The Paleo lifestyle is hardly trending anymore. Between January and March of 2012, two medical panels and a number of articles have pointed out shortcomings in Paleo’s nutritional values and cast doubt on a society’s ability to replicate primitive diets in a contemporary world.
The U.S. News & World Report publishes annual rankings of various diets based on evaluations by a panel of doctors and health experts who assess a range of factors including weight loss, ease of adherence, and health risks. This year, Paleo ranked 34 out of 35, far behind the vegan diet at 19 and even various classics like Atkins, South Beach and the Zone.
At the same time, the federal committee advising the 2015 Dietary Guidelines panel is recommending that Americans take most red meat off the table. Some of their reasons are echoed in a review of pertinent research published in late April by a dietician in the Huffington Post. The author notes that even the best Paleo studies to date consider only short-term risk factors, leaving disease and death rates in question while ignoring some of the best data on the long term hazards of consuming red meat.