Research has proven for years that highly processed foods are the transgressor for many of the ills we suffer with today. The Paleo Diet suggests that we regress millenniums to the Paleolithic era of eating over 10,000 years ago to improve our health. Our diet during the Paleolithic period was free of “junk food.” Therefore, returning to our forebear’s way of eating, which mainly consisted of animal protein and plants, when we hunted and gathered our food, is the best diet for the body. Just picture “cave man” style food, with modern day means of catching and cooking it.
BENEFITS OF THE PALEO DIET
The Paleo Diet emulates the kind of foods that everyone on the globe ate before the Agricultural Revolution, some 333 years ago, and before the advent of what some call “Frankenstein food.” Foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meats, are high in valuable nutrients like omega-3, antioxidants, low-glycemic carbohydrates, and monounsaturated fats. These substances nurture good health, and are short of foods or elements like trans-fats, refined sugars and grains, high-glycemic carbohydrates, and salt. Basically, processed foods are not 100% “real foods” at all. These so-called foods contribute to diabetes, weight gain, cardiovascular disease, and various other health complications. The Paleo Diet propose that dieters substitute grain and dairy products with vegetables and fresh fruits, foods that are highly nutritious and better for the body’s health than grains or dairy products.
OTHER BENEFITS OF THE PALEO DIET
The unrestricted amount of fruits and vegetables, and carbohydrates, in the Paleo Diet consist of a low-glycemic index, which causes a slow and restricted increase in blood sugar and insulin levels. Extreme insulin and blood sugar levels are notorious for promoting a plethora of diseases known as the Metabolic-Syndrome. These are Type-2 diabetes and gout, adverse blood cholesterol, additional blood-lipid levels, hypertension, and obesity. The omega-3 fat content, protein, and high fiber of the Paleo Diet also helps to avert a particular group of risk factors that occur together like Type-2 diabetes, stroke, and coronary artery disease, known as the Metabolic Syndrome.