Primitive Nutrition Critique of Paleo Diet Conceptual Framework, Part 2

Paleo diet proponents promote their viewpoint as a scientific revolution akin to the Copernican revolution.
 

In his contribution to The Protein Debate , Loren Cordain claims that “The study of human nutrition remains an immature science because it lacks a universally acknowledged unifying paradigm." Apparently he thinks other sciences are "mature," i.e. virtually completed, which would be news to physicists, astrophysicists, chemists, and biologists, most of whom know that we have only scratched the surface of the world we study.

He goes on to claim that “nothing in nutrition seems to make sense because most nutritionists have little or no formal training in evolutionary theory, much less human evolution. Nutritionists face the same problem as anyone who is not using an evolutionary model to evaluate biology: fragmented information and no coherent way to interpret the data.”

I don’t know why he thinks nothing in nutrition seems to make sense.  Does he really think that if you open a textbook of nutrition, nothing in that book makes sense?  Are those chapters telling us about the scientifically established nutrient requirements of humans just gibberish to him?

Perhaps he thinks this because there seems to be a general scientific consensus that we can improve our health prospects by reducing animal food consumption, but he prefers to eat a lot of meat.  The American Heart Association, the American Institute for Cancer Research, and numerous other scientific medical organizations recommend eating more plant-based diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, while reducing intake of animal products. Naturally, for someone who fervently believes in a low carbohydrate, high meat diet, the recommendations of the American Heart Association and the American Institute for Cancer Research don’t make sense.

 

Cordain sees his mission as providing a “universally acknowledged unifying paradigm”  through his paleo diet hypothesis.   According to him, we can ‘make sense’ of all the ‘confusing’ information he sees “By carefully examining the ancient environment under which our genome arose.”  Here's a snapshot of his claim in The Protein Debate: 

Certainly, nothing can be easier to do than examine the ancient environment under which our genome arose. We'll just get into our handy time machine that will take us back 200 million years to the emergence of the first mammals (a large part of the human genome emerged that long ago; we are a variation on a biological theme, not a totally unique entity) so we can “carefully examine” that environment first hand, rather than examine imaginary reconstructions offered by various creative minds.   

Similarly Rob Wolf refers to non-believers in the paleo diet paradigm as similar to members of the “flat-earth society,” implying that paleo believers are akin to Copernicus, while non-believers are akin to those who still believe that the earth is ‘flat.’

Paleo advocates also claim to be bucking ‘conventional wisdom,’ again implying that they have the advance take on diet and everyone else is in the dark ages believing in the nutritional equivalent of a ‘flat earth.’

So let’s see, which of these two statements is more aligned with ‘conventional wisdom’ and which is more ‘revolutionary’ in the context of historical and recent beliefs about human nutrition, biology, and medicine?

Loren Cordain’s Paleo Belief:  Humans must eat meat to obtain adequate protein and other nutrients, to build muscle mass and excel athletically, to maintain intelligence, and to maintain health.  People can reverse disease by eating more animal products and less plant foods.

T. Colin Campbell’s Vegan Belief: Humans do not need to eat any animal products to obtain adequate protein and other nutrients, to build muscle mass, to excel athletically, to maintain intelligence, or to maintain health.  We can reverse diseases by eating more plant foods and avoiding animal foods.

Given that approximately 98 percent of people in the U.S.A. eats meat on a daily basis, and many (including many paleo diet adherents) will immediately ask a vegan advocate “But where do you get your protein?”  I submit that the paleo diet belief is far from revolutionary, indeed I might consider it reactionary. 

Let me put it this way.  At this present time, very few people accept the idea that a vegan diet can adequately provide protein and general nutrition to the average human, which explains why very few people eat vegan diets.   Most people ‘believe’ that we need to eat meat, the way that, at the time of Copernicus, most people believed in a flat earth at the center of the sun’s orbit. 

This belief in the importance of meat to human nutrition has a long history.  I know of no time in Euro-American history when Campbell’s vegan belief was as widely accepted as the belief in a geocentric universe was at the time of Copernicus. On the contrary, the vegetarian perspective has been accepted by only a minority of people, mostly philosophers (e.g. Plato, Pythagorus) and medical doctors (e.g. Christoph Hufeland), throughout the history of Western civilization since the time of the Greeks.

In fact, T. Colin Campbell himself was initially indoctrinated to believe in meat and animal protein as critical to human health.  It was only through research that he came to reject this widely accepted belief.  That makes him more like Copernicus, challenging the widely held assumptions of his generation, whereas Cordain is simply agreeing with the long widely held belief that we have to eat meat to be healthy, smart, strong, and human.

Further, the idea that a vegan diet can reverse degenerative diseases contradicts the long-held belief of Western medical scientists that diet alone is inadequate for treatment of disease.  The orthodoxy believes in eating meat and using drugs and surgery to treat disease.  The revolutionary believes in avoiding meat and using a vegan diet as the primary tool in treatment of disease.

It seems to me that Cordain's paleo diet view aligns more with conventional wisdom and has more in common with the 'flat earth society,' and Campbell's vegan view bucks conventional wisdom and has more in common with Copernicus.

That’s my introduction to these two videos from PrimitiveNutrition which explore in greater depth the poor reasoning behind the paleo 'paradigm' starting with the fallacious appeal to nature (i.e. Eating meat is natural, therefore eating meat is optimal) which itself is based on a short-range view of 'natural' behaviors and their consequences (homicide is also natural, but if we all acted homicidal, we would be suicidal).

Primitive Nutrition Critique of Paleo Diet Part 1

 A much needed critical look at the fundamentals of paleo diet logic as offered by its leading proponents.  I truly wish I had had the acumen to have done this degree of critical thinking before I got involved in, let alone invested in, paleo dieting. 

Arrow Leaf Balsam Root Through the Seasons: A monograph

Art by Lauren Raine

I know it's cliche to mention, but I swear time is swirling by faster and faster these days. I've already been snowshoeing for weeks and each time I strap on my mittens and coat I can still barely believe it. 


That's also how I felt when Kiva announced the first anniversary issue of the Plant Healer Magazine is released! Has it really been a year since this revolutionary magazine was first released? 


And I am not just being overly superlative. This magazine, in it's short year of existence, has revolutionized herbal medicine. No other publication like it has ever existed in the history of herbal medicine. 


The Plant Healer Magazine is a quarterly pdf publication that publishes a wide variety of articles from contemporary herbalists. What I love most about the magazine is the fresh perspectives from such a wide range of herbalists. It's almost like a temperature gage of what is going on NOW in the herbal world. 


From medicine making to botany to wildcrafting to midwifery to plant monographs to clinical skills to poetic ramblings about plants this magazine provides hours and hours of learning. 


The latest anniversary issue is 265 pages! Yes, that is crazy and no, they probably won't do that again. I am really excited to curl up next to the fire this winter and read article after article from many of my favorite herbalists!


To celebrate the anniversary issue, the editors of the magazine, Kiva Rose and Jesse Wolf Hardin are offering some incredible bonuses along with the regular price of subscribing. One bonus is a significant discount to attend the Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference next September! 


To learn more about subscribing and all the bonuses click on the banner below.  







A year ago I published my first article in the Plant Healer Magazine on a plant that is certainly the emblem for our valley: Arrow Leaf Balsam Root (Balsamorhiza sagittata). 


In celebration of the anniversary issue, here is the full article.

Balsam Root through the Seasons

I live in the Methow Valley in the northeastern cascades of Washington State. The valley is just over 50 miles long and is located a couple hours (as the crow flies) from the Canadian border and 4 hours from the Pacific Ocean. 

The valley boasts of large tracts of wilderness and a variety of ecological niches, from the sagebrush steppe to riparian rivers, to evergreen forests to alpine peaks. 

Each season in the Methow is distinct with intense variations in temperature and plant life. In May, the otherwise drab hillsides of the sagebrush steppe burst alive with a diversity of wildflowers, the most prominent being the flower of the valley, Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagitatta). 

This wild flower of the Asteraceae family covers hillsides from April to June, peaking in the middle of May. Besides being a visual delight, this plant has played an important role in the ecology of the Methow for thousands of years. Dense roots run deep into the rocky soils, preventing erosion; large leaves provide habitat to many scurrying animals and the leaves, flowers and seeds provide an important food source to mammals as small as field mice, to ungulates to humans. The resinous roots have been an important medicine for humans for countless eons. 

This plant grows all over western North America. The USDA range map shows it growing as far east as the Dakotas, as far south as the US/Mexican border and throughout western Canada as well. 

Spring

As the snows are receding in the valley, balsam root offers its first gifts of the growing season. Locating last year’s foliage, smashed flat by the heavy snow, we can find the beginning sprouts of this year’s growth. These sprouts are best eaten when they are about an inch in length. As some of the first fresh food to appear, these sprouts are a welcome sign of the turning of the seasons. 

We harvest these sprouts by taking only one or two from each plant we walk by to ensure plenty of new growth for the plant. We’ve eaten them raw or cooked them in stir-fries and soups and we mostly prefer them raw, eating them one by one as we harvest from large stands. The sprouts have a strong resinous taste that is mildly pungent and overall pleasant. 

We’ve read ethnobotanical reports of the roots from very young plants being eaten. We’ve tried this multiple times, harvesting very small roots - about the diameter of a pencil - and cooking them for extended periods of time, but have yet to yield anything other than a hard woody root that is not edible. 

As the spring continues on, the sprouts grow into leaves and flower stalks, both of which can be peeled and eaten, again taking precautions not to over harvest from one plant. 

In late April the hillsides are turning green, the first flowers are beginning to emerge and the anticipation of yellow hillsides fills the community. Talk at the farmer’s market centers around whether this will be a good flower year or not. Tourists ask, what are those wild sunflowers on the hills?

The leaves are large and arrow shaped, hence the common name. Ethnobotanical reports indicate these large leaves were poulticed and used on burns and wounds. 

Recently, someone commented to me that this flower grows like a weed, but I was quick to interject. Although it’s very common in our valley, arrowleaf balsamroot plants take many many years to mature and are difficult to transplant. When we harvest this plant we harvest with respect for each plant, understanding the abundance of this plant is a gift of the valley. 

Summer 

The last of the flower show is fading by mid June, and July and August will bring the next gifts of this sunflower plant, seeds! 

We’ve experimented harvesting the seeds in a couple different ways over the past years. There is a small window of time to optimally harvest the seeds. We like to collect the seed heads when the seeds are visually mature but the head is still somewhat tight. Mature seeds are black instead of a dark green color. If we wait too long to harvest the seeds then many have already been eaten or have fallen to the ground. 

We harvest the whole seed head and then lay them out on a sheet in the sun. As the seed head dries, the mature seeds will fall from the seed head and onto the sheet. The seed heads can be further shaken to loosen a few stubborn seeds, but not overly so. 

One year my husband did his best to get every single seed from the seed head. He diligently split open the seed heads in his quest for thoroughness. He discovered this is not the way to go about it. Besides getting a few stubborn mature seeds, this method will also remove any seeds that are not mature and. worse, will also loosen irritating hairs that will then have to be painstakingly removed from the seeds. 

It’s far better to only take what gingerly falls from the seed heads and leave the rest to go back to the earth. We find that in a couple of hours one person can gather about a quart of seeds. I do not know the exact nutritional value of the seeds but I assume that, like most seeds, they are high in proteins and oils, making them a good source of food. 

The seeds are quite small. Shelling these is not an energy efficient way to spend your time and the shell is hard enough to be annoying to eat. We’ve tried milling the whole seeds by grinding them with a mortar and pestle but the seeds go rancid amazingly fast. Roasting them does not soften the shell quite enough to make them pleasant to eat. 

The best way we’ve found to eat them is by putting them in our stew pot and simmering them for several hours. 

Seed heads are an important food source for birds, rodents and deer so we consciously harvest these from a large area and leave plenty for the wildlife.  

By mid-August the arrowleaf balsamroot is a brown shell of its spring glory. The once green leaves are brown and crinkled and only a few dried out seeds heads stand where hundreds of yellow flowers shone just months before. But, as herbalists, we know the plant is still pulsating and alive beneath the soil surface. 

Autumn

The root is the main part used as medicine. Herbalist Michael Moore describes arrowleaf balsamroot as a cross between echinacea and osha. I can’t personally attest to arrowleaf balsamroot being an immunomodulator but it certainly has an affinity for the respiratory system. 

Like many resins the root is decidedly pungent in taste. A small taste of the root and I feel the warming and drying qualities as the energy goes to my lungs, creating the need to clear my throat or cough. Oftentimes taking a few drops of the tincture creates a reflex of taking a large breath. 

I recently was teaching a class to a group of students, many of whom had a cold. Passing around the tincture of arrowleaf balsamroot, students with congestion in their lungs reported feeling expectoration from their lungs and students with head colds felt stuck mucous in their sinuses start to release.

I prefer to use arrowleaf balsamroot as a fresh root tincture in 95% alcohol. I often combine this tincture with elderberry, osha and honey. 

Arrowleaf balsamroot is a stimulating expectorant, stimulating diaphoretic, and an antimicrobial suitable for sore throats. 

I’ve received the best results when using it as a simple for productive coughs that last beyond other symptoms of the original cold or flu. 

For sore throats I like to mix 10 - 20 drops of the tincture with a spoonful of honey that is then swallowed. I often combine it with a tincture of cottonwood buds.  

I have yet to use arrowleaf balsamroot for a UTI, but Michael Moore describes arrowleaf balsamroot as an disinfecting diuretic. Darcy Williamson reports that taken in too large of a dose it will create kidney irritation. 

For external use it infuses into oil very nicely; because of the resins I use heat to extract the root. This warming aromatic oil relieves pain brought on by blood stagnation such as sore shoulder muscles or tension associated with coldness. Used as a liniment it also lends itself well to sore muscles and can also be used to disinfect wounds or kill fungi living on the skin. 

Although lacking experience with this myself I’ve seen ethnobotanical records indicating that arrowleaf balsamroot is useful for gastrointestinal complaints and toothaches. 

I only need one small root a year to make enough tincture and oil for myself and clients. Heading out into the brown forest outside of my cabin I look for plants with a modest amount of foliage indicating the size of the root. 

Large plants can be several decades old and boast a large gnarly root. These large roots can easily be 5-8 feet deep into the earth. Harvesting arrowleaf balsamroot is no easy task, so I am content with my smaller sized roots and leave the mature plants to grow. 

Besides searching for the right size I also look for plants on flat ground. Those plants on steep hillsides are doing an important job of keeping the hillside in place. Lastly, I harvest from a well-developed stand. 

Traditional style digging tool made from ocean spray and douglas fir. 

I use a traditional digging tool for my root harvests. I find sticks are often easier to use as a harvest tool than shovels since shovels can easily slice roots and can often get caught on the plethora of rocks hiding in the soil where arrowleaf balsamroots live. Patience and time rewards me with a taproot the size of a large carrot. A hard outer bark envelopes a woody root in the center. I break apart the outer bark with a hammer, mince the inner bark and tincture them both. The resins from the root cover the cutting board, knife and hands. Alcohol works well to clean them off. 

Winter

In the north, winter is a time for animals and plants to rest. In our valley the ground is covered with many feet of snow blanketing all the plants beneath the soil. Arrowleaf balsamroot rests in its roots, waiting until spring to bring forth its many gifts once more. 

Above ground we nestle next to the wood stove and give our thanks for the medicine of arrowleaf balsamroot.

Plant Specifics

Common Name: Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Scientific Name: Balsamorhiza sagittata

Family: Asteraceae

Description: Perennial growing throughout western north America as far east as the Dakotas, as far south as California and throughout western Canada as well. It grows in a variety of habitats, including forested mountains to the sage brush steppe. 

The taproot is covered in a hard bark and is fairly resinous. Depending on the growing habits and age of the plant, the root can reach several meters into the ground and weigh over 30 pounds. 

The leaves can be fairly large, around 20 inches in length and are arrow shaped or triangular. 

The flower looks like a sunflower with yellow ray flowers. The entire flower head is about the size of a small fist. 

The seeds are the size of a grain of rice and are darkly colored ranging from green to brown to black depending on the maturity. 

Properties: Pungent, warm/dry, stimulating expectorant, stimulating diaphoretic, anti-microbial, anti-fungal

Strong affinity for the respiratory system. 

Digging a well when you're thirsty...

Photo by Ananda Wilson

Curing a disease once someone is already ill is like digging a well when you are thirsty.

- Chinese saying

The poignant quote above illustrates our common cultural disillusionment with health. Many of us are only motivated to change our daily habits once illness has arrived. When instead our quest for vibrant health can be sought in every action we take and well before disease sets in. 

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December's lovely herbal selection. 

As a side note: Every week I get several requests from people and companies wanting me to do a blog post about their product or service. If you're a frequent reader of my blog you'll know that none of these requests are ever realized on my blog. I am posting this more "advertising" post because I feel so strongly about this course. I am receiving no financial compensation for this support. 

Discovering Tao

Tracy and I have started a new blog together:  Discovering Tao: Training For Awakening Oneself.

My first posts there:

Staying Flexible features this video:

If You Want To Rebel, Act Kind about Pancho Ramos Stierle, the guy meditating surrounded by police in war-gear.

Meditation Disturbs The Peace?

Valerian on Photo Friday

Valeriana officinalis growing
on a volcano in Central France

Today's Photo Friday is one of my favorite plants, the notorious valerian. 


I rely on valerian often in my life to help with muscle pain and spasms in my back, for menstrual cramping and for relaxation and sleep. I am a valerian girl. 


While valerian is a relaxing nervine, sedative and anti-spasmodic to the majority of people, a significant amount of people react in the opposite way to valerian. Instead of settling in for a deep sleep they find themselves agitated and very awake. 


I recommend starting out with low doses of valerian to figure out which category you're in. 


I use valerian tincture in fairly large doses for myself. Two dropperfuls at night will konk me out almost immediately. 


I also use it as a fomentation for back pain and muscle spasms. I generally combine it with ginger. 


One of the best uses of valerian is for those dry spastic coughs that often accompany the end stages of a cold or flu. You know those annoying coughs that often become worse when lying down, preventing sleep. 


To address these debilitating coughs I do two things. I take marshmallow root and/or linden leaf/flower infusions during the day to address the dryness. Then valerian root tincture at night to stop any residual coughing. For myself,  I just keep dosing the tincture until I pass out. This generally means two dropperfuls initially and then a dropperful as necessary. 


Various species of valerian can be used with similar results. I'd love to hear what species of valerian you're using. 

Valeriana sitchensis growing on Mt. Hood
in Oregon. 

Valerian sitchensis grows wild in the mountains above my home, but since I also grow Valeriana officinalis in my garden, I rely on that for most of my medicine. 

I planted this Valeriana officinalis a couple years ago. I purchased the sprout from Crimson-Sage Nursery and then planted it without really knowing what to expect. 


At the time it was about 12 inches tall. 


By the second year this valerian was easily 8 feet tall in my garden. 

The valerian is the tall green stuff at the
back of the planting box. 

Besides offering fragrant and beautiful blooms it also supported some great wildlife viewing opportunities. Here's a goldenrod spider having a little snack. 

The goldenrod spider can change it's color from yellow to white depending on it's
current flower home. (As you might imagine it is yellow when found on goldenrod flowers.)

I've tinctured the flowers of valerian but haven't had a chance to use them yet as medicine - have any of you? Please share in the comments below. 

Valeriana officinalis leaves

This fall I dug the roots of the valerian I had planted two years ago. It was easy to split the plant in two and then replant the second half. 

If you don't do this occasionally with the valerian in your garden the roots will become more woody and have less essential oils. 

Depending on who you ask, valerian roots can smell deeply earthy or like gym socks.   


When harvesting and preparing the roots for medicine  we want to process them minimally to avoid damaging the volatile oils in the plant. 

To make a tincture I put the roots in a bowl of coldish water and gently swished the roots around. This was to get most of the dirt from the roots. I didn't scrub the roots. 

The result was mostly clean roots. I chopped these finely and then tinctured at 1:2 at 75%. 

When this is done macerating I'll filter this really well to capture any stray pieces of dirt that made it to the batch. 


Valerian is easy to grow, can also be wildcrafted and provides effective relief for pain and sleeplessness for most people. I've relied on valerian so many times for aches and pains and periods of insomnia that I have a strong love affair with this potent smelling creature. 

Further resources: 
Mini-monograph on valerian (with a story about cats)
Another small monograph on valerian


Very thorough monograph on Valerian (by ABC) pdf