PALEO DOES NOT CURE DISEASE
Paleo does not cure disease.
Now, before you go all ‘Cave Man Defensive’ on me, let me explain why. My name is Dr. Bryce Fleming, Chiropractor, author, father of two and co-director of Life Integrated. Australia’s first evolutionary corporate health company.
In private practice, during a presentation, dinner parties, parent-teacher meetings, pretty much any social gathering, I am always getting bombarded with questions such as ‘will paleo cure my diabetes’ or ‘what should I eat to fix my thyroid condition’. At first these sound like fairly legitimate questions especially when there are thousands of success stories floating around the net. The only problem is that it is not the food that does the ‘curing’, it is the human body! By supplying our ecosystem of cells (ie. our whole body) with the correct raw materials that it requires, you allow the body do the job it has always been designed to do – Heal. All living things work in this manner.
Let’s take a plant as an example. If a plant starts to wilt (a sign of ill health) what is the first thing you would do to help it? Give it some water or sunlight perhaps? Would it make sense to examine the plant, make a list of its symptoms (e.g. Wilt-taxia, brown-leaf-itis etc.), formulate a diagnosis then intervene with a treatment (probably a drug or surgery) to ‘cure’ the wilting? Of course not!
The reason this sounds so absurd is because it is! Innately you know that the plant is not designed to wilt and the only reason it has entered this less than optimal state is because it is missing out on something that it requires (e.g. water or sunlight) or it is being poisoned by something (e.g. pesticide, chemicals etc.)
I know, I know… humans are not plants, but the same principals apply to humans, fish, mice, monkeys ANY LIVING THING ON THE PLANET!
Enter Paleo… Our best attempt at matching nutrition to our genetic requirements. You start cutting out some bread, add a bit more natural fats, minimise dairy and wolla! Just like water to a wilting plant, things start to improve!
Maybe… and here-in lies the problem.
You could have three people with diabetes all switching to a Paleo diet. The first person overcomes the condition (woohoo!), the second person can control their sugar highs and lows better and the third person has no change at all.
This doesn’t mean that Paleo ‘didn’t work’ for the third person. Nor does it mean that paleo ‘cured’ the first person. What it DOES mean is that all three people are becoming healthier.
Judging your health on what symptoms you have is an allopathic or sickness focused model and doesn’t make a lot of sense when we talk about becoming healthier. It is impossible for you to be symptomatic or diseased (in this example Diabetic) if all your cells are functioning at 100%. The ONLY WAY to push your cells closer to 100% is to fulfil your genetic requirements. The correct FUEL, MOVEMENT, creating the correct ENVIRONMENT (both internal and external) and making sure all those things are integrated properly via a fully CONNECTED brain and nervous system (insert chiropractic care here).
Imagine you gave water to the wilting plant and it didn’t ‘cure’ the wilting because you left it in the shade or it was being poisoned by some pesticide, would you think ‘water doesn’t work’ or would you think without water, the plant will die!
According to our genetic requirements, eating a Paleo type diet is pushing you closer to cellular balance (homeostasis) and a healthy ‘ecosystem’ of cells. Eating a typical Australian high carb, low fat diet is pushing your cells away from balance, placing you into a state of stress and leading you closer towards disease.
The Paleo movement is not about treating symptoms, it is about matching lifestyle choices to your genetic requirements so you can enjoy a happy, productive and longer life.
Now go get yourself a steak! (Grass fed, organic of course!)