Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
MDPI AG
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences / School of Science
RAS ID
21897
Abstract
Background:
The Paleolithic diet is popular in Australia, however, limited literature surrounds the dietary pattern. Our primary aim was to compare the Paleolithic diet with the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) in terms of anthropometric, metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors, with a secondary aim to examine the macro and micronutrient composition of both dietary patterns
Methods:
39 healthy women (mean ± SD age 47 ± 13 years, BMI 27 ± 4 kg/m2) were randomised to either the Paleolithic (n = 22) or AGHE diet (n = 17) for four weeks. Three-day weighed food records, body composition and biochemistry data were collected pre and post intervention
Results:
Significantly greater weight loss occurred in the Paleolithic group (-1.99 kg, 95% CI -2.9, -1.0), p < 0.001). There were no differences in cardiovascular and metabolic markers between groups. The Paleolithic group had lower intakes of carbohydrate (-14.63% of energy (E), 95% CI -19.5, -9.7), sodium (-1055 mg/day, 95% CI -1593, -518), calcium (-292 mg/day 95% CI -486.0, -99.0) and iodine (-47.9 μg/day, 95% CI -79.2, -16.5) and higher intakes of fat (9.39% of E, 95% CI 3.7, 15.1) and β-carotene (6777 μg/day 95% CI 2144, 11410) (all p < 0.01)
Conclusions:
The Paleolithic diet induced greater changes in body composition over the short-term intervention, however, larger studies are recommended to assess the impact of the Paleolithic vs. AGHE diets on metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in healthy populations.
DOI
10.3390/nu8050314
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Genoni, A., Lyons-Wall, P., Lo, J., & Devine, A. (2016). Cardiovascular, metabolic effects and dietary composition of ad-libitum Paleolithic vs. Australian Guide to Healthy Eating diets: a 4-week randomised trial. Nutrients, 8(5), 314-328.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8050314