The period known as the Paleolithic is a point in our history where we were hunter gatherers and out diet consisted of meat as well as different plants, fruit, berries and nuts. It was food in its most basic form as it did not have sugar or salt added to it which we now get in everyday modern food. Some people involved in the diet industry have therefore tried to strip it back to as nature intended to create a diet that gives as much nutrients as we need without the more modern day things added in. So here is some information on the Paleolithic diet in the modern world.
It is a diet which does focus on the consumption of things such as fish, meat, plants, berries, and nuts as they were all things that were either hunted or gathered by the Paleolithic people. It does mean it is a diet which is devoid of sugar, oils, dairy products, and legumes since they only came into the diet in any large numbers later on and mostly into the Neolithic period.
The diet does try to stick to what we know was eaten but there are a few differences. The meat would have been hunted and we do not do that but more importantly they would have eaten a wider range of meats than us and you also have anthropologists who argue that their diet was different to this but there are always arguments and counter arguments.
It has its modern day origins in the seventies where the creators argued that genetically speaking we have not changed since this period. Genetics has not had the time to evolve since our diet became more about processed foods and we started agriculture so our body is capable of coping with having such a diet as it did not do us any harm before.
It does involve a drastic change for some people in what they consume on a daily basis as research has shown a lot of people in the US get seventy percent of their daily intake from things in the do not eat list. However, with enough help and advice it is possible to still get all that you require from the Paleolithic diet.
A number of people argue that it is not a true diet because in the later part of the period cereals were being consumed even although they were not as staple a part of the diet as they are today. It all depends on what you want to consume and if you want to go by what the earliest ancestors used to eat before we even got close to the middle stone age.
One main argument from the proponents of the diet is that it shall cut down on the diseases that exist in the modern day world as they say how most of them have only appeared since we started agriculture and became civilized. However this part is extremely debatable as you must remember that life expectancy back then was very low so we simply did not live long enough to develop certain diseases. It is also true that the life style was much more active so people did not become obese and therefore did not get the diseases associated with obesity.
So there are arguments both for and against this diet which is perfectly normal. Diets always end up coming down to the same point, what works for someone might not work for another person so it is just trial and error at the end of the day.
Learn more about paleolithic diet. Stop by Bob Franklin’s site where you can find out all about caveman diet and what it can do for you.