What is the paleo diet?
The paleo diet is a nutritional approach that focuses on eating only foods that are high in nutrients, unprocessed, and based on the foods that were available and eaten by humans in Paleolithic times. The main idea behind the paleo diet is that if humans were not able to consume a food thousands of years ago- before industrial agriculture, the domestication of animals, and modern food processing existed- than humans should not consume these types of foods today, because the human body is not adapted to them.
Why do people follow the paleo diet?
While food manufacturing and processing technology has improved rapidly over the past several centuries (especially in the past 100 years), the evolution of humans’ nutritional needs and digestive systems have not quite been able to keep up, therefore people still need close to the same types of whole, real, nutrient-packed foods that they relied on way back when cavemen were walking the Earth.
The digestive tract and nutritional needs of humans were developed slowly by Paleolithic people adapting to the foods found in their environment, so it makes sense that modern humans eating very different diets today results in poor health.
It’s believed by the founders and followers of the paleo diet that one of the main reasons so many people are facing chronic illnesses today- heart disease, cancer, auto immune disease and more- around the world, but especially in more modernized countries like the US, is because the foods they typically eat are not in line with their body’s needs. Essentially, people cannot digest and use for energy many modern foods- for example grains, legumes, dairy, an excess of sugar, and more – plus they are also lacking many needed nutrients due to their poor diets. This results in widespread chronic diseases and obesity; basically a population that is overfed and obese, yet still malnourished on a cellular level.
People who follow the paleo diet very often have great health results, including improvements in their heart health, weight loss, reduced symptoms from auto immune disease, decline in diabetes, and more. This is believed to occur because harmful foods that humans are not adapted to eating are removed from the diet, and at the same time there is a dramatic increase in the amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants added into the diet.
