Author Topic: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?  (Read 6668 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Paleo Flâneur

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« on: May 14, 2015, 06:38:52 pm »
Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forum and I'm happy to be here! I'm French, currently living in New Zealand and Paleo Aficionado.

I've been wondering how many people in the world follow the Paleo Diet? I could unfortunately not really find any information be searching online. It would be great to have a number for each country but it guess this might be a little bit too much to ask.  :P

Please let me know if you know where I could find the answer if you have some resources. If you don't know, it would be great if you could give me your thoughts anyway.

I found on another forum that Rob Wolff once said that approximately 1 million in the US do so (posted on Dec. 2015)

Thank you in advance for your help!

Antoine

Offline TylerDurden

  • Global Moderator
  • Mammoth Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 17,016
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Raw Paleolithic Diet
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2015, 08:06:58 pm »
No idea. One also has to include the number of hunter-gatherers who practise palaeolithic diets. Also, there are many people who follow a palaeolithic diet but who do not necessarily view themselves as  palaeodieters.
"During the last campaign I knew what was happening. You know, they mocked me for my foreign policy and they laughed at my monetary policy. No more. No more.
" Ron Paul.

Offline ys

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 1,323
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2015, 10:23:07 pm »
Paleo/Primal (including low carb) Diet has been somewhat popular lately and sites like paleohacks have significant traffic. But that's all cooked Paleo.  Number of people who eat raw animal food is really miniscule.

Offline TylerDurden

  • Global Moderator
  • Mammoth Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 17,016
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Raw Paleolithic Diet
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2015, 11:49:53 pm »
AV claimed 20,000 primal dieters in the USA alone. Then there are the Instinctos, the raw-leaning hunter-gatherer tribes like the nenets. I would say there are a lot more than one might think. I have even occasionally met people who did not identify as being rawpalaeo but who simply ate meat raw because it was less hassle than to cook it.
"During the last campaign I knew what was happening. You know, they mocked me for my foreign policy and they laughed at my monetary policy. No more. No more.
" Ron Paul.

Offline Paleo Flâneur

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2015, 09:18:43 am »
Thank you for your input guys. I know it is difficult (not to say impossible) to know how many there is. This is good though to have an estimate. I'll keep digging  :)

Offline cherimoya_kid

  • One who bans trolls
  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 4,513
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2015, 09:24:23 am »
If we define it as eating a diet that has no foods in it that have to be (and/or are nearly always eaten cooked) cooked, AND also includes at least some raw animal foods regularly, I'd bet a few hundred thousand eat that way, maybe even a million.

Offline Paleo Flâneur

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2015, 04:53:29 pm »
Thanks for sharing your thoughts cherimoya_kid. You're right, it depends on the definition we make from Paleo and this is why it is really difficult to have a number, especially because there is anyway no exact figures on this.

I thought there might have been some resources though and would really appreciate if anyone would have one. Yes, I'm still hoping  :D

Offline PaleoPhil

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 6,198
  • Gender: Male
  • Mad scientist (not into blind Paleo re-enactment)
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2015, 12:20:22 am »
I think Wolff and Cordain's estimate of roughly 1 million plus people for the total, including both cooked and raw versions, sounds like a decent estimate.

There has been a recent decline in Google Trends Internet hits (https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%22paleo%20diet%22) on the term "Paleo diet" and some decrease in traffic at veteran Paleo blogs and forums like this one, so it's possible that the numbers have fallen off some. There tend to be ebbs and flows and cycles. If Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton get elected (both of whom reportedly consider their diets "Paleo"), then there will likely be another spike in interest for a while.

Ironically, it's only after public interest has been declining that some in the media have started to say that Paleo has gone mainstream (probably due to increasing celebrity endorsements  l) ): http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-living/ci_28105410/paleo-diet-out-cave-and-into-mainstream  ;D  I knew it wouldn't get much kind or even neutral media treatment until enough bogus celebrities endorsed it.
>"When some one eats an Epi paleo Rx template and follows the rules of circadian biology they get plenty of starches when they are available three out of the four seasons." -Jack Kruse, MD
>"I recommend 20 percent of calories from carbs, depending on the size of the person" -Ron Rosedale, MD (in other words, NOT zero carbs) http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ogtan
>Finding a diet you can tolerate is not the same as fixing what's wrong. -Tim Steele
Beware of problems from chronic Very Low Carb

Offline Paleo Flâneur

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #8 on: May 17, 2015, 04:11:20 pm »
Thanks for your great input and the links PaleoPhil! I think I'll simply use 1 million as the number and will say this is an approximation. There is anyway no possibility to get any better number.

But if you come across some more information, please let me know. I will do the same !  :)

Offline TylerDurden

  • Global Moderator
  • Mammoth Hunter
  • *****
  • Posts: 17,016
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Raw Paleolithic Diet
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #9 on: May 17, 2015, 06:06:53 pm »
The figure must be much higher, though if you include modern palaeo hunter-gatherers.
"During the last campaign I knew what was happening. You know, they mocked me for my foreign policy and they laughed at my monetary policy. No more. No more.
" Ron Paul.

Offline PaleoPhil

  • Mammoth Hunter
  • ******
  • Posts: 6,198
  • Gender: Male
  • Mad scientist (not into blind Paleo re-enactment)
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2015, 12:12:32 am »
I suppose you could say 1-2 million to include those. I doubt there's more than a million of them left, though I haven't seen estimates.
>"When some one eats an Epi paleo Rx template and follows the rules of circadian biology they get plenty of starches when they are available three out of the four seasons." -Jack Kruse, MD
>"I recommend 20 percent of calories from carbs, depending on the size of the person" -Ron Rosedale, MD (in other words, NOT zero carbs) http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ogtan
>Finding a diet you can tolerate is not the same as fixing what's wrong. -Tim Steele
Beware of problems from chronic Very Low Carb

Offline PaleoComics

  • Forager
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: How many people in the World follow the Paleo Diet?
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2015, 06:27:50 am »
I have read once on Amazing paleo forum that the figure is about 1 million.  But I think the figure should be more than that if we have more reliable data from most developing countries.

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk