What exactly is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet seeks to replicate the diet followed by our ancestors up until 10,000 years ago when the Neolithic Era brought about a rise in farming and the domestication of animals. Paleolithic humans lived in small groups and survived via hunting and gathering. The belief behind the recent popularity of the Paleo diet is that modern human genetics have remained virtually unchanged since prior to the Neolithic Revolution (agriculture), and thus our bodies are adapted to the ancestral diet of foods found in nature. This diet promotes the foods that allow for optimum health and avoids the foods that became prevalent after agriculture in an attempt to protect the digestive system from inflammation-causing proteins (i.e. gluten). The basis of the Paleo diet is lean meat, seafood, and unlimited fresh fruits and veggies. This way of eating is also beneficial to your liver, kidneys, and pancreas.

Some of the foods that started being consumed in large amounts after agriculture have lead to the diseases of civilization ("lifestyle diseases"). These lifestyle diseases include obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, etc., and are common in western societies. Studies of modern hunter-gatherer civilizations show that the 10-20% of the population is at least 60 years old. Additionally, the elderly of these populations generally don't have any signs or symptoms of diseases of civilization. However, when these populations do adopt western diets, they begin to show signs of lifestyle diseases common to western society. (Refer to The Paleo Diet for more information.)

So what can I eat? The short response is non-processed foods.

• lean meats (grass-fed)
• seafood
• eggs
• veggies
• fruits
• nuts & seeds
• healthy fats
• ghee (clarified butter)

What can't I eat?

• grains
• legumes (soy and peanuts)
• dairy
• vegetable oils (i.e. canola)
• processed food
• sugar
• starches (potatoes)
• alcohol (this is my caveat to the Paleo diet)

If you're attempting to lose weight, you need to limit the amount of fruits and nuts that you eat. Also, you need to work on balancing your omega-3 vs. omega-6 fatty acid intake. The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:1 or 1:2. However, with society's reliance on vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), this ratio usually settles out to 1:10. Yikes!

You may be asking: If I want to lose weight, shouldn't I follow a low-fat, high-carb diet? No! Most people that follow this fad diet always feel hungry and will gain back whatever they lost after they stop following the diet. Eating lean meats provides protein to the body. Protein has an increased thermic effect over both fat and carbohydrates; in other words, it increases metabolism. Additionally, protein has a much greater satiety value than fat or carbohydrates, so it decreases your appetite.

Loren Cordain has stricter guidelines, which are especially beneficial if you have auto-immunity issues. He also recommends limiting fruits with very high sugar content.

Check out these websites for more information:
www.thepaleodiet.com, www.robbwolf.com, and www.paleodietlifestyle.com.