Paleolithic Diet Found to Be Healthful
Rest Today
Paleolithic Diet Found to Be Healthful
By Dr. John Briffa
Last May a study was published that tested the effects of a so-called Paleolithic diet—a diet based on the foods eaten prior to about 10,000 years ago, when it’s believed some of our ancestors converted from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists.
The Paleolithic diet is one that contains “primal”
foods such as meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts, but is devoid of dietary newcomers like refined sugar, grain-based foods, dairy products, and legumes (beans and lentils) [1].
In this study, for three weeks, individuals ate an average of 900 fewer calories per day than they had been eating. Not surprisingly, they lost weight (an average of 5 pounds). The study subjects experienced other benefits as well: reduced blood pressure and a considerable reduction in the levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1. (This would be expected to reduce the clotting tendency of the blood, which might translate into a reduced risk of heart attack and stroke.)
The effects of the Paleolithic diet were once again assessed in a recent study published online in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition [2]. This study subjected nine men and women to a Paleolithic diet for just 10 days. In the preceding seven days, their usual diet was morphed into the Paleolithic diet in the form of three diets that contained increasingly more potassium and fiber.
The Paleolithic diet that the subjects ate for 10 days was made up of meat (chicken, pork, and turkey), vegetables (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, salad, and parsnips), fruit (pineapple and melon), honey, and nuts (almonds). The diet emphasized lean meat (while the true Paleolithic diet was unlikely to be particularly lean) and also included foods that you can’
t imagine our early ancestors eating (tomato soup, guacamole, carrot juice, and mayonnaise), but the basic make-up of the diet was, overall, reflective of the foods we ate prior to the agricultural age.
...