Friday, June 22, 2007
Eat Like a Neanderthal
Often called cave-man diets or Neanderthal diets, Paleo diet principles implore us to return to hunter-gatherer practices of the Paleolithic period of human evolution more than 10,000 years ago. This requires that we refrain from eating grain foods, potatoes, beans, milk, and refined sugars -- foods only eaten within the last 10,000 years and which are deemed to be unsuitable for consumption because of an insufficient time for Homo sapiens to adapt to these foods. The Paleo Diet is high in meats, vegetables and fruit.
Paleo Diet Recipes - Gluten-Free, Low-Carb?
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." -The Arapaho People
A diet high in legumes, carbohydrates, and grains could be making you ill. Why would a diet high in post-agricultural-era foods be detrimental to our health? Because these foods are foreign to our bodies. Our genes have not had the time nor the evolutionary pressures to adapt to these new foods.
Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance Web Sites
http://paleofood.com/
If you are interested in starting a paleo diet, start with breakfast for few days, as this is the easiest place to start as most people eat it at home, and it tends to be the least Paleo meal of the standard 3. For weight loss you will eventually need to reduce your carbohydrate intake, but ignore this initially as most people have high carb intakes and this can continue for the first few days that you are on this diet. If you reduce too quickly then you may fell unwell. Then move on to lunch or dinner for a few days and then to all 3 meals. If you work, you will often find it easier to take your lunch to work.
A diet high in legumes, carbohydrates, and grains could be making you ill. Why would a diet high in post-agricultural-era foods be detrimental to our health? Because these foods are foreign to our bodies. Our genes have not had the time nor the evolutionary pressures to adapt to these new foods.
Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance Web Sites
http://paleofood.com/
If you are interested in starting a paleo diet, start with breakfast for few days, as this is the easiest place to start as most people eat it at home, and it tends to be the least Paleo meal of the standard 3. For weight loss you will eventually need to reduce your carbohydrate intake, but ignore this initially as most people have high carb intakes and this can continue for the first few days that you are on this diet. If you reduce too quickly then you may fell unwell. Then move on to lunch or dinner for a few days and then to all 3 meals. If you work, you will often find it easier to take your lunch to work.
Paleo Diet Summary
The Paleo Diet is a weight loss program that shows users how to eat like our "ancestors." Dr. Loren Cordain, who is not a medical doctor, but has a PhD in Health, created this program. Cordain is self-described to be "the world's leading expert on the natural human diet of our Stone Age ancestors." Cordain has also founded an institute based on this diet and has written three books: The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Diet for Athletes and The Dietary Cure for Acne.
Those who advocate that contemporary humans should regularly consume a Paleo diet base their advocacy on the premise that natural selection had 2 million or more years to genetically adapt the metabolism and physiology of the various human species to such a diet, and that in the 10,000 years since the invention of agriculture and its consequent major change in the human diet, natural selection has had too little time to make the optimal genetic adaptations to the new diet. According to those advocates, physiological and metabolic maladaptations result from those suboptimal genetic adaptations, which in turn contribute to many of the so-called diseases of civilization.
The diet of our pre-agricultural ancestors consisted of meats, insects, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The advent of agriculture brought us potatoes, legumes (i.e. peanuts, beans, and soy), grains (i.e. corn, wheat, rice, barley, and oats), and processed foods (i.e. sugar, bread, pastries, alcohol, etc.). Furthermore, we have bred our plants to produce the biggest and sweetest (highest sugar content) fruits. The best example of this is the blueberry.
Those who advocate that contemporary humans should regularly consume a Paleo diet base their advocacy on the premise that natural selection had 2 million or more years to genetically adapt the metabolism and physiology of the various human species to such a diet, and that in the 10,000 years since the invention of agriculture and its consequent major change in the human diet, natural selection has had too little time to make the optimal genetic adaptations to the new diet. According to those advocates, physiological and metabolic maladaptations result from those suboptimal genetic adaptations, which in turn contribute to many of the so-called diseases of civilization.
The diet of our pre-agricultural ancestors consisted of meats, insects, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The advent of agriculture brought us potatoes, legumes (i.e. peanuts, beans, and soy), grains (i.e. corn, wheat, rice, barley, and oats), and processed foods (i.e. sugar, bread, pastries, alcohol, etc.). Furthermore, we have bred our plants to produce the biggest and sweetest (highest sugar content) fruits. The best example of this is the blueberry.
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