Paleolithic diet

[Ripped Barbarian]

I've noted lots of talk of this style of diet on here recently, from nu, myself and others.
I've recently (the past month) began to take it VERY seriously, i have been experimenting with my diet lots recently, one successful diet has been my "androgenic diet".
I like to think my diet is always getting better and progressing, the way it is now is almost identical to the paleolithic diet or "caveman" diet.

I've always tried to base a diet on body efficiency, for health and bodybuilding.....if your body is in excellent health it is obvious that it can recover and grow much more quickly than if it is not, and that's not even mentioning the testosterone surge inducing properties of these diets.

The main thing that made me take it seriously was the effects it was having on my mind and body.
-I used to get a bit depressed, that has stopped.
-I used to get bad wind/guts sometimes, that has stopped.
-I used to find it hard to lose weight, my abs are showing.

Why would the body work at 100% efficiency on anything other than what we evolved to be eating?
We had millions of years of eating the same diet, those who did not do well on the diet perished and genes died out, leaving those adapted to eat the diet, yet we have had only several thousand years of agricultural diet, we simply do not evolve that quickly, especially for what is the basic mechanics of our body.
Today, we have the power to understand, scientifically why we should eat certain things but i cannot believe that the govenment and nutritionists still push the idea that we should eat a high carbohydrate, low fat, low protein diet......we are effectively eating the worst diet possible for our health.....it's suicide.
In my research for health foods i have found no evidence as to why a high carb low fat diet is good for you, nothing.....unless you are a hummingbird of course.

But come to paleolithic diet and there are stacks of reasons why you should eat as our ancestors did
Early mans high protein, high fat diet provided the perfect ratio of omega oils and high levels of protein that have been shown to be vital for our health.
A lot of people avoid red meats as they believe saturated fat to be bad, it is bad if you have the wrong balance in combination with a high carb diet, however combined with the correct fatty acids (omega 3) it is kept on the move in the body and has only positive effects (antioxidant, hormone production, bodyfat mobilisation, brain protection e.t.c e.t.c)

Obesity is highly unlikely with paleo diet, if you are consuming lots of fat, this is what the body will use for energy and therefore when in calorie defecit the body will naturally use it's own supplies of fat, assuming of course you have enough protein to stop muscle catabolism. (another part of paleo diet)
It has been shown that animal fat and protein reduces feelings of hunger, carbohydrates increase them, you find it hard finishing 2 1/4 pounders but you have no problem eating an entire bowl of pasta.........

The paleo diet of natural raw food is much higher in nutrition than a modern diet.
In comparison to a handul of wild berries, a rabbit, some nuts, shoots and a few wild herbs a plate of pasta with beans and tinned tuna is seemingly empty of micronutrients.
And we are not talking about something you can replace with a mutivitamin, there are all sorts of enzymes, antioxidants, phytonutrients e.t.c that have only just started being understood that you can only realistically get by eating a natural paleo diet.

And then there are antinutrients, that happen to be much higher in the modern diet, toxic products in foods that we never evolved to eat in such quantity.......... beans and grains, the suposed "healthy staple we should all be eating" contain lectin and many other toxins, unsuitable amino acid profiles and starchy carbs which our pancreas go through hell to digest.

They wonder how we can cure cancer? diabetes? they should spend their time promoting natural eating so we don't get such diseases in the first place!

I think anyone who considers their health an important aspect of their life should at least try a paleolithic diet for a month and see how they feel, i'm certain it will change their lives, for the better.

Eat natural, Eat raw, Eat organic!

/Rant over.

[finlee]

interesting and thought provoking post there term.

[mgcasper]

Not sure I agree but food for thought.

[New Guy]

Interesting read, it makes sense that the diet we have always eaten would be more suited to us than the diet people have now.

Isn't it difficult (expensive!!) to eat like this though? Have you got an example to a typical day of this diet? It would be interesting to see

[Ripped Barbarian]

Quote

Interesting read, it makes sense that the diet we have always eaten would be more suited to us than the diet people have now.

Isn't it difficult (expensive!!) to eat like this though? Have you got an example to a typical day of this diet? It would be interesting to see

Yeah it is fairly expensive, the main reason people started eating grains is because it's the cheapest way to produce calories, the same goes for tesco value white bread however......

Here is what i ate yesterday

Breakfast - 4 large organic eggs, handful nuts and seeds, 1 slice of organic rye bread (prob avoid this in futue) 300g organic blueberries, 2 organic apples. omega 3 softgel, various herbs.

Meal 1 - Whole rabbit, with herbs, a raw carrots, omega 3 softgel, mouthful olive oil

Pre workout - Herb extracts, green tea e.t.c

Post workout - organic banana, whey protein (change for egg white protein soon)

Meal 2 - 250g Barely cooked organic beef, raw brocolli, raw carrots, half a kilo of blackberries and damsons, omega 3 softgel.

Meal 3 - Tin of pilchards, organic banana, organic tomatoes, more berries and damsons, nettle leaves e.t.c (i went out forraging)

Snack - Another whey shake (again egg protein will replace it) some nuts and seeds.

Before bed, L ornithine, st-200, glutamine, GSE, zinc, magnesium, multivit, glucosamine, omega soft gel, mouthful olive oil. Chamomile, rooibos and various herbs in a very strong herbal brew.


............Yeah it is fairly hard to do this diet but the benefits are insane.

[Resurrected]

To be honest it's not something that personally I would be interested in even attempting to follow.

You probably know of this site Term, but just incase you do not here it is

http://paleodiet.com/

[Wotan]

Tell you what you might be interested in Term. Elderberries!

By themselves they taste pretty bitter. But put a few bunches of them through a food processor and then put the mush into a bottle of gin. The alcohol [35%]dissolves out the factions, like essential oils, that don't dissolve in water [65% of gin].

The point is that it doesn't make anything taste an nicer, but an eggcupful a day really knocks viruses on the head, pronto. No colds or flu.

[Ripped Barbarian]

Yeah, got some elderberries down at my "forrage patch" along with blackberries, damsons, rabbits and pheasants!
Certainly makes my diet easier.

With elderberries it's best to get rid of the seeds however, they are slightly poisonous, the flesh is fine afaik.

[Aren_Tyr]

Terminator, totally agree 100% with everything you say. I'm sure Nu and others will also.

I am personally struggling with it though. As you correctly point out, the Western diet is so heavily based on grains/cereals that eliminating them and replacing them is quite tricky in the context of a busy modern life. Pasta, for example, is so quick, cheap and convenient. It's not very nutritious, but it is filling and reasonably calorie dense.

I struggle if I go to low on carbs. I am not sure my body is able to metabolise fat/protein as efficiently as stone-age man. Either that, or I simply struggle to replace the calories when I switch to a lower carb form of eating.

But, I will perservere. I am keen to reduce my carb intake from modern grains/cereals as much as possible, and replace with nutritious natural carbohydrate sources, and more proteins and particularly fats.

Aren.

[Ripped Barbarian]

Quote

Terminator, totally agree 100% with everything you say. I'm sure Nu and others will also.

I am personally struggling with it though. As you correctly point out, the Western diet is so heavily based on grains/cereals that eliminating them and replacing them is quite tricky in the context of a busy modern life. Pasta, for example, is so quick, cheap and convenient. It's not very nutritious, but it is filling and reasonably calorie dense.

I struggle if I go to low on carbs. I am not sure my body is able to metabolise fat/protein as efficiently as stone-age man. Either that, or I simply struggle to replace the calories when I switch to a lower carb form of eating.

But, I will perservere. I am keen to reduce my carb intake from modern grains/cereals as much as possible, and replace with nutritious natural carbohydrate sources, and more proteins and particularly fats.

Aren.

Your body will adapt over time, it'll certainly find it easier adapting to it's naturallly suited diet than it does modern diet!
When i started lowering carbs i felt a bit lazy on some days but then my energy picked up and i feel "warm inside and full of energy" most of the time now
Gradually slipping into it should take a few months, if you go too quickly your body will think "what the hell" and you will possibly have complications.....like constipation. the same goes for a lot of major dietary shifts.

Here are a few good paleo foods you can get cheaply, good cals and nutrition

-Tesco organic minced beef £1.99 for 500g
-Lidls calafornian walnuts (about £1 for 500g or something crazy)
-Tesco lambs liver £1 for 500g
-Organic brocolli 99p from morrisons
-Organic carrots 69p from tescos
-Frozen rabbit can be bough from sainsburys.....i go out an kill mine
-Julian graves are good for seeds
-Myprotein does awesome lew's and albumin powder! (whey is not "allowed" in a full paleo diet)
Also MP fibre sources, psyllium husks might be a good idea......help stabalise your bowels if you're eating lots of meat.