Why The Paleo Diet Does Not Include Oats, Beans, And Dairy
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The Paleo Diet Explained
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, we’re explaining the rules of paleo and sharing why the paleo diet does not include oats, beans, and dairy.
This was a question from #AskLiveLeanTV Ep. 013.
Here’s today’s viewer question:
@ciscoballs on Twitter asks: can you explain paleo? I know the rules, but can you explain why the paleo diet does not include oats, beans, and dairy? Can oats, beans and dairy still be very healthy?
Healthy isn’t always black and white.
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Yes, eating oats, milk, and black beans is healthier than eating at McDonald’s.
But eating vegetables, rather than eating bread, is the next step of being healthy.
Filling your plate with a full colorful rainbow of vegetables, such as greens and carrots, is healthier than having a plateful of rice or white pasta.
Now, for the people that do not know what the paleo diet is, let me explain it this way.
Paleo Explained: What Is The Paleo Diet?
The paleo diet is basically eating the way that our ancestors ate.
Think about it this way.
The DNA in our body hasn’t changed.
Genetically, it is 99% the exact same as our ancestors from thousands and thousands of years ago.
So think about what our ancestors ate.
Paleo Approved Foods
The paleo diet primarily includes the following real whole foods:
Our ancestors didn’t live in an agricultural world that we live in now.
Our ancestors ate local food that came from the land, i.e. seasonal plants and animals.
Contrast that to today’s world where we can now have packaged food shipped from Guatemala to a grocery store in the US in three days.
The majority of today’s processed food is totally different than what our ancestors ate.
When we consume processed foods that our DNA is not used, our body doesn’t really know what to do with it.
Why Oats Are Not A Paleo Approved Food
To be up front, oats and oatmeal may not bad for everyone.
It goes back to the idea that there are different levels of health.
For example, eating oats is better than eating a sugar filled chocolate bar.
However, if you’re looking to lose weight, oats are higher in carbohydrates.
This can cause a spike in insulin, thus increasing the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.
A big foundational piece of the paleo diet is improving insulin sensitivity and blood sugar management.
This is why so many people lose weight while following the paleo diet.
In addition to being higher in carbohydrates, some people also have food intolerances to the antinutrients found in oats.
The Antinutrients Found In Oats Include:
- Avenin: a protein which can irritate your intestinal lining
- Lectins: a protein produced by plants that acts a defense mechanism to stop others from eating it. Causes digestive discomfort, intestinal irritation, and weakens the immune system.
- Phytic Acid: oats contain a small amount of phytic acid. Phytic acid binds to minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc, thus preventing them from being absorbed and assimilated by your body.
- Gluten: although oats do not contain gluten, they can often be cross contaminated with other gluten containing grains in the processing factory.
These Anti-nutrients Can:
- irritate your intestinal lining and contribute to leaky gut
- digestive discomfort
- weaken the immune system
- increase inflammation
- trigger autoimmune disease
- reduce the absorption of healthy minerals by your body
This is why oats are often avoided as an every day food on the paleo diet.
Why The Paleo Diet Doesn’t Include Beans And Other Legumes
Just like oats, beans and other legumes are also higher in carbohydrates a[nd contain antinutrients.
The following antinutrients are also found in beans and legumes:
- Lectins
- Phytic acid
- Saponins
In addition to these antinutrients, the amino acid profile of the protein found in beans and legumes is low quality when compared to animal protein sources.
Plus, it’s important to listen to your body.
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If any food type makes you feel bad, don’t eat it.
For me, and many others, beans and legumes gives me digestive issues and bad gas.
That makes it an easy no for me.
Finally, let’s talk about dairy and milk.
Why The Paleo Diet Doesn’t Include Milk And Dairy Products
First of all, the lactose found in milk and other dairy products is not tolerated well by many people.
If you want to learn more about this, I did a video on the most common lactose intolerance symptoms here.
Also, similar to oats and beans, milk and other dairy products tend to be higher in carbohydrates.
This can negatively impact insulin production and weight loss.
Dairy has also been linked to:
- causing digestive issues, including bloated, gas, and irritable bowel syndrome (a.k.a. IBS)
- increasing inflammation
- sinus issues
- acne
Plus, you can get plenty of calcium from these calcium rich paleo approved foods.
I hope this clarifies why oats, dairy, and beans are not paleo.
I Don’t Consider Myself 100% Paleo
From a diet perspective, I don’t classify myself as one thing.
But if I had to put my diet into one of those buckets, paleo is the closest thing.
I just eat real food that’s made up of healthy fats, protein, and vegetables.
Then I keep my consumption of processed carbohydrates low.
During our cheat meals, we do have sometimes have beans and grains in a burrito, or cheese and wheat in pizza.
The Paleo Diet Is Not An All Meat Diet
A lot of people think paleo means you just eat a ton of meat and fat, such as bacon and steak.
This is not the truth.
If you’re paleo, the majority of your plate is usually comprised of a lot of green vegetables and a serving of meat or eggs.
It’s also not the same as the Atkin’s diet.
I have a very popular paleo video on YouTube where people from a specific diet, starting with the letter “V”, just bombard it with the argument that eating meat makes people unhealthy and fat.
They say the population is fat because so many people eat meat.
Well guess what?
The standard American diet, i.e. the SAD diet, is much different than the paleo diet.
The majority of the overweight population are eating processed meat from fast food restaurants, hot dogs, baloney, or Lunchables.
Meat from McDonald’s is not the same as healthy organic and grass fed meat that a paleo person eats.
Ultimately, not all meat is created equal.
I don’t even really consider cheap and processed meat, as meat.
The quality of that meat is different in every way.
This is why we don’t promote eating processed hamburger patties from a drive-thru.
Bottom Line On The Paleo Diet
Hopefully, we explained what the paleo diet is and clarified the rules of paleo.
Ultimately, the paleo diet is about consuming real foods that our genes were predisposed to eat.
This is the type of food that our bodies can absorb, assimilate, and process the nutrients for energy, rather than storing it as body fat.
By focusing primarily on eating paleo food, we decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and throwing our blood sugar all over the place via today’s high carbohydrate diets.
Now I want you to go check out our video post here on the paleo diet explain for beginners.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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