If you are a fan of trying different types of diets, you must have heard about the paleo diet. Basically, the paleo diet was designed to look like what humans ate during the Paleolithic Era.

Although telling what human ancestors ate in different parts of the world at that time is impossible, researchers believe that humans consumed mainly whole foods. By following a diet of whole foods and leading physically active lives, they presumably had much lower rates of lifestyle diseases, like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Considerably, weight loss (without counting calories) and health improvements are some of the possible outcomes of this diet. Also, as suggested by anthropologists, the paleo diet caused morphological and physiologic changes in humans, including increased brain size and reduced gastrointestinal tract size.

Paleo Diet Meal Plan

The paleolithic humans survived and thrived on several diets, largely due to what was available to them at the time and where they lived in the world. Some of these humans consumed low carb diet high in animal foods, while others went for high carb diets filled tons of plants.

What to Avoid

When embarking on the paleo diet meal plan, there are certain foods that you need to take of your menu. These meals are good for the health, but for someone aspiring to have a taste of what the paleolithic man felt like, these meals are not for you. They include:

• Dairy products, such as cheese and milk
• Grains, which include bread, pasta, wheat, cereal, spelt, rye, barley, etc.

• • Legumes, which include lentils, beans, and peanuts
  • Starchy vegetables like corn, peas, jicama, and white potatoes
  • Some vegetable oils: Safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and grapeseed oil, among others
  • Highly processed foods like cookies or chips.
  • Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup: sweets, pastries, ice cream, fruit juices, soft drinks, table sugar, and a variety of other items
  • Artificial sweeteners: Use natural sweeteners instead of aspartame, sucralose, cyclamates, saccharin, and acesulfame potassium.

• Added salt

What to Eat

The paleo diet consists of a variety of whole and unprocessed foods. They include:

• Fish and Seafood: Haddock, salmon, trout, shrimp, shellfish, etc. Go for wildly caught fishes if you can.
• Meat: Pork, beef, lamb, poultry, and turkey, among others
• Fruits: strawberries, blueberries, avocados, pears, oranges, bananas, apples, and more.
• Healthy fats and oils: avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, and more
• Tubers: turnips, yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc.
• Nuts and seeds: Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, and more
• Eggs: may be pastured, free-range, or supplemented with omega-3
• Vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, kale, etc.
• Salt and spices: sea salt, rosemary, turmeric, garlic, etc.

What to Drink

With a paleo diet, water should be your go-to beverage for hydration, However, the following drinks are not strictly paleo but are typically accepted as beverages that you can consume as a part of your diet. They include:

• Coffee

• Tea: Green tea, in particular

Generally, A paleo diet shares a lot of characteristics with some other suggested healthy diets as it is mainly focused on fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and avoiding processed foods. However, research carried out on the paleo diet is scarcer than that on balanced diets with a wider variety of foods groups, and most studies on paleo diets only included a small number of participants and lasted only a few weeks to a few months.

In addition, the diet’s definition varies from study to study, making it hard to determine exactly what people can anticipate, especially over time.

Benefits of the Paleo Diet

The paleo diet comes with many benefits that you will find interesting and beneficial to leading a healthy lifestyle. The benefits include:

• It promotes healthy blood sugar levels
• Enhances insulin sensitivity
• Reduces blood pressure
• Helps with weight management, which includes smaller waist circumference
• Helps to balance the cholesterol
• Improved satiety
• Reduces the rate of mortality from all causes.

For a lot of people, making the switch to a paleo diet means an increase in vegetable and fiber intake, which is essential for gastrointestinal health and overall inflammation levels. In addition, there have been several stories of people with positive results regarding blood glucose and cholesterol levels.

Who is Best Suited for the Paleo Diet?

This diet is great for anybody looking to reduce the risk of disease and wants to enjoy a diet rich in healthy fats and meat. This diet also helps if you don’t have any serious attachment to processed foods or if you are looking to give up on them.

There have been reports of very little hunger from people who engage in the paleo meal plan, so if you usually get really hungry, then this diet might just work well for you.

Paleo Diet Downsides

While the Paleo diet consists of many benefits, there are also some downsides to taking on this diet.

The diet eliminates several food groups that are highly nutritious, including dairy, legumes, and gluten-containing grains. Taking out these food groups can sometimes place the individual following this diet at risk of developing nutrient deficiencies.

Legumes also happen to be one of the primary sources of protein in the vegan and vegetarian diet, and this might just make the paleo diet unrealistic for vegetarians or vegans.

Nuts, fruits, and vegetables that are high in fiber are a major part of the paleo diet. So, a person that desires to transition from a low fiber diet to a paleo diet might experience gastric distress such as bloating because meals that are high in fiber can have a laxative impact.

The diet may not provide the body with enough complex carbohydrates to support lots of high-intensity exercise. So, this diet might not work out for some athletes or some people.

There is a chance that this plan leads to weight gain if calories are not monitored as the plan encourages high fat and calorie-dense foods.

Also, it is very important to note that not everyone has a similar way of eating, so while the diet may work for some people, it might not be suitable for you. Hence, you might need to consult your doctor or nutritionist before starting a paleo diet.

In Conclusion

Modern food is heavily processed and reliant on sugars, modified fats, and grains. A lot of the chronic health concerns that plague us today were not so common in the past. The paleo diet proposes that our food might just be contributing to these diseases.

Before embarking on the paleo diet, it is best to consult your doctor, just as you do with any other dietary change. A paleolithic diet can be suitable for you if you have the time and willingness to cook for yourself and engage in physical activity.

Most importantly, never forget to work with your nutritionist and pay attention to how your body reacts to the diet.