Diet 101: The Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet is based upon eating healthy, contemporary foods from the food groups our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era, about 10,000 years ago and beyond. The Paleo Diet include foods such as fresh meats, preferably grass-produced or free-ranging beef, lamb, pork, poultry, and game meat, fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood, seeds, nuts, and salubrious oils including avocado, coconut, flaxseed, macadamia, olive, and walnut. Dairy products, cereal grains, legumes, refined sugars and processed foods, on the other hand, were not part of our ancestral diet.

Research studies demonstrate that hunter-gatherers typically were free from the chronic illnesses and diseases that are widespread in today’s populations, including:
  • Obesity
  • Gout
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis)
  • Autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, etc.)
  • Cancer
  • Osteoporosis
  • Acne
  • Myopia (nearsightedness), macular degeneration, glaucoma
  • Varicose veins, hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, gastric reflux
What to Eat on the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet consists much more detail on the foods you should and shouldn’t eat, so here is a basic scheme of what to eat on The Paleo Diet:


EAT:
  • Eggs
  • Fresh fruits and veggies
  • Grass-produced meats
  • Fish/seafood
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Healthy oils (avocado, coconut, olive, flaxseed, macadamia, walnut)
DON’T EAT:
  • Cereal grains
  • Dairy
  • Legumes (including peanuts)
  • Potatoes
  • Processed foods
  • Refined sugar
  • Refined vegetable oils
  • Salt

The Paleo Diet is an effort to eat like we used to back in the day… way, way back during our ancestral era.  If a caveman couldn’t eat it, neither can you.

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