Vegetarian or Paleo: Which Way do you Sway?

I am in a position where a number of people ask me questions or tell me great stories about the different ways they eat to feel great and fuel their day.  I love that people acknowledge that what you feed your body helps determine how much energy you have, how your sleep is affected, how the activities in your day get carried out and most importantly, how healthy eating transcends through the family environment. Lately, there seems to be a lot of talk about eating a vegetarian diet or those who follow the paleo diet.  These are two opposite nutrition lifestyles (not completely, but there’s a big differentiation), so it had me questioning, ‘Why?’  Before I continue, I have to say that when it comes to the particular “nutritional lifestyle” you choose to follow, you must know that what you will commit to for the long haul has to fit with your overall lifestyle.  There are so many out there in today’s world, most are nonsense, but just jumping into one without doing the research about what it truly is will most often set you up for failure.  So, learn about them, and then truly, honestly, ask yourself, is this something I will enjoy and fit with my lifestyle in 5 years.  Maybe making a few tweaks now will get you started, and then you can continue to set new goals and make more tweaks as needed, but little steps will ultimately lead you to the bigger goal.  That is, in the end, how you will make it work for YOU!

So what are these two ways of eating?

“Vegetarian Eating” encompasses a number of categories which people can identify with.  A fruitarian follows a diet that consists of raw or dried fruits, nuts seeds, honey, and vegetable oil.  A macrobiotic eliminates all animal foods, dairy products, and eggs; uses only “organic” and “natural” cereals, grains and condiments such as miso and seaweed.  A vegan excludes all animal foods, dairy and eggs.  The strictest vegans also exclude all animal products which includes gelatin, honey, silk, wool, leather and animal-derived food additives.  A lacto-vegetarian does not consume animal foods and eggs, but will include milk and milk products.  A lato-ovo-vegetarian removes all animal foods from their diet, but will include milk, milk products and eggs.  Finally, a ‘quasi’, ‘pseudo’ or near vegetarian usually excludes red meat products but will consume poultry, beef extracts and fats, fish, eggs and dairy products.

It is important to note the nutrients that are missing (or limited) when following a vegetarian diet so that you can maximize wherever possible or ask the questions to your doctor or dietitian to ensure you don’t become deficient.  Most vegetarian foods do provide you with enough protein, but it becomes important to combine certain foods together to ensure you are providing your body with the essential amino acids (protein building blocks) which your body can only obtain through food sources, especially for strict vegans (who don’t consume eggs or dairy products).  Eating grains with legumes or legumes and nuts/seeds helps with this.  Aligned with eating no animal products is the need to monitor iron levels in vegetarians, the predominant most available source coming from animal products.  Iron carries oxygen throughout our body and is critical for our daily functioning, so it is recommended to have your iron levels routinely checked if you follow a vegetarian diet.  Vitamin B12 is another important vitamin for DNA synthesis and helping our muscles and nerves communicate with one another properly, which is only found in animal products or fortified food products.  Routine check of this vitamin is also recommended to ensure adequate levels.  Calcium and Zinc should also be monitored depending on the type of vegetarian diet you follow, as most plant based foods have a lower bioavailability of these nutrients in the food (not as easily found and/or absorbed by the body).

Now the Paleo diet! The diet that seems to have put more books on the shelves and articles through the newspaper in the last 3 years than I have seen in my dietetic career (next to wheat and gluten-free that is)!  The “Paleolithic” diet is made up of meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and excludes dairy foods, beans and grains, as well as added sugars and processed foods.  Many studies have been carried out on this diet and their validity, many initial studies “debunking” the diet.  It is important to first look at the sample size of a study for true validity.  A sample of 8-20 participants doesn’t hold too well in the nutrition world, as well as the length of time participants of a study are followed for.  When reading reviews of initial studies completed, the Paleo diet was compared to a diet followed by people living with Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance and another study looked at those following a Mediterranean and the effect on weight loss and heart health.  The studies showed that applying the Paleo diet for those living with Type 2 diabetes had better health outcomes than the standard high-fibre, low Glycemic index, low fat diabetes diet plan.  Heart health outcomes deemed to be better for the Paleo group when compared to the standard Mediterranean diet group in a preliminary study as well, HOWEVER, the basis of these studies only provided direction on what to eat, and not how much, were short in their duration, and in most cases, those who were following the Paleolithic diet consumed fewer total calories than the control groups.  The longest running study on the Paleo diet was just recently released in March 2014 which extended for 2 years looking at the “Long-term effects of a Paleolithic diet in obese post-menopausal women” in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  The study, carried out in Norway, had 70 obese post-menopausal women, divided into 2 groups either following a Paleo diet, or the diet according to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (what Canada’s Food Guide is to us).  The participants’ fat mass, waist circumference and triglyceride levels were noted at 6-months and 2-years.  While both groups decreased their total fat mass at these time frames, the paleo diet had greater effects at 6-months, however the effects were not sustained at the 2-year point.  The study concluded that while the changes were significant at 6-months, the long-term effects of these changes will still need to be studied and reviewed in greater detail.

So, now it’s up to you.  Your health is your wealth and it is important to identify what your lifestyle currently is, how you eat regularly, and if making little adjustments is attainable and worth it for you based on your health state and what you do on a regular basis.  Following a balanced nutrition lifestyle through the guidance of Canada’s Food Guide is always a first step I ensure people are doing.  The Guide helps you make sense of where foods fall, and a general amount of how much you need on a daily basis. From there, you decide how your nutrition lifestyle may need to be tweaked to optimize your energy and your fuel throughout a day.  It is always best to speak to a dietitian first so that they can help you assess your current eating regimes and indicate how to best go about making any change and setting small goals to achieve the best outcome!