Paleo Diet Plan Basics

The Paleo diet, also called the caveman diet, is a contemporary diet plan based upon the assumed diet plans of cavemen throughout the Paleolithic age. This was the period of about 2.5 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago.

This diet is based on foods offered today that would be similar to what the caveman would have consumed. Mostly fish, grass-fed beef, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, roots and nuts. It does not consist of grains, dairy, legumes, salt, sugar, alcohol, and processed oils.

The thinking is that the modern human is genetically adjusted to the diet eaten by our ancestors over this Paleolithic era. Cavemen didn't have the contemporary diseases that are widespread today like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

A Paleolithic hunter-gatherer would have been more of a gatherer than a hunter. Take a look at chimpanzees. They are expected to be the closest to us genetically and they consume primarily plants, about 95 % plants, with the rest being from eggs, bugs and little animals. The caveman diet was most likely close to this.

It also depends upon exactly what part of the Paleolithic age you take a look at. If you look at the early Paleo age, around 250 million years earlier, primates would have eaten practically no meat at all. They would have existed off a diet of leaves, bugs and roots. Maybe a lizard or a mouse every as soon as in a while.

In the end of the age, human beings were less nomadic and started growing crops and domesticating animals. They might have eaten less bugs, but leaves were still in the diet, particularly green leafy plants. Roots were also in the diet, as were many other vegetables. They also included grains (and quickly beer). Dairy products came along around then. T-bones couldn't have been to far behind.

There is no doubt that a Paleo diet is much better than the SAD (Standard American Diet) these days. Even if they ate mainly meat, it wasn't covered with cheese and in between 2 pieces of processed starch and fat with a side of starch fried in fat. If they did eat a lot of fish, they were not contaminated with the PCBs, Mercury and other contaminants of today.

They also consumed a great deal of veggies, many times more than the SAD diet. The caveman most likely eaten 4 to 5 times as much fiber as suggested today (not a bad thing). He would have eaten about one fifth of the sodium and 3 times as much potassium (also not a bad thing).

He probably got 3 to 10 times as much vitamin C as well as a myriad of other vitamins and minerals like Vitamin E, Iron, Zinc and Calcium. Allegedly, that is why our bodies lost the ability to make our own vitamin C, due to the fact that our forefathers consumed a lot our bodies didn't have to make any.

The caveman probably got a better workout that modern-day people do. Running after wild animals while hunting and gathering. And then running from wild animals that were also hunting and gathering. Running after cavewomen. I would almost wager that there were very few lazy-bones in the cave. If you didn't get out and look for food you weren't going to eat a whole lot.

What's wrong with the Paleo diet? Well, perhaps absolutely nothing. It depends upon what you call a Paleo diet. There is nothing wrong with eating a diet that is far from the SAD diet we have today.

That would be a diet that does not include processed foods like breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, bacon, hotdogs, sausage, breakfast cereals, granola bars, luncheon meat, doughnuts, canned soups and vegetables, frozen dinners, frozen pizzas, potato chips, sodas and basically anything that is not on the fruit and vegetables isle of the super market.

It would be a diet that consisted of vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, fruits and nuts. Depending upon exactly what part of the Paleo age you wish to follow, possibly bugs, possibly fish, perhaps meat.

If a Paleo diet does consist of meat it would need to be wild lean meats that you hunt and kill. Fish would have to be caught from a stream high up in the mountains, devoid of all contamination. Both would need to be consumed raw.


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