Chatham - Paleo for beginners: essentials to get started

T he Paleo diet has become incredibly popular in the past few years, leading many people to assume that its a new way of eating. In reality, the Paleo diet has been around for almost forty years.

In 1975, a gastroenterologist named Dr. Walter Voegtlin published a book called The Stone Age Diet. In the book, he documented how he treated patients with a diet that replicated the eating patterns of people during the Paleolithic era. The diet prescribed consuming large quantities of animal fats and proteins and very small quantities of carbohydrates. Dr. Voegtlin reported that his patients, who suffered from disorders such as Crohns disease and irritable bowel syndrome, showed significant health improvements when following the diet.

Unfortunately, The Stone Age Diet didnt make much headway with the public. At that time, almost everyone believed that a low-fat, low-calorie diet was the only healthy way to eat.

Ten years later, however, Dr. S. Boyd Eaton and Dr. Melvin Konner published a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine that supported Dr. Voegtlins research and that received a lot of attention from the medical community and the media. The popularity of their paper on the Paleolithic era diet led to the publication of their book, The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet&Exercise and a Design for Living. This book established the principles most variations of the Paleo diet follow today.

The book explained the way our Paleolithic ancestors ate and why that nutritional lifestyle was such a healthy one. The most important thing the authors accomplished was to make the ancient diet suitable for modern times. The book laid out the nutritional content of the original Paleolithic diet and then showed readers how to get that nutritional profile from modern and widely available foods. It was an adaptable way to eat like our ancestors, and it paved the way for todays Paleo diet phenomenon.

There are several versions of the Paleo diet around today; these versions generally differ in terms of how strictly they follow the eating patterns of our Paleolithic ancestors. The Paleo diet described in this book is a version that intends to closely duplicate the nutritional makeup of a Paleolithic diet without being unrealistic, difficult or complicated. Youll reap the health and weight loss benefits of the Paleo diet without having to turn your entire lifestyle inside out or spend time searching for exotic ingredients. Youll be practicing a diet that is moderate in its approach, but you will likely see incredible results.

The Paleo diet is designed to duplicate the results and benefits of our pre-agricultural diet without duplicating the diets prehistoric methods. While there are a few Paleo followers who do literally hunt, gather or forage all of their food, most people dont have the motivation or time for that level of authenticity. Fortunately, we can achieve the same Paleolithic results with foods readily available to us in grocery stores, health foods stores and farmers markets.

The Paleo diet food pyramid is an inverted version of the one that used to be recommended by the USDA. Meats, eggs and seafood make up the majority of the days calories, followed by fats from plant foods, fruits and vegetables, and then nuts and seeds. The Paleo diet is a high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet.

will go into more detail on what youll be eating from each food group and also give you a specific list of allowed (and disallowed) foods. For now, well cover the basics.

The Paleo diet is effective not only because of what you eat, but also because of what you dont eat. Changing the components and proportions of your diet is only half the Paleo plan. The other half involves eliminating foods that can slow your metabolism, encourage blood sugar problems and fat storage, and slow digestion. These eliminated foods include processed foods, alcohol, grains, legumes and sugar.

Fast food, frozen meals and store-bought sweets and snacks are not a part of the Paleo diet and should be avoided.

Not only was alcohol an unlikely component of a Paleolithic-era diet, but it is also filled with empty calories and sugar. Alcohol does not supply enough nutritional value to offset its negative dietary attributes, and therefore is not included in the Paleo diet.