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Comment by cromulent | Hacker News Reader

The people that I know that are on the Paleo diet have lost weight and feel healthier. I am skeptical about the rationale behind the Paleo diet and attribute most of the benefits to them paying attention to their food intake and general health (and eschewing junk food) rather than the theory. The outcome is the important thing.

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It's the same argument for vegetarians/vegans as well. When you have an unlimited supply of food (and variety of foods), you can eat without thinking, and eating without thinking leads to poor food choices. When you specifically and consciously limit that variety, you have to become much more creative and active in how to enjoy the foods you eat while staying vegan/paleo/whatever. The problem is that the people following these diets attribute it to the diet itself, when in actuality it's the methodology of food selection from a subset of healthier foods that was the real attributor to their success.

I'm not convinced. Vegans have to be mindful of what kind of vegan food that they eat in order to get enough proteins, and perhaps also B12. This is something that is usually easily/trivially satisfied by a regular omnivore diet.

So it's not just a question of eating varied vegan food as a side-effect of not getting bored with it, but getting enough vegan food that has proteins in it.

Does paleo suffer the same deficiency, i.e. is it simple to be lacking in some specific substances that are pretty vital when following a paleo diet?

I have followed a vegan whole foods diet for over more than 2 years (and lost 50 lbs of fat). Protein is the least of my problems on such a diet. When you eat enough calories from whole plant foods (whole grains, legumes, vegetables), you get plenty of protein. When your calories consist of vegetable oils, sodas and white flour products, that's where you might get into trouble.

I think a vegan would intentionally need to try to avoid protein, or a specific amino acid, to run into any issues (or be uneducated about basic nutrition, in which case any diet could be dangerous).

B12 is a different issue. I cheat and eat Corn Flakes and plain Cheerios with various types of fortified "milks".

> I think a vegan would intentionally need to try to avoid protein, or a specific amino acid, to run into any issues

It's certainly possible for a vegan to miss certain amino acids, but it's not as hard as it's made out to be to get them all.

You're focusing on one macro nutrient. Paleo followers are mindful of what kind of carbohydrates they eat to the point where they will argue to the teeth as to why legumes are somehow not a good form carbohydrate and protein (while vegans would argue the opposite). They also focus on animal fats as a primary source of fat over vegetable oils (olive, coconut, etc), again the opposite of what vegans choose for their fat intake.

Deficiencies exist in all diets (as they are, by nature, restrictive), the problem is that the extent of these deficiencies is blown way out of proportion. It is very hard to be truly deficient in a vitamin/mineral/amino acid in the privileged western world, but there are a few diets which do mess this up, and vegan is one of them, particularly iron for women.

Fiber?

It's ketosis that causes the weight loss (Liver producing ketons that break down fat cells). And it's been around for a while (i.e since Atkins days).

When you cut out processed foods, and grains, you are left only with pretty much only healthy foods, so it's no wonder they feel better. But that isn't the same as saying all grains and processed foods are bad for you.

Yes and no. Most mainstream paleo isn't low carb enough to keep you in ketosis. Sisson's Primal Blueprint is probably the closest to advocating for keto. In reality the mechanism for weight loss is most likely increased satiety from higher P&F intake vs Carb intake (without dropping below ~50g C/day for keto).

Maybe I've confused paleo with primal. But on paleo given you can't have grains. What is the majority of carb intake?

Fruits and vegetables. Starchy roots are heavy on the carbs, and so are apples and strawberries. Primal allows dairy if you're not intolerant, and milk has lactose (a sugar).

Root vegetables mostly. But the whole paleo community is just all over the place.

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