What Diet Is Right For You? Part 6. Paleo Diet

Is Paleo Diet Right For You?

Paleo Diet has gained notoriety over the last few years. The diet’s roots originate from the caveman days of palaeolithic man when he was a hunter-gatherer before farming emerged about 10,000 years ago. Researchers believe palaeolithic man ate whole foods like:

Meat
Fish
Eggs
Fruits and Vegetables
Nuts and seeds
Herbs and spices
Fats and oils (nut oils and olive oil)

In addition to whole foods, the palaeolithic man was physically actively hunting and gathering. Nowadays we don’t hunt down our meal with a big club the supermarket make it easy, we don’t ever have to move if we order online.

What Is The Paleo Diet?

The paleo diet is an eating plan based on whole foods with a large portion dedicated to meat intake. Also, here is a list of other foods that are NOT allowed in the diet:

Processed foods
Sugar
Soft drinks
Grains
Dairy
Legumes
Artificial sweeteners
Vegetable oils (all, except olive oil)

Any weight loss diet including this one is not suitable in pregnancy or for a breastfeeding mother.

History

Controversy is all over the paleo diet history. There is a lot of debate on what hunter-gatherers ate thousands of years ago. Did they eat lots of meat? Does it depend on the season, latitude and diversity of the area where they lived?

Consequently, there would have been a variety of diets where some ate a low-carb diet high in meat foods, and other areas they ate high-carb and plant-based foods.

Similarly, there would have been a mix of these two eating styles in other locations. The palaeolithic man lived as a hunter and gather, and they did not eat every day, sometimes their hunting was not successful. Fruits and vegetables in Palaeolithic times where very different to today food wild carrots are thin with lots of fibre that you have to spit out, wild bananas are full of seeds and are almost impossible to eat. Ted Talk

Paleo Diet Eating Recommendations

Eat

Meat: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, wild game
Fish: Salmon, mackerel, tuna
Eggs: Free range
Vegetables: Cabbage, broccoli, kale, capsicum, carrots, tomato.
Fruits: Berries, stone fruit, apples, pears, citrus, avocados.
Nuts and seeds: Almonds, macadamia, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
Fats and oils: Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil

Avoid

Grains: Wheat, oats, barley, wheat, spelt and rye
Legumes: Beans, lentils, peanuts and peas
Dairy
Sugar: HFCS, soft drinks, fruit juices, sweets, and pastries
Salt
Potatoes
Processed
Vegetable oil (except olive oil)
Artificial sweeteners

What is the Modified Paleo Diet?

People have come to realise that the original paleo diet was not healthy having aggressive levels of meat intake. What followed was a modification to the diet making it more acceptable, here is the modified paleo diet, the bold text are changes or additions:

Eat meat sparingly
Legumes
Dairy
Fish
Eggs
Fruits and Vegetables
Nuts and seeds
Herbs and spices
Fats and oil

Diet Guidelines

Always check with your health care professional before starting a new diet. Food and herb-drug interactions do happen. With that in mind, this diet is recommended for the prevention of:

Insulin resistance
Improved glucose tolerance
Weight loss
Improve appetite management

The Key Point

The paleo diet is modelled on the perceptions of what our ancestors were eating habits as hunter-gatherers. They ate whole food, meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and NO processed food. As I am a responsible health care professional, I would like to reiterate not to do this diet if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

As we age our diet changes, when we are 20-30 is not the same as when we are 40-50 and so on. Similarly, today’s diets are more complex than any ancient hunters-gathers diet which had a completely different lifestyle to ours. I recommend you study the facts for and against the paleo diet come to your own opinion. I found the talk by TED Fellow Christina Warinner is an expert on ancient diets very insightful. Ted Talk

If there are any aspects of your diet, you would like to discuss or clarify, please feel free to contact me through this web site or if it is of a more private nature contact me through my direct email. My goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on what diet best supports your health needs.