Celebrity chef Fast Ed Halmagyi says paleo is a bunch of lies

Celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi says paleo, like almost all fad diets, is bunkum. He says like all scams it begins with a single kernel of truth at its heart, an honest idea that will be distorted and misinterpreted.

Chef Ed Halmagyi at home in his kitchen. Picture: Annika Enderborg

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I PUT off writing this article for a long time. I’m not a hater, really I’m not. But there’s only so much deliberate misdirection I can stand before I need to say something.

Paleo, in fact almost every fad diet, is bunkum.Pure, vaudevillian distraction with absolutely no merit. However, like every great confidence scam, it begins with a single kernel of truth at its heart, an honest idea that will be distorted and misinterpreted. Yes, eating less processed food is good for you. But that’s it – the sole and singular positive. The rest is nothing more than baloney.

Lie #1: Humans were healthier during the Palaeolithic period. Not true. Most communities lived through extended periods of starvation, and the average life expectancy was 37. Medicine did not exist (a product of our evolution), and many bone fragments have been unearthed bearing the marks of ritual cutting, interpreted by archaeologists as a probable sign of cannibalism.Also, many bone fragments show signs of atherosclerosis, a degenerative byproduct of excessive meat consumption.

Chef Ed Halmagyi says nutrition is more complicated than a sound bite.

Lie #2: Palaeolithic people did not eat those foods that would become agriculture. Really, then why did humans begin farming them at all if they were not being consumed? Moreover, do you really think that a community that was routinely struggling to find enough food would reject grains, legumes or nuts on the basis that they weren’t, well, paleo?

Lie #3: Humans ate vastly more meat and fats during the Palaeolithic period. Two points here. Firstly, bone fragments and shell middens will survive millennia, while evidence of seed or grain consumption does not due to its ready biodegradability. That you did not see me go for a run this morning should not be taken as evidence that I failed to exercise. Secondly, a broad study in the Scientific American three years ago noted that in Palaeolithic times, we see evidence for vastly different diets in different places. There is no singular definition.

Chef Ed Halmagyi picks strawberries to eat at home.

Lie #4: Our needs are the same in 2016 as they were 100,000 years ago. This is pure insanity. Humans, plants and animals have all evolved during this time. Palaeolithic humans were unable to digest milk as their bodies did not produce lactase, the enzyme required to metabolise milk sugars. From about 7000 years ago this began to change. We do not own this planet, we are in a symbiotic relationship with it.

Lie #5: paleo dieting delivers more nutrition. Three large-format analyses of this claim have all rejected it. As an example, paleo advocates claim broccoli contains more calcium than milk. This is true. However, the calcium in broccoli is not bio-available – you simply don’t absorb it.

Nutrition, like so many things, is more complicated than a sound bite. And then there’s the privilege. Just because we’re rich enough in Australia in 2016 to indulge in this kind of silliness does not make us better people, some might suggest it’s quite the opposite.