Saturday, July 26, 2014

Benefits of the Paleo Diet

The nutrition facts and advice we have been following over the last fifty years about good human nutrition and diet may have been completely wrong and helped contribute to the current obesity issue we see today in the United States. The industrial and agricultural revolution led to the production of highly processed foods and this is when we began to see the start of all the health problems in the United states such as: a rise in diabetes, rise in obesity, rise in cancer, rise in hypertension and rise in cardiovascular disease. This led to nutritional advice that was heavily based on minimal protein from lean meat sources, lots of grains, and-fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately after following this government food pyramid advice for the last fifty years Americans continue to struggle from the health problems listed above. Sixty-six percent of Americans are overweight and thirty- three percent of Americans are obese. The Paleo diet advocates a way of life similar to pre-historic cavemen. It is a diet that consists of a lot of protein, saturated fats, vegetables and fruits. They recommend avoiding grains, processed foods and manufactured sugars. They also recommend up to sixty minutes of vigorous exercise each day. Many of the foods we have been taught to avoid, eggs, red meat, organ meats, and fatty cuts of meat are all a common part of the Paleo diet. The diet is very easy to follow. There is no calorie count like you see with lots of diets today and the food portions are very easy to control. The food portion for a person is the size of your palm. The Paleo diet generally recommends one portion of protein, three portions of vegetables, and one to two portions of fruit for every meal. People who follow the Paleo diet generally lose weight, have more energy, and sleep better at night. They also generally see improvements in their blood cultures. This all came about due to research on the cellular remains and fossils of the Paleo cavemen. We found that they were extremely health; they were lean, strong and did not suffer from things like clogged arteries, heart disease, obesity and other health issues that the modern man is facing in todays world. They thrived on a diet of high protein, high saturated fat, and vegetables and fruit that were in season. The Paleo people did not have access to all kinds of fruits and vegetables all year long. They took advantage of these when the season was right for them to grow. The modern day man and woman is virtually identical genetically to the modern day man and woman, therefore the modern day man and woman should be able to thrive on the same diet the Paleolithic people thrived on and also receive the same health benefits. There have been isolated populations that live on the same diet that have been scientifically studied that have been found to thrive on the diet and consistently live long lives without chronic health problems. When our modern diet of highly processed foods and grains were introduced to these same people they quickly become obese and fell victim to the same health problems that we see so common in the United States today.













Source 1: http://thepaleodiet.com/about-the-paleo-diet/
Source2: http://www.thebigfatsurprise.com

6 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your article. I have heard of the Paleo diet before but did not now many details. My fiance had actually been on a modified version of it because he had joint pain. A massage therapist told us about it because processed foods and gluten can actually cause inflammation. It did help him a lot, but he began to lose too much weight. I was surprised to read about high amounts of saturated fats because I know there are health benefits, but would think it would be a limited amount. I also feel it would be better to go back to the every day diet from the past because there were a lot less health issues related to diet. Great post!

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  2. I really enjoyed learning about the Paleo diet. It is one I have never heard of before, but it seems like there is a good foundation of information to really back it up. I am interested to see if it actually works as well as it appears to. I am surprised to hear that even eating fatty cuts of meat is okay with this diet, just because it is something that we have been told to avoid for so long.

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  3. So many people are in tune to counting calories these days. It's not the calories that matter but the type of calories being consumed. The Paleo diet seems to have a good backbone and might very well be the answer to the obesity problem in todays fast food world.

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  4. This is a good summary of the paleo diet, but I'd like to see some more science to back your claims. For a good scientific assessment of this diet check out:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/this-is-your-brain-on-gluten/282550/
    The science is not as simple as advocates of the paleo diet make it sound.

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  5. I have heard of the Paleo Diet before and found your article interesting because it solidified the little knowledge that I already had. I am definitely a health freak and would be interested in trying to follow consistently sometime in the near future.

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  6. I had never really heard of the Paleo diet before, but I really enjoyed reading your article and finding out more about it. It is nice that there is no calorie count many of the different diets out there today are all about making sure you only take in a certain amount of calories each meal and when a person messes up and has too many calories they feel bad and try not eat as many at the next meal which is not healthy. These types of diets are not the healthiest or the best way to diet and stay on top of weight loss, the Paleo diet seems like a good diet that encourages people to eat healthier and get their weekly exercise.

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