The paleo diet is inspired by ideas that modern foods have negative impacts on health. Supporters believe that we should eat only meats, berries and nuts akin to the diets of the first humans on earth.
Evans’ new cookbook for children encouraged parents to feed young infants a bone broth concoction. Healthcare professionals noted last week that the recipe contained over 10 times the safe amount of vitamin A for an infant however, which could have put the children at risk of death. This resulted in the suspension of publication.
The popular chef is “refusing to be silenced” though and is going to self-publish the work, titled “Bubba Bubba Yum Yum: The Paleo Way” digitally despite Pan Macmillan dropping its Friday 13th March release. At a talk at Melbourne Town Hall on Saturday, he encouraged a crowd to ignore the warnings of the healthcare profession and to try his broth anyway.
The paleo diet is regarded as an ideology by many supporters who steadfastly adhere to its values. Its core argument is that while the complexity of our foods has evolved, our digestive ability hasn’t. Therefore, by eating simpler foods, we can lower the pressure on our digestive systems.
The view is accepted by many dietitians who believe that paleo could actually have a significant effect on the body, unlike more mainstream or commercial fad diets. While things like the Atkins diet, cabbage soup and slimming drinks all claim to produce noticeable effects on the body, these tend to have little nutritional value which can cause more harm and good.
By contrast, a paleo dieter’s meal of fruits and nuts will be nutrient and energy rich. Paleo supporters abstain from any food developed since our earliest days on earth including gluten-containing complex grains and sugar.
Opposition to the movement notes how human digestion evolved very quickly as soon as gluten and dairy products were first available by farming. One percent of the population is still unable to digest gluten however; this is coeliac disease.
Although it may seem strange to recommend feeding children a soup of bones, followers of the paleo movement believe that hunted bones and guts can surpass the virtues of modern medicine and even a mothers’ milk.
Whether such controversial diets are appropriate for young children is currently very much a topic open to discussion. With the digestive system proven to evolve very quickly, there may be little benefit from endorsing the paleo diet to infants and it could cause harm in the long-term, as shown by the dangerously high levels of vitamin A in Evans’ broth.
