What is the Paleo Diet?
Like any truly practical diet, the Paleo is more of a way of life and not meant to be a temporary remedy to drop a few pounds. It is based on the idea that people have been around for over 2 million years and, for most of them, existed as hunters and gatherers. Only lately (about 10,000 years ago) did we start adding things like grains, potatoes and dairy products seriously into our diets. In evolutionary terms, that's not enough time to adjust to them as staple foods.
So the main concept is very easy: eat the way a hunter/gatherer would. You should try to eat foods you would come across in nature that are edible without a lot of handling and processing. These items include:
Lean meat
Fish
Eggs
Vegetables
Root vegetables
Fruits & berries
Nuts/seeds
Everything on the checklist is high in vitamins and minerals. So let's take a glimpse at what is not on the list:
Grains
Beans/legumes
Potatoes
Dairy products
Sugar
Salt
It's fairly well reported that sugar and salt are not beneficial to you so I'm not getting into those here, but I want to touch on the other things because they may seem odd at first. Particularly, the notion that you should not eat grain or dairy does not sit well with a lot of individuals. Let me clarify...
Grains, beans and potatoes (GBP) were generally not eaten by hunter/gatherer societies mostly due to the fact that they are harmful in their raw states. Cooking lessens, but doesn't actually wipe out the toxins so it is best to stay away from them completely. Other than being toxic (as if that was not sufficient), GBP are typically high in calories, low in nutritional value and cause your blood sugar to spike (which is not good) because of their high glycemic index.
Okay, so no grains, beans or potatoes because they're harmful and not nutritious. So what about milk? You can consume milk raw - it can't be that terrible, right?
Not necessarily. Dairy goods are a completely different animal. Milk and other dairy products were not introduced into our diet until the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago. Consider these things for a minute...
We are:
the only mammal that drinks milk after being weaned
the only mammal that drinks the milk of other animals by choice
Take these ideas one stage further and it's sensible to consider that we are not really developed to consume dairy products. Now, I know what you're thinking - "but women create milk naturally to nurse their infants." Yes, but the real truth of the matter may surprise you: most mammals (which includes us humans) become lactose-intolerant after being weaned from their moms! If you do not have difficulties with milk products as you get older, you are in the minority. It's approximated that 75% of the world's adult population is lactose-intolerant with as much as 98% intolerance for some Asian and Native American peoples.
Cancer. Diabetes. Hypertension. Heart disease. Depression. These "diseases of civilization" have seen remarkable increases over the past 50 years and become more widespread every single day. There are two primary things at play here:
A progressively sedentary lifestyle
A diet high in calories and low in nutritional value
We're certainly living longer than our primitive cousins due to factors like sanitation, available medical treatment and not getting eaten by predators, but our later years are fatter and more sick than ever before. It is no wonder, though. Take a stroll through your local grocery store and see how much good, organic paleo food fills the shelves compared to grains and other junk loaded with refined sugar and additives. Is it starting to click yet?
There are only a few non-westernized hunter/gatherer tribes remaining in the world, but they are some of the healthiest, fittest individuals around. They lead active lives and consume a more traditional diet of meats, vegetables and other paleo foods. Diabetes and cancer are complete rarities. Heart disease? Nope. Hypertension? Nada.
Now I am not saying we should go back to being tribal societies in the wild (since they do have higher rates of one key factor - accidental and traumatic deaths), but perhaps we can learn a thing or two from them. If we're going to stop the trends of lifestyle diseases, we need to return to leading more active, healthy lives.
