Eat The Cavemen Way - Paleo Diet

Losing weight has never been an easy task... For anyone! There are so many "magic diet out there", and for us consumers, it can be difficult to differentiate the good stuff from the bad stuff. And regardless of why are you trying to lose weight for, whether your primary goal would be to shed excess body fat or build-up larger volumes of muscular mass and gain definition for summer for instance, there is no doubt that you've already done your research and realized that eating habits are the number one ingredient needed for good and fast results.

Atkins, low-carbs, low in fat, high protein, you've probably read them all... But what about the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo What?

The Paleo Diet (or Paleolithic diet program) is an eating plan that tries to mirror the cavemen ways of living and eating back in ancient times, this concept basically attempts to create a diet that these cavemen would have consumed or not.

And there's no or little doubt about it: as time has moved onward, humanity modern tools in addition to newer cooking processes have modified considerably how we eat from how we did in the cavemen ages.
And, these people from the paleolithic ear would have definitely needed to search for the foods they were going to eat, unlike today where we just take a simple errand to the food store where we can conveniently order any kind or quantity of cooked and refined foods. So is there a problem? Yes, there is, and several, the biggest problem being that every time these changes that have happened (processing, food in can, salt, dried food, added ingredients with no nutritional value), the nutrition content of our food have been going down. We are eating more and more carbohydrates, such as grains, food that our ancestors would have not been able to eat because it needs to be processed before consumption. On the other hand, we are eating much less green vegetables or fruits, foods that caveman would have had because they can be found nearly everywhere in the nature.

Paleolithic Diet versus Atkins Diet

The Paleo Diet cannot be classified as a very low carbohydrate diet such as the Atkins plan considering that it does contain much more fruits and veggies than the Atkins plan, but can be seen as a diet variation that is going to provide numerous health benefits. It will help support a body system that functions well while helping you easily achieve and keep your main body weight goals.

Please, be aware: I am not a physician, a registered dietitian, or a scientist. The text above represents an overview of everything that I've read in the past few years, from web sites to scientific studies, or articles about the subject. This is my own way of saying things to make them more simple. For more tips, please visit my Health Blog now.

Paleo Diet Is the Athlete's Diet

The Paleo diet which consists of foods that our Stone Age ancestors ate is today gaining more and more adherence as the perfect diet for athletes because of the health benefits it provides in terms of boosting one's energy, gaining muscle strength and keeping body weight down. What's more, the person on a Paleo diet can maintain his normal weight without controlling his food intake. You can eat as often and as much as you want.

Not all of us are athletes but we all want to be fit and healthy. So everyone can switch to a Paleo diet to be trim, stronger and free from the common diseases brought on by the fast food culture. It has been consistently shown that the foods in the Paleo diet help prevent diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart diseases.

Paleo foods

When you think of Paleo foods, think of what the cavemen ate before agriculture became a systematic activity. There was a great variety of foods available during the Paleolithic era. These included animal meat, fish, fowls, eggs, tree nuts, fruits, vegetables, berries, roots and mushrooms. This means that a Paleo diet does not limit your food choices.

For healthy meat, wild game meat is the best but meat that comes from grass-fed animals is also very Paleo. Processed meat is not as well as meat coming from animals raised on artificial feeds and pumped with all sorts of growth boosters.

The same criteria go for fish and vegetables. In order for fish to be a Paleo food, it must be caught in open seas instead of fish farms where commercial feeds are used. As for vegetables, they should be the organic types without being bombarded with pesticides.

Of food plants, it is now known that our early ancestors knew more than 300 kinds of edible plants that they foraged on. Many of these were green and leafy plants, which included herbs and spices. For this reason, the health buff of today who wants to go Paleo has vast choices of food plants to eat. It is healthy eating as long as the leaves, stems and roots of plants used for eating are prepared according to the Paleo principle: no overcooking, no additives, no oils, no processing and no oils.

Unacceptable additives

Oil is acceptable as part of the Paleo diet if it is extracted from fruit trees like olive and palm as well as from selected nuts such as coconut, almond, walnut, pecan and hazel nut. The oil you use to cook food is harmful to health if it is seed oil produced industrially.

Other food additives that should be used sparingly are salt and sugar. Remember that salt and sugar were not yet known in the Stone Age. It is believed that the taste buds humans developed for salt and sugar do not yield health benefits at all. If we use these additives rarely, we can eliminate our yearning for them.

When it comes to beverages, only water is acceptable and we have to drink only when we are thirsty. The best is spring water with no chlorination or fluoride added. However, fruit juices are also recommended under the principle that fruits are healthy foods. Again, the fruit juice should be freshly squeezed and never processed or preserved.

What Is the Paleo Diet?

This diet plan originated millions of years ago and it is referred to as the "Cavemen", "Stone Age" or the "Hunter Gatherer" diet. This diet is known as our ancestors' way of eating. Thousands of years ago, people were taller, more slender, athletic, healthier and more versatile. This is because people from the Paleo generation have a healthier immune system due to the naturally fresh food they eat and the kind of work they do in search for survival. During this era, people ate fresh meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and other natural foods. Their foods are packed with all the natural vitamins and nutrition that their bodies need. They ate foods which have more calories, but less fat needed for energy each day. Their regular diet helps them get the prescribed controlled weight and it contributed to maintain their natural strength, mind power and endurance.

Today, a lot of people are overweight, high in cholesterol, stressed, suffering from depression, listlessness, and dying from diseases that can actually be prevented. Several reasons behind these situations depend on the quality of food eaten and the quantity of daily food intake. The immune system simply protects threats against various diseases and in how to overcome them will depend upon proper diet.

The Paleo diet helps with the avoidance of different diseases and chronic illnesses of our times. It helps with the prevention of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, intestinal problems, autoimmune illnesses, and depression. It also acts as an acne treatment for people with skin problems.

Here is a list of foods included in the Paleo diet plan:

1. Fresh fruits: apple, avocado, banana, blueberry, guava, mango and other seasonal fruits which are high in fiber.

2. Fresh green leafy vegetables

3. Nuts: almonds and hazelnuts

4. Grass fed animals: cows, goats, and other livestock

5. Feathered animals: chicken, duck, and turkey

6. Seafoods: tuna, salmon, cod, flatfish and other shellfish varieties.

7. Fats: coconut, olive oil, grape juice and other healthy fats

Here is a list of foods which should be avoided:

1. Dairy products: milk, cheese, cream, butter, ice cream, and other related products

2. Prepared foods: baked goods, sugar, candies, chocolates and other sweet condiments

3. Cereal grains: whole wheat, rice, pasta, crackers, cookies, white and wild rice.

4. Legumes: black and red beans, lima beans, lentils, peas, soya beans, and peanuts

5. Starchy vegetables: potatoes and sweet potatoes

6. Processed food: canned meat and fish, bacon, hotdogs, dried and smoked fish and meat

7. Carbonated drinks: canned, bottled, and sugary drinks

People should be aware of the changes in our society which affects our dietary needs. Basic food needs have generally been different since agriculture such as farming and processed foods have been introduced. Chemical, nitrogen and other unnatural fertilizers affected our farm products; thus, affects the health of the populace. Hence, people should be conscious of the right kinds of food for a healthy lifestyle.

Paleo Diet - Rediscover Your Ancestors

The paleo diet can be defined as the natural food which was being used by the ancient people during the Paleolithic era. It is also called Paleolithic diet, Caveman diet and stone-age diet. Cavemen used to get the food by hunting animals and gathering fruits, nuts, vegetables etc. They were even strong enough to fight with the animals. Because of the Industrialization the processed foods and refined food gained popularity and due to the revolution in the agriculture there was increase in contribution of carbohydrates which in turn diluted the protein content in the human diet. Here I want to ask one thing

"One cannot think well, love well, Sleep well, if one has not dined well." Is it true?

Yes, with Paleo diet one can sleep well, lose weight, become healthy and strong, and lead peaceful life. The reason for this is this type of diet consist the foods which are having high nutritional value and low toxic content.

Paleo diet is against for the foods like grains (wheat, rice, cookies, corn, oats etc), processed foods (dried smoked fish and meat, bacon, canned meat and fish etc), candies, baked goods, sugar and chocolates, dairy products (milk, butter, cheese, ice cream etc), beans, lentils, peanuts etc

Paleo diet includes the foods like meat (goat, cow, chicken, duck etc), seafood (salmon, cod, shellfish etc), green leafy vegetables, fruits (mango, banana, apple etc), almonds, soya bean oil, olive oil etc

If you are the person in search of a diet which makes you healthy, strong and allergy free then this is the perfect diet which meets your criteria. Let me give you scientific reason which supports paleo diet.

In a layman language we can divide fats into two parts. One type of fat is bad fat (saturated fats) and other type is good fat (unsaturated fats). Saturated Fats are found in animal products like butter, cheese, lard and fatty meats, and some vegetable oils such as coconut and palm oil. Unsaturated fats are found in salmon, tuna and sardines, and in oils like corn oil, safflower oil and soybean oil, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans, canola oil, and olive oil. Paleo diet is against for bad fat instead it includes only the foods containing good fat.

Studies have shown that unsaturated fats are heart-healthy and if you want to stay away from degenerative diseases including the deadly cancer, then you must start your Paleo diet-eating-plan right now.

It is not so easy to adopt to this type of diet. Start cooking paleo recipes and buying paleo foods. At beginning stages eat paleo foods twice a week. Then slowly increase the number of days. Eat whatever you want once in a week. Finally completely avoid other foods except paleo foods. Read some inspirational books to get inspiration. Get suggestions from those who are following paleo lifestyle. Do not give up for at least one month. If you find results then no one can stop you. There are so many books like paleo recipe book, paleo diet book etc with which you can make variety of recipes and can enjoy paleo lifestyle.

"You are what you eat - and perhaps surprisingly, you also are what your ancestors ate"...If you start following paleo lifestyle you can give better health and strength to your future generations too.

For following paleo diet you need paleo foods. Using the Paleo recipe book written by Sabastien Noel is a very good book for paleo recipes. Please visit http://www.paleorecipebookv.com for more info.

The Paleo Diet For Athletes

The Paleo diet for athletes is not the typical diet that you will find elsewhere. Others may be skeptical about the change but what you should know is that the Paleo diet is great for athletes because it aims to increase one's endurance and strength. The diet also increases muscle development and anabolic function. These are only a few of the things that an athlete looks for in a diet and which the Paleo diet can provide. Read on to find out more:

An athlete's diet consists largely of pasta, rice, milk, bread, potatoes and everything else rich in carbohydrates. In the Paleo diet however, an athlete does not need all these carbohydrates. The diet believes that carbohydrates, dairy, grains and other starchy vegetables are of no good to the body and consumption of large amounts of them are even harmful. It may contradict a typical athlete's diet but the Paleo diet makes up for the lack of carbohydrates in other kinds of food like meats rich in protein.

Upon hearing that the Paleo diet is low in carbohydrates, most athletes will turn their backs and not take a second look anymore because athletes take meals full of carbohydrates and this is what they have been used to all their lives. The Paleo diet is quite new to athletes especially, and many are quite hesitant to try it. They think that shifting to a whole new diet could affect their performance and so they aren't willing to take the risk.

What these athletes' do not know is that it only takes a few weeks of being on the diet to feel the many positive effects. It is undeniable that the first few days will not be easy, mainly because the body is still adjusting to the change, so we will want to give our bodies time to adjust when trying something new.

But after the body has gotten used to and has adapted to the new diet, then the athlete will feel the positive effects: firstly, he/she will have a very evident increase in endurance and strength aside from feeling better in general. The 'feeling-better' is experienced by everyone who has gone into the diet, this is because the body has detoxified and therefore is in a much better shape.

The Paleo diet is great for athletes for other reasons: one, it lowers the ratio between omega-6 and omega-3, and most athletes know that this is vital in healing the muscles and tissues by reducing the inflammation. Two, it increases the branched chain amino acid (BCAA) that is responsible for muscle development and anabolic function. Three, it lowers body acidity, this stimulates muscle protein synthesis while reducing the catabolic effect of acidosis on bones and muscles. Fourth, it is high in trace nutrients or vitamins and minerals and these contribute to long term recovery from exercise as well as promoting optimal health.

Athletes do not necessarily have to strictly follow the Paleo diet, and the same goes with everyone else. The diet recognizes that each one has his/her own individual needs which is why it allows leeway for changes.
Take the Paleo diet as an inspiration and make it your own.

4 Great Paleo Diet Breakfast Ideas

Are you looking for great Paleo diet breakfast ideas that will enable you to lose weight easily? This diet which was made famous by Loren Cordain is extremely popular these days because it is very effective to enable people to achieve weight loss. It requires you to copy the diet that paleolithic man was supposed to have followed.

Since you are not permitted to eat grains if you are on this diet you will find it very difficult to have a good breakfast. After all, you might have become used to eating cereal or bread at the start of the day. The following Paleo diet breakfast ideas will enable you to lose weight without feeling that you are going through a lot of discomfort.

- Eggs make a very filling meal at any time of the day and are absolutely perfect for breakfast. You can increase the nutrition content of the meal by cooking a variety of vegetables in your eggs. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms and potatoes can be cooked along with the eggs in order to make the meal filling and delicious.

- Eat plenty of fruits at breakfast (except for dried fruits) in order to get a nutritious and healthy start to the day. You can keep varying the kinds of fruit you eat so that you have plenty of variety.

- Lean meat is also an important part of the paleo diet. Therefore, you should try to add a bit of lean meat to your breakfast menu.

- Use almond meal, coconut flour or dried pea powder to make all sorts of foods that resemble conventional breakfast foods. For instance, you can easily make muffins, breads and waffles using these ingredients instead of wheat flour. You can also make a very satisfying breakfast using Quinoa.

You will be able to make delicious and healthy breakfasts every day by eating different combinations of the foods mentioned here. For instance, you will not have a satisfactory breakfast if you eat only fruits. In fact, you should try your hand at making different breakfast casseroles containing meats, vegetables and eggs.

Now that you have plenty of Paleo diet breakfast ideas you will easily be able to stick to your weight loss diet without feeling that you are depriving yourself of good food. You will be able to lose weight in a safe and gradual manner as long as you stuck to this diet.

Get great Paleo diet breakfast ideas that will help you start your day with nutritious and filling meals. You'll be able to stick to your diet since you won't feel that you are depriving yourself of delicious foods.

The Paleo Diet for Athletes - Good News!

If you think the time of the cavemen has passed, think again. Today, the Paleo (Paleolithic) Diet is considered an excellent one for athletes. We know that the Paleo people, or cavemen, ate well and healthily. That may be because processed foods, and even cooked foods, were not yet invented.

But even so, considering that they lived between about 2.5 million and 20,000 years ago they were extraordinarily advanced in their dietary habits.

Eating Healthy Millions of Years Ago

Besides lean meats, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, which the Paleos ate often, they NEVER ate grains, salt sugar, legumes, bread, pasta and dairy products.

Those foods are most often associated with diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity and we know Paleos never got those diseases. In regard to diet, the Paleolithic Era might just as well be called the Healthy Era.

Benefits of the Paleo Diet for Athletes

Also known as the Stone Age, the Paleolithic Era began with crude homemade tools and ended with hunting and gathering societies.

Today's athletes who follow the Paleo diet have rid themselves of migraine headaches, dysfunctional sleep, allergy symptoms and cranky moods. An additional benefit is that often they have also lost weight. Whatever they were, cavemen were not fat. They generally walked about 10 miles a day.

Of course, there won't be pizza night, chocolate lattes (or chocolate anything), and spaghetti and meatballs, But who's to know if you treat yourself to something you love once in a while, and improve your running performance by following the diet the rest of the time.

"The Paleo Diet," was popularized by Loren Cordain, a professor at Colorado State University. Cordain points to Paleo man's proper balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, a balance that would have prevented chronic heart conditions. He also details the havoc starchy carbohydrates cause for blood glucose and insulin levels and the toxicity of sodium.

These modern additions to our diet are the cause of so much illness. If you are an athlete, particularly a runner, you might consider converting to the Paleo Diet for athletes. It's certainly worth a try if it will do for you what it did for cavemen: increase endurance, aid athletic performance and sharpen mental clarity..

Salt and the Paleo Diet

There's a lot of contention in the health world over the amount of sodium allowable in a diet. Nowhere is this idea more widely debated than in paleo dieting. If you look through the wide assortment of paleo cookbooks out there, you'll see what I mean. While some use salt in almost every recipe, others strictly forbid it.

The problem with salt in the paleo diet is that paleo purists believe that the body was created to digest only those things that existed during the lifetime of the earliest man, the Paleolithic era. Because salt was not introduced to the human diet until long after that, they forbid it in their diets and urge others to do the same.

However, some argue that just because it was not used doesn't mean that it didn't exist. It was available in the form of evaporated sea salt and salt deposits. Early man just lacked the forethought or means utilize it.

So, why does any of this matter? The debate over sodium is not limited to just those paleoites arguing over it's origin or some inconsequential evolutionary timeline. It's a debate that has sparked nationwide talks over the last food years.

Because the long-term effects of high-sodium consumption have been linked to such diseases as stroke, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, edema and stomach cancer, many experts believe that stricter guidelines are need for healthy consumption.

The FDA recommends that the average person consume no more than 2300mg of sodium per day (1500mg for people over 51, African-Americans or people with hypertension, diabetes or chronic kidney disease), but studies show that the average American gets between 3400 and 4700mg per day, and that an "estimated 75 percent of the average consumer's intake comes from packaged foods." (according to Food Navigator-USA)

For this reason, in 2010 New York City launched the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a campaign which urged food manufacturers to voluntarily reduce the sodium content of their products. The long-term goal is to see a 25% reduction across the board by 2015. This campaign has been met with a high amount of success, thanks in large part to the support and championing for the cause by First Lady Michelle Obama.

To the untrained eye, these all seem like great measures and reducing your sodium consumption to the lowest levels possible would just be icing on the health cake. Unfortunately, this a very flawed idea. To explain why, we need to look at what exactly sodium does on a biological level.

Sodium is a mineral, and an essential one at that. It regulates blood volume and blood pressure and our primary source of sodium is salt. For minimal function, the body requires at least 500mg. Too little sodium in the body can lead to muscle cramps, dizziness, neurological problems, or even death. Increased water consumption with insufficient sodium levels can cause a condition known as hyponatremia, or water intoxication.

In the average diet, eliminating sodium is an unwise decision, but for paleo dieters, a large population of which are athletes, the elimination of sodium from the diet can be life-threatening. When you sweat, you lose sodium deposits in your system, and when you rehydrate on a sodium-deprived system, your risk of water intoxication goes way up.

The best way to manage sodium in your diet is just to cut out processed packaged foods. Stick to foods that are fresh and freshly prepared. Don't be afraid to salt your food while cooking or eating, but be wary of recipes that call for huge amounts of it, and eat salted or cured meats in moderation. Drink plenty of water, but don't go overboard. The general rule is one ounce of water per two pounds of body weight, slightly more if you sweat a lot. If you have a high-salt day, compensate by boosting your potassium intake, which can help offset the negative effects of the sodium.

It's all about eating smart, as any diet should be, but please don't listen to any so-called paleo experts, or buy into any paleo cookbooks that call for the elimination of salt completely from your diet. They need to do their research.

The Paleo Diet and The Dangers of Processed Foods

For every food that is not allowed in the Paleo diet, there is a reason that can back it up, aside from a simple "because it's not good for your health". The number one enemy of the Paleo diet is processed foods. The reason being is because they have unnatural additives that are not healthy at all.

Listed below are the dangerous additives that you will want to look out for:

Sodium Nitrite - to increase the shelf life of products, sodium nitrite is added. This is the reason why storing food has become quite convenient for us. Food is no longer easily spoiled or grows mold. The problem here though, is that by adding chemicals to make food storage convenient, we risk our own health. Sodium nitrite is added to our food, but it is known to increase the risks of pancreatic cancer and leukemia and also increases the risk of brain tumor in infants.

Sodium nitrite is especially used in processed meats that you can keep for months in the pantry or refrigerator. Examples are hotdogs, bacon, ham, beef jerky, and lunch meat. This is why the Paleo diet restricts eating anything that is canned or packaged.

Salt - you probably didn't expect to find salt in this list because it's natural and essential in cooking, but the sad truth is that we're abusing our salt intake which is why we need to slow down in using it. Most people will argue that they only use a very minimal amount of salt when they cook, and this is good because you don't really need all that much to flavor the food.

We may limit and control how much salt we put in the food that we are preparing, but what we cannot limit is the amount of salt that companies put in our packaged and easy to prepare foods. Salt also makes a foods' shelf life longer and enhances the flavor of the processed food, which is why there is so much used in processed convenience foods. But it is important to cut back, because too much salt (more than a teaspoon daily) is directly linked to fatal strokes and many heart diseases.

Aspartame - aspartame is an artificial sweetener and is commonly found in diet and sugar free foods. People are becoming more aware of the unhealthy amounts of sugar that they consume and in an attempt to have a healthier diet, they opt for diet sodas and sugar free ice cream. What they don't know is that by opting for a supposedly low sugar diet, they are risking their health because aspartame is actually a toxic substance when consumed too much.

Half of aspartame is made up of a substance called phenylalanine. Some people will say that it is a natural substance so what could possibly be wrong? It IS a natural substance but the problem is consuming it in large quantities. Phenylalanine is only meant to be consumed in extremely small amounts because once our bodies get too much of it, one of the disturbing side effects is that our threshold for seizure becomes lower.
Aspartame contains two more substances that are known to risk a person's health: aspartic acid which is linked to lesions in the brain and methanol which is a known contributor of brain tumors.

Now you know why processed foods are a big no-no in the Paleo diet. They contain ingredients that are known to be very harmful to us humans and even though they have made our lives more convenient, we should still let go of them. Our lives can still be just as convenient even without them. Learn how to prepare or prep meals in advance so when the busy work week comes, you will have an easier time cooking your meal.

What Exactly Is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet is a low sugar, low sodium and high protein diet that aims to provide optimum health by following the diet of our ancestors who lived in the Paleolithic era. While the diet's main priority is health, it is also a great weight loss diet. Those who developed this diet believed that the cave men that lived in the Stone Age or Paleolithic era have the healthiest diet that is best suited to mankind.

They are believed to have the diet that is best suited to us because our genes have only changed by a mere 0.01% yet our diet and lifestyle has changed by innumerable percentages. So it is best that we go back to the diet of the cave men when everything came fresh and were still free of chemicals. They freshly picked their food or hunted animals and ate it for what it was. No preservatives, no artificial flavorings nor additives.

During the Paleolithic era, there was not the need for instant foods or foods with a longer shelf life. It has only been recently that we wanted and needed fast and convenient preparations to make life easier, thus preservatives and additives were created. Because these are chemical concoctions that humans made, they are no longer natural and good for us. Even if they are natural, we consume it in amounts that have become harmful to our health.

These are the reasons why the Paleo diet has been developed. To spare us from substances that are not healthy and to provide us with foods that contain what our bodies need. The cave men lived healthy lives even without the convenient and fast foods that we now have, this is why the Paleo diet imitates their own diet. With their intake of food, they were able to perform daily tasks that require much energy and labor.

They had to walk for miles to hunt and literally pick their own food and they were able to do it because of their diet.

The Paleo diet is a high protein diet to provide one with enough energy to perform labor intensive tasks. It also includes lots of fruits and vegetables to provide the body with vitamins and nutrients. These two food groups are absolutely healthy and consumption of it has no limits. The more you eat is even the better. There won't be a need to take extra vitamin supplements because the diet will provide the body with enough vitamins.

It is a low sodium and low sugar diet because excessive amounts of salt and sugar in the body is not healthy. The cave men have a low sodium and low sugar diet because in those days, they did not have refined sugar or artificial sweeteners and because they did not cook the way we do now, there was no need for excessive amounts of salt to flavor their dishes.

The Paleo diet is about going back to the basics by eating fresh fruits, vegetables and meat and resisting processed, canned, boxed, dairy and other foods that were not yet available during the Paleolithic era.