Last week, we offered an in-office workshop on “How To Eat Like A Caveman.” I had been hearing only good things about eating the Paleo Diet, so I was surprised that the topic stirred up controversy of any kind.
When I posted the event on Facebook, I quickly saw a fellow chiropractor post a comment saying that “meat causes cancer” and that the only healthy diet is fruits and vegetables. While I can understand and even agree with his idea of a healthy diet, I know that I won’t only be eating fruits and vegetables for the rest of my life, so I can’t expect that my patients will also follow that plan.
I can encourage you to eat more fruits and vegetables, but I also know that realistically, if I draw that firm line in the sand — I’d better be ready to eat that way too.
One attendee of our class brought up another good point when she asked, “How do we know that the cavemen were healthier than we are now?” I think the misconception with calling it a “Cavemen Diet” is that we’re trying to live like cavemen (as the name would imply).
However, it’s more a point that as our foods have become more processed and that since grains and dairy are making up such large parts of our diets, our country as a whole has become sicker and overweight. It’s a shift back to food that’s not processed and is much simpler.
Our goal with sharing healthy living tips will always have an emphasis on lifestyle habits that we are willing to put into action ourselves. I would never stand by and make recommendations on how you should be healthier if I’m unwilling to take those steps myself — or at least move in that direction.
I know that making sweeping changes to our lifestyle habits can be challenging to say the least. That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to encourage you to make healthy changes and to keep challenging how you think about getting and staying healthy.