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What is The Caveman (Paleo) Diet?


3 Cavemen

The theory behind the Paleo "Paleolithic" Diet or the Cave Man's Diet or the Stone Age diet is that cavemen eat only natural simple foods. They had no McDonalds or grocery stores. They eat wild animals and plants. So the cavemen did not suffer diseases that most people experience now like arthritis, heart disease and the dreaded cancer. The primary premise of Paleo Diet is that health started to disintegrate from the time agriculture was discovered. Food processing and farming are deemed to be the worst enemy of a healthy diet. The The Caveman (Paleo) Diet promotes to eat the food that your body was designed and created for, and that is the way of the caveman's diet. The food in this diet is based on historical accounts as to what the cavemen used to eat during their time. Since obviously some foods are not already available in our modern time, we resort to the equivalent of what they ate before.

Like any other diets, The Caveman (Paleo) Diet requires exercise. Since this program is from the concept of doing activities as stringent as the cavemen used to do before, it thus conferred that you should exercise and do physical activities as rigorous as those of the activities of a caveman. Physical activities that can really put to test your body's capabilities are suggested by this program.

So what are the foods allowed in the Paleo Diet? Foods that are only allowed in the diet are fruits, fish and vegetables like; carrots, turnips and beets, mushrooms, nuts. What's not surprising is that insects are allowed and are recommended. The Caveman (Paleo) Diet also recommends consumption of wild meat or grass eating animals to avoid absorbing drugs and hormones that are usually given to livestock now-a-days to facilitate reproduction.

The Caveman (Paleo) Diet does allow crops product of agriculture and byproduct of domesticated animals. Tubers, grains, dairy, and yams are also not allowed in this diet.

It seems, however, that the Caveman (Paleo) Diet has a lot of cons in concern. Here are some of the known cons of the Paleo Diet:

1. Danger of acquiring bacterial Infection from eating raw meat - There are some notorious Caveman (Paleo) diet programs that recommend eating all food raw including raw meat. People who believe in this kind of diet have the thinking that eating cooked food kills all the enzymes and nutrients natural to the meat. It is a proven fact that raw meat carries on salmonella and E. Coli bacteria that can cause serious bacterial infection to our body. That is why it is not advisable for children, the elderly and most specially the pregnant women to eat raw meat.

2. Excessive saturated fat - Since the Paleo diet centers on meat consumption therefore it is high in saturated fat which means it could be very unhealthy. Instead of losing weight, it can otherwise lead to obesity or malnourishment and you will be at higher risk of acquiring cancer than ever.

3. Not enough energy- The Caveman (Paleo) Diet is very low in carbohydrates, which means you have less fuel for the rest of the day. While it is true that fruits and vegetables have carbohydrates, yet it is so minimal as not to compensate the carbohydrate needs of our body. Lack of carb may lead to low blood sugar, sluggishness and you easily get tired.

4. Low Calcium- as we all know, the Paleo diet does not allow dairy products at all. Therefore the calcium we can get from vegetables could not compensate to the amount of calcium that our body usually needs.

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