Have you been hearing about “the caveman diet”? Eating Paleo is actually pretty straightforward! It’s all about increasing the nutrient-density of your diet while avoiding nutrient-poor or inflammatory foods. There are a TON of foods to choose from! And it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. While high-quality foods like grass-fed and pasture-raised meat, wild-caught seafood, and organic produce are encouraged (especially if you are concerned about the ethics or sustainability of industrial farming), they are by no means mandatory if you can’t find or afford them. You can still reap all the benefits of eating Paleo.
Many people explain Paleo as “the way our ancestors ate” and to eat Paleo “because humans haven’t evolved to properly digest grains, legumes, and other non-Paleo foods”. While these make great elevator pitches, they are just theories to explain why the diet works. The real foundation of the diet is in modern science and thousands of studies in health, nutrition, biology, and physiology. There is a lot of room for individual experimentation (for example, some people include dairy or white rice if they tolerate them well and some people exclude additional foods because they do not tolerate them well) and there is always room for new research that may change the Paleo tenants. Paleo isn’t a crash diet. It is a lifestyle offering long-term rewards for long-term compliance, and many people can reap those rewards even if they don’t eat Paleo 100% of the time. It is a lifestyle seeking to improve overall health, which encourages you to find the balance that works for you, a balance that enables you to be happy as well as healthy!
Eat
- all meats and animal fats (poultry, red meat, pork, wild game, offal, etc.)
- all seafood (fish, shellfish, mollusks, etc.)
- eggs
- all vegetables (emphasizing a variety of leafy greens, crucifers, starches, sea vegetables, and colorful vegetables, including plant fats like avocado and coconut)
- mushrooms
- all fruits (not to exceed 20 grams of fructose per day)
- nuts and seeds (taking care to balance intake of omega-6 fatty acids from nuts, seeds, and meat with omega-3 fatty acids from seafood)
Eat as wide a variety of plant and animal foods as you can. Eating snout to tail (including organs) and eating the rainbow (including white-colored produce) are great rules of thumb. And since you are only eating nutrient-dense foods, you can eat as much as you want! Limiting your intake of produce means limiting the amount of micronutrients you ingest, which is a bad thing. Don’t skimp on the meat and seafood either, because they are excellent sources of a variety of nutrients that are not available from plants. That said, treat nuts, seeds, and fruit like a condiment, eating only a little with any given meal. Nuts and seeds are high in omega-6 fatty acids and can be difficult to digest, while fruit can be high in sugar.
Don’t eat
- grains and pseudograins (although white rice can be included if you tolerate it well)
- legumes (although legumes with edible pods like green beans and sugar snap peas are allowed)
- dairy (although grass-fed dairy, especially ghee, can be included if you tolerate it well)
- refined sugars and seed oils (like canola oil)
- processed foods and food additives (like emulsifiers and preservatives)
How can Paleo help?
In addition to removing foods that are just plain old nutrient-poor, Paleo avoids foods that are known to be difficult to digest and aggravating to the gut; foods that cause hormone or immune system imbalances; and foods that cause too much (or the wrong kinds of) bacteria to flourish in the gut. Focusing on nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods instead results in:
- reduced inflammation
- reduced risk of cardiovascular disease
- balanced hormones
- balanced immune system (even in the case of autoimmune disease)
- healthy amounts and types of gut microflora
- normalized weight (people who need to lose can lose while people who need to gain can gain)
- improved glucose tolerance