The Paleo Diet: Is it Healthy?

What is the Paleo Diet?

The paleo diet consists of foods that were eaten during the Stone Age. Proponents of the paleolithic diet believe that the healthiest and most appropriate foods for us to eat are simple, unprocessed foods similar to the ones that were consumed by our early hunter-gatherer ancestors during the Paleolithic period. The reasoning behind this is that human physiology has not changed significantly in the past 150,000 years, and the human digestive system is best adapted to the foods that early humans were eating when Homo sapiens first evolved.

Agriculture was not developed until the Neolithic period, about 10,000 years ago. This is a relatively recent event in the in history of the species, and advocates of the paleo diet assert that cultivated foods such as grains and dairy are not compatible with our digestive system, and therefore do not provide optimum nutrition and contribute to health problems.

Paleo Diet Foods

The paleo diet primarily consists of meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, tree nuts and seeds. While wild game would be the closest approximation to a true Paleolithic diet, realistically most people aren't going to go out and hunt their own meat, so free-range or organic grass-fed meat rather than factory farmed, grain-fed meat is a suitable choice. Eggs and mushrooms are generally included. Oils should be those derived from fruits or tree nuts such as olive, coconut or avocado.

Foods that are produced as a result of agriculture such as grains and dairy products are eliminated from the diet, as are added sugar, salt and alcohol. New World foods should also be avoided. These are foods that were not present in Europe or Asia in ancient times, such as potatoes, beans, certain nuts including peanuts and cashews, and fruits such as grapefruit, pineapples, mangoes and strawberries.

What does a typical paleo diet meal plan look like? Breakfast might include eggs with bacon or sausages; lunch could be chicken salad; and for dinner, spaghetti made with spaghetti squash, tomato sauce and ground beef, stew or soup with vegetables and meat, stir-fry, or a seafood dish made with clams or shrimp. Ample amounts of different types of fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, celery, carrots, olives, spinach and broccoli can be added to any meal.

Advantages of the Paleo Diet

The conventional modern diet of processed foods, cereal grains, dairy, sugar and salt has been linked to numerous health conditions, including obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The number of people who are gluten intolerant or have celiac disease is rapidly increasing, and many are finding it necessary to eliminate grains from the diet.

Is the paleo diet beneficial? A study published in the journal Cardiovascular Diabetology found that a paleo diet improved glycemic control, increased levels of HDL cholesterol, and reduced cardiovascular risk factors including blood pressure and BMI in patients with type 2 diabetes. Another study published in Nutrition and Metabolism found that the paleo diet was more filling and satisfying per calorie than a Mediterranean diet including whole grains and dairy. A long-term animal study found that the paleo diet resulted in higher insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure and C-reactive protein levels, and a lower percentage of body fat. These results indicate that in addition to being beneficial to health, the paleo diet could also be effective for weight loss.

Sources:

http://thepaleodiet.com/

http://paleodiet.com/

http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/