How Long Does It Take To See Improvement When Eating Real Foods?
Photo by Josh Bousel
I don’t think anyone really argues that consuming a diet comprised of real foods leads to exquisite health. Sure, we may dicker a bit about what’s real food and what’s not, but by and large, 90% of the recommendations are for unprocessed foods. So let’s take a look at a recent study showing the effects of short-term Paleo-style eating:
Conclusions:Even short-term consumption of a paleolithic type diet improves BP [blood pressure] and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans.
Now, this was a small study, only 9 individuals, all non-obese, sedentary, and healthy. But nonetheless all markers of health are showing statistically significant movement in the right direction.
Improving Health…
So what mechanisms are at work here? It’s pretty easy to see why glucose tolerance, insulin secretion, and insulin sensitivity are all improving. While I can’t find a breakdown of the macronutrients in the subjects’ diets, I’m going to assume that a move from a standard diet to a Paleo-style diet resulted in a) a lower carb intake and b) a higher quality carb intake. The carbohydrates in a Paleolithic diet are unprocessed and bring along a load of vitamins and minerals that processed grains cannot match. As Stephan at Whole Health Source has pointed out before, it’s not necessarily high carbs that promotes ill health, but the type of carbs, specifically wheat.
And lipid profiles, i.e., cholesterol? Well, those of us that don’t believe the Cholesterol Hypothesis understand that cholesterol is typically the body’s response to inflammation. If a diet or lifestyle change results in less inflammation, cholesterol should go down as there is less need for repair. And high circulating insulin and sugar are a perfect recipe for causing arterial inflammation and damage.
…In How Many Days?!?
Note that all of these improvements are already occurring only ten days after moving from the normal diet to the Paleo-style diet. That proves to me that amazing ability of the body to begin healing once it’s given the right building blocks. I’d love to see longer trials to look at long-term effects. But until then, this does add to the growing evidence that ditching the grains (or at least the improperly prepared ones) and the pasteurized/homogenized dairy in favor of meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts improves health.
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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[...] Original post by Health Spotlight [...]
That’s really much faster than I expected. Good news for those of us who are trying to eat better to feel better.
This study is so vague that you can’t really draw conclusions, you assumptions notwithstanding, as to what led to the improvements. The abstract states:
“The participants consumed their usual diet for 3 days, three ramp-up diets of increasing potassium and fiber for 7 days, then a paleolithic type diet comprising lean meat, fruits, vegetables and nuts, and excluding nonpaleolithic type foods, such as cereal grains, dairy or legumes, for 10 days.”
What was the ramp-up diet they were on for 7 days? Maybe that’s what improved their health.
What was the lean meant? Was it corn-fed cow or grass-fed cow or chicken or what?
I’m all for cutting grains, dairy and legumes from the diet, but not based on this study. I’d also like to know who paid for it.
too bad this world can’t provide a high protein diet for all inhabitants.
Joanne, Dr. Eades had a great writeup of this post as well here with details on the ramp up diets and all. Of course, you can’t draw definite conclusions from a study that is so short and small. However, you can see signs pointing the right way.
Cheers
Scott
I don’t think the study speaks so much as to how healthy the paleo diet is, but how unhealthy the SAD diet is.
I’m sure any diet, vegetarian, vegan, macrobiotic, raw food gourmet, 80/10/10, would show improvement over the SAD diet over this short period.
Oh, and thanks for the link.
I don’t think this is push for more protein (as you don’t need a real high % of protein in your diet)….or super low carb (as Scott hinted to)….just focusing on real whole foods of higher quality……and not eating all the processed crap. Macronutrient %s can vary much like many civilizations touted for health and longevity, but the end results can be the same when you are sticking to natural whole foods. Mainstream eating is a completely destructive menu nowadays…..nothing natural about it…..SAD is such a perfect name for it. Mainstream people need studies like this to help them get on the right track…even with such quick results, since so many are just looking for the quick answer anyways. Somehow I don’t think the study was funded by Coke or Kellogs.
If the SAD is unhealthy than the paleo diet must be atleast a little bit healthier if it produced results. It wasn’t even the best paleo diet because it included orange juice, carrot juice, canola oil etc. Who knows if the same results would have been achieved with other diets being compared to SAD.
The point is if you believe in the paleo diet this study does show that it is healthier and produces results in the short-term. I’m not concerned with how other diets like vegetarian or vegan would have compared because I don’t favour those diets.
Actually, this world can provide natural high protein to all inhabitants, if all of us could just accept the idea of eating insects, as is the nutritious cultural norm in many places. Personally, I wish that were something I could stand the thought of. It makes sense in every aspect, from nutrition, to sustainability. Too bad so many of us, including me, have a deeply ingrained revulsion for the very idea.
I have been a on/off good eater for the last 3 or so years. For 2 weeks I have been completely Paleo and eyeball Zone, with one cheat meal per week, and I feel better than ever already. I haven’t had blood work done, but I sleep better, I’m able to train harder and more consistently, I recover faster from my workouts (I am a CrossFitter), I have consistent energy, and feel better mentally and emotionally.
I would say results are noticeable at ten days.
I started at 140lbs and today I am nearly 130lbs. I’m only a week in.
cheers
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This wasn’t a paleo diet. They had vegetable oil and fruit juice, the two worst foods condemned on sites like this: sugar and polys. It was also a low saturated fat diet as the researchers thought that game would have been lean in paleo times. If you read what they ate on a daily basis you get a better idea of exactly what they were consuming. I wish this blog would go into more depth rather than just conveniently grabbing the facts on the surface making them sound entertaining. Science is more than that.
“The paleoloithic diet that the subjects ate for 10 days was made up of meat (chicken, pork, turkey), vegetables (e.g. lettuce, spinach, broccoli, salad, parsnips), fruit (pineapple, melon), honey and nuts (almonds). The diet emphasised lean meat (while the true paleolithic diet was unlikely to be particularly lean) also included foods that you can’t imagine our early ancestors eating (tomato soup, guacamole, carrot juice, mayonnaise), but the basic make-up of the diet was, overall, reflective of the foods we ate prior to the agricultural age.”
http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2009/03/09/paleolithic-diet-again-found-to-bring-rapid-benefits/
The fact that is wasn’t 100% Paleo and still got remarkable changes just shows the power of Paleo-like eating. It’s doesn’t have to be perfect to see positive results (although I would still not advocate juice and PUFAs for cooking for other health issues)
If you want the full menu, it’s seen here:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/table-2-blog.jpg
>>The fact that is wasn’t 100% Paleo and still got remarkable changes just shows the power of Paleo-like eating.<<
Don’t you think these positive changes would probably have also occurred on vegan, raw food, fruitarian, macrobiotic, any number of nonpaleo-type diets that reduced processed foods and provided a nutrient profile different than that formerly consumed?
If one substitutes fake foods with mainly “whole/real foods”, then one is surely to get some benefit.