Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
What is the Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet has actually been around since the 1970s.
However, it has only recently gained popularity and was actually the top searched for diet
in Google in 2013.
This diet is actually designed after people who
lived in the Paleolithic era of Earth's history. It's also called the Caveman diet by some
people. The general idea is that to be your healthiest,
you should eat the way our earliest ancestors did.
Before we had agriculture to plant crops and care for animals, people were hunter-gatherers.
They ate meat that they could catch and kill and
they gathered whatever vegetation they could safely eat.
Their diet didn't consist of any grains, dairy, or
processed foods. The modern Paleo diet tries to mimic this
type of diet. You'll be eating organically grown
or raised produce and meat.
But you won't consume dairy, grains, or any food that's processed.
Processed foods include those that contain sugar, grains, artificial flavors, artificial
sweeteners, or preservatives. If you eat the typical Western diet this probably
sounds like quite a challenge. Many people rely on processed foods for the majority of
their calories.
Unfortunately, those processed foods cause a
world of problems including weight gain and disease.
There are many benefits to switching to a new
way of eating and you'll also find that once you
get used to it, this diet is fairly easy to follow.
With the Paleo diet, you'll be eating foods like:
Vegetables, Fruits (especially those low in sugar), Fresh and dried herbs, Poultry, Beef,
Pork, Lamb, Fish and other seafood, Eggs, Nuts and Seeds or Healthy oils.
For all of these you'll want to choose organic foods. When it comes to meat and poultry you
want to look for free range, grass fed, organic meats. For seafood, it's best to stick to
wild caught.
The Paleo diet also eliminates foods like these:
Grains (including wheat, oats, corn, rice), Legumes (beans, peanuts etc.), Dairy, Refined
sugar, Salt, Vegetable oils that are refined, Potatoes, Alcohol or Anything processed
These foods are ones that may cause weight gain and health problems. Cavemen didn't
have access to this type of food! Remember that soy (or soya) products actually come
from soy beans.
These aren't part of the paleo plan.