Paleo Diet is so popular these days, many people wonder if it is truly beneficial for overall health and if it can finally help then shed pounds.
This type of dieting is actually very different from other popular diet plans such as the Daniel Fast, Intermittent Fasting or Ketogenic Diet, as Paleo Diet resembles what our human ancestors actually ate thousands of years ago.
Paleo Diet is reportedly so impressive in reducing weight according to most dieters. But the question is, can you truly follow its requirements to the letter?
Intrigued? If you are overweight and you are looking for the most ideal diet plan for your weight loss program, then I suggest that you read this article and see if Paleo Diet is the perfect meal plan for you.
What is Paleo Diet?
Paleo Diet is a dietary program based on foods eaten by human civilization thousands of years ago. Others call this as the Caveman Diet or the Stone Age Diet.
As the image above suggest, this diet primarily promotes a high-protein, high fiber eating plan that promises to provide good health and effective weight loss without limiting your calories (1).
What is the purpose of this diet?
The aim is to return to the old fashion way of eating, what early humans actually ate.
So what is the catch? The reasoning behind is that the human body is genetically misaligned to today’s modern diet, which is based on farming practices. This idea is known as discordance hypothesis.
Traditional farming takes or changed the way people should eat, and the introduction of dairy, grains and legumes are all added to human diet.
According to Paleo Diet experts, this rapid change in human diet made a drastic and negative change to the body, unable to adapt that led to numerous chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart problems.
Experts also suggest that following a whole food-based meal plan coupled with physically active lifestyle, ancient people are presumably healthy and had much lower rates of the aforementioned diseases.
Thousands of people today are following the Paleo Diet, primarily to help them lose weight or maintain a healthy weight (2).
Are there any factual evidence that Paleo Diet is indeed beneficial to health?
Paleo Diet Meal Plan
It is quite impossible to exactly pinpoint what foods early human civilizations ate at their time. One thing is certain, they ate whole foods.
There are different ways on how to use Paleo Diet for weight loss as dozens of these diets are now commercialized. Some diet plans offer a less restrictive plan but others are more stricter.
Some ate a low-carb diet high in animal foods, while others have taken a high-carb diet with lots of vegetables and fruits.
The general guideline is this – foods that are naturally found in nature are okay with Paleo Diet.
The basic meal plan include the following:
- Lean meat
- Fish
- Eggs
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Herbs
- Spices
- Healthy fats and oils from plants
Avoid the following foods:
- Grains such as wheat, oats and barley
- Legumes
- Refined sugar
- Salt
- Potatoes
- Artificial sweeteners
- Trans fats
- All processed foods (hotdogs, canned goods and many others)
Water, wine (quality red wine) and fruit juices are perfectly fine in Paleo Diet.
According to some dieters, Paleo Diet is not a difficult eating regimen as compared to HCG diets and many other diet programs that requires you to limit your calories to crazy low numbers.
Paleo Diet even allows you to have some cheat days especially if you are a beginner. For your first week, you can eat what you want for three meals. This is called “open meals“. Some dieters challenge themselves by just one open meal per week.
If you want assistance on how to start Paleo Diet, take a short PaleoPlan course here.
Possible Benefits of Paleo Diet
According to some studies, Paleo Diet may have beneficial effects on the body in many ways.
Aside from weight loss, experts have shown that this diet can help lower the risk of heart diseases, blood pressure and inflammation. It can also help lower blood sugar levels which can benefit diabetics (3).
Some reports suggests that it can help reduce acne, improve physical performance and promotes optimum health.
These benefits are due to no salts and processed foods.
Though Paleo Diet seems to be a completely beneficial eating program, more research are needed to come up with conclusive results.
Possible Adverse Health Effects of Paleo Diet
There are several potential disadvantages or health risk factors of a Paleo Diet.
This include deficient intake of vitamin B, D and calcium, including the exposure to environmental toxins from high intake of fish, and bacteria from fresh raw meat.
With the exclusion of whole grains, you significantly reduce your intake of fiber and other nutrients that are all essential for your heart and other body systems.
High meat intake for example, can dramatically increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic health conditions (4).
So if you have no idea how to correctly start Paleo Diet safely and efficiently, gather some ideas for free in this short PaleoPlan course.
Otherwise, you have to consult your doctor first before you follow any Paleo Diet plan you find online.
Bottom Line
Paleo Diet is a controversial way of diet that requires you to increase your intake of vegetables and fruits while not hindering you from eating animal meat.
Increase consumption of plant foods may indeed provide tons of health benefits for you including weight loss. But you also need to decrease your intake of animal fats as well, in order to avoid developing high blood pressure or heart diseases.
The benefits of Paleo Diet in diabetes is not yet conclusive though many experts agree that this type of eating regimen might be the best antidote to unhealthy Western diet, which include processed, salty and sugary diet.
Plus, the restrictive nature of this diet may also make it difficult for most people to follow such a demanding eating plan in the long run.
And as I have said above, Paleo Diet omits whole grains to your daily dietary intake, which could lead to suboptimal ingestion of essential nutrients.
Paleo Diet practitioners are also known to exaggerate claims for weight loss and other health benefits in order to sell their Paleo programs. So beware of scam diets out there.
So is Paleo Diet for you? Well, I don’t really recommend this type of diet because of the risks involved. But, if you have your personal diet coach or you have a Paleo experts to help you out, then you are quite safe to follow this diet.
Otherwise, I suggest that you stick to your normal but sensible eating regimen and add some regular exercise program to help you lose weight.
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References:
Paleolithic Diet
by: Hima J Challa, Manac Bandlamudi, Kalyan R Uppaluri
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482457/
Long-Term Effects of a Palaeolithic-Type Diet in Obese Postmenopausal Women: A Tywo-Year Randomized Trial
by: Caroline Melberg, Susanne Sandberg, Mats Ryberg, Marie Eriksson, Soren Brage, Christel Larsson, Tommy Olsson and Bernt Lindahl
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4216932/
The Beneficial Effects of a Paleotlithic Diet on Type 2 Diabetes and Other Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease
by: David C Konoff
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2787021/
Compliance, Palatability and Feasibility of Paleolithic and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Diets in Healthy WomenL A 4-Week Dietary Intervention
by: Angela Genoni, Johnny Lo, Philippa Lyons-Wall, and Amanda Devine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4997394/
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