Paleo Diet is an eating plan based on prehistoric human diets right for modern humans, A paleo diet is an eating plan based on foods which are being eaten by humans during the Paleolithic Era. The Paleolithic Era is considered to be dates from around 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. In this article we will explore the paleo diet benefits and risks.
Today we can see an increase in Paleo Diet demand among health Enthusist, So lets understand what it is and why it is so popular today. A modern paleo diet which is followed today includes consuming enough fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds which are naturally available around us. These are the foods that in the past people could get by hunting and gathering from the nature. It doesn’t include foods from the initial farming ear which began about 10,000 years ago. These foods include grains, legumes and dairy products. Paleo diet is also called as Paleolithic diet, Stone Age diet, hunter-gatherer diet and cave man diet.
What is Paleo or Paleolithic Diet?
The Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet is come from the dietary habits of early humans during the Paleolithic era, which promotes focusing on foods known to have been available through hunting and gathering. Modern adaptations of this diet promotes the consumption of fresh meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, while this diet also excludes consuming the ultra processed foods, grains, legumes, and dairy products.
Experts suggest that this dietary pattern aligns with human genetics and may offer better health benefits such as improved blood sugar control, enhanced heart health, and weight loss. However, critics also highlight potential challenges, including nutrient deficiencies due to the exclusion of agricultural based food groups and the higher cost of sourcing organic and grass-fed animal products.
In this article we will have the overall understanding of the Paleo diet’s historical base and modern available knowledge based on scientific research. The curriculum covers the diet’s potential health benefits and associated risks with it, by equipping experts with the knowledge to suggest the evidence-based dietary guidance to needy people.
Interprofessional collaboration among dietitians and healthcare professionals is very important for effectively delivering the best nutrition counseling to the needy people. This diagnosis based approach ensures that a needy person will get a useful information, which will help them to make best dietary choices which aligns with their health goals and nutrition sourcing.
The Paleolithic (Paleo) diet is the modern touch to the eating habits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors dietary pattern during the Paleolithic era or during Stone Age period, which began approximately 2.5 million years ago and ended around 10,000 BCE with the development of agriculture. During this era, humans evolved and went through many physiologic and anatomic changes that resulted in larger brains and reduced gastrointestinal tract size.
These evolutionary changes were likely linked to diet which includes nutrient-rich, easily digestible and naturally available food items. Increased brain size requires greater caloric and nutrient intake, and a smaller gut suggests a reduced capacity to digest high fiber rich plant material compared to earlier primitive people.
Paleolithic Age people made stone tools to collect, prepare, and cook the food which they hunted or gathered from nature available around them. Cooking made food more digestible and allowed them to extract more energy from plants and animal products. They usually consumed an omnivorous diet, of which availability is mostly depending upon the climate, location, and season.
The modern Paleo diet existence considered as dated back to 1975, when gastroenterologist Walter L Voegtlin, MD, published The very popular Book Stone Age Diet. In this book, Dr. Walter Voegtlin stated that humans are naturally adapted to a more meat based, protein rich, low-carbohydrate diet, similar to the dietary habits of early human of hunter-gatherers era. Also, In 1985, Dr. S Boyd Eaton, MD, published a groundbreaking research paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which he proposed that modern chronic diseases comes into existence from a mismatch between early human diets and the foods humans eat after agricultural evolution era. He argued that the diet of early hunter-gatherers humans was best suited even to modern humans.
The Modern Paleo diet gained worldwide popularity and reach in 2002 after Dr. Loren Cordain, PhD, published her research naming the “The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat”. Since then, the health enthusiast are promoting their interest in this diet, which is also known as the caveman’s diet. Todays modern paleo diet aligns with modern eating habits with the patterns of what our ancestors used to ear during paleolithic era, including the foods which are naturally suited to humans with their ancestors genome based health and digestion pattern.
Today’s Paleo diet promotes eating naturally available foods such as vegetables, fruits, lean meats, nuts, fish, honey, and eggs and excludes grains, dairy products, legumes, added sugars, and processed foods. Individuals most frequently choose the Paleo diet for weight loss and its health benefits, although many world’s leading health organizations do not widely endorse it medically. But many dietitian and Doctors promotes this diet to their patients due to its potential benefits and risks and assist them in making better decisions according to their present health condition and wellness goals.
Function of Paleo Diet:
From the last 2 centuries have seen a rise in industrialization which promoted the ultra-processed, low-cost, readily available foods with high calorie to sustain a rapidly growing human population. One consequence of eating these foods is a wide spread chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in todays modern era. Scientists and experts are exploring the solutions to reverse this trend, including adopting altogether dietary and lifestyle changes. This search for the ideal diet for health and longevity has exposed to many such ancient and traditional cuisines, including Paleo, and those of Japan, India, and the Mediterranean, Nordic, and Blue Zone regions.
What is known about the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors?
Scientists and anthropologists research have found that this diet with using available evidence from available archaeological discoveries specially of modern hunter-gatherer communities. Early humans mainly consumed naturally available food such as raw fruits, roots or tubers, vegetables, and sometimes honey, fish, and meats.
They also used to eats various fats, protein but most of their diet was rich in plant fiber. Archaeological findings based on isotopic analysis show that there is a no commonly found dietary practices in prehistoric times. In Israel, fossil evidence from approximately 8,00,000 years ago reveals a various plant-based diet, including seeds, Jungle fruits and vegetables, nuts, and low amounts of meat and fish etc.
Examination of microfossils found from Neanderthal humans, the dental calculus discovered in modern-day Iraq and Belgium demonstrates the consumption of plants based food, including date palms, legumes, and seeds. Many of the identified plant starch remains in findings with chemical changes consistent with cooking. These archeological findings challenge the modern-day belief that prehistoric humans relied mainly on animal protein sources and raw foods.
About a dozen of tribes across multiple regions and climates across the world are still follow a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As per the research on of these tribal group, spcifically the Hadza tribe residing in the Northern Tanzania. Found that Their diet shares features of the Paleo diet, preferring raw, unprocessed foods while excluding grains, dairy, and processed products. They eat a diet rich in fiber and protein and eat mainly tubers, berries, meat, baobab tree fruit, and honey which is naturally available in regional forests. Modern cold-climate hunter-gatherers in northern regions such as Scandinavia depends majorly on eating fishing and obtain more calories from animal products than the tribal people living in the warmer climates.
Based on these findings, during the Paleolithic era diet would consisted of the following foods:
- Plants: Tubers, seeds, nuts, flour made from pounded wild barley, fruits, berries, and flowers. Tubers are the root structures where certain type of plants use to store nutrients, they are typically found underground and are similar to modern carrots, parsnips, and potatoes.
- Animals: Large and small mammals such as bison and rabbits, birds including ducks and wild chickens, reptiles such as turtles, and farm grown eggs are likely comprised about 3% of the total energy consumed.
- Fish and shellfish: Fresh and saltwater fish were consumed primarily in coastal and river region communities.
- Insects: Various insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, locusts, and ants and their bi-products, including honey and honeycombs was part of food.
Todays modern Paleo diet confirms that humans evolved with living on the foods available to prehistoric hunter-gatherers lifestyle, and our physiology has not yet fully adapted to consuming the existing agricultural commodities, including domesticated animals, dairy products, and farmed crops. However, this overlooks that evolution is primarily driven by the need to ensure survival and reproduction rather than preventing chronic diseases or extending lifespan of mass community.
Individuals who choose today’s Paleo diet for experiencing the diet promoting a natural way of eating along with many health benefits including achieving weight loss, improved energy, and reduced inflammation.
Many people today follows the diet patterns which are adopted by popular social media influencers, celebrities, successful peoples, personal trainers, athletes, friends upon knowing their diet and health success stories. Few health practitioners and nutritionists also recommend the Paleo diet, but there is a very less research available on this diet type. The American Heart Association and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine certifies and promotes the dietary patterns of plant-based foods and reducing highly processed foods and added sugars, but do not specifically recommend the Paleo diet.
The ordinary Paleo diet includes eating raw, unprocessed naturally grown foods and avoiding added sugars and ultra-processed foods, which is as similar as the popular Mediterranean and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets. People who follow the Paleo diet may follow a strict or moderate approach as per their health needs. They generally eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, eggs, meats, and fish, and reduce or stop eating grains, legumes, dairy products, refined sugars, vegetable oils, and processed and packaged foods.
Expert Paleo guidelines typically advice to remove modern cultivated tubers such as potatoes, due to their higher glycemic index. Many Paleo enthusists relys on grass-fed, wild, or pasture-raised meats, which tend to have a healthier fat with higher in omega-3s and lower in omega-6s, than the conventionally raised or processed meats which is cheaper.
There is wide gap in the distribution of macronutrients in this diet. As, the diet is typically high in protein of 19% to 35% of calories, moderate in fat such as around 28% to 58% of calories, and relatively low in carbohydrates such as 22% to 40% of calories. This also excludes many of the available low-cost popular food items including beans, lentils, peas, corn, wheat, rice, and other food products made from using this items including plant-based milk and allied products. Individuals who follows a strict Paleo diet should stay away from alcohol since it is mostly grain-based, and brewing and wine fermentation began during the agricultural era.
Clinical Importance of Paleo Diet Benefits and risk:
The Paleo diet, which excludes grains, dairy, and processed foods, has been studied for its potential benefits on digestive and cardiovascular risks. The clinical evidence supporting it is as a less robust than other more refined and studied diets, such as the Mediterranean and DASH diets. Emphasizing on whole, nutrient-rich foods and excluding the high-glycemic and ultra-processed foods may benefit insulin resistance and inflammation. Some studies of Paleo diet have demonstrated an improvement in the components of metabolic syndrome, with decreased weight and waist circumference, triglycerides, blood pressure, and fasting glucose. Other investigators have noted decreased insulin secretion, increased insulin sensitivity, and improved lipid profiles in individuals who are following the Paleo diet.
Research by Dr. Whalen has shown that the clinical implications of the Paleo and Mediterranean diets, particularly their associations with immunity, inflammation, and oxidative stress. They found that higher this diet follows gains more immunity, cancer mortality, and lower cardiovascular disease risk. Results from another study linked the diets to reduced inflammation and oxidative stress, showing lower biomarkers of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress among individuals who closely followed either of the 2 diets.
Research by Dr. Blomquist involved postmenopausal women who were overweight, have shown significant improvement by following the Paleo diet with decreased lipogenesis, which is a promoting factors and improved triglyceride levels and insulin sensitivity.
The Paleo diet has risks and limitations, such as a vegan diet, eliminating dairy products may impact on reducing adequate calcium and vitamin D supply and can create this nutrient deficiencies. However, regularly eating plant-based dairy and vegan substitutes including soy, almond, or oat drinks fortified with calcium and vitamin D, are considered as a part of Paleo Diet. Some people who follow a Paleo diet eats more meat items, which may wrongly impact on their cardiac health.
Latest studies on the Paleo diet have shown its possible negative impact on the gut microbiome, which leads to increase the serum trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) levels. TMAO is a compound produced by gut bacteria during digestion of animal products and is associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk. One research shows that it may impact negatively on the gut bacteria, as the Paleo diet lacks a fiber rich food items, which includes grains and legumes, that act as a prebiotics to nourish beneficial gut bacteria and enable short-chain fatty acid production that reduces inflammation and improves gut functions.
There are very less evidence available of the Paleo diet which shows that it prevents obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. Many research lack a large sample size and long-term follow-up and include multiple diet variations, which impacts its associations with health outcomes.
A stricter Paleo diet has been proposed to standardize research, with criteria for 11 food groupings.
A Paleo diet should include:
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Vegetables
- Fish
- Eggs
- Unprocessed lean meats
A Paleo diet should exclude or limit:
- Dairy products
- Cereals
- Grains
- Legumes
- Ultra-processed foods, including refined oils
A better designed research trials are yet to be evaluate for the Paleo diet’s safety, efficacy, and long-term health effects. Other factors not specific to the diet may contribute to resulting health benefits, such as consuming grass-fed and pastured food items rather than hybrid meats and avoiding ultra-processed foods.
Few people find the Paleo diet as too restrictive or costly, which makes it unable to adhere on a longer run and may sometimes create challenges to an Individual who wants to be strict on his paleo diet in social eating situations. Due to unavailability of research data, the American Heart Association and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine do not officially certify the Paleo diet.
Both these reputed medical organizations have shown concerns about nutritional balance, long-term sustainability, and proof of Paleo diet superiority over other diets. They recommend dietary patterns emphasizing unrefined, plant-based foods and limiting processed foods and added sugars.
Many health professional from medical fraternity and advisory committees advocates for consuming whole, plant-based foods and eating low processed products and less sugar while avoiding excess calories as the best strategy for promoting overall health and preventing obesity and other chronic medical conditions. Doctors neither endorse or oppose the Paleo diet but should be known about it and explain it in discussions with their patients for optimal nutrition and health benefits.
Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes:
The Diet and medical professional teams consultation is very important to understand the health outcomes of dietary patterns such as the Paleo diet. As it can provide a better impact during chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and the recent popular rise of industrialization and ultra-processed foods consumption during people. Today a healthcare professionals and their patients are widely exploring dietary changes to improve health. The Paleo diet, promotes natural, unprocessed food consumption with excluding grains, dairy products, legumes, and processed foods, has been popularly advocated today by healthcare influencers and professionals with its potential to reduction of inflammation and improve metabolic health.
However, today we can see that there are very less medical evidence available of Paleo Diet, than the other popular diets including Mediterranean and DASH diets. Healthcare professionals from various medical practices, including physicians, nutritionists, dietitians, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, and behavioral health specialists, are today in a better position to collaborate and provide evidence-based guidance to patients considering the Paleo diet with available research and clinical trials. They can educate patients on their healthy eating with diet high in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein sources while limiting sugars, alcohols and high processed and packed foods.
By understanding the Paleo diet’s potential health benefits and risks, the medical team should support patients in making informed, personalized food choices while addressing the necessary of its long-term adherence, including a social and financial constraints.
The purpose of a paleo diet is to eat foods which are consumed by earlier human race. The diet is based on the idea that our genes are not well adjusted for modern diets that grew out of farming.
Farming made foods such as grains and legumes which are more easily available and majorly grown to meet the need of increasing population along with addition of dairy. Also, farming changed the diets of animals that people ate. The paleo diet idea is that which changes the diet supports the human body’s ability to change, or adapt. This mismatch is believed to contribute to obesity, diabetes and heart disease today.
Why you might follow a paleo diet?:
You should choose to follow a paleo diet because you want to:
- Lose weight or keep a healthy weight
- Reduce heart disease, or cardiovascular, risk factors
In general, paleo diets follow these rules.
What to eat?
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts and seeds
- Eggs
- Lean meats, especially grass-fed animals or wild Animals
- Fish, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna
- Oils from fruits and nuts, such as olive oil or walnut oil
What to avoid?:
- Grains, such as wheat, oats and barley
- Legumes, such as beans, lentils, peanuts
- Dairy products, such as milk and cheese
- Refined and added sugar
- Added salt
- Starchy vegetables, such as corn, jicama, peas and white potatoes
- Highly processed foods, such as chips or cookies
A typical day’s menu of Paleo Diet
Here are few examples of what you might eat during a typical day when you are following a paleo diet:
- Breakfast. Broiled salmon and cantaloupe.
- Lunch. Salad made with romaine, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, walnuts and lemon juice dressing.
- Dinner. Lean beef sirloin tip roast, steamed broccoli, salad made with mixed greens, tomatoes, avocado, onions, almonds and lemon juice dressing, and strawberries for dessert.
- Snacks. An orange, carrot sticks or celery sticks.
In general, a paleo diet has many features which makes it as one of the healthy diets. Common features the paleo diet has include heavy on eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats and the avoiding ultra processed and packaged salty and sugary foods. But there is a very limited research available on paleo diets compared with studies of balanced diets with more added variety of food items.
Most studies of paleo diets included small numbers of people. Also, they only lasted from a few weeks to a few months. The definitions of the diet also differs from one study to another. So it’s very hard to say for sure what people can expect, especially over time when they strictly or moderately follows a paleo diet.
Few short-term studies suggest that a paleo diet might help to manage Following health concerns:
- Weight loss
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol
- Triglycerides
One major study explored the benefits of self-reported, long-term dietary patterns in young adults from Spain. The researchers found that the paleo diet was linked to lowering heart disease and similar cardiovascular risk factors. The lower risk mostly came from avoiding highly processed foods, such as chips and candy, and eating lots of low calorie fruits and vegetables.
There is a need of major trials with large groups of peoples with different diets to understand the long-term health benefits and possible risks of a paleo diet.
Frequent Questions about paleo diets:
Some people doubt the idea that the human body didn’t change, or adapt, to foods that came with farming.
Some people are also worried about the foods the paleo diet cuts out.
Concerns about nutrition:
The main concern about paleo diets is the lack of whole grains and legumes. These foods are considered good sources of fiber, vitamins, proteins and other nutrients. Also, low-fat dairy products are good sources of protein, calcium, vitamins and other nutrients. The potential risk of eating a paleo diet is that you may not get all recommended nutrients.
Whole grains, legumes and dairy also are generally more affordable and available than foods such as wild game, grass-fed animals and nuts. For some people, a paleo diet may be too costly. Or the cost of some paleo foods may lead to unintentionally getting less of certain essential nutrients.
The long-term risks of a paleo diet aren’t known. Data from many studies of popular diets showed that a Mediterranean diet was the only one with many benefits without the risk of possible harmful effects. A Mediterranean diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, whole grains, legumes and low-fat dairy products.
Also, the potential benefits of a paleo diet may not outweigh the benefits of other healthy diets. One long-term study of self-reported diet patterns showed that closely following either a paleo diet or a Mediterranean diet led to similar drops in cardiovascular risk factors.
Questions about the paleo diet theory
Some experts have argued that the idea of the paleo diet is based on story. Arguments for a more complex understanding of how our dietary, or nutritional, needs have changed include:
Many things, and not only farming shaped how human nutritional needs changed. Diets in early humans were varied because of differences in geography, climate and the availability of food.
Archaeological researchers have found tools for grinding grains at 30,000 year old sites well before the introduction of farming to humans. Researchers also have studied microfossils of plants found in the dental remains of Paleolithic humans and Neanderthals remains. These studies have shown that their diets also includes grains available in forests.
Genetic research has shown that important evolutionary changes continued after the Paleolithic era. These include changes in the expression of genes related to the breakdown, or digestion, of starches in grains and lactose in milk.
Last but not least, a paleo diet may help you to lose weight or keep a healthy weight. It also may have other helpful health effects. But there are no long-term clinical studies available which confirms the benefits and potential risks of the diet.
You might be able to achieve the same health benefits by getting enough exercise and eating a balanced, healthy diet. Be sure to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.