Celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Biel, Miley Cyrus, Uma Thurman and Jack Osbourne are all reportedly reaping the rewards of the Paleo Diet, which focuses on meat, fish, vegetables and fruit in favour of sugar, processed foods, grains and legumes.Why? Weight loss aside, other proclaimed health benefits include improved blood lipids and reduced pain from autoimmunity. The diet is also scientifically proven to help stave off degenerative diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, depression and infertility. To boot, it's said that you'll be feeling great and bounding with energy.
While the idea of eating foods that were available to hunters and gatherers during the paleolithic period has been around since the 1960s, it was in 2001 that it reached an all-time high in America, when Loren Cordain published The Paleo Diet.By 2013 it became the most Googled diet on the internet and it's now taken Britain by storm, too.The premise of the regime is simple: that we go back to our ancestral diet and eat the foods that predate agriculture.The man behind Paleo argues that certain foods were included in our diets only about 10,000 years ago with the agricultural revolution, when we began cultivating grains in larger amounts, and that isn't long enough for us to adapt to eating them.
Hence, Loren also argues we should avoid grains, along with anything that prehistoric man wouldn't have recognised, such as dairy, pulses, sugar and, of course, processed food.Instead, the scientist and professor in the department of health and exercise science at Colorado State University believes we should eat as the cavemen did, namely meat, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts.The Paleo Diet: What to eatGrass-produced meatsFish/seafoodFresh fruits and veggiesEggsNuts and seedsHealthful oils (Olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)The Paleo Diet: What not to eatCereal grainsLegumes (including peanuts)DairyRefined sugarPotatoesProcessed foodsSaltRefined vegetable oils (listed in The Paleo Diet Cookbook and The Paleo Diet for Athletes)Click on the photos below for Paleo recipes...
