Paleo orthorexia

Paleo orthorexia

This reason happens to be the polar opposite of the above. We have all encountered extremists in our life and we know what they are like: latching on to something and there is absolutely no other way, so don’t even try to convince them otherwise. I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with this, in fact, there was a time in my life when I was exactly like this. That being said, it’s a problem when the extremist is not well informed. It is one thing to follow something because you believe it is the right thing to do, but it’s another when you don’t know why it’s the right thing. Perhaps just because someone with a voice said so?

When being a part of the Paleo community, there are two things we have to keep in mind; we are not Cavemen anymore and we don’t know for sure what our ancestors ate anyway. Society has evolved and we have to evolve too. At the click of a button I can share this article with you, I can share recipe ideas, I can even keep you informed on my every move via various social media outlets. With evolution, we have gained access to something that our ancestors did not have, like modern science for example. Perhaps hundreds of centuries ago, no one knew what butter was, or a white potato was not something consumed in most parts of the world, but nowadays, we can prove that these things aren’t bad for us on a fundamental and structural level. Just because they were not consumed then does not necessarily mean we need to continue running from them now. If we fail to make these somewhat harmless additions to our diets, our eating habits will become much more difficult to maintain over time, leading to the inevitable collapse.

Another part of Paleo orthorexia is trying to do things too perfectly. I still see people counting their calorie intake or trying to calculate the amount of each vitamin or mineral they consume. This amount of attention to details is often a recipe for failure because it comes from the wrong assumption that the amount of calories consumed should be consciously controlled.