Paleolithic diet
I went to the Spring 1996 meeting of the Vermont Archaeological Society and heard a talk by David Starbuck describing an ancient campsite that he had excavated during the previous year. As he described what he found there -- nutshells, seeds, etc. -- it dawned on me that we eat radically differently now than we ate not so very long ago in evolutionary terms. The next day I tried eating just nuts and fruits and about fell over by lunchtime. I figured that there must be more to it than this, so I started looking into what we ate during most of the course of human evolution. Much as we might try to delude ourselves, humans ARE animals and, it turns out, we've been feeding ourselves totally unnatural food for the animals that we are for about the last 10,000 years (or less, depending on where on the planet you're talking about).
There are a few researchers actively looking into what a natural human diet should be. One is a professor in the Dept. of Health and Exercise Science at my alma mater, Colorado State University! His name is Loren Cordain. An excellent paper of his is here. Another group is at Emory University and is headed by S.Boyd Eaton. One of their papers is here, and they've also published in the New England Journal of Medicine and other prestigious journals. They published a book, now out of print, titled "The Paleolithic Prescription," that has a lot of good information. And, in 2002, Cordain published his book, "The Paleo Diet" -- excellent; chock full of good information. There is also quite a lot of information on the internet now about this diet. One of the best websites is from the Beyond-Vegetarianism website, titled Paleodiet and Paleolithic nutrition. Another good site is Dr. Mercola's, mercola.com .
My personal story with the diet ...
is that I decided to ease into it starting a week before Thanksgiving of 1999. (There were three years between my original inspiration and when I could gather enough solid information to feel confident to go ahead.) My plan was to ease into the diet, partaking of the usual holiday treats, and then "really starting" the diet in January of 2000. However, within a very few days, I noticed that I felt SO MUCH BETTER (lighter, clearer, more alert) when I ate "paleo" and noticeably less well when I "cheated" that within a week or so, I had gone totally paleo. I feel that I have found a diet that totally agrees with me and that I agree with. Furthermore, my cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels, etc. have dropped (or risen as the case may be) to the most healthy levels that they've been at in years! Oh, yes, and I lost 20 pounds in about 5 weeks without feeling hungry or deprived. Even so, being an animal lover, it took some emotional adjustment to accept the fat that I like meat and that I do quite well when I eat meat. I can't deny how my body feels, though, and, I have accepted and am at peace with the realization that I really do enjoy eating meat along with the other foods of a natural human diet.
After five months on this diet, I lost 30 pounds; I again weigh what I have weighed for most of my adult life and have maintained a steady weight for over a month (as of May 2000). After doing some research, I got further inspiration from "NeanderThin" by Ray Audette, but as I look at spending the rest of my life eating this way, I had to question how healthy it could be to have no limits on the types of fat you eat. For example, Audette's recipe for roasting a Cornish hen is to first slather it with bacon grease! "The Omega Diet," by Artemis Simopoulos came to my rescue. She is a premier researcher and her book is full of information regarding the proper balance of types of fat in a healthy diet (based in part on research into the fat balance in hunter-gatherer diets as well as on research into the effects of various types of fat on heart conditions, cancer, and other diseases). Unfortunately, though she mentions it a number of times, Simopoulos does not incorporate the lack of grains and dairy of hunter-gatherers into her diet. I have found in my own experience that avoiding the exorphin-based addiction potential of dairy and grain foods is key to my well-being. So, my ongoing diet is a hybrid of a paleolithic diet (no grains, dairy, sugar, beans) and the Omega diet (aiming for a proper ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, low saturated fat intake). And perhaps an occasional chocolate chip cookie!
Update three years later: While keeping to the diet more or less in spirit (I no longer base meals on carbs like pasta or bread), the taste attraction of chocolate, pies, donuts, and the like are hard to say no to on an ongoing basis. But it catches up quickly on the scale (and lord knows about the cholesterol level), so I'm back to being more paleo; I'm feeling better and am starting to work on other issues I have, like self-confidence among other things, so I can pursue my dream .
Loren Cordain in "The Late Role of Grains and Legumes in the Human Diet, and Biochemical Evidence of their Evolutionary Discordance."
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Last updated: August 11, 2003