The Paleo Diet is a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors – combinations of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. By eating the foods that we are genetically adapted to eat, followers of the Paleo Diet are naturally lean, have acne-free skin, improved athletic performance, and are experiencing relief from numerous metabolic-related and autoimmune diseases.

The diet is usually referred to as the “Paleolithic Diet” referring to the Paleolithic or Stone Age era. It is also referred to as the “Stone Age Diet”, “Cave Man Diet” or the “Hunter-Gatherer Diet”.

The basic principles of the Paleolithic Diet are simple. The Paleolithic Diet presents a comprehensive dietary theory combining the best features of all other dietary theories, eliminating the worst features and simplifying it all.

All major dietary components are covered- (i.e. vitamins, fats, protein, fats, carbohydrates, antioxidants and phytosterols etc). This is for the simple reason that it is the only diet that is coded for in our genes- it contains only those foods that were present during our evolution, and discards those which were not.

Basics of the Paleolithic Diet

Humans and their relatives have eaten meat, fish, fowl and the leaves, roots and fruits of many plants for millions of years. One big obstacle to getting more calories from the environment is the fact that many plants are inedible. Grains, beans and potatoes are full of energy but all are inedible in the raw state as they contain many toxins.

Around 10,000 years ago a breakthrough happened, it was discovered that cooking these foods made them edible- the heat destroyed enough toxins to render them edible. Grains include wheat, corn, barley, rice, sorghum, millet and oats. Grain based foods also include products such as flour, bread, noodles and pasta. These are considered Neolithic foods.

The cooking of grains, beans and potatoes had an enormous effect on our food intake- perhaps doubling the number of calories that we could obtain from the plant foods in our environment. Other advantages were soon obvious with these foods:

· they could store for long periods (refrigeration of course being unavailable in those days)

· they were dense in calories- ie a small weight contains a lot of calories, enabling easy transport

· the food was also the seed of the plant- later allowing ready farming of the species

These advantages made it much easier to store and transport food. We could more easily store food for winter, and for nomads and travelers to carry supplies. Food storage also enabled surpluses to be stored, and this in turn made it possible to free some people from food gathering to become specialists in other activities, such as builders, warriors and rulers. This in turn set us on the course to modern day civilization. Despite these advantages, our genes were never developed with grains, beans and potatoes and were not in tune with them, and still are not. Man soon improved further on these advances- by farming plants and animals.

Instead of being able to eat only a fraction of the animal and plant life in an area, farming allows us to fill a particular area with a large number of edible plants and animals. This in turn increases the number of calories that we can obtain from an area by some 10 to 100 fold or more.

Paleolithic Diet buffs refer to the new foods as Neolithic foods and the old as Paleolithic Diet foods. We see Neolithic as bad and Paleolithic as good.

Grains, Beans and Potatoes (GBP) share the following important characteristics:

· They are all toxic when raw- there is no doubt about this- it is a fact that no competent source would dispute- they can be extremely dangerous and it is important never to eat them raw or undercooked. These toxins include enzyme blockers, lectins and other types. I will talk about them in detail later as they are very important.

· Cooking destroys most but not all of the toxins. Insufficient cooking can lead to sickness such as acute gastroenteritis.

· They are all rich sources of carbohydrate, and once cooked this is often rapidly digestible-giving a high glycemic index (sugar spike).

· They are extremely poor sources of vitamins (particularly vitamins A, B-group, folic acid and C), minerals, antioxidants and phytosterols.

Therefore diets high in grains beans and potatoes (GBP):

· Contain toxins in small amounts

· Have a high glycemic index (ie have a similar effect to raw sugar on blood glucose levels)

· Are low in many vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytosterols- ie they are the original “empty calories”

· Have problems caused by the GBP displacing other foods

As grains, beans and potatoes form such a large proportion of the modern diet, you can now understand why it is so common for people to feel they need supplements or that they need to detoxify (ie that they have toxins in their system)- indeed both feelings are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, we don’t necessarily realize which supplements we need, and ironically when people go on detoxification diets they unfortunately often consume even more Neolithic foods (eg soy beans) and therefore more toxins than usual (perhaps they sometimes benefit from a change in toxins). More detail on these issues follows in subsequent pages.

The essentials of the Paleolithic Diet are:

Eat none of the following:

· Grains- including bread, pasta, noodles

· Beans- including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas

· Potatoes

· Sugar

· Salt

Eat the following:

· Meat, chicken and fish

· Eggs

· Fruit

· Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes)

· Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)

· Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.

****Information from Earth360.com and Dr. Ben Balzer****

Guidelines to following the Paleo Diet

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• Always eat breakfast.

• Eat at least three times a day, but snack if hungry.

• Avoid grains, dairy, starchy vegetables, sugar, salt, beans and legumes.

• Limit Alcohol consumption to once or twice a week and don’t exceed two drinks at one meal.

• Drink water, tea, and coffee. Avoid drinking Sodas, and juices.

• Supplement with .5 – 1.0 gram of fish oil per 10 lbs of body weight a day.

TIPS

• Be creative with your meals and use spices to add flavor. (Watch the sodium content of pre-mixed seasonings)

• When buying prepackaged foods or canned foods always chech the sugar and sodium content

• Always have food on hand and never run out.

• Prepare foods the night before so that you will have meat and vegetables cooked and ready for the next day.

• If you are trying to lose weight limit consumption of nuts, seeds, and eggs.

• Don’t be afraid to eat meat or fish for breakfast.

• Don’t keep foods around that you should not be eating.

• Always have a snack around in case your work day runs long or some other unplanned event occurs. Good food choices to keep in your car or at work would be canned low sodium tuna or salmon, a bag of beef jerky, and almonds. Even though canned fish and beef jerky are not ideal food choices they beat having to grab fast food due to hunger and overeating at your next meal due to hunger.

PROTEIN SOURCES

• Fish and other seafood
o Salmon
o Tilapia
o Fresh tuna steaks
o Halibut
o Haddock
o Cod
o Eel
o Orange roughy
o Trout
o Scallops (check sodium content if you are buying frozen or packaged)
o Shrimp (check sodium content if you are buying frozen or packaged)
o Crab
o Lobster

• Chicken and turkey
o Breast
o Scaloppini
o Lean ground turkey or chicken

• Pork
o Loin cuts

• Beef
o Sirloin
o Extra lean ground beef

• Other
o Eggs, only omega 3 enriched eggs.
o Goat
o Bison
o Venison
o Emu
o Duck
o Organ meat

CARBOHYDRATE SOURCES

• Vegetables
o Broccoli
o Asparagus
o Spinach
o Squash
o Onions
o Beets
o Peppers
o Brussels sprouts
o Pumpkin
o Zucchini
o Carrots
o Cauliflower
o Lettuce
o Any herbs (garlic, dill, rosemary, sage, basil, mint, coriander, chives, etc.)
o Mushrooms
o Tomatoes
o Any other vegetable except potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas or beans.

• Fruits
o Apples
o Pears
o Any kind of berries
o Bananas
o Lemons
o Limes
o Grapes
o Oranges
o Any kind of melons
o Peaches
o Kiwis
o Any other fruit except dried fruits.

FAT SOURCES

• Nuts and seeds. Unsalted and dry roasted or raw only.
o Walnuts
o Almonds
o Pecans
o Macadamia nuts
o Sunflower seeds
o Pumpkin seeds
o Any other nut or seed

• Oils
o Canola oil
o Olive oil
o Flaxseed oil
o Coconut oil (in moderation)

FOODS TO AVOID

• Dairy
o Milk and milk products
o Yogurt
o Butter and margarine
o Cheese
o Cream
o Whey protein powders

• Grains
o Wheat and products containing wheat
o Rice and products containing rice
o Oats and products containing oats
o Corn and products containing corn
o Any other type of grain or grain containing products

• Legumes
o All beans and peas
o Peanuts and peanut butter (substitute almond butter or cashew butter for peanut butter)
o Soybeans and soy products

• All kinds of potatoes and potato products

• All sugar and artificially sweetened foods

SAMPLE DAY OF EATING

Breakfast

o Fillet of salmon spiced with chili pepper flakes, garlic powder, and onion powder.
o Steamed broccoli, asparagus, and carrots lightly sprinkled with a canola oil, lemon and dill mixture.
o A mixture of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.

Lunch

o Chicken breast with a small to medium sized avocado on top.
o Steamed broccoli and cooked squash.
o Grapes
o A small handful of almonds

Snack

o Small pork chop
o Apple
o Almonds

Dinner

o Steak
o Spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, onion, garlic, and peppers grilled lightly in canola oil.
o Strawberries with ½ tablespoon of almond butter

RESOURCES FOR FURTHER INFO

o Robbwolf.com
o Paleodiet.com
o The Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain

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