The excerpt below comes a few days after the NYT article was published and a registered dietitian commented on what she knew of the paleo diet...
"Long periods of fasting, little to no carbs, grueling workouts -- it doesn't sound like much fun, and more importantly, is it even healthy? Registered dietitian Elisa Zied, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and author of "Nutrition At Your Fingertips," isn't convinced. "I don't think loading up on high cholesterol meat is a healthful dietary strategy, nor do I support the idea of fasting, especially if it's routine and not medically supervised," she said. "It's never a good idea to overemphasize [protein], or any foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol." What's more, she said, "Avoiding whole grains and low fat dairy foods can make a person miss out on key nutrients including fiber and B vitamins.""
She later went on to say : "I don't think that making room for a meat-locker in a New York City apartment (or any city residence for that matter) is realistic, affordable, or even desirable for most people," referring to the NYT article. And so, we now have a host of people thinking primal eating is about keeping a creepy meat locker in your apartment.
What's our point? A lot of the time we feel we are fighting people to be "right" about nutrition. Most of those people come from the RD world, but the truth is, the real people we need to look at is ourselves and how we are representing the way we love to eat. The only way to make change is to lead by example.
Okay, so his "meat locker" looks just like the free-standing freezer unit my mom used to have to store extra food when she bought in bulk. Calling it a "meat locker" is just poor journalism (over-sensationalized). Oh, and the "cavemen" all look rather healthy (and attractive *rowr*) in their photos. That's enough to convince me!
ReplyDeleteYes. I had to point out to the people I work with that not all primal/paleo followers run around in the underbrush on all fours, or eat raw meat...I mean it is nice that our movement is getting some attention, but like Chef Runner says above, it is over sensationalized. This is not the next "fad" diet...
ReplyDeleteI enjoy hearing the fear in registered dietitian voice. I guess if people were starting to learn about food on their own they would not longer to pay a dietitian for their services.
ReplyDeleteI quickly learned not to feel I had to persuade anyone into paleo/ clean eating. The truth is in the pudding. The ideas we speak of are common sense yet most people struggle to understand that simplicity of our foods is key
I know we have no control over how a reported skews their info for entertainment value. We just wanted to make a point that more media coverage is going to be coming out about paleo and primal living and it's frustrating such a large media source like NYT can make it seem like some sort of comedic social experiement.
ReplyDeleteBut as they say, bad press is still press.
Thanks for the comments all!