Though they are often pitted against each other, the Paleo diet and the Plant-Based diet have BOTH been integral parts of my crazy journey to healing and staying healed. With one being meat-focused and the other being anti-meat, the two may seem like total opposites at first glance, but they actually have several important things in common.
Learning to pull together the best of both of these worlds is what has helped me settle on what I believe is the healthiest diet for me.
The Paleo diet exploded in popularity soon after the turn of the millennium. The theory behind it is that it’s how humans ate prior to modern agriculture. Its nicknames include the caveman diet, the stone age diet, and the hunter-gatherer diet. It consists of lots of meat, veggies, a little fruit, nuts, and eggs. It encourages higher quality foods (organic, grass fed beef, pastured eggs). It does not allow for any grains or legumes whatsoever, and it discourages dairy, processed food, and refined sugar.
The Plant-Based diet is a Vegan diet, which excludes all animal products (meat, fish, dairy, eggs). It emphasizes real, whole foods, including tons of veggies and fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, and soy. It encourages organic/non-gmo foods. Whereas a Vegan diet still can contain junk food/processed foods as long as they don’t contain animal products (Oreos qualify for this believe it or not!), a Plant-Based diet discourages anything processed as well as refined sugars.
PALEO: My history with the Paleo Diet began near the beginning of my healing journey. When I started coming off of immunosuppressant drugs after my major flare I was fortunate to come across the book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall. This book is literally written for people with Ulcerative Colitis who want to heal with food (the protocol is called The Specific Carbohydrate Diet). In an era (2011) when it was still very hard to find info on natural healing for autoimmune disease, it was as if the heavens opened up and dropped this book in my lap at precisely the right time. I won’t go into specific detail since it only applies to people who are experiencing a U.C. flare, but it starts with a VERY strict diet (similar to Paleo only with far more restrictions) that gives your gut time and space to heal, and gradually grows into more of a regular Paleo-esque diet that still excludes grains, sugars, and starches. For me, it was a miracle worker. Note: another book to check out for those experiencing a U.C. or Crohns disease flare is The Maker’s Diet, by Jordan Rubin that follows similar guidelines.
The diet was hard for sure, but I was beyond motivated and willing to do anything to remain in remission, so being disciplined enough to stick to it was not a problem. These diets led me to slowly expand into more of a Paleo diet.
The problem was that by the time I was able to come off of the restrictions of the strict healing diet, I had fully adopted the Paleo diet as my new normal with no end date in mind. Before my Paleo friends stop reading, I am not a hater so hear me out. It served me well and it helped me heal; I have no doubt about that.
There are many things that are great about Paleo - it cuts out processed crap and refined sugar, it encourages veggies and higher quality foods. The biggest downside for me was the huge amount of meat, eggs, and fat in general and the full exclusion of other highly nutritious and fibrous foods.
During my flare I was the queen of diarrhea, and during Paleo I was her evil twin sister, the queen of CONSTIPATION. I could eat broccoli all day long, but without grains or legumes and with vast quantities of fiber-free animal foods, my “motility” as the polite ones like to call it, was sloth-like at best.
For someone who already has a greatly increased chance of colon cancer due to Ulcerative Colitis scarring in my colon, I really didn’t need to be adding in dramatic levels of constipation to the mix. I was also hungry all the time because as a high-energy person who did not need to lose any weight, the low amount of carbohydrate intake left my frustrated body sorely wanting.
Most concerningly, my cholesterol, which was always super low, shot up to 220, and other labs were showing increased nitrogen levels as well as several other worrying things, all from the high meat/saturated fat intake. So…. yikes.
My naturopath helped me to understand and accept that while eating this way had served me greatly by helping me get off the medications and still stay in remission, for me it was not a healthy, long-term plan.
So that’s when I started eating grains and legumes again (for me this meant non-gluten containing grains as I still avoid gluten to this day) and reducing meat intake to a more reasonable level, and sure enough, my cholesterol and labs improved rapidly, my hunger levels normalized, and the need to invoke dynamite for bowel movement purposes, alas, was no more.
PLANT-BASED: Fast forward a few years and my never-ending research on the potential dangers of regular meat consumption led me down a path towards Plant-Based eating.
The one supplement you have to take on a Plant-Based diet is B12 as this is only found in animal products (but even omnivores are often low in vitamin B12), but otherwise the idea with a Plant-Based diet is that you get a ton of nutrients from the extremely healthful foods you are eating, not to mention a ton of fiber which is proven to cure so much of what ails us.
When I started eating more Plant-Based I cut out the animal products and kicked up my intake of veggies and fruit even more, as well as increasing beans and lentils. I still avoided soy for the most part because my body had told me it did not like soy much. I continued to focus on organic/non-GMO foods.
I really enjoyed eating plant-based, and didn’t miss meat very much - but it wasn’t long before a problem popped up.
After a while of eating Plant-Based, my naturopath had me get some lab work and found that while most of my labs were excellent, my protein levels were low. Due to my last major U.C. flare up, my colon lining is very scarred, and as a result, it’s hard for me to absorb some nutrients including vitamin D and magnesium, and as I learned at that point, protein.
Now from what I’ve read it’s generally very hard for your average person to not get enough protein, even while eating a meat-free diet, but with my scarred colon absorption issues my naturopath suggested putting some animal protein back into my diet.
WHAT ALL OF THIS HAS TAUGHT ME
What I’ve learned through all of my research on these two diets is that they actually agree on more than meets the eye.
They both focus on several important key points: eating REAL food and eating lots of vegetables, they both encourage high quality organic/non-gmo foods, and they both discourage highly processed foods and dairy. They both reject the Standard American Diet and both will no doubt drastically increase health in anyone who comes over from the S.A.D. side. They of course part ways when it comes to eating animal products.
So, on to present day... my diet now looks very much like what the two diets agree on, while leaning more towards the plant-based path - it has a very heavy emphasis on a large variety of organic veggies and fruit, nuts/seeds, gluten free grains, beans/lentils, a little soy as my body tolerates it better these days, and I do have high-quality meat 2 or 3 times a week and occasionally eggs to help with my protein levels. For me, I’ve found this to be my tried and true Narnia of diets, and it gives me lots of excellent disease-fighting/preventing nutrition, really good digestion, great energy levels, and excellent lab reports.
As I proceed through year #10 of remission and year #9 of no-medication I am more than happy to continue on this path. By no means have I “arrived,” however. I am always trying to learn more and do better.
So often people get caught up in “choosing sides” when it comes to diets and specific ways of eating, but instead of feeling a need to plant our flags somewhere, we should focus on the agreed upon healthiest parts of these two diets and examine how we can apply them on our own journey.
As usual, it all boils down to -- less junk, more real food.
Note: If you choose to eat meat, I recommend not eating too much and periodically getting your cholesterol and other labs checked. If you choose to not eat meat, make sure you are getting plenty of protein through plant sources (beans, lentils, tofu, etc.) - and if you are a U.C. survivor and have a scared colon like I do, definitely have your protein and other nutrient levels checked regularly via blood work.
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