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Paleolithic Diet-Effect on the Health Status and Performance of Athletes?

Nutrients
March 21, 2021
Barbara Frączek et al. (5 authors)
Journal ArticleMeta-AnalysisSystematic ReviewHuman Study
Study Details

Study Goal

The researchers aimed to evaluate the impact of a Paleolithic diet on health indicators such as body composition, lipid profile, blood pressure, and carbohydrate metabolism in both healthy and unhealthy adults over short and long-term interventions.

Results Summary

The Paleolithic diet showed stronger reductions in weight, BMI, waist circumference, total cholesterol, LDL-C, triglycerides, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, and HbA1c compared to control diets, particularly in the short term. Long-term benefits were observed for cholesterol, LDL-C, fasting glucose, and insulin only with the Paleolithic diet.

Population

Healthy and unhealthy adults (no specific demographic details provided).

Effective Dosage

Not specified

Duration

Short and long-term (specific durations not provided)

Interactions

None mentioned

Extracted Claims (19)
InterventionDirectionEndpointPopulationDosageImpactClaim #
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
anthropometric parameters
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused reduction
#1
control diets (CDs)
decrease
anthropometric parameters
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused reduction
#2
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
weight (body mass (BM))
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
impact was stronger
#3
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
body mass index (BMI)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
impact was stronger
#4
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
waist circumference (WC)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
impact was stronger
#5
All diets
decrease
total cholesterol (TC)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#6
All diets
decrease
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#7
All diets
decrease
triglycerides (TG)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#8
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
total cholesterol (TC)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
impact was stronger
#9
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
impact was stronger
#10
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
total cholesterol (TC)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
cased a decline
#11
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
cased a decline
#12
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
fasting plasma (fP) glucose
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#13
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
fP insulin
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#14
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#15
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#16
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
fasting plasma (fP) glucose
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#17
Paleolithic diet (PD)
decrease
fP insulin
healthy and unhealthy adults
-
caused a decrease
#18
Paleolithic diet (PD)
increase
performance
group without exercise
-
Lower positive impact
#19
Abstract

The aim of this meta-analysis was to review the impact of a Paleolithic diet (PD) on selected health indicators (body composition, lipid profile, blood pressure, and carbohydrate metabolism) in the short and long term of nutrition intervention in healthy and unhealthy adults. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of 21 full-text original human studies was conducted. Both the PD and a variety of healthy diets (control diets (CDs)) caused reduction in anthropometric parameters, both in the short and long term. For many indicators, such as weight (body mass (BM)), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC), impact was stronger and especially found in the short term. All diets caused a decrease in total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG), albeit the impact of PD was stronger. Among long-term studies, only PD cased a decline in TC and LDL-C. Impact on blood pressure was observed mainly in the short term. PD caused a decrease in fasting plasma (fP) glucose, fP insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in the short run, contrary to CD. In the long term, only PD caused a decrease in fP glucose and fP insulin. Lower positive impact of PD on performance was observed in the group without exercise. Positive effects of the PD on health and the lack of experiments among professional athletes require longer-term interventions to determine the effect of the Paleo diet on athletic performance.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
AdultAthletesBlood GlucoseBlood PressureBody CompositionBody Mass IndexCholesterol, LDLDatabases, FactualDietDiet, HealthyDiet, PaleolithicExerciseGlycated HemoglobinHealth StatusHumansLipidsRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicTriglyceridesWaist Circumference
Study Links
Quality Scores
SafetyNot Assessed
Efficacy85/10
Quality80/10
Citation Metrics
Total Citations17
Citations/Year4.3
Relative Citation Ratio1.94
NIH Percentile73.7%
Research Impact Scores
APT Score0.75
Weight Score1.28
Normalized Score0.70
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