Can you be vegetarian and paleo

In comes a friend who put me on to paleo, in 7 months I lost 78 pounds! I dropped from 42 pants to 36 waist, from xxl and xxl to large! Paleo works well this is undeniable! The carbs that many vegetarians eat are actually slowing them down, its far to much sugar from all the carbs and fruits. Paleo will take a little getting use to in the beginning when you spend your entire lives eating sugar producing carbs your going to feel a little off to start.

But once you teach your body to work off of fat rather than carbs you get lean and mean. And guess what? You can eat as much vegetables as you want! The negative paleo propaganda makes many people believe that we just eat slabs of meat and fat all day but micronutrients are of huge importance on this diet!

Just my thoughts. Also remember how much processed, highly salted crap vegetarians eat like tofu, and other pre made vegatarian fare. I have been stewing on this a long time…since I did my first high protein diet anyone remember the Stillman diets? Yes, it would appear that high protein diets can accomplish quick weight loss results, but at what expense? The heart?

Sexual dysfunction all those arteries are connected. I always say, blood tests never lie. I also say, generally different things work for different people. But I am delighted to find more and more women in my running age group and older have gone vegan to 1 lose or maintain a healthy weight 2 avoid arthritis so many my age are dropping out because of that 3 recover way more quickly than our meat-eating colleagues.

I could write a whole book on that last point, which is why my 4th book on my year-long fitness story is already getting offers. Most people my age who still compete say the goal is to finish without injury because we want to be able to keep this fit all of our days. As Matt has written, there is much common ground between vegans and Paleo. But it is quite possible for those who want to remain vegan for a variety of reasons to incorporate the best of Paleo.

Btw, personally, I lost 25 pounds going from Atkins to low-fat vegan. My cholesterol during that 6 months time went from to all my blood work is posted as a Star McDougaller on Dr. I also was in the ER facing a hysterectomy from hemorrhaging fibroids that shrank so much upon returning to a vegan diet that I never needed the hysterectomy. Results are typical. But I felt it was important to share for others who might see your post my long-term results after decades of trials and errors.

No money in broccoli, though. I have been on a low fat plant based diet since June lost 3 dress sizes dropped my cholesterol by 60 points and feel fabulous more so even then when I was a kid. Lots of heart disease and diabetes in my family history also.

So I decided to head it off and make the change to better health before my body was telling me too. I do believe that eating plant based is the best way to live yet not every one is going to come to this conclusion. My other driving reason was also to help mother earth and our fellow creatures that suffer dreadfully before they end up on a plate. It is heart breaking to watch knowing how they can heal them selves. How is this for you? I live in Japan, and they believe your blood type is a big part of your personality and diet.

A natural vegetarian, if you will. This is quite wrong. Type O was the first blood type and thrived with the big game hunters. But after most of the big game was extinct meat became harder to come by. This is when ancient peoples turned to cultivation and agriculture. Around 30, years ago cities were created and people farmed grains and raised livestock. This is where type A was born. The gut changed to handle this new city life and eat less meat. Type A lost the ability to be carnivores like the hunter-gatherers.

This type of Paleo diet would be as toxic to them as the agricultural diet is to O. I think Paleo has the right idea, cut out processed foods and eat fresh. Idk if blood type diet is valid for many people. What other animals eat according to their blood type?

Thanks so much for writing this article. I found it not only informative, but inspiring. You give me hope that our species will, someday soon, evolve past violence, alltogether. I am a pescetarian personal trainer and follow the paleo diet. I love it! I eat wild fish, organic pasture eggs and have a high quality vegan protein powder Sunwarrior Warrior Blend. The rest of my diet consists of veggies tons! I have never felt better! Can u also post a typical days bf, lunch, dinner, snacks?

Seeing how u concoct this could help a lot of us struggling to find balance. Kudos for living so healthfully! Actually, there is an option: Spirulina!

Plus it has been farmed from ponds for centuries. Ostensibly, our per-agricultural ancestors could have access to it so long as they were near sea shores or lakes with conditions in which spirulina can easily grow. I have been eating a vegetarian paleo diet for years. I do however eat a lot of eggs. I was never able to understand the reason for limiting eggs in the paleo diet and wondered if that was because of the yolks. So I eat 12 egg whites a day and get my fat from other sources.

Does anyone know if the limit on eggs pertains to the whole egg? This is perfect for me! Your ideas have helped guide me so that I can figure out my own way to do it. Thank you so much for posting this! Options 2 and 3 in conjuction seem like a reasonable solution, and I am eager to give it a try.

Thanks again! I spoke with a young entrepreneur about his new product, sprouted almond butter. He explained about the value of sprouting, going into the effect of the antinutrient phytic acid. He recomended soaking the grains, e. So your option 3 might also include grains along with the legumes. Great article! A high fruit and some nuts and seeds which can be eaten raw means no cooking and no high heat nutrient destruction.

Quinoa, millet, buckwheat and some oats etc would be better grain choices. Wheat aint what it used to be and was messed with around 6 decades ago :. Cheers, ZAC. My plan is to do more hemp protein, sea food twice a week, peas and green beans plus all the leafy greens for protein. It makes us sick. Our intestines are long, while other carnivores have short intestinal tracks meant to pass rotting flesh quickly.

Or teeth designed are meant to grind foods such as leaves and plants and nuts. Our legs are not designed for quick and powerful chases like a dog, bear of cheetah. Our stomachs are less acidic than that of a carnivore. Humans developed tools not to hunt, but to reach and harvest their food sources quicker and build a shelter, much like large apes do in the jungle. Horses and cows graze in the fields, koalas eat leaves for hours each day.

Horses have some of the best physiques around being naturally muscular and lean. We have adapted a lifestyle that cuts our grazing time and deprives us of nutrients. Anyone who reads this article needs to think twice about using it for advice. I have no problem eating eggs, as long as it comes from a local family farm that does not practice any of the cruel procedures of corporate facilities. Chris, Why should I look into it, when there is no need for me to eat eggs in the first place?

I came across your information at an interesting time. I have been on again, off again vegan for 10 years. Currently I am following a vegetarian diet, but have been struggling with weight loss even though I have switched up my workout routine and am really watching what I put in my body.

I started researching Paleo diet on the recommendation of a friend. I was discouraged by the meat eating emphasis I found. I think I will try one of the variations and just be aware of the amount of fruit and grains I put into my body.

Hope it works! Thx for the great info on the site and comments. Im a vegi that is interested in the Paleo diet. However, i dont think i can go cold turkey on grains so i did some googling as to what is a healthier grain to consume. I read that the chinese foxtail millet is gluten free, anti-nutrient free, high protein, and low starch. My wife also told me that it is traditionally eaten by the chinese as porridge and is known to be very nutritious and comfortable on the digestive systems.

Has anyone tried the chinese millet in their diet and how were the results? First from fossil evidence, many early hominids had very large and heavy jaws to process the coarse, fiberous plant foods that made up the bulk of their diet.

Modern humans have mixed dentition, with the front part of our mouths resembling carnivores and the back part ruminants cows, etc. From cut marks on ancient animal bones it appears the earliest of hominids were scavengers of recently killed animals and then slowly began to follow animal herds and then began to hunt. So what are the closest foods for a modern diet?

Whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables cooked very lightly or eaten raw, no refined flour but whole grain would be fine, nuts, seeds and ozs. I respect your Masters in Anthropology but humbly submit that it does not translate to expertise in nutrition.

I disagree that a modern analogue for Paleo era vegetation in the diet is whole grains. Grains are seeds that have evolved seed coatings to protect them from being eaten.

Do a little research on lectins and phytates and you will see why I am suggesting this does not render them ideal foods. There is also the issue of glycemic index of many whole grains. Some of these have been pulverized for flour which results in having a moderate to high glycemic load, and this contributes to insulin resistance and weight gain. The real question, to my mind, is what results in our best health? Everyone should have comprehensive blood work done as well as physical evaluations regardless of what diet they are on.

That is probably the best way to know, along with feeling well and not having symptoms, to know that we are actually healthy and responding well to a diet. Also, paleo, the way I and many others do it, is not a jumped-up Atkins diet. So, that puts me not too far from your percentages you list above.

I kind of suspect that meat eating waxed and waned with the luck of the hunt. Ive been a vegetarian for about 18 years and always did some type of fitness routine…gym, running, exercise tapes, hiking, biking etc… Then I got introduced to CrossFit and absolutely love it.

My box then introduced me to Whole 30 and the Paleo diet. I am at a road block. This animal protein that I was lacking I feel has had a significant positive effect on me physically and mentally. But now I feel I should ban this diet and go back vegetarian for health reasons. This website has been a great starting point for me. Im beginning my slow transition from a full on Paleo eater to a more vegan lifestyle. Primarily for animal ethics reasons.

However — and this pains me to do so — at certain times of my menstrual cycle, I feel incredibly lethargic and only meat brings me back from a zombie-type existence. So to counteract, my plan is to eat meat during that part of the cycle only. Thats the plan anyway. True vegans and vegetarians will probably laugh at my attempt, some may find it cheating and not really caring about animals, but to each their own — this is my path and Im genuinely trying to be a less violence-based eater.

Coming from a culture where meat was in EVERY meal, its very very hard to stop eating it — but slooooooowly its beginning to feel easier. Thank you for outlining the arguments above — its very helpful. Cant say that being a Vegan Paleo is sounding like too much fun, but im willing to try and see if i can make it work for me.

Every human being, male or female, wants to procreate with the best possible specimen — and that means, more often than not, trying out multiple specimen. Nice blog. Will be back. So females need to be choosier about whom they procreate with. Now, if were true that sleeping with a whole lot of men set up a fair competition among sperm, and the fittest sperm truly did belong to the fittest male, then your point would make sense … but does it work that way? This book clearly states that women are no more prone to monogamy than men are.

Yes, we may not want to sleep with every man on the planet and may select guys based on who will provide us with the best characteristics for our child. When actually, thousands of relationships are being ruined by female infidelity, because we see several men with attractive features who are also capable of providing suitable sperm for our offspring.

As a vegan, I applaud and support any attempt to reduce meat. My nephew said he wold be vegan except he loves bacon once in awhile. I suggested he might try being a vegan who occasionally eats bacon! Any effort to reduce suffering is appreciated. Perhaps you are right in that mentally and spiritually we should be beyond eating meat. The problem is that our bodies are evolving at a much slower rate than our mental capacity for reflection and existentialism.

We must feed our bodies what our bodies tell us to. Going against that is going against nature and there are repercussions for that. I would never defend the copious amounts of meat the so called paloelithic eaters consume. However I will also never defend, from a physiological stand point, that humans should consume no meat. Thanks fo your researches and your testimony.

I am myself a vegetarian, since about 20 years, and rely on a growing portion of wild plants, who happen to be full of protein: comfrey, nettles, and the likes. As a yoga teacher, I feel they offer a free food to sustain heavy practices, provided you are not leaving in town, or surrounded by intensive agriculture; but I am not a scientist. For retreats in wilderness, I have lived on what I could pluck with delight, and without damages, which is quite traditional in India.

I have not found what to do during the winter though… Hunting seems the most natural thing at that time. Interesting post! How did your experiment go? Thank you for sharing this. There is so little commentary or resources about this out there about this particula diet for veggies. Thanks for helping to change that! Whats the point?

A vegitarian diet with grains is healthy than the paleo diet. Seventh Day Aventist diet for example, includes whole grains and leads to the longer life spam and better health than any other diet known. But if you really want to eat what we evolved to eat… then eat insects, fruits and leaves — not meat. More paleo than the so called paleo diet. Hi Matt, Great article and info, thank you so much. I have studied nutrition on a personal level for years and trying new things for the soul purpose of regaining constant health whilst being kind to the planet.

While reading your article I realise that I eat that way mainly from lack of choice. I am intolerant to nuts, eggs, soy, dairy, shellfish, and other things, making my diet very restrictive.

To all the people who say it is boring, I say I have made it less so. I have experimented so much and come up with fabulous and different soups and vary how I put things together to give different tasted and textures.

I also use hemp and carob powder as sources of protein. It is a restrictive lifestyle, but one that I feel is worth it. Thank you for your article, it is great to see others keen interest in nutrition and health. Penny, Just my 2 cents, from what you say, I think you could do pretty well on a grain free, veggie based diet with some fruit and maybe whey suplement as a good protein source if you do not have intolerance to it, it could work wonders.

You could also look for seaweed derived Omega-3 DHA if you can find it and also some Omega-3 based supps seem to not cause to create reactions on some people that are fish sensitive. This article definitely pinpointed some questions I personally had. However, I feel that as a vegetarian I would not consume meat, even if it indicated to be a better choice for my health.

As far a the paleo-vegetarian-diet goes, it seems a bit unrealistic for me considering that majority of my protein is obtain from many sources of beans, including soy bean. Is there a reason why the paleo diet does not consist of soy? Also, although I consume dairy produce, I do not eat egg.

I stopped costuming egg long before I became vegetarian because I was unable to tolerate the smell it gives off while it cooks. However, egg would be a great protein resource that complies with the paleo-diet.

One of my main concerns with the paleo-vegetarian diet would be lack of energy. As a runner, I need all the energy I could obtain from my food, and honestly I am not sure that vegetables and fruits alone would be able to sustain me in a healthy running state.

I really enjoyed reading this article. My respect to those incredible and dedicated individuals who feel capable to have a paleo-vegetarian diet. Best of luck! Great points, you answered a lot of my questions. Back to sprouting for me. Oh yeah the pea protein I use is supposed to be good. The muscle guy at my vitamin store rotates it with others he thinks so highly of it, highly absorbable plant proteins.

Cheers, Michael. I just found your blog while researching Paleo vegetarian diets. I am also a marathon runner, and am looking into starting Crossfit as well. I loved reading your Veggie versions of the Paleo diet and may even try it myself. Thank you for this post!

Instead, I try to make healthy choices, which would some days mean going vegetarian, some days paleo … you get the picture. I try not to be too strict and allow myself now and than to have something that I really would like, although it is not in line with my food vision. Works different for everybody, this works for me. Kind regards, Angela. I like your point of view that seems pretty unbiased even when you could be biased by your personal beliefs.

I think I look at it in a pretty similar fashion, trying to find the truth based on more and more research. I liked a lot Dr. I am a bit of a fanatic fermenter, but fermenting not only reduces antinutrients, it also makes more nutrients available from the fermented foods, as well as adding beneficial micro-organisms.

Lactobacillus will ferment almost anything and are omnipresent in our environment. The science is still out, so why deprive ourselves of useful, nutritious and delicious food sources?

I see nothing in your post that could justify your position, Samuel. Aside from that, these discussion boards are for discussion purposes and not heated debates.

If you cannot control your demeanor and carry on a conversation without belittling other posters, you have no business posting at all. My initial comment was to Matt and was, I thought, said in a polite manner expressing my beliefs. You are closed-minded and do not have all the facts; you have the facts that you want to hear.

With that, I will not continue bantering back and forth. Spiritual advisors, lol. Enjoy your fantasies except the naughty ones. Samuel, Why are you so angry and posting that anger on a site meant for the vegetarian athlete? Fruits and vegetables are digested very nicely. You can eat any fruit, vegetable, seed or grain raw. Yes, our jaws do grind. They were not created for us but rather the opposite. My position is as strong as yours, BTW.

Your position is your opinion. Your angry reaction seemingly comes from a sense of guilt perhaps. Not angry, just get annoyed by falsehoods and propaganda. I was trying to help them. No, my position is a lot stronger than yours, especially on your creationist bullshit. Cuz you know, I actually have science to back it up. Oh, John Wayne had pounds of shit packed in his intestines?

It causes systemic inflammation and a slew of other issues. We also can and some people do eat raw meat. We choose not to. If we were living a few hundred years ago, we could absolutely eat raw meat safely. It would be more nutritious, too. Quit your meat propaganda bullshit. A day will come when you will see. Humans are not carnivores, we are omnivores.

Our jaws do move in a grinding motion, although this motion is more characteristic of herbivores think of how cows chew grass. Unless you meant something else. A cow is not adapted for eating meat. We are. We DO have incisors those are our pointy canine teeth.

No one made our teeth for a certain task, we evolved to be the way we are, and if smaller teeth caused no issues with survival, smaller teeth are what we got. If you strictly follow a vegan or paleo diet, talk to your health provider about whether you might need to compensate for any missing nutrients due to foods your diet excludes. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.

No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health , plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise , pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more.

Get helpful tips and guidance for everything from fighting inflammation to finding the best diets for weight loss Stay on top of latest health news from Harvard Medical School. Recent Blog Articles. Health news headlines can be deceiving. The long story is here , but the short version is that O3 and O6 fats are both essential for health, but they need to be in balance with each other.

Compared to traditional diets, the modern menu has far too much O6 found in seed oils, factory farmed meat, and processed foods and not nearly enough O3 fat. Unfortunately for vegetarians, useful sources of O3 fats are mainly found in grass-fed meat and wild-caught fish. Just reducing your O6 intake by cutting out seed oils and processed foods will reduce your need for O3s, but you still do need some.

Vegan sources of Omega-3s, like flax seeds and chia seeds, also exist, but they contain the less useful form ALA. A good compromise might be to eat a small amount of raw flax or chia seeds or another vegan source of Omega-3s for the EPA, and also taking a vegan DHA supplement.

Maybe it was ethically acceptable to kill and eat animals when the alternative was dying from a nutritional deficiency, but now that we have the technology to prevent that suffering, it would be unethical to keep eating meat. Even an omnivorous Paleo diet should ideally include certain recommended supplements. The point is to figure out how to optimize a vegetarian diet through applying Paleo principles — and that includes some supplements. But the real value of Paleo is in a nourishing diet overall.

In fact, vegetarians and Paleo dieters might even find that they have more in common than they think. For example, we can all agree that school food needs to include more fruits and vegetables, and less sugar. Cooperation on at least the issues we have in common is much better than expending all our energy fighting with each other and ultimately accomplishing nothing. Keeping the dialogue open between vegetarians and Paleo dieters can also help improve Paleo nutritional science, by keeping the Paleo community constantly on its toes.

So, can a vegetarian truly follow a Paleo diet? Learn Start. Paleo Keto Paleo Beginner? Vegetarianism De-Junked Even without getting into the meat issue, there are several other ways that evolutionary principles can be useful to vegetarians or even vegans. Roasted until tender, earthy beets tossed with slices of tangy oranges and topped with pistachios provide a filling lunchtime meal.

For something a little lighter but no less satisfying, a vegan caesar salad is an ideal choice, with the creamy cashew dressing offering a healthy source of fat.

Sweet potatoes loaded with sesame-lime slaw, coconut yogurt and a peanut dressing offer a hearty, low-carb dinner. When the colder months arrive along with bounties of root vegetables, try a parsnip and brussels sprouts bake — top with toasted walnuts and pomegranates for a perfect side or main dish. If you were to follow a strictly paleo diet but omit all the animal products to make it a vegan paleo diet, there is a risk of certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies given the restrictions on certain grains and carbohydrates As already mentioned, amino acids, fibre, and protein could be lacking in vegan paleo diets if not controlled properly.

Getting more plants into your diet is a sure way to improve your health and wellbeing. Check out our blog which explores a wide range of health-related topics — from which fats to eat as a vegan to plant-based foods to power your running. At allplants, we make delicious and nutritious plant-based meals and deliver them straight to your door.

Take a look at our weekly menu to start building your next meal box. Aly is our go-to nutrition hero as she studied Human Nutrition at uni makes sense, right?

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