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Paleo Diet Review
The Paleo Diet - My Take
Over the past several months I have been altering my diet to be more in line with the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet is both simple and difficult at the same time for most people who try to switch over from their current eating habits to be in line with the Paleo diet guidelines. With Thanksgiving coming up shortly I figured I would address nutrition in this post and let you in on why I think the Paleo diet is perhaps the best diet for people to be on. You can agree or disagree with my thoughts on the Paleo diet all you want, but it is well worth your time to read this post.
So What Is The Paleo Diet?
The Paleo diet is the actual diet our caveman ancestors lived by. It is perhaps the first and best suited diet to our genetic make up. The Paleo diet is a diet based on research that looked at how the “cavemen” ate and also looked at chronic disease. From most of the research in this area chronic disease was low but life expectancy was also low due to hunting accidents, and other diseases that were not treatable. The Paleo diet primarily focuses on eating organic meats, veggies, seeds, nuts, selected fruits (such as berries), and fish. The Paleo diet steers clear of all grains, dairy (primarily milk), soy, and legumes. The main argument to staying away from grains and legumes is that humans did not evolve eating grains and over the past century grains have become the staple of all meals. Grains drive a spike in insulin and also can create havoc on the digestive tract. The Paleo diet strips out all of the processed food and shifts your focus to eating clean whole foods that should be the main staple in your diet anyway.
My Experience Thus Far With The Paleo Diet
I have to say that cutting out all grains, milk, processed foods, sugar, and the like have made a huge impact both on how I feel and how my digestive system if functioning. I do incorporate sweet potatoes (those are Paleo friendly) and that helps on days when I have an intense workout session. Most people start off on the Paleo diet to lose weight. I am a hard gainer, which means it is hard for me to gain weight and I quickly lose weight. The biggest challenge so far with the Paleo diet for me is getting enough calories in on days when I work out heavy. To offset this as I mentioned, I eat a good amount of sweet potatoes (which are low on the glycemic index) to help toss in extra calories and carbs to help with fueling my body. In all honesty, swithing to the Paleo diet was hard since the way I use to eat was low fat and heavt grains. By literally turning that upside down to now eating high fat and protein and no grains was a challenge but the benefits have far outweighed the challenge.
I have also seen more and more physicians recommend to their patients to try the Paleo diet for weight loss and to help balance blood sugar, cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and lower blood pressure. All of these have been documented many times over both in clinical research and by first hand testimonials. One of my favorite blogs to read everyday is Mark’s Daily Apple. Mark Sisson knows his stuff and I have been following him for many years. He is the guy in the picture for this post and is reaching the age of 60! It was only several months ago that I switched fully to the Primal Blueprint method of eating and I am confident to say that I will not switch back to the way I was eating because of how I feel.
Closing Thoughts On The Paleo Diet
With Thanksgiving coming up and the bread, stuffing, pies, and the like pile many tables across the U.S. it will be easy to eat any and all that is served and slip right into a food coma shortly after. This has been my routine each year at Thanksgiving, eat all that I can then slip into a food coma and be done for the rest of the night. But I know that with my new way of eating this will not happen. If you have never heard of or tried the Paleo / Primal diet I highly recommend you do so. It is worth the effort in my book. Think about this when was the last time you saw a picture of an overweight caveman? I have yet to see one. If you want the lean look, like a surfer, or Brad Pitt in fight club, or Jessica Biel, then the Paleo diet is a great way to get there.
