Robb Wolf: From Vegan and Sick to the Paleo Diet, and Why Real Food Comes First
Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution, tells how a gut-health crisis on a vegan diet led him to paleo in 1998, and why he says getting people from junk food to real food matters most.
By The Meat Mafia (Harry Gray and Brett Ender)
Robb Wolf joined us early on, and we'd been reading his work for years before that. He wrote The Paleo Solution, and he's one of the people who put the word paleo on the map. His own starting point was rough.
He grew up a competitive powerlifter, a California state champion as a teenager, at about 181 pounds. Both his parents, he says, were pretty unhealthy. By the mid-to-late '90s he was vegan and getting progressively sicker. His ulcerative colitis got so bad that he wasted away.
"I was down to about 120 pounds." (09:38)
He's five foot nine. His hair and nails were falling out, he says, and he was dealing with deep depression. He compares bad gut issues to bad back pain: there's no escape, and you still have to eat.
The turn came from a phone call with his mom, around 1997 or 1998. She'd had a lifetime of similar problems, and her rheumatologist told her she was reactive to grains, legumes and dairy. Robb was vegan. "What on earth do you eat if you don't eat grains and legumes?" he remembers thinking.
He had a biochemistry degree and a love of evolutionary biology, and the phrase "paleolithic diet" popped into his head. So he waited out the dial-up and typed it into a brand-new search engine called Google. He found the work of researcher Loren Cordain, and an Atkins book.
His first meal off veganism was a rack of beef ribs, slow-cooked for about eight hours, with some ripe cantaloupe. He fell asleep in his chair and woke up about 13 hours later.
"And it was the first morning that I kind of woke up and didn't feel nearly as tired as when I went to sleep." (17:56)
There were still ribs on the stove, so he had some more. He was working in cancer research and weighing medical school at the time. The experience, he says, pushed him toward preventive, lifestyle-focused work instead, and later to answering nutrition questions on the CrossFit message board for free.
That's the Robb Wolf we sat down with: a biochemist who found his way back through his own gut. Below is the rest of the conversation, from hunter-gatherer health to junk food and the beef-and-climate debate. This is his story, not medical advice. Talk to your own clinician about any gut condition.
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TL;DR: Robb Wolf says severe ulcerative colitis on a vegan diet took him from about 181 pounds to about 120 in the late 1990s. A tip from his mom's rheumatologist (avoid grains, legumes and dairy) sent him searching "paleolithic diet" on a brand-new Google. His first meal off veganism was slow-cooked beef ribs. Today his big priority is simple: "getting people from junk food to real food."
Who is Robb Wolf? A former research biochemist, author of The Paleo Solution and co-creator of Sacred Cow (sacredcow.info). He was an early voice in the paleo and CrossFit nutrition world.
Key takeaways
- He says ulcerative colitis took him from about 181 pounds to about 120 on a vegan diet (09:18).
- His mom's rheumatologist told her she was reactive to grains, legumes and dairy, which started his search (10:49).
- He searched "paleolithic diet" on Google in 1998 and found Loren Cordain's work (12:15).
- His first meal off veganism was slow-cooked beef ribs and cantaloupe (16:33).
- He says the biggest issue is getting people from junk food to real food (1:04:23).
What hunter-gatherer research suggested to him
Robb describes researchers making the case that hunter-gatherers who made it to about 15 were as likely to reach 80 as we are, despite high infant mortality and little modern medicine, and that their elders often kept full cognitive faculties (13:22–13:45). That's what pulled him into the paleo idea.
Junk food to real food
His big-picture priority: "the biggest issue is getting people from junk food to real food" (1:04:23). He finds the idea of hyper-palatable foods a useful dividing line, using Doritos as his example (1:09:12).
Cows, grass and carbon
On the climate debate, he argues that the carbon in methane from grazing cattle came from grass that pulled it out of the atmosphere, so it's part of a cycle (46:44). His film and site, Sacred Cow at sacredcow.info, go deeper (1:36:21).
FAQ
Who is Robb Wolf? A former research biochemist, author of The Paleo Solution and co-creator of Sacred Cow.
How did Robb Wolf find the paleo diet? After his mom's rheumatologist said she was reactive to grains, legumes and dairy, he searched "paleolithic diet" on Google in 1998 (10:49, 12:15).
What was Robb Wolf's first meal after veganism? A rack of slow-cooked beef ribs with some cantaloupe (16:33).
What does Robb Wolf say matters most for public health? Getting people from junk food to real food (1:04:23).
Related on The Meat Mafia
- Chris Kresser on autoimmunity
- Anthony Chaffee: did humans evolve to eat meat?
- More on Metabolic Health
- Browse all episodes
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Not medical advice. This post summarizes a podcast conversation for education. The views are the guest's own. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change your diet, supplements or any medication.
