Evidence, How Important Is It? - PaleoHacks.com

Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T00:01:44Z

The Paleo diet is popular but does not as yet have the support of the medical community or various dietetics organisations. This means that individuals who are interested in obtaining more information or advice about it must pursue their own lines of investigation by reading books, blogs or braving online communities like PH. There's a lot of information out there, of various quality and utility.

How important is having evidence to support such information, for example, the benefit of a particular food or dietary guideline?

What type of evidence do you consider most important for your nutrition decisions?

Answer by nada for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T00:03:46Z

bacon .

Answer by Jade for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T00:16:07Z

The n = 1 type? Changes I have experienced and witnessed in my partner are evidence enough for me.

Answer by JayJay for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T00:36:39Z

In the end I'm a bottom line sorta fella. I go with what shows to work in a clinical sense.

Evidence based health care is informed by science (cumulative knowledge of studies and experiments), experience, and preference equally. So that is my answer here also.

Answer by CD for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T00:56:05Z

evidence is great -- but too often we have evidence without properly understanding the question or the methodology.

Take Ancil Keyes, how far back did he set nutritional science because of a flawed (I know I am being nice) methodology.

For me, the important thing is to ask the right question, construct a proper experiment, and then evaluate the evidence.

Sorry for the tangent, but to bring it back to point, that is one of the reasons I think the primal/ paleo diet worked for me. There were no answers, just lots of questions and conjecture. It made sense, but I had to figure it out for myself (with plenty of guidance from books/blogs/paleo hacks).

That is why it worked, I was able to definitively build the evidence for myself and not just accept the status quo.

Answer by PhysiqueRescue for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T01:19:07Z

Looking at the current trends in worldwide health, especially as it relates to obesity, it doesn't take a lot of mental muscle to realize that something is wrong with the current system and dietary guidelines. Realizing that a problem exists is the first step in attempting to solve it. As mentioned by other posters, the self experimentation yielded the most dramatic results that myself and others have had.

To take it a step further: I had an anecdotal discussion with my father about the current state of health and nutrition compared to the food choices he had growing up. A little background: This was a fairly isolated mining town in rural america that was self sufficient. Their food consisted of:

Their own grassfed meat
fresh fruits and vegetables from their gardens
raw dairy (used to make their own butter) they even still have the butter churn as a decorative piece in their home.
Organ meat typically liver and onions once a week.
Their own chickens
Deer and other wild game

Also add in the fact that they worked outside (Vit D.), followed their circadian rhythms (got up with the sun, went to bed at night). The only thing lacking from the diet was a multitude of fish as they didn't have access (landlocked state, fairly isolated location).

From talking, he couldn't remember any incidence of obesity or health problems arising from it. Even though everyone worked underground without respirators and smoked fairly heavily, except for black lung from the coal dust and smoking there weren't any health problems. I would even suggest that their diet helped them to survive longer than typical people would today in those conditions.

This conversation coupled with my own progress, observations, research, and common sense made me a believer.

Matt
PhysiqueRescue.com

Answer by jake3_14 for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T02:19:28Z

How important is having evidence to support such information, for example, the benefit of a particular food or dietary guideline?

Extremely.

What type of evidence is sufficient for you?

Basic biochemistry.

Evidence from large, well-designed clinical trials with run-in periods of at least 1 year, preferably repeated by 3 different research groups, with funding not attached to groups with an obvious agenda to influence the study results.

Answer by polynesian_metal for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T04:10:02Z

Try it and see if you like it and if it works for you your anecdotal and personal evidence should be enough... OR... Take a look at what is in peoples shopping baskets next time you go grocery shopping. If you have a belly like that person and a cart that resembles that person, maybe you ought to check out what's in my basket. Not to toot my own horn but I've seen real results in speed, weight loss and muscle tone going Paleo. Ran 10 miles, lost 30 pounds figured, what the hell, Giants in the Playoffs I'll have a (5) candy bar and some (whole bag) of chips. Giants win, I lose. Wake up 10lbs heavier and 2 minutes slower, so there's my evidence. Hate the feeling that I lost the gains so fast but the deal is it is a lifestyle and so is being a fat ass, if you like it, no worries, I like fat guys, but I'm not one and I don't perform my best like that.

Answer by borofergie for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T09:53:55Z

A complete lack of scientific evidence didn't stop the current consesnsus from being formed...

Answer by David Moss for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T10:06:04Z

Evidence is (by definition) the only thing that justifies belief in things.

No single type of evidence is better than other types of evidence- it's either evidence of a certain value or it isn't.

Answer by EnglishRose for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T12:27:42Z

Evidence would be important to people trying to convince a partner or doctor. Most UK doctors know that a balanced diet without junk foods is best for people. The only element many might argue over are things like dairy and bread which I regard as minor issues. Very few people who know much about health in the UK would suggest eating processed rather than unprocessed foods was good.

Answer by August for Evidence, How Important Is It?

2012-10-12T14:46:48Z

I lost over 100lbs and I've kept it off well past those statistically relevant two years. Penn and Teller had this show they called Bullshit on Showtime and they did an episode on diets. Their conclusion? Nobody actually loses weight permanently via diet and exercise.

I think, before paleo, this was true. Low carb will help you lose a lot of weight, but if you don't understand paleo concepts, you won't keep it off. It is amazing how those neolithic foods kept me addicted. I thought I was doing good back in the day with my peanut butter and whey protein shakes- I did lose weight, but I didn't know I was setting myself up for failure. Eventually my discipline wore down and I started eating more crap. Buying pizza, beer, and ice cream on Friday became a regular thing. It seemed like I could maintain while cheating on the weekends, but when I ran into stress, well, the SAD began to encroach on the whole week.

So, my own experience has to serve as my evidence, because there aren't enough people eating paleo to affect the statistics. Statistically, the fitness/diet industry is still pretty much a scam. It is a rough gig to try and start teaching truth in the midst of it, as Robb Wolf found out via his troubles with Crossfit HQ.