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The dietary needs of humankind were forged into our genes millions of years in the past, long before many of the foods that pollute our modern tables were first eaten by people, and the Paleo diet aims at boosting your health by returning you to the types of nourishment your ancestors ate for far longer than they have eaten grains and dairy products. The cavemen had no wheat, no domestic cattle, and no sugar, so all these foods are actually harmful to the human system.
The Paleo diet is based on a recognition that many of today's ills are caused by the unnatural diet that we eat every day and that is subtly poisoning our metabolisms. Food produced by farming has appeared only very recently in humankind's history, genetically speaking, and although we can eat such food, we are poorly adapted to handling its chemical constituents.
Just consider how much obesity, tooth decay, metabolic illness such as diabetes or allergic reactions, and other food-related trouble there is in the world today, and it becomes clear that many modern foods are much more trouble than they are worth. Eliminating these hazardous foods from your diet and substituting the varieties that your body is actually adapted to eating lies at the heart of the Paleo diet.
Modern humans are really just cavemen who are eating the horribly inadequate foods thrust upon them by the so-called agricultural revolution. Freeing your diet from these harmful types of food and focusing instead on the food types that our bodies are built to handle restores much of the control over your health and weight that was lost to today's dietary products.
Think about foods carefully and whether or not they would have been available to cavemen before you set tooth to anything. Grains were only eaten following the establishment of farms ten thousand years ago or less. They are something that should be completely stricken from the lists of food that make up your diet when you are following the Paleo diet's path to better health and better nutrition.
Since animals had not yet been domesticated, there was no butter, cheese, or milk, which explains modern man's frequent lactose intolerance and illustrates why these products should be wholly shunned as well. Sugar is even worse than most of these foods - only very recently planted to titillate the over-refined palates of modern humans, in place of the more healthful sweets provided by honey, which could be collected from nests of wild bees. Use this substance in moderation as part of a Paleo diet, and remember that it should not be given to children under the age of ten because of small quantities of botulism spores present in all honey.
Fruits, on the other hand, are something that cavemen could acquire, picking fruits from the branches of trees. The many health and nutritional benefits of fruits and fruit juice illustrate how well our caveman metabolisms are adapted to eating it. Eggs were found in nests and eaten, though not in large amounts, since the unnatural arrangement of chicken farms were unknown. Eat half a dozen of these at most per week, though you can eat the whole egg, both white and yolk.
Meat and nuts are the keystones of the Paleo diet. Lean meats of all kinds, and organ meats as well, should be eaten as a mainstay of your food. Their high protein content will help both to boost your energy and to slim you naturally. Nuts provide plenty of protein and calories without harmful fats, and can be eaten in considerable quantities too, though they are a bit more fattening than meat.
Root vegetables, which echo the nourishing roots foraged by our caveman ancestors, can form part of your Paleo diet, too. They should not be allowed to dominate, but they can be used to supplement meat, nuts, and fruits. By eschewing all of the food products made with grains, which includes all baked goods, and all sugar products, you will be well on your way to the rugged health enjoyed by our caveman ancestors - the restorative promise of a life free from modern metabolic afflictions held out by the Paleo diet.
