Paleo Diet: Smart eating or latest fad?

L K......Fine dining to say the least!

I love Stupid!!!!!!

The native Americans centuries ago had corn tortillas and beans... I think we're good on that, no?

I get the whole avoid processed foods, buy locally when you can and foods that are actually in season (or you're getting oranges from Australia) and they didn't stick strictly with lean meats. They ate every bit of meat that was available.

Cheese and salts have been around for centuries. There is nothing wrong with it. A severe lack of salt in your diet is bad for you. You can quite easily buy non-processed, non-bleached organic salts that gives your body what you need. Eliminating salt is actually bad for you and suggesting you drop salt is very irresponsible. You run into problems when you chronically eat too much salt. Cutting out all processed food, you're cutting out a huge part of your sodium, you need to get it somewhere. There are minimal amounts in regular foods, but not enough.

This diet has worked for many of my friends. But when I tried it I became extremely lethargic and naseaus. I personally couldn't handle it. It could work for some, but not everyone.

Our intestines do not have a spot or tools, nor are they long enough to go through the long process of digestion of the cellulose of most plants. All carnivores get their nutrients from the animal they ate, and survive just fine. If that is true, then we should be able to get all our nutrients from meat, but since our intestines are longer then dogs, for example, we probably do have the ability to digest some softer materials from plants, better than a dog or cat. Therefore, a Paleo diet should be plenty healthy.

Plants only grow in the summer, so I imagine, cavemen probably did rely mostly on meat to survive the long cold winters or the latter part of the ice age while they lived deep underground in caves. There is no sun in the caves for plants to grow. Even Whiteman or Caucasians were there long enough to lose their color. There is no light so no need for color in a cave. Many creatures that live deep in a cave are white.

You might realize that pre-historic humans rarely lived beyond their late thirties...partly due to being eaten by wild animals, killed by neighboring tribes and maybe eating this diet.

There are those who believe that cow's milk was formulated for baby cows and not for the human digestive system. I for one feel 10 times better than I did before I eliminated all dairy products from my diet.

Meat is sooo d@mned good. What I'm tired of is bread and dough...that is the none-monetary kind, of course. Actually, I could use a second-helping and a few days of left-overs of the monetary kind, if you know what I mean...

With food prices skyrocketing, who can afford meat, much less fresh vegetables?

We're being starved to death by Congress.

I may be considered as someone sensitive to foods, but apparently the truth is, the Paleo diet just may be the way to go. All my life, I've had issues with food/health conditions, and after getting to understand myself, I've settled in quite nicely on a food lifestyle that I call clean, unprocessed, unpolished foods. More protein - prime lean meat or fish, leafy vegetables, lots of brocolli and carrots, unpolished natural rice or none at all, oats, almonds and fruits, no milk cheese and refined sugar. Some may find this boring, but I feel healthier this way. While everyone is not made up the same, and some may be safely able to drink milk with foods, I'm quite sure that most have issues such as bloating, delayed digestion and mucous and other congestion and don't even make the connection.

None........you are so right.

To those who suggest the diet of cave men may have contributed to the low average age - in a way, yes.

Humans were both hunter and hunted. A cornered beast could break a hunter's limb in its bid for freedom - and quite often successful hunters would have to defend the kill from other predators.
Hygiene has improved. A broken arm or leg is no longer a death sentence. Had the cavemen had the benefit of a life without predators and some of the benefits of modern surgery and medicine the life expectancy would have been much higher.

The basis for the excluded foods is that for most of the population the actual Paleo foods are ones to which they will have no adverse reactions. The more recent the addition to the human diet, the more likely it will produce an inflammatory reaction.

Far too many people have chronic low level inflammation from eating 'modern' foods.

GM food are very recent. Feed lot animals and barn raised chickens are very recent. The refined vegetable oils and margarine (aka trans fatty acids) and instearified fats are also very recent. Pasteurised milk is a recent food (nb the countries that drink the most pasteurised milk are highest in osteoporosis, whereas raw milk builds bones). Some racial groups cannot deal with milk or dairy products at all. As for additions further back - if they have been eaten by generations of your family the chances are you have an adaption to them, otherwise there is a chance of developing an inflammatory disorder over time.
High fructose corn syrup is a very recent addition as are artificial sweeteners. BOTH lead to more weight gain than foods and drinks using raw honey or cane sugar.

To recap - the longer the food has been a part of the human diet the less likely that it will cause problems.
Note that all Paleo food was organic meaning the plants were grown as nature intended and the animals ate as nature intended -
and the animals were not 'hot housed' through the addition of antibiotics, hormones, grains or soy. Pesticides and artificial fertilisers and animal products from animals fed modern foods also adds to your chance of developing inflammation. Using modern practices a chicken is market ready in weeks rather than months - and of course this affects the nutrients available - and the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 in the meat.........and hugely increases your chance of food poisoning or 'catching' an antibiotic resistant disease.

Gout occurs when urate crystals accumulate around your joint, causing the inflammation and intense pain of a gout attack. Urate crystals can form when you have high levels of uric acid in your blood. Your body produces uric acid when it breaks down purines — substances that are found naturally in your body — as well as in certain foods, such as organ meats, anchovies, herring, asparagus and dark green leafy vegetable have more purine concentration than any other vegetables. These can include cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms.

BRAVO.......................

"Posted by Madmaddie 8 hours ago
I liked this comment so much I had to put it up again: If you want more info on the Paleo Diet (it has been around a lot longer then Atkins) check out robbwolf.com he has put a lot of time into it.

Seriously people...think about it. Cavemen are no longer alive and their life span was short because of their environment, NOT their diet. We live in cushy homes now with accessibility to things that no caveman ever had. They braved harsh weather and animals that more than likely attacked randomly. That is why they had short life spans, not because they were eating paleo.

Before you post ignorant comments, you might actually want to pick up Robb Wolf or Loren Cordain's book and read it. The paleo diet is not a diet, it is a lifestyle and it works. The problem is, people assume because you don't get to eat garbage, that it isn't fun. It is hard work, but worth it...I feel better now than I ever have eating processed food."

I personally know first hand that this diet is a wonderful diet. My dad went to the doctor and he was 60 pounds overweight. Doc said he needed to lose the weight and come back in six months to recheck his High blood pressure. My dad started the Paleo Diet and within 6 weeks I saw a major change I have never seen before. In his face he lost weight underneath his Jawline that has been there for 28 years. He also gained a wonderful Muscle Mass that was just shocking to me and had energy like never before and he is over 50 years old. I am now sold on the Diet and Love the way I feel!!!!! The Doc said he was in great shape and the BP had now leveled out and was not as high anymore. Oh and My dad lost 63 pounds in weight and gained a lot of muscle!!!

Just don´t let gout patients know of this diet!

There is a reason why cavemen died out.

Did I read the word "truth" in the lead in to this absurd article?! I mean truth, they are joking right? Science per se is factual and not truthful and if some lame writer doesn't understand what this all important distinction is then they are lost. The article is a f'ing piece of junk psuedo-science I have seen for a while. Early man ate what he could eat regardless if it was low hanging fruit, gobbling easily caught fish, slow running animals, or had an organized hunt. Unless many scientists have examined & collated many feces samples across locals of early man then anything about diet is lame speculation and very far from "truth."

I liked this comment so much I had to put it up again: If you want more info on the Paleo Diet (it has been around a lot longer then Atkins) check out robbwolf.com he has put a lot of time into it.

Seriously people...think about it. Cavemen are no longer alive and their life span was short because of their environment, NOT their diet. We live in cushy homes now with accessibility to things that no caveman ever had. They braved harsh weather and animals that more than likely attacked randomly. That is why they had short life spans, not because they were eating paleo.

Before you post ignorant comments, you might actually want to pick up Robb Wolf or Loren Cordain's book and read it. The paleo diet is not a diet, it is a lifestyle and it works. The problem is, people assume because you don't get to eat garbage, that it isn't fun. It is hard work, but worth it...I feel better now than I ever have eating processed food.