The Paleo diet, also known as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet, or hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan inspired by the dietary habits of humans during the Paleolithic era. This era spanned from approximately 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago. The diet emphasizes foods presumed to have been available through hunting and gathering.
What is the Paleo Diet?
A paleo diet is an eating plan based on foods humans might have eaten during the Paleolithic Era. The basis of the diet is a re-imagining of what Paleolithic people ate, and different proponents recommend different diet compositions. The modern paleo diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds. These are foods that in the past people could get by hunting and gathering. It doesn't include foods that became more common when small-scale farming began about 10,000 years ago. The Paleo diet emphasizes an increased consumption of lean meat, fish, shellfish, fruit, vegetables, eggs, nuts, and seeds while excluding grains, legumes, cereals, dairy, processed foods, refined sugars and added salt.
The Rationale Behind the Paleo Diet
The main purpose of a paleo diet is to eat foods likely eaten by early humans. Farming made foods such as grains and legumes more easily available. And it introduced dairy, also, farming changed the diets of animals that people ate. The paleo diet idea is that these changes in diet outpaced the human body's ability to change or adapt. Proponents state that because our genetics and anatomy have changed very little since the Stone Age, we should eat foods available during that time to promote good health.
Historical Roots
Historians can trace the ideas behind the diet to "primitive" diets advocated in the 19th century. In his 1975 book The Stone Age Diet, gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin proposed that humans are naturally adapted to a meat-heavy, low-carbohydrate diet. In 1985, Stanley Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner published an article proposing that modern humans were biologically very similar to their primitive ancestors and so "genetically programmed" to consume pre-agricultural foods. This diet's ideas were further popularized by Loren Cordain, a health scientist with a Ph.D.
What You Can Eat on the Paleo Diet
As the claim goes, the human body evolved to thrive in the Stone Age, and our genetic makeup has changed little since then. On the paleo diet, you can eat a variety of whole, unprocessed foods. Common choices include:
Read also: Delicious Caveman Recipes
- Meat: Beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, pork, and others
- Fish and seafood: Salmon, trout, haddock, shrimp, shellfish, etc. (choose wild-caught if you can)
- Eggs: May be free-range, pastured, or omega-3 enriched
- Vegetables: Broccoli, kale, peppers, onions, carrots, tomatoes, etc.
- Fruits: Apples, bananas, oranges, pears, avocados, strawberries, blueberries, and more
- Nuts and seeds: Almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and more
- Nutritious fats and oils: Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and others
- Herbs and spices: Turmeric, garlic, rosemary, etc.
Foods to Avoid
Beyond processed junk foods, the paleo diet also prohibits dairy, grains, peanuts, lentils, beans, peas and other legumes. You need to skip the salt shaker and drink only water, coconut water, or green teen (but just the organic kind). If you need something sweet, raw honey and coconut palm sugar are your options-but only in limited amounts. Foods to avoid typically include:
- Processed foods
- Added sugar
- Soft drinks
- Artificial sweeteners
- Grains
- Legumes
- Most dairy products
- Some vegetable oils
Potential Benefits of the Paleo Diet
The paleo diet may help you lose weight or keep a healthy weight. It also may have other helpful health effects. By removing certain foods like processed foods, salty snack foods and high-fat foods - especially any store-bought packaged foods - you’re re-focusing your diet on eating whole foods. Research shows that the paleo diet may help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, as you’re cutting out foods that are high in fat and sugar.
Criticisms and Concerns
Some people doubt the idea that the human body didn't change, or adapt, to foods that came with farming. The main concern about paleo diets is the lack of whole grains and legumes. These foods are considered good sources of fiber, vitamins, proteins and other nutrients. Also, low-fat dairy products are good sources of protein, calcium, vitamins and other nutrients. Whole grains, legumes and dairy also are generally more affordable and available than foods such as wild game, grass-fed animals and nuts. For some people, a paleo diet may be too costly. The long-term risks of a paleo diet aren't known.
The Evolutionary Discordance Hypothesis
The argument is that modern humans have not been able to biologically adapt to contemporary circumstances. Advocates of the diet argue that the increase in diseases of affluence after the dawn of agriculture was caused by these changes in diet. The evolutionary discordance is incomplete, since it is based mainly on the genetic understanding of the human diet and a unique model of human ancestral diets, without taking into account the flexibility and variability of the human dietary behaviors over time.
The Paleo Diet and Modern Science
Since the publication of Eaton and Konner's paper in 1985, analysis of the DNA of primitive human remains has provided evidence that evolving humans were continually adapting to new diets, thus challenging the hypothesis underlying the Paleolithic diet. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk writes that the idea that our genetic makeup today matches that of our ancestors is misconceived, and that in debate Cordain was "taken aback" when told that 10,000 years was "plenty of time" for an evolutionary change in human digestive abilities to have taken place. Anthropological geneticist Anne C. Stone has said that humans have adapted in the last 10,000 years in response to radical changes in diet.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Economic and Social Considerations
Whole grains, legumes and dairy also are generally more affordable and available than foods such as wild game, grass-fed animals and nuts. For some people, a paleo diet may be too costly. Excluding foods. The exclusion of entire categories of commonly eaten foods like whole grains and dairy requires frequent label reading in the supermarket and in restaurants. It may also increase the risk of deficiencies such as calcium, vitamin D, and B vitamins, if these nutrients are not consistently eaten from the allowed foods or a vitamin supplement.
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