With obesity becoming a major issue of alarming proportions around the world, diet plans that promise to help you shed weight and become healthier have flooded the market. Some of the more popular diet plans include the Atkin’s Diet, Eat to Diet, Paleo Diet, The Dukan Diet, etc. Each plan follows a different regimen, but all promise you the same result: shed those excess pounds and enjoy better health benefits.
If you are wondering what the Paleo diet is all about, it is the diet that our ancestors were following before farming and agriculture began. It is known by different names including the caveman diet, hunter-gatherer diet, stone-age diet, etc., to name a few. The modern weight loss Paleo diet is a popular diet plan that is helping people shed the extra pounds.
In the Paleolithic or Stone Age, people ate food that was raw and uncooked. They hunted and found their food and were aptly called hunter-gatherers. They consumed high amounts of calories. They did not cook or process the food. There were no grains nor any food made with the grains. They died of natural causes. If they died young it was because of the harsh environmental conditions.
The advent of the Neolithic age changed all of this. Farming of grains and, consequently, their cooking and processing radically changed the human diet. The health of people have since deteriorated, particularly in the last two centuries, the worst having happened in the last three or four decades. As you know, most deaths today are due to degenerative diseases like hypertension, CAD, cardiac disease, etc., and studies have shown that the modern Western diet is among the main causes.
Now, you need not get scared about this. The modern Paleo diet is based on the idea of what the stone-age people were eating. There are different versions of the modern Paleo diet, each one trying to get as close as possible to the original. However, some general do’s and don’ts distinguish a Paleo diet from others.
You may now be wondering, what constitutes a Paleo diet? Most of the foods that we eat today were not available to the cavemen. This puts most of what is available today in the restricted list. It includes any processed food, most of the grains, foods with added sugar, dairy products, legumes, tubers such as sweet potatoes, salt, processed oils, beverages, etc.
Food that is allowed ultimately leaves very little for you to choose from. It includes most of the vegetables, fruits, very lean meats, fish, eggs, and some nuts. There is no wild game readily available and most meats are from domesticated animals. These meats should ideally be that of grass-fed and not grain-fed livestock. Any other meat should be from animals that eat what is natural to them. Among the fruits, berries and tree fruits like apples and pomegranates are allowed. Tree nuts including pistachios, chestnuts, and hazelnuts are allowed, but not the cashews and the peanuts. A little bit of honey is allowed. Drinking coconut water is encouraged.
The basic meal plan in most versions of the modern Paleo diet consists of lean meats in conjunction with fish and whatever fruits and vegetables that we can get from the list. The meal plan is more of proteins and fats and low on carbohydrates. Proponents of the Paleo diet recommend 65% of the calories to come from meat and the rest 35% from vegetables and the rest of the foods.
If you find this regimen too strict, you can follow more lenient versions that are available. These plans allow carbohydrates in moderation and also a couple of cheat meals in a week that removes the monotony and you can make the Paleo diet a little more interesting to follow. Dried fruits, starchy vegetables, legumes, dairy products, a little of fatty meat, a very small quantity of processed food, cereal grains, and all other processed foods may be included in the cheat meal.
This general version of the Paleo diet, if followed for a period of 30 days (along with the cheat meals, of course!), is sure to result in weight loss. Consequently, you can enjoy many other benefits that the weight loss brings about.
The Paleo Diet is a close cousin of the Atkins Diet and the Meat Lover’s Diet that were popular some time ago. In 2005, this diet became popular again, with the publication of the book, The Paleo Diet for Athletes: A Nutritional Formula for Peak Athletic Performance, by Loren Cordain. Top athletes endorsed the diet plan in the book. A couple of other books on the topic were also published, and its popularity increased.
The Paleo diet has also had its own share of controversies. Some dieticians have argued that it is a fad diet and others have argued about its accuracy. Some have said that the restrictions have posed health risks. On the contrary, some studies have found modern contemporary versions of ancient diets superior to the Mediterranean diet and diabetic diets with regard to risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
However, a diet that is light on carbohydrates such as grains, meat and dairy, and heavy on fruits and vegetables with minimum processing, coupled with reasonable physical workouts and an active lifestyle should get you on to a healthy weight loss track.
