What Is The Paleo Diet? Also called the Caveman or Stone Age Diet, the Paleo (short for the Paleolithic Era) is a simple diet of foods eaten by our forefathers prior to the agricultural era. Okay, let me stop you right here. Get the picture of one your dirty, long-haired, animal skin loin-wearing caveman ancestors sitting around a dark cave gnawing on a burnt saber toothed tiger leg out of your mind right now. Rather, this is one of most down to earth and sensible approaches to eating that dates back to over 10,000 years ago.
If you need to follow a gluten free and/or dairy free diet, maybe you have been diagnosed with Celiac's disease, then the Paleo diet is the recommended diet of choice. The reason is because this diet is gluten, dairy and preservative free, is high in protein, and consists of many of the same foods that our hunter ancestors ate.
Loren Cordain, Ph.D. is credited with the Paleo diet after devoting his life to the genetic evolution of eating that our ancestors practiced. You can be assured that cavemen did not eat sugar, processed food such as Doritos, Big Macs, chocolate milk, OR any grains. Once foods are "processed", they are hardly recognizable as the fresh food it started out as, essentially losing most of its nutrients. So the next time you grab the antibiotic riddled, steroid-injected hamburger meat to mix with the "God only knows what's in it" hamburger helper, you are NOT giving your body the basic nutrition it needs. Is it any wonder that these overly-processed foods are related to obesity, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, among other things?
The Paleo diet does include certain foods that our ancestors did not eat that is good for us such as beans. It also includes lean meat and poultry (no skin), organ meat such as liver, fish, shellfish, fruits, vegetables excluding the starchy ones such as potatoes and yams, eggs, nuts and seeds (no peanuts), herbs and spices, unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk, coconut butter. This is not a detailed list of meats, fruits, veggies, etc., but just a generalized list because the Paleo diet is all about eating a wide variety of healthy food.
Foods to be eaten in moderation are oils such as olive, canola and vegetable, soda, tea coffee and fruit juice, dried fruit.
Some of the changes you will notice in your body is that since Paleo food is heavy with nutrients, it may take your body some time to adjust to these changes in vitamin intake. Also, the amount of toxins you take in will be greatly decreased. You should notice increased energy by consuming less carbs as well. Because the diet is high in protein, you will experience less hunger. On this diet, you don't have to eat at set times, but rather only when you are hungry.
The Paleo diet is a simple and natural diet to follow and makes it easy to incorporate gluten free, preservative free, and dairy free recipes into your busy lifestyle. This diet makes big promises and if you follow it faithfully, it will truly deliver.
