The Paleo Diet is increasingly popular today, as an effort to eat like we used to “back in the day”. No, not 40 or 50 years ago, but way, way, way back in the day. Basically, if a caveman couldn’t eat it, you can’t eat it either. This means anything that could be hunted or gathered, meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds.
Sorry, but cake, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies were not on the menu back then.
It should go without saying that the goal of any nutrition plan should be to improve your overall health and, while returning to a diet from the stone age may seem counter-productive (since humans lived very short live back then), the idea of simplification behind the Paleo diet makes good sense. By eating lean meats and seafood, combined with larger portions of fruits and vegetables will give you increased energy and will improve your health overall.
“By following these nutritional guidelines, we put our diet more in line with the evolutionary pressures that shaped our current genetics, which in turn positively influences health and well-being,” says Loren Cordain, PhD, professor of health and exercise science at Colorado State University and author of The Paleo Diet. (Health.com)
Limitations of a Paleo Diet
Like many contemporary nutrition trends, one of the most important goals of the Paleo diet is to reduce your dependency on highly processed foods, which tend to taste good but have had the inherent nutritional value reduced or even eliminated – making them nothing but empty calories. Such a diet also reduces the amount of processed sugar and fructose in the foods you eat. Both of these things are very good for your body.
The Paleo diet focuses on some very specific areas of food consumption, including:
- Fresh fruits without added sugar
- Fresh vegetables without added salt, butter, or cheese
- Lean cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb
- Chicken or turkey without skin
- Only meats that are fresh, not processed or cured
- Salmon
- Trout
- Herring
The Paleo Diet includes foods that people ate before farming became a way of life, and before processed grains and dairy products became dietary staples. While eliminating processed foods in favor of more vegetables and lean cuts of meat, it’s wise to remember that every diet and meal plan should place a focus on moderation.
Understanding the positives and negatives of any nutrition plan is critical to successfully implementing it for you and your family. Click here to read an informative piece on Paleo: Pros and Cons of the Paleo Diet from UPMC Health Beat.
