I recently posted about the remarkably inaccurate and inadequate paleo diet ranking by “nutrition experts” which was recently posted by US Health News. Please click here to read a rebuttal by the legitimate experts in the field of science and nutrition. This is a MUST read; please share this article, tweet it, slap it on FB and put it on your own blog if you have one. Let’s share what’s REALLY happening rather than what the other “experts” are claiming which is completely lacking in any and all scientific backing.
Sarah Fragoso
Sarah Fragoso is an international best selling author of 6 books, co-owner of the Chico, CA based gym JS Strength and Conditioning, and founder of the Everyday Paleo franchise. Sarah is the co-host of the popular Sarah and Dr. Brooke Show podcast and she also conducts workshops and retreats on the subjects of nutrition, lifestyle and fitness.
Her message is from the heart and she carries a genuine desire to help other families looking for guidance. These attributes have contributed to her successes and provide the drive to keep the discoveries coming.
love this post~
These people are just trying to prop up dead medicine and nutrition ideas, because politics and money (i.e., farm subsidies and the medical industrial complex) are at stake. When the marketing machine turns away from them and toward Paleo, and all the lies about cholesterol, chronic diseases, and whether or not we actually NEED health insurance are exposed, the end of our current Depression will hit…and so will the urgent need to corral everyone into Obamacare, and save Medicare/Social Security.
The current status quo on health and nutrition carries farmers, chemical companies, doctors, nurses, so-called “dieticians” and the weight loss industry, gyms and personal trainers, and all those home-delivery medical supply companies…all the assorted people who make money off us by misguiding our nutritional needs, then receiving their payoff when we have to turn to them for some sort of correction (pills, procedures, exercise machines, special food, etc.).
We Paleos are threatening their very existence. Besides, Consumer Reports did the original ranking, and everybody knows CR is a marketing whore–the more you pay to advertise in their magazine, the higher your ranking gets…making them unreliable at best. Clearly the loser diets like Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, etc., who have to advertise on TV with has-been celebrities and out-to-pasture athletes, have no compunction to shelling out even more to get their name splashed all over a diet survey.
We know the truth, and Paleo is the only diet that has actual science behind it. Some day, these people will learn about what they’re missing (like maybe in the hospital waiting room).
What’s going to happen to all those diabetics if suddenly there’s a world-wide insulin shortage, or the pacemaker wearers when the batteries stop being made (maybe the electricity goes out permanently), pill factories quit making pills, or the Jenny Craig factory gets hit by a bomb, or something much simpler: what if commodity prices never come back down to their pre-recession levels, and grains remain unaffordable? How are people going to fill that one corner of their government-sponsored plate (even the ones who shouldn’t be doing it at all)?
Food is medicine, and Paleo food is the best medicine. Screw the sugar junkies!! My husband calls it Darwinism in action.
Powerful words. I would however like to help the sugar junkies; unlike the true intentions of the big-agra/big-pharma folks who WANT to keep them on the sugar in order for them to stay dependent on all the stuff you listed in your comment which in turn is like you said, keeping them in business. I say screw THOSE folks and let’s keep working towards getting paleo mainstream to help the people who really need it. I know a few years ago I was headed down a destructive path to poor health and an untimely death until someone else cared enough to tell me about the benefits of eating paleo and my life changed forever. But of course I was willing to listen and really wanting to change, that has to be part of it also. So like you said about Darwinism in action, we can only do what we can do…
That article made me angry. It was clearly written by someone who didn’t take the time to read and understand what the Paleo diet is about, and the numerous medical studies that prove eating a Paleolithic diet will result in numerous health and quality of life benefits. It’s really frustrating that people take this information written by someone who doesn’t have a clear understanding of Paleo to heart, and because of this article might not ever try eating Paleo when it could literally save their lives.
I posted the rebuttal to my FB page, and will soon add it to my blog. Thanks for making people aware of the well written rebuttal by legitimate experts as you so aptly put it!
-Judi
Thanks for helping out Judi! It was very frustrating for me to read as well.
Consumer Reports does not print outside advertising, accept free product samples, or permit the commercial use of its reviews for selling products. Its publisher states that this policy allows the magazine to “maintain our independence and impartiality… [so that] CU has no agenda other than the interests of consumers.”[3]
Consumer Reports states that all tested products are purchased at retail prices by its staff, that no free samples are accepted from manufacturers, and that this avoids the possibility of bias from bribery or from being given “better than average” samples
As a dentist and as a chemistry major in college I understand the importance of basing conclusions on evidenced based studies. I am sure the author of the NewsWeek article did not look into the quality of the research of the articles he selected to make his assumptions about the paleo diet. It is important that people look at the journal articles and the references to ensure that the information gathered comes from reliable sources. I am much more willing to trust an article that references the Journal of American Medical Association than one that references Wikipedia.
I agree, obviously there was not a lot of well rounded research that was done prior to writing this article.
My favorite part is the survey that asks:
“has this diet worked for you?” Yes: 2034, No: 52
These numbers alone make the author(s) of this article look like the really don’t have a clue as to what is going on in the arena of health and nutrition and how it relates to an everyday diet.
Did anyone else notice on the ranking page where people could “vote” if the diet worked, only 2 diets had more “yes” votes then “no” votes, Weight Watchers and the Paleo Diet. The Paleo Diet had nearly 2 times as many yeses then Weight Watchers (probably because everyone and their mother has tried it at some point, and then tried it again). So, just based on that alone…this Paleo stuff really works. Not that I need anymore convincing…
my first response would be “what is the end result of these top tier diets?” sure some of these show good numbers when lab tested, but you can’t argue with the real world results of Paleo. easy to follow, shows progressive health benefits from beginner to experienced, and it’s an eating style that is longer term (easily maintained).
You can’t say the same for Adkins, WeightWatchers, DASH, and many others on their list. As usual, the government and mainstream media are largely out of touch with the real world.
It is interesting to note that on the question did this diet work for you? Paleo has more than 2000 people saying yes where the other diets top out at a couple hundred. It also has the least number of no it did not work comments. So how its in the #20 spot is already flawed with their own feedback.
Hello Sarah,
Thank you for a good blog and for great inspiration! I moved to America from Sweden about a year ago and as a way of getting to know ppl I started going to this CrossFit Gym. Of course Paleo is being talked abut and I got curious, last week I watched the movie Food Inc and yesterday I bought your cooking book, after reading the intro I really agree with you; knowledge is power! Never ever would I think it would be this easy to turn down crappy food. But now, knowing HOW bad it is for you I really dont want to eat it again. (I have only been eating paleo in a couple of weeks so I am sure I will hit a few bumps in the road).
One thing though, that I could not really wrap my head around, how come gluten is so bad? You write in you book that “some folks can eat gluten and be ok – this does not mean that the damage has not been done”. Can you explain to me what the damage is?
Thank you!