The Paleolithic Diet: So Easy a Caveman Could Do It

It's no secret that many of the foods we consume nowadays aren't good for us, but why? The reason is that we were not evolved to eat them. For many thousands of years, humans hunted and gathered food from the wild. They ate meat and fish supplemented with plant foods. In season, they might have found fruits that are smaller and not as sweet as modern fruit and nuts, but mostly they ate leafy plants and herbs. On a really good day, they might have raided a bee hive for some honey.

These foods made hunter gatherers taller and healthier than the farmers who came after them. It is how humans were evolved to eat. Since humans evolve very slowly, it's also the diet that we are suited for too. Modern people who try to eat like our hunter-gatherer ancestors call this way of eating the Paleolithic Diet, aka the Caveman Diet.

What Is the Paleolthic Diet?

The most important thing is what you don't eat. Most people exclude the following foods:

• Cereals and grains
• Dairy products
• Legumes
• Potatoes
• Sugar
• Vegetable oils

There are different variations of the Paleo diet. Some people eat sweet potatoes. Others eat butter and cheese. Generally, those are the only "forbidden" foods that are debated among followers of the diet.

So, What Do You Eat?

• Meat, poultry, fish, seafood
• Vegetables,
• Berries
• Nuts and seeds
• Fruits
• Olive oil, coconut oil, lard

Most people who follow the Paleo diet do not eat much fruit because modern fruit is so sweet. The diet is relatively low in carbohydrates moderate in protein, and high in healthful fats.

What Are the Health Benefits of the Paleolithic Diet?

You will probably lose any excess weight without really trying, and you will become leaner and more muscular without changing your exercise routine. Studies have also found the following changes from following a Paleolithic diet:

• Lower body fat
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower insulin levels
• Lower levels of total cholesterol
• Lower levels of LDL cholesterol
• Lower triglyceride levels

These changes should result in a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The Paleolithic diet has become extremely popular, and along with popularity come the debunkers. They point out that hunter-gatherer diets varied according to geography and environment, and that some grains may have been eaten prior to the rise of agriculture. Both are certainly true. What they don't say is also important though. They don't say that cereals and grains made up a significant portion of the human diet prior to agriculture, nor do they say that the modern version of the hunter-gatherer diet is unhealthy.

The Paleo diet requires some adjustment, just as any lifestyle change does. There's nothing wrong with easing into it either by dropping the forbidden categories of food over the course of a month or two. Because the Paleolithic diet has become so popular, there is a lot of information about it. You should be able to find recipes and menu plans that will suit your tastes and fit your lifestyle.

Mark Sisson is the author of the most popular book on the Paleo diet.