Paleo Diet – Eat like a Caveman

It’s one of the most popular diets right now. The Paleo diet is more than a diet, however; it’s a lifestyle. Other diets require you to remove very specific parts of your food intake: carbs, fats, etc. The Paleo diet, on the other hand, requires that you remove all “fake foods” from your diet, leaving only natural, unprocessed foods for consumption. The lifestyle decreases your dependency on unnatural ways of eating.

The fundamental theory behind Paleo dieting is that you can’t eat anything that people from the Paleolithic era couldn’t eat. Think hunting and gathering in the 21st century.

What is Paleolithic?

The Paleolithic Age or Era is often called the Stone Age. This era is distinguished by the development of tools for which to hunt and gather. The era ended with the introduction of agriculture (growing crops). The primarily ate fish, shellfish, leafy vegetables, fruit, nuts and insects.

Paleolithic people tended to experiences less famine and malnutrition than those who came after them because they were not dependent on farming. The great amount of meat hunted by the Paleos would account for why they were more nutritious than their successors. Paleos are also less likely to be afflicted with modern ailments like Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease.

The latter parts of the Paleolithic Era saw them practicing animal husbandry as part of their diets. Animal husbandry is the raising of livestock to later eat them.

What is the Paleo Diet?

Those following the Paleo diet try to replicate the ancient diet of our paleo-ancestors. The diet centers on commonly available modern foods consisting mainly of meat, fish, vegetable, fruit, roots, and nuts. The Paleo diet excludes grains, legumes, dairy products (controversial), salt, refined sugar and processed oils.

The rules for food are not complex – the hard part is avoiding the “fake foods.” Here are some important things to consider:

• Avoid walking down the aisles at grocery stores at all costs. Packaged and processed food is a no-no and grocery aisles are bursting with fake food.
• PROTEIN AND CARBOHYDRATES: since much of the carbohydrates are eliminated from your diet, the ratio of protein is much greater. Paleos have slender, lean bodies from eating plenty of protein.
• Say good-bye to breaded everything.