I know that there are countless books about going prehistoric with your diet and eating like a caveman but I thought a quick article talking about the Paleo diet may be a little easier for you than a big book.
To save you a even more reading I will tell you that going Paleo is going in the right direction. Not perfect but in the right direction. It can help you burn fat and lose weight dropping inches. There you have it, if you are not a big reader no need to read on, you are on the right track.
But if you want to know the areas where the Paleo diet falls short and how you can improve on it for greater health and weight loss, read on.
Hunter Gather Diet
The hunter gather diet was around before well before the arrival of agriculture, and of course well before processed food and quick meals from fast food chains. The Neanderthals diet was simple. They ate whatever could be picked, gathered or caught. That would mean their diet consisted of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts. As you can see there are no grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, or processed oils on that list.
Bodybuilder and Paleo
You may be surprised to know that eating like a caveman is very close to what bodybuilders do pre contest. It works great for getting them lean quickly. The basic diet of a physique competitor like a bodybuilder or fitness model consists of lean proteins, nuts and seeds, green vegetables, and a little fruit. It is void of all processed foods, dairy products, most grains and starches. As you can see it's not too far off that of the paleolithic diet.
When you want to get super lean, and you're shooting for maximal fat loss getting rid of grains and calorie dense starchy carbs and replacing them with lean protein and vegetables is the best way to go. This will really speed up the fat burning process, helping you burn the most body fat in the quickest amount of time.
Why Eating Like a Caveman is Effective
This type of diet is effective for a number of reasons. The primary being genetics. Our genetic code has not changed all that much in the past 40,000. So, our bodies are still not accustomed to eating foods produced today.
As you can imagine the caveman wasn't unwrapping his food. There weren't any TV dinners, food from a can, or a box. The only packaging they had to contend with was a shell, skin, or a peel.
The wasn't any high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, hydrogenated oils, chemicals, or preservatives. Everything was natural and organic.
This is a vastly different way than we eat now.
Good, But...
So I think a Paleo diet definitely has vast merit. Where they do go slightly off course is their recommendations to remove all grains and starches. I think this is a bit drastic and unnecessary.
Their rationale for such a recommendation is that agriculture is only about 10,000 years old and that is not a long enough time for our bodies to evolve. We are not able to properly digest ours more modern food. This leads to the banning of rice potatoes and whole-grain products that can be grown in cultivated.
This isn't totally necessary. There are definitely starchy carbohydrates and grains that require little to no processing, which in my opinion are just fine to consume. There are also individuals that have a metabolism that can handle starches and grains without a problem. Because of this I don't believe it's necessary to totally eliminate whole grains and starchy carbs from your diet. Everyone is a little different, each person has a little leeway in their nutritional strategies.
Activity Levels and Diet
For the highly active individual or athlete with normal body fat levels, it doesn't make sense to remove 100% whole grains, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, legumes, and others such items from their diet. These items are in particularly important to athletes who perform at a high levels. It helps with energy and performance.
A good way to deal with these carbs is to keep them in your diet for performance when you need top results. Then when you want to maximize your fat loss, cut them out or reduce them. Do keep in mind that these carbohydrates are natural and not processed. A prime example is oatmeal. There is instant oatmeal with added sugar and fortified ingredients, or 100% whole natural oats that require time to cook. The first are bad the second are fine most of the time.
Refined carbs are definitely something you can do without. To accelerate your weight loss and your fat burning capacity it is a good idea to totally eliminate these foods.
When choosing the right diet plan and weight loss regime I think people get too caught up in the current trends. I don't think it's so important to say your on allow carb high protein low fat type diet. The more sensible approach to take is to eat whole foods that require the least amount of processing. Vegetables and fruits can be eaten without any processing whatsoever, you can go to the garden pick an apple, wash it off and eat it. The next level is cooking. You take a piece of fresh fish or chicken heated up and eat it. That's just one step of processing, and that's fine.
Stay as close to these two models as you can and you will be healthy maintain a healthy weight.
