Paleo was the most frequently googled diet in 2013 and 2014 (Google Trends 2014). Its foundational premise is that our bodies have not significantly evolved since the Palaeolithic period, resulting in a fundamental mismatch between our hunter-gatherer genetic inheritance and our contemporary post-industrial diets . In remedying the pervasive illness seen as stemming from this discord, Paleo dieters seek that which is conceived as the authentic and fundamentally human way of eating and moving. The diet ’s vast popularity, replete with impassioned celebrity endorsements and cult-like commitment among adherents, has been matched by an equal measure of media mockery and condemnation from health authorities . But beyond the hype, who are the people taking up the diet , and why are they drawn to its restrictive regime? And of all the many and varied diets available, why is it that Paleo is hitting such a nerve at this moment in time? This book aims to answer these questions through an ethnographic exploration of the Paleo diet in Australia .
Based primarily in Melbourne and Sydney , and in the vibrant Paleo communities online , I have found that far from the stereotypical assumptions of kale-worshipping gym-junkies, the majority of Australian Paleo dieters are sufferers of lingering, and at times chronic, disease. Through the narratives of individuals struggling with illness , overweight and obesity , this book explores the symbolic functions food serves for Paleo dieters . While conceptions of idealised Palaeolithic ancestors are symbolically significant and play a key role in the diet ’s promotion, for Australian Paleos I suggest that identities are constructed less through primitivist imaginaries, than against consumers of what they provocatively term the SAD diet (Standard American/Australian Diet ) in their own communities. Constructions of purity and pollution manifest in strictly upheld food taboos , reflecting adherents’ concerns around contemporary SAD foodways. Such anxieties serve, I argue, as a metaphor for broader issues unfolding in Australian society , which in turn impact individual life courses. Paleos recognise that rates of obesity and chronic illness have increased in tandem with neoliberal policies engendering precarious working conditions, a preponderance of polluted, toxic environments and the unregulated sale of junk foods. Yet, in public health discourse , the individual is consistently cast as solely responsible for their health. For the most part internalising such values, the ill and overweight seek redemption from their fleshly challenges through dietary disciplines . Through pursuing the Paleo diet , often in conjunction with alternative health practices, illness narratives are re-authored, with daily consumption choices endowing people with a strong sense of agency and empowerment. Through the concomitant eschewal of the government’s dietary advice, biomedicine and the junk foods of multinational corporations, Paleos construct their foodways as an act of resistance . This oppositional positioning is best understood in reference to the rise of populism globally, where a sense of crisis, anti-elite sentiments , and the democratisation of knowledge enabled by the Internet are fuelling the proliferation of alternative health beliefs and practices, which constitute a major industry in their own right. Despite its spirit of resistance , I argue that the Paleo diet is both a product and perpetuator of neoliberal values , whose proponents endeavour to improve the health of the individual in lieu of effecting societal-level change, while enriching populist health leaders . Nonetheless, within these restraints, the diet is having positive impacts for its passionate following, who claim not only to dramatically improve their physical and mental health, but to develop new communities and senses of belonging through Paleo living.
The Paleo Diet in Australia
Paleo is primarily defined by its taboos, which encompass foods associated with the agrarian revolution and industrial production, including all grains , dairy , sugar , legumes , alcohol and refined vegetable oils. The foods encouraged are: vegetables (particularly those that grow above ground); meat (grass-fed , in the case of ruminants); seafood; eggs; seeds; nuts; and limited amounts of fruit. Fermented foods are highly esteemed by those who can tolerate them, as is bone broth. Paleo dieters describe their foodways as best conceptualised as a spectrum, with people adhering to these taboos to various degrees depending on their health status, food in/tolerances and will power. Those struggling with the latter often aim for the 80/20 rule, allowing twenty per cent of their diet to include non-compliant foods.
Paleo shares a number of features with the low-carb diets, such as Banting (1864), that emerged in the nineteenth century, and proliferated in the late twentieth century, with a succession of popular iterations, including the Atkins (1972), Stone Age (Voegtlin 1975) and Zone (Sears 1995) diets . The Paleo diet ’s current form was ignited by a paper published by the radiologist, Stanley Eaton , with anthropologist, Melvin Konner (1985; see also Eaton et al. 1988). This largely informed Loren Cordain ’s (2002) book, The Paleo Diet , through which it caught the public’s attention. The principles and practices of Paleo have been further popularised in the USA by a host of bloggers and authors, most influentially, Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf . In Australia, early recruits followed the US lead, and as a consequence, at least in its infancy, a Paleo identity in Sydney or Melbourne was less specifically Australian than ‘a product of globalisation and transnational flows of food , tastes, media , capital, and people’ (de Solier 2013: 13). In the past five years, a more localised Paleo movement has been spearheaded by the celebrity chef, Pete Evans , as his public profile as a Paleo proponent has flourished and a thriving online community largely populated by Australians has consolidated. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people follow the Paleo diet in Australia , but to give some idea, in 2011–2012, 13% of Australia’s roughly 22 million people were on a diet (ABS 2014). Twenty-nine per cent of this group reported being on a low-carbohydrate diet , with a further 20% following a high-protein regime (ABS 2014). It is not possible to determine who among these groups were specifically pursuing Paleo, but at the time of writing in April 2017, Pete Evan’s ‘The Paleo Way Tribe ’ Facebook page had 45,000+ members. This site originated in Australia and is predominantly populated by Australians, but its membership includes individuals from other nations. Moreover, several of my interlocutors in Melbourne and Sydney were not part of this group. Consequently, these numbers are far from definitive, yet, they give some idea of the popularity the diet has achieved over the past few years.
Researching Paleo
I did not initially set out to study the Paleo diet , but as is often the case in ethnographic endeavours, a series of serendipitous events led me to it. My previous research with the white citizens of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, triggered an interest in people’s relationships to the environment, and particularly hunting (see Gressier 2014, 2015). In 2012, I shifted this focus to Australia and commenced a project exploring the changing values and practices around the consumption of wild meat , both native and feral (Gressier 2016). Around this time, I began to hear about Paleo dieters , whose hunter-gatherer focus and meat enthusiasm rendered their foodways an obvious avenue of interest. I soon discovered, however, that Paleos are far more focussed on ensuring the livestock they consume is pasture-fed , than they are on seeking out the wild meat that presumably more closely resembles that enjoyed by our Palaeolithic ancestors . Despite my initial disappointment at this discovery, I became increasingly interested in the diet , which my informants reported as having profound impacts on their health and happiness, and that I soon realised reflected some of the important challenges of our times. Consequently, since 2014 the Paleo diet has become a central focus.
My research has entailed participant observation among the Paleo communities predominantly in Melbourne ’s inner north, Sydney’s Northern Beaches and online. Located on the east coast, Melbourne and Sydney are the nation’s most populous cities, with roughly 4.6 and 5 million people, respectively. The Northern Beaches is an affluent area with the December 2016 quarter showing one of the lowest unemployment rates in Australia at 3.07% (Department of Employment 2017). This reflects a good availability of jobs, but also the high cost of living, and particularly real estate prices, with those who cannot find work soon forced out of the area. My research in Me...