The Paleo Pitch
We are officially on the road! More about the first few days of our road trip later this week, because today we’re following up on a question we answered on our Paleolithic Solutions Podcast with Robb Wolf and Andy Deas. (As an aside, we discovered that recording an hour long Podcast is way harder than it sounds. We fumbled and stumbled a bit, and still find ourselves saying, “Oh, man, I wish I had said that on the Podcast…” but all in all, we had a great time, managed to get most of our key points across, and were happy to be able to help solve some of our readers’ problems.)
One of our questions, submitted by Tim in Hawaii, asked us to re-vamp our CrossFit Elevator Pitch and present a similar summary of the Paleo diet. Now, we may not be bio-chemists like Robb, and certainly couldn’t answer some of the more technical questions he takes on during his Podcasts, but the request for a Paleo Pitch was right up our alley. We’re all about the practical application of some pretty science-y nutrition concepts, and there is nothing more practical than being able to explain to your family, friends and other curious parties why you eat the way you do. As Tim discovered, however, that’s not as easy as it sounds. He wrote to us about an experience he had trying to explain his daily nutrition to a co-worker. Tim said, “I tell her and the new supervisor that I recently cut out grains, legumes and dairy. I also did my best Robb Wolf impression and went into the whole grains have anti-nutrients, etc. After further small talk they leave. Not sure I made the impression that I was going for.”
Uh, maybe not, Tim… but it’s not your fault. There’s a fine line to be walked here – explaining your dietary choices, the science behind them and the resulting health benefits, without losing your audience to overly technical concepts, defensiveness about their own food choices or just plain confusion as you try to override a lifetime of government, doctor and SELF magazine-promoted “healthy eating” recommendations. So we took a crack at Tim’s Paleo Pitch on the Podcast, and tightened it up here in written format for our readers.
When asked, “What’s this diet you’re on?”, most Paleo people approach their response entirely the wrong way. The first thing we mention are all the things we DON’T eat – grains, dairy, legumes, sugar and processed foods. Trouble is, there is probably at least ONE of those food groups in their listener’s diet, and starting the discussion with a judgment of their dietary choices (whether real or imagined) immediately puts the listener on the defensive. (As we say in our How to Win Friends post, us Paleo people have the ability to make people feel bad about what they’re doing, JUST by doing what we’re doing.) In addition, jumping into the foods you don’t eat first immediately closes off further conversation if the listener jumps to some fast conclusions about your level of dietary fanaticism, or the restrictive nature of your self-imposed regimen. (For most people, not eating ANY of those food groups is hard to wrap your head around.) Finally, that kind of lead-off also places you in the unfortunate position of then having to justify from a scientific (“prove it”) perspective why the foods you don’t eat are actually not that good for you. And as many of you have discovered, that’s darn near impossible when up against a lifetime of “milk gives you strong bones”, “whole grains have extra nutrition” and “black beans are a good source of protein”.)
So we approached our Paleo pitch from a different angle – emphasizing the foods we DO eat, why we eat them, and the general (and well documented) health benefits associated with the foods we choose. And then we seal the deal with a personal testimonial – how this way of eating has affected YOU, personally. It’s hard to argue with, “Since going Paleo, I put 25# on my deadlift, cut my 5K time by 5:00, lost 10 pounds, and my skin has totally cleared up”, right?
So here’s our final version – Whole9 Paleo Elevator Pitch. Give it a read, give it a test run with the next person you see, and share your thoughts, feedback, experiences and suggestions in comments.
The Whole9 Nutrition Elevator Pitch
I eat “real” food – fresh, natural food like meat, vegetables and fruit. I choose foods that are nutrient dense, with lots of naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals, over foods that have more calories but less nutrition. And food quality is important – I’m careful about where my meat comes from, and buy produce locally and organically as often as possible.
It’s not a low calorie “diet” – I eat as much as I need to maintain strength, energy and a healthy weight. In fact, my diet is probably much higher in fat than you’d imagine. Fat isn’t the enemy – it’s a great energy source when it comes from high quality foods like avocado, coconut and nuts. And I’m not trying to do a “low carb” thing, but since I’m eating vegetables and fruits instead of bread, cereal and pasta, it just happens to work out that way.
Eating like this is good for maintaining a healthy metabolism, and reducing inflammation within the body. It’s been doing great things for my energy levels, body composition and performance in the gym. It also helps to minimize my risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases and conditions, like diabetes, heart attack and stroke.
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Interesting and thoughtful post.. for me, its thru trial and error (albeit quickly) that I have learnt the best way to pass on to patients, family, friends etc what I know is to do it via:
I eat for nourishment – to nourish my body to do what I need/want to do. I eat to decrease inflammation.
I eat for performance, longevity and health. I eat this way because it makes me happy and healthy.
To do so, I eat real food. Mainly yummy meats and veges. Some fruits, some nuts and seeds, LOTS of fats (draws them back in), little starches, no grains and legumes.
9 out of 10 times, there is always solid interest and a good discussion will follow to which I can further delve into finer and other points to ponder for them. Some may take longer, but there will always be some shift in paradigm at the end of the discussion :)
Grok on guys!
Great post! Starting with what we DO eat, and also what results we get is very enrolling for those that are listening. We’re always telling people to share and share often, becuase it makes it more real. This is a great approach.
Thank you!
This is great! I was looking for this exact thing, a concise 30-second summary of eating paleo. Between CrossFit and paleo I lost over 100 lbs and I often get asked what I did/do. I know I can’t get into exercise physiology and biochemistry, but I found telling people “diet and exercise” may be coming off as a bit snarky. And while “Constantly varied, functional movements, performed at a high intensity.” and “Meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar” are easy phrases to memorize and recite back, it can come off canned and isn’t all that informative without more explanation.
I used to do paleo-zone, and when I said Zone to people who asked, you could just see their brains shut down. I think for most people, “Zone=fad diet from the 90s.” Same thing when I talked about carb restriction; automatically, low carb = Atkins. When I tried to explain paleo I would emphasize the idea of whole foods, but I could tell they equated it more to whole-grain bread and brown rice, rather than to grass-fed steaks and fistfuls of kale.
I think this is a great starting point that can likely lead to a conversation where you can get more into the nuances of the Paleo diet.
Very helpful. Many times I’ve been puzzled about why people get very defensive (imagine ‘very’ being in bold) when I answer their initial question, and now it’s rather easy to see why.
‘Oh, I don’t eat bread, rice, or pasta…’
‘But isn’t that good for you? I eat wholemeal bread a lot.’
‘No, that’s not good for you.’
‘Oh.’
…
What a non threatening approach – I don’t eat healthy but admire those of you who do. When I have tried to explain my altered eating (again not healthy but healthier than before) I think I lose people when I mention that I don’t eat breads and avoid dairy – now I can put a positive spin on it – thanks!!
This is a great post, I just came off my first month of strict Paleo eating and so have been getting lots of questions from coworkers/friends/family. I kind of stumbled into the leading off with what I do eat because I was definately getting negative reactions with the listing of what we nolonger eat. I also have to tell you that I am amazed at how different I feel when I’m eating Paleo and when I don’t…I’ve experimented a little bit in the last couple of weeks with old favorite foods just to see what happens. I’m a recovering sugar junky so after a month of no processed sugar I had bread pudding with carmel sauce last Friday morning…within an hour of eating it I felt like I’d had 3 martinis, couldn’t walk straight, my ears were ringing and my whole body was buzzing. I’m guessing it was just the mother of all sugar high’s. I’ve noticed that pretty much everything I’ve tried (pizza, cookies, cheeseburger) causes my head to buzz and my ears to ring. Don’t know if I always used to feel like this and just never noticed until I stopped feeling this way for a month. Both my husband and I are total converts to Paleo eating and I have to thank you guys for this great website for inspiring me to take the plunge!
Aloha Melissa and Dallas,
Thanks for taking on my quandary of the “Elevator pitch.” I loved the input and have come up with a new one that I am going to use for now. What’s every one think?
“I have been trying to learn more about nutrition over the last year or so and have been focused on eating the most nutrient dense, high quality food that I can get my hands on. I have been trying to eat mostly local grass-fed beef, fish, and nutrient dense vegetables. If I can’t do that I still try to choose the best quality protein and vegetables available. I make sure that I get good fats in my meals from healthy sources like coconut, olives, nuts and healthy animals. We have also been trying to keep less nutrient dense calories or foods with higher anti-nutrient contents out of our meals. This is an intentionally anti-inflammatory way to eat and has allowed me to play harder and recover faster from both workouts and injuries. With all that being said, I can still eat just about anywhere and just try to make good choices. Are you interested in hearing any more about it?”
Once again thanks for taking the time to help out a Hawaiian trying to get his pseudo science communicated clearly.
Mahalo
Tim
Ah. Good call on starting with what we DO eat, rather than with what we don’t. I’ll try that.
Yeah, it all comes back to psyc 101, in that it’s much more effective/efficient/productive to motivate someone with a list of “dos” than with a list of “don’ts”. And we all know that effective coaching is, above all else, effective manipulation of the trainee/subject’s psychology. Training and diet (Paleo) mechanics are, for the most part, fairly well spelled-out — at least, in our tribe; proper (and consistent!) implementation, though, creates the roadblock known as “failure”.
Great job on the podcast, btw; thought the two of you came across as both professional and knowledgeable.
Awesome guest post recently on Robb Wolf’s site. I thought of a “paleo pick up line” involving someone’s dog a couple of months ago and scheduled it to post today, on the day I heard your podcast mention of the elevator pitch. I think your “pick up line” would score a lot higher though. Excellent advice, and I really liked all of the reasoning that went behind each line. Agree w/ Keith’s comment above, absolutely.
Best Regards,
Zach
I love your elevator pitch, and I appreciate how it is positive, inciting open conversation instead of defensive argument.
Nice work, guys. Thanks for the blog post!
Thanks for all the great comments, suggestions and feedback!
@Michael: I like your “I eat for health and longevity” approach. If the nutritional choices we’re making today (in an effort to, say, improve TODAY’s performance) isn’t contributing to LONG TERM health and fitness, then doesn’t that defeat the purpose?
@Matt: Good point! I hear you on the “low carb = Atkins” thing. You need to omit as many of those buzz words from your Pitch as possible, because people have immediate pre-conceived notions about lots of things.
@Maureen: That’s either the sugar or the grains – very common side effect. I’m going to suggest you always felt kind of crappy when eating those foods, but just didn’t notice it. That’s the entire POINT of the Whole30 program! Good for you for sticking with it, and thanks for sharing here.
@Tim: I DIG IT! You didn’t need us, dude… that Pitch is solid. It’s really open, uses “plain” words and is designed to prompt a few questions along the way, like, “What are anti-nutrients?” and “What do you mean, nutritionally dense?” Nice work! Thanks for contributing.
@Keith: Thanks for the feedback. The Podcast was fun, but harder than we thought it would be. Next time, we’d like to record in person from Chico!
@Zach: Okay, now we have to hear your Paleo pick-up line involving someone’s dog. Go.
I think I’ve screwed this up a few times in the past… mostly because I didn’t know what I was talking about. When people start asking why I don’t eat grains, the conversation always goes sour. I even had someone tell me that his friend “who is a doctor of internal medicine” said that “a person who chooses to eat like a caveman, should be prepared to die at 40.” I just had to chuckle to myself. Anyway, I told him to keep an open mind and do his own research (and I sent him some links), but that it had really been working for me to help me lean out, increase my strength and performance, and generally just feel better.
In short, I think the best sales pitch is one that doesn’t directly offend CW. Thanks for this post, it may change some lives.
Hi, I heard you on Rob Wolf’s podcast. I started living a Paleo life style 20 yrs ago. No house, car, phone, TV, refridg. washing machine, only a mtn bike and sailboat. No doctor or pills. So many friends, family, and people I meet along the way admire my life but all say I could never live that way with out all my stuff that is my life. In other words my boat is my home, restaurant, car, and airplane. I travel the remote parts of the world in search of beauty, foods, cultures, and sharing my Paleo life. A modern day hunter/gatherer.
Still trying to find Atlantis but I think I will be one of the first ones there in 2012. Then I will find that woman that can live as a paleo woman. George
Thanks for this…..my Husband has a hard time understanding my choice to do this as he is an “I have to have documented scientific research and proof, not just some guy or doctor who wrote a book about it” type of guy. It can be a little intimidating to explain the exact science behind it, but this approach makes it more palatable.
@Trip: You’ve got the right idea – we tell people to “lead by quiet example”. If you’re sharing YOUR personal experiences with your nutrition plan, it becomes impossible to refute YOUR results with any scientific journal or MD’s claim. Keep fighting the good fight, and thanks for sharing your perspective.
@George: I’m not sure how seriously to take you – does the internet qualify as “Paleo”? ;) We’ve met a lot of people on our road trip who say, “I wish I could do what you guys are doing”. The answer is, of course, you can! We’ve found great freedom in giving up those material things we thought we couldn’t do without – sounds like you have as well. Thanks for contributing.
@Kara: Glad you’re finding our way of explaining our dietary choices helpful. If he’s seeing the positive changes in you as you pursue this way of eating, maybe he’ll be inspired to give it a try himself!
Best,
Melissa
Melissa,
I somehow missed your reply to my comment:
“@Zach: Okay, now we have to hear your Paleo pick-up line involving someone’s dog. Go.”
Here’s is what I was referring to:
http://www.thepaleogarden.com/2010/05/07/through-a-dogs-stomach-to-a-persons-heart/
Best Regards,
Zach
I like that idea, especially in the sharing of personal experiences with the new eating style. I tend to use the Crossfit: eat meat and veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar because it is short, to the point and I can elaborate on the foods I do eat rather than those that I don’t. Your pitch is great and I am going to work on a blend of the two, especially with the performance and other measurements such as energy, skin, hair, and so on. Thanks.