The Paleo Diet is designed to simulate the diet of our ancestors from way, way back – back when humans were still cavemen! Cavemen are known to hunt and gather their food, so if it’s something you can hunt for, like meat or fish, you can incorporate them into the Paleo Diet. Sounds like another fad diet? Read on below to find out the basics on this diet and why this might or might not be good for you.
The Theory Behind It
Why Paleo? Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancient ancestors ate what they hunted and gathered. Our bodies became so used to that lifestyle, that when agriculture was introduced, our body was not able to fully adapt to the introduction of grains into our diet!
Today, people are encouraged to load up on carbohydrates from rice, pasta, bread and corn to release energy. Most grains contain lectins and gluten, which over time can cause havoc on our bodies. This is a radical change from the diet our ancestors have been on, which is usually composed of meat, vegetables and seasonable fruits.
That’s the reason why today, the average human is out of shape and overweight while our caveman ancestors are agile and athletic.
Foods to Eat
The Paleo Diet is a lot more forgiving than other diets today. After all, you can still have your fair share of meat! The typical paleo diet consists of food you can ‘hunt’ for: grass-fed (not grain-fed) meat, chicken, duck or turkey, and wild fish. It also includes food you can ‘gather’, as in eggs, seasonal fruits, vegetables, nuts and sweet potatoes. Essential oils are also important in the Paleo Diet, like avocado oil, olive oil and coconut oil.
If you translate all that to a meal, you can have steak with fries and asparagus on the side, seafood soup, or tuna sashimi! For dessert, you can have apple dipped in almond butter.
Foods to Avoid
If something contains grains in it, like pasta, pizza, bread or muffin, it’s out of the Paleo Diet. Avoid processed foods and grains when you are on this diet. Sugar is also frowned upon, and the only sugar you can have is from fruits that are in season. Just by removing these three items from your diet, you’re expected to show a positive improvement on your health. Dairy is another thing to avoid, since our caveman ancestors didn’t drink milk beyond infancy. No animal does, really! That’s probably why many are lactose-intolerant today.
If you’re thinking about carbohydrates and energy, well you can get those from vegetables, fruits and potatoes. These are naturally occurring in the wild and are more nutrient-dense and low in calories compared to pasta.
Think about it – no counting of calories, no cutting out on meat, no need to eat every three hours or so, the Paleo Diet sounds like a very realistic diet! But if you can’t go on without breads, pasta, pastries and sugar, this diet probably isn’t for you.
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