Clinical Trials on The Paleo Diet
In what will hopefully be the beginning of a turnaround in the nutrition world, there is currently a clinical trial comparing a Paleolithic Diet with a standard diabetes diet.
Fifteen patients with diabetes type 2 have been randomized to 1) a Palaeolithic diet based on lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables, eggs, and nuts, or 2) a standard diabetes diet as recommended by national health authorities. The patients eat the diet they have been randomized to for three months and then switches to the other diet for another three months. The study is conducted in Primary Health Care stations.
The study authors are testing for glucose, insulin, HbA1C, weight, and waist circumference at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Note that all of these patients have Type II Diabetes. There is also a test for satiation among others such as leptin, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin.
I posted awhile back about the Paleo Diet besting the Mediterranean Diet for patients with heart disease and glucose metabolism issues. I know where my money is. I’m betting on the Paleo Diet thumping the ADA Diet solidly. If Paleo is better than the Mediterranean Diet, which is pretty good compared to most people’s diet, the ADA Diet shouldn’t even stand a chance. The ADA’s reliance on grains and starches is too high for someone with glucose intolerance and the fear of fat will keep the dieters from overcoming their hunger.
Anyone that has followed a diet devoid of grains and packed with nourishing meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, and tubers will vouch that is a filling diet. I hesitate to say that it’s impossible to get fat from meat and greens, due to high satiation from the fat and protein in the meat and high bulk:calories ratio of non-starchy vegetables, but I will say that if you get fat on a Paleo Diet, you have done so with that purpose in mind and are likely eating far beyond a level of satisfaction. Most athletes following a Paleo Diet need to seriously crank up their fat intake to be able to get enough calories to support their activity levels, along with including quite a bit of higher carb fruits and starchy tubers.
I’ll be keeping my eyes on this trial. If and when the Paleo Diet prevails, I wonder what excuses we will see in the popular media. What will the Ornishes of the world concoct to try to discredit a diet high in fat and protein, high in vegetables, but low in overall carbs? I bet it won’t even appear in the popular press.
About Scott
Scott Kustes loves to cook and loves to eat. He started Real Food University to help you get maximum enjoyment out of the meals that you eat. To find out more about how he has rebelled against the fast food culture and counting calories or carbs, join the Real Food Revolution.
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Back in 1998, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The dietician gave me an ADA diet to follow and the Diabetes Nurse Educator taught me how to monitor my glucose values with a personal glucose meter. I got *worse* post meal glucose results on the *ADA diet* than I did on my customary way of eating. That’s what started me on low carb. The dietician and I worked together to find a diet that would give me acceptable glucose readings and it turned out to be low, low, low in carbs. No room for much fruit, even. High in non-starchy veggies, protein at every meal (and some snacks), and what seemed like high in fat at the time, but then again I had been so “prudent” about fat up until then.
The main difficulty I had back then was that I had to calculate everything as I cooked and ate. Recipes did not have carb calculations for the most part. I hated eating separate piles of food, instead of multi-ingredient one-dish dinners. But I realized that it was good for me, in fact I ate far better at the end of the pregnancy than I did up until the GDM diagnosis. I gained enough for the pregnancy, but not a lot of excess weight (I weighed 14 pounds more after the birth than my prepregnancy weight and all that plus a few more pounds were gone with six mos of breastfeeding).
But I went back to my breadmaking, and whole grain high carb ways before long, though I did have a healthy respect for reducing or eliminating empty carbs from my diet. But started to gain 5 pounds a year for no good reason and in 5 years was 20 pounds overweight. No change in several months of going to the YMCA to exercise, either. In January 2004 I stopped going to the gym and I went back to a low carb diet, which was much easier the 2nd time around because Dana Carpender’s cookbooks (& others) were on the scene. The weight came off so easily and my interest in cooking was reinvigorated (I had come to rely on Trader Joe’s convenience foods *too much*.
So my experience with the ADA diet was awful. And my experience with low carb has been great (in fact, it kept my fasting blood sugar so steady and even lower than before my pregancy, that my doctors never did follow up with another post partum GTT, so they never realized that I had a glucose metabolism problem all along (it probably wasn’t just during pregnancy). When I did insist on a GTT this year (9 yrs post pregancy) because out of curiosity I started testing with a meter again, my doctors were shocked to see how high my post-glucose results were. I was already treating the diabetes with a low carb diet, and my glucose only goes to diabetic high levels if I take the glucose tolerance test or eat high carb foods. The rest of the time it is in the 80-110 range.
Now, if I was a betting man…who am I kidding, I am a betting man…I would lay quite a bit that the Paleo diet thumps the %&*) out of the ADA (read Big Pharma/Agra) diet.
You had me for a second there. I thought you were actually thinking the study results would actually change something until I read the last paragraph. I would guess same reaction that happens when the results of every controlled clinical study of a LC diet on diabetes comes out.
“Anyone that has followed a diet devoid of grains and packed with nourishing meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, and tubers will vouch that is a filling diet.”
Alas, it was not, for me. But I have type 2 diabetes. I experience constant hunger, carbohydrate cravings, weight gain, and unstable blood sugars if I include fruits, tubers, or more than a very modest amount of nuts in my diet. However, a diet of meat, eggs, and controlled portions of non-starchy vegetables gives me normal sugars and prevents weight gain.
That some of us cannot handle fruit is not surprising when you consider that modern varieties have been bred for high sugar content, and bear little resemblance to “paleofruit.”
Jen, you’re right about fruit and tubers. They have been bred for flavor…our ancestors didn’t have 100 different types of apples to choose from and their carrots were quite likely not as sweet. Your experience with fruit and tubers is why I consider them to be carbs that are earned with very high intensity activity. I only include them on days that I have a glycogen-intensive workout, not on days that I do strength work. For people with diabetes, fruits, especially the higher sugar fruits, have to be watched. How about berries? Do those cause problems?
Cheers
Scott
Scott, berries are somewhat less problematic, but only in strictly controlled quantities. 1/4 to 1/3 cup is usually okay for me. On long summer hikes I sometimes come upon wild berries, and I’m struck by how tart and refreshing they are. I eat as many as I can pick while still on the move.
[...] Yippee for the Paleo Diet Posted in Uncategorized by righttosayno on October 24th, 2008 I’m reading more and more about the benefits of the Paleo diet. Here’s another article on another great blog. [...]
This one isn’t closed out – has the study actually been completed/published?
Best wishes
Bill
This study was completed back in September of 2007, however, the results have not been posted. Which one of these causes do you think is the reason why the results have not been posted?
No Study Results Posted:
When results are not available for a study, the results record tab is labeled, “No Study Results Posted.” Results may not be posted for any of the following reasons:
•The study may not be subject to the Federal results reporting requirements
•The study is completed, but the deadline for results reporting has not been reached
•The results have been submitted, but have not yet been posted (e.g., pending review by ClinicalTrials.gov)
•Submission of results information has been delayed with certification
•A request for extending the submission deadline has been submitted to NIH
I am interested in the results also but don’t know how to go about finding out which one of the above reasons is causing the results not to be posted.
Since the study completion date has been over 3 years now, I would think that the results should have been reviewed by and posted unless the results did not meet the reporting requirements (in which case, they should indicate the status of the reporting results in the tab).
Maybe Scott has more information on this study.