“What Is A Paleo Diet?”

What is the Paleo Diet?

What to eat. What not to eat… and What benefits do people see from the paleo diet? Weight Loss? Better Energy? Improved Focus? Reduced Pain? Health?

Read On To Find Out… This Post IS Gluten Free!

The Paleo Diet is a fairly simplistic way of looking at what to eat and even more so what not to eat.

The Paleo Diet excludes foods that were not really available to significant degree to people in pre-agricultural societies.

It instead focuses on foods that predated this time.

The people during this pre-agricultural period were hunter – gatherers.

Hunter-gatherers had to go out and get their foods, rather than have them readily available to them.

There was a great variety in what various hunter-gatherer cultures ate. The variation depended on what was available to them locally.

In general, their diets consisted of various land animals, seafood, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

All of these eaten to varying degrees.

Some foods are considered ‘off-limits‘ whereas other foods consumed by our ancestors are encouraged on the Paleo Diet.

It excludes foods that came from agriculture or processing notably… all grains, dairy, legumes (beans including peanuts and soy), refined sugars, and artificial chemicals.

The basic idea is that these are more recent foods. We have not completely adapted to eating these ‘newer‘ foods genetically.

These are the foods that are most inflammatory by driving up blood sugar / insulin and by damaging our gastrointestinal tracts.

There are benefits to eating a Paleo Type Diet for many people.

You remove all the highly processed food that make up the majority of most people’s diet.

This includes all the bread, pastas, and so many packaged foods that fill up the grocery store shelves.

These foods are exceptionally nutrient poor and sugar / carbohydrate dense.

These foods are a primary driver our our current health care crisis… even though there is more to a healthy lifestyle than just diet.

What Benefits Do People Often Report After Switching To A Paleo Type Diet?

Weight loss, improved skin, better digestion,  reduced pain, better energy, faster recovery, and improved athletic performance.

Many people report improvement in various metabolic diseases, neurological disorders, and various autoimmune diseases.

It is an approach to diet that is based on the quality of foods you eat.

Here Is A Quick Summary Of The Most Commonly Recognized Components Of A Classic Paleo Diet…

• Eat meat, fish, seafood & eggs,
• High volume of non-starchy seasonal vegetables,
• Seasonal fruit (caution about over-eating fruit should be given, particularly for those significantly over-weight and/or metabolically broken for example diabetics)
• Healthy fats from various sources including animals, coconut, olives, and avocados – generally oils made from these things are considered acceptable),
• Nuts and seeds (that aren’t roasted and coated in chemicals or sugar),

Do NOT Eat…

• Grains or cereals (wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, rice, etc… and everything made from these things),
• Legumes including beans, peas, soy, and peanuts,
• Dairy products including milk, cream, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, etc (eggs aren’t dairy),
• Highly processed ‘Vegetable‘ Oils – Corn, Soy, and Peanut of course – but also Canola, Sunflower, Safflower, Cottonseed, Grapeseed, and various fake fats like Margarine, Shortening, and other fake ‘butter‘ substitutes,
• All highly processed foods,
• Added sugars including ‘natural‘ sugars like agave syrup, honey, molasses, etc,
• No artificial sweeteners.

A couple of notes…

Macro-Nutrients

Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats are the macro-nutrients in our diets.

The Paleo Diet doesn’t necessary limit these or set fixed ratios among these calorie sources.

Most people tend to go lower carb on the diet primarily because they are giving up all the highly concentrated sources of carbs (grains, dairy, legumes, and sugars).

However, individual needs should be assessed in an ideal situation to see what would be best for you and your goals.

Starchy Vegetables

Root vegetables are ‘starchy’ carbohydrate sources – potatoes, parsnips, squashes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc.

The Paleo Diet generally eliminates white potatoes.

The other starchy type vegetable sources of carbs are ‘allowed‘ depending upon you and your goals.

What to Drink?

It’s definitely best not to drink your calories, especially sugar and chemically laden drinks.

Drinking water is highly encouraged.

Other beverages include coffee and tea… without all the added junk. 😉

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

Do You Need Help Living A Healthier Lifestyle In The Texarkana Area? Click Here.