When it comes to diet and exercise, a successful future is often attained by looking to the past. This is the case with the Paleo Diet, which recommends that we restyle our eating habits to more closely resemble those of our ancient hunting and gathering ancestors. This dietary practice operates under the assumption that modern diseases are caused by our contemporary diet and lifestyle. Scientific study has proven that many diseases that are common today, such as heart disease and diabetes were nonexistent when humans worked more closely within the rhythms and cycles of nature. This diet offers the practitioner increased health and well-being while being simple to follow without major life changes. In popular media this way of eating is also referred to as the Primal Lifestyle, the Hunter-Gatherer Diet, the Stone Age Diet or simply the Caveman Diet.
The idea for this eating style grew into prominence in the 1970’s when researchers discovered that while human eating habits have changed drastically over the years, the genetic makeup of humans has changed very little. Upon this discovery, nutritionists concluded that optimal health could be achieved if we more closely followed the diet of our ancient ancestors. This diet was in effect and widely practiced until the advent of agriculture. While agricultural practices have existed for 10,000 years, the Paleolithic way of eating existed for nearly 2.5 million years. Studies of modern humans that live a lifestyle resembling our ancient ancestors have demonstrated that diseases of affluence are practically nonexistent within these societies.
While the diet strives to mimic that of the Paleolithic people, it has incorporated the modern practices by which humans of today attain their food. In this way, the diet includes meat that was traditionally hunted and fished for while allowing that this meat and fish would likely be purchased today. Also included are fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables that were foraged and gathered as well as eggs, mushrooms, herbs and spices. The diet seeks to avoid grains, dairy products, legumes, processed oils, salts and refined sugars. Within the Paleolithic camp there are those that strive to consume only raw foods from the Paleo period under the assumption that humans have not properly adapted to eating cooked foods. This belief has caused some controversy and is widely challenged by some of the practitioners of the diet.
By eating like our Paleolithic ancestors, we are more closely aligned with the millions of years of evolution that prepared our bodies for consumption. This view of nutrition finds its basis in both evolutionary biology and evolutionary medicine. By not introducing the foods that became commonplace with the rise of agriculture and industrialization, the modern epidemics of cancer, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and the ailments that are associated with obesity are avoided. We can discover a healthy future by looking at what worked for literally millions of years and we can avoid disease by shying away from more recent practices that have delivered us abundance and convenience at the cost of our health.
Starting The Paleo Diet
To start any diet, it takes self-control to stay within the parameters of what you can eat. The paleo diet is easier than most diets because it allows you to eat some red meat items. but you still have to avoid many of the fatty foods you might’ve enjoyed before. The paleo diet as mentioned above eliminates many of the modern processed foods we’ve been used to eating.
So to begin to put yourself in the mindset of eating like our ancestors. This means no Twinkies, takeout pizza, or other fatty foods that we are used to in modern society. You will be replacing most of these snacks with healthy fruit mixes, trail mixes, and nuts and seed packs, but still all in moderation.
On Amazon and other websites there are many different types of paleo friendly snacks for sale so you will have no problem having a healthy item that you don’t have to spend time cooking. But for dinners and important meals you’ll probably want to prepare it yourself.
One of the problems with starting this diet is having a set of recipes you can follow to create healthy meals. There are not very many free recipes on the Internet. After a while you will notice many of the recipes are copied from the websites of those selling cookbooks.
At first you might resist buying a cookbook. But many of the Paleolithic cookbooks are in PDF form and can be downloaded immediately after purchase. I find this to be easiest because I can print out only the recipe I want from the collection. I’ve taken upon myself to review the paleo cookbooks for sale online. The first review I have written is about the paleo cookbook collection. This is one of the first collections which were for sale online, and it is my recommended book for all those looking to start the paleo diet.
The reason I recommend anyone starting the paleo diet to get this collection is that it’s written by someone who really follows the diet and had had personal success with it. Her collection was the first and you will find some of the free recipes on her website are the ones many people copy as their own. So why not go to the source and buy the collection of recipes that everyone likes enough to copy.
