Paleo means ancient. As the name suggests, some joke that this is the oldest of all diets, as endorsed by Charles Darwin himself. Darwin might be happy to agree. Also known as the Caveman Diet, Stone Age Diet, or Hunter-Gatherer Diet, the Paleo Diet includes only foods available during man’s early evolution. For at least two million years, humans ate only meat from lean wild game, fish, eggs, fruits, nuts, leafy and root vegetables. They avoided beans, grains, and potatoes. But with the invention of agriculture, everything changed – from gathering and hunting down food, humans had plenty of food in stock after a harvest, or dialing for a quick pizza delivery. With these changes, peoples’ waistlines started to grow along with the amazing variety of food available. Scientist JR Tillotson said: “There are 84 tribes left of hunter-gatherers in the world, who, out of necessity, eat what cavemen ate, are stronger and faster than we are, have near-perfect eyesight, straight teeth, and almost total absence of allergies, depression, schizophrenia, and such chronic diseases as obesity, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.” TIME Magazine’s Michael D. Lemonick writes: “Although our physiology has stayed pretty much the same for the past 50,000 years or so, we humans have utterly transformed our environment. Over the past century especially, technology has almost completely removed physical exercise from the day-to-day lives of most Americans. At the same time, it has filled supermarket shelves with cheap, mass-produced, good-tasting food that is packed with calories. And finally, technology has allowed advertisers to deliver constant, virtually irresistible messages that say ‘eat this now’ to everyone old enough to watch TV.” “Our genetic makeup is identical to that of the Paleolithics,” Dr. Loren Cordain, professor of health at the University of Colorado said. “We know from mitochondrial DNA evidence, looking at diverse ethnic groups, that our genetic makeup is identical to the people who lived over 40,000 years ago. So, those people were optimally adapted to the types of foods they could gather or hunt, and there’s no evidence to suggest that modern humans are any different.” The rules of the Paleolithic Diet are simple: Eat only what was available to the early hunter-gatherers, foods that are edible raw and not organically produced. All other foods should be avoided. This is the specified diet: Do Eat: Meats and Fish, Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, and Berries. Do Not Eat: Grains, Beans, Potatoes, Dairy, and Sugar. On this diet you don’t count calories or carbohydrates. You eat like a hunter-gatherer. Recommended articles are found on these links:
http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roberthodgen/paleo.htm
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