Paleo
One of the latest food crazes — and a huge hit among the CrossFit crowd — is the paleo diet. Following this strict “caveman diet” means eating lots of meat, poultry, fish, fruits, and veggies and giving up grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugars, and pretty much anything processed. Most dietitians agree that the paleo diet has some great things going for it. “I love that paleo takes out packaged and processed foods and focuses on healthy fats, veggies, and the right kinds of lean protein like grass-fed beef,” Glassman says. “But there’s no good reason not to eat beans.”
According to Mangieri, paleo proponents shun beans because legumes contain a lot of phytates, compounds that decrease the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals. “However, that rationale unfortunately doesn’t make whole lot of sense because fruits and vegetables also have phytates,” she says. “So if you’re really following this diet, you would be getting more phytates already. Another problem with paleo is that when you eliminate all dairy and all grains, it makes it tough to get calcium and vitamin D.”
Glassman also thinks it’s better to keep grains on the menu. “I think people should eat whole grains, the less processed the better,” she says. “But you don’t have to have a significant amount of grains to meet all of your nutrient needs. I like people to do kind of a ‘paleo plus,’ where you take some of the diet’s great concepts but don’t be as strict.”
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