CJMY Camille Goubert’s column “C Jamie” airs daily in the program, which is presented by Jamie Gourmaud on France 5, Monday through Friday at 5 pm.

Fruits, vegetables, seeds and a lot of protein: Paleolithic diets (or paleo diets) have gained a lot of followers worldwide. There is a very dubious scientific logic behind this diet, according to which the food of our ancestors is more favorable to our body than what we eat in the modern era.

The Palaeolithic period may have marked our digestive system more strongly

The Paleo diet involves eating like our distant ancestors, and today has millions of followers. This idea was introduced in 1975 by Doctor Walter L. Comes from Voigtlin’s book. According to him, our modern diet is harmful to our body, which would not have got the time to develop in order to adapt to it. But if our current diet is not suitable, it remains to be determined which diet to recommend, radiologist Stanley Boyd Eaton raised the torch in 1985. For them, this is the Palaeolithic period, which took place 3 million years. Around 10,000 years BC, because it is the longest period in human history, and therefore must have marked our digestive system more strongly.

This argument may sound logical, but it is exactly the opposite. In fact our DNA can develop very rapidly: for example, our ability to digest lactose circulating in European populations 5,000 years ago, to the point of being present in 70 to 90% of the population today. .

It is difficult to determine a specific plate in 3 million years

But even if the logic is flawed, is the Paleo diet good for your health? To find out, the first hurdle is to identify what the hunter ate at the time. Again, this is a bit absurd: determining a specific plate in about 3 million years does not make much sense. But tell them that they had to eat fruits, vegetables, seeds, lean meats, fish and eggs altogether. Goodbye dairy products, grains, legumes and all their derivatives, such as oil or beer. And yes, the latter only appeared in the Neolithic period with the first agricultural revolution.

Too much protein, too little sugar

Eliminating over-processed foods and favoring fruits and vegetables is actually a good idea for your health. In contrast, the Paleo diet includes too much protein – up to 35% of the daily ration instead of the recommended 12%, and not enough glucose – sugars. Slow sugar of grains and legumes, absent from the paleo diet, is actually necessary for the proper functioning of the body. Our body can produce sugars from protein, but it is a costly mechanism. Replacing sugars with protein also leads to overproduction of waste products, which over time make the kidneys fatigued.

There is no need to try to imitate our ancestors: the key to our success over millions of years is that we can eat anything! Eating a balanced diet is already good.