hi Nell. I do find it interesting that the Paleo Diet pushes a lot of buttons for people, and not in a good way. I don’t even bother trying to explain my eating habits or call it Paleo. I eat what I eat, and if anyone asks, I just say that I’m eating more cleanly and for me that means real food. I’ll admit that one of the challenges for me when I read blog posts and the like is when people refer to not-paleo approved food as “junk” or “crap.” I believe the negative rhetoric puts people on the defensive. I cringe when I read the judgemental language. I realize these remarks aren’t directly related to your TP post, but I thought I’d add my 2 cents about what I think adds to the controversy.
Your points are well taken. I’m definitely guilty of referring to nonPaleo foods as both junk and crap, but, depending on who my audience is, I can cater what I’m saying to most effectively get the Paleo message across.
I think people who get so worked up (e.g. the man whose daughter has Crohn’s) may subconsciously worry that the advice they are getting from traditional MDs is wrong, yet they feel they must continue down that path because those people are “experts.” That dissonance shows itself as anger reflected at anyone & everyone who questions their actions. So sad to think of what may happen when someone is not willing to try something different. Look at Robb Wolf’s personal story for how close he came to losing part of his bowel before he changed his eating habits. All you can do is present factual information and let people come to their own conclusions. Thanks for doing what you do!
I agree; it’s extremely unfortunate when you learn of situations where one could be so helped by changing their diet but won’t give it a try due to what must be some sort of fear-based distrust? Who knows…such a shame!
Maybe I read your meaning wrong, but I’d say: Nell, puleez. Cowgirl up. People like those attacking you have been and will be around forever.
Galileo was attacked. Bruno, for advocating a heliocentric universe, was burned at the stake. John Locke had to publish his Treatises on Government under a pseudonym lest he be charged with treason, for supporting individual rights over religious monarchy, and murdered. The doctor who advocated washing hands — Ignaz Semmelweis — was ridiculed and almost driven crazy. James Clerk Maxwell, for advocating causality in physics when physicists, under the influence of Kant and Plato, were trying to drive physics into the land of make-believe, was attacked; he ended up depressed and he committed suicide.
Your attackers don’t deserve the weight you seem to give them.
And you don’t deserve spending time worrying: you deserve better, you deserve a better life and more time spent being happy and enjoying life.
Cowgirl up. Be confident in your ideas when they are right, and stick to them. Then enjoy life as you deserve.
Thanks for your comment, Michael! I certainly never intended to come off as thought I’m feeling attacked; rather this post was just a commentary on how closed minded people can be.
I’m actually not remotely worried as you suggest; rather, I’m quite happy to continue to teach Paleo whenever and wherever I can!
I read your blog via Diana Hsieh’s Paleo Rodeo weekly list of sites of interest. It’s good to have a way to find articles without having to use Google!
At 68, I’m not interested in training for competition, but want to feel good, and help any who will listen to what I say about Paleo vs. other eating systems. (‘Eating systems’ sounds so artificial, but the actual term for the things we eat is ‘diet’ and that has been co-opted, as we know.)
As I read this week’s comments, I was thinking about intolerance from others as it has occurred in many fields other than diets. Michael’s post from Friday proved to me that I am not the only one seeing the analogy. Michael cites examples that I was unaware of, and others of which I had only basic knowledge.
We need only to follow the system in our own ways. No two of us will see Paleo in exactly the same way, and there is little to gain from getting on a soapbox and trying to demand everyone change. If we get converts by example, that is, friends and family who see our results and try it for themselves, that is all we can reasonably expect. In reality, I don’t think the planet would be able to support the current population of humans if we all ate Paleo!