The modern dietary regimen known as the Paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet ), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet , Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet , is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various human species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. Centered around commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts; and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.
First popularized in the mid 1970s by a gastroenterologist named Walter L. Voegtlin, this nutritional concept has been promoted and adapted by a number of authors and researchers in several books and academic journals. A common theme in evolutionary medicine, Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors and that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, and therefore that an ideal diet for human health and well-being is one that resembles this ancestral diet. Proponents of this diet argue that modern human populations subsisting on traditional diets allegedly similar to those of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are largely free of diseases of affluence, and that two small prospective studies of the Paleolithic diet in humans have shown some positive health outcomes. Supporters point to several potentially therapeutic nutritional characteristics of allegedly preagricultural diets.
This dietary approach is a controversial topic amongst nutritionists and anthropologists, and it has been qualified as a fad diet by the National Health Service of England and American Dietetic Association. Critics have argued that if hunter gatherer societies failed to suffer from "diseases of civilization", this was due to a lack of calories in their diet, or a variety of other factors, rather than because of some special diet composition. Some researchers have taken issue with the accuracy of the diet's underlying evolutionary logic, and have disputed certain dietary recommendations and restrictions on the grounds that they provide no health benefits or pose health risks and are not likely to accurately reflect the features of ancient Paleolithic diets. It has also been argued that such diets are not a realistic alternative for everyone.
History
Gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin was one of the first to suggest that following a diet similar to that of the Paleolithic era would improve a person's health. In 1975, he published a book in which he argued that humans are carnivorous animals and that the ancestral Paleolithic diet was that of a carnivore—chiefly fats and protein, with only small amounts of carbohydrates. His dietary prescriptions were based on his own medical treatments of various digestive problems, namely colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome and indigestion.
In 1985, S. Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner, both of Emory University, published a key paper on Paleolithic nutrition in the New England Journal of Medicine , which allowed the dietary concept to gain mainstream medical recognition. Three years later, S. Boyd Eaton, Marjorie Shostak and Melvin Konner published a book about this nutritional approach, which was based on achieving the same proportions of nutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins and minerals) as were present in the diets of late Paleolithic people, not on excluding foods that were not available before the development of agriculture. As such, this nutritional approach included skimmed milk, whole-grain bread, brown rice, and potatoes prepared without fat, on the premise that such foods have the same nutritional properties as Paleolithic foods. In 1989, these authors published a second book on Paleolithic nutrition.
Since the end of the 1990s, a number of medical doctors and nutritionists have advocated a return to a so-called Paleolithic (preagricultural) diet. Proponents of this nutritional approach have published books and created websites to promote their dietary prescriptions. They have synthesized diets from modern foods that emulate nutritional characteristics of the ancient Paleolithic diet, some of which allow specific foods that would have been unavailable to pre-agricultural peoples, such as certain animal products (i.e. dairy), processed oils, and beverages.
Practices
The Paleolithic diet is a modern dietary regimen that seeks to mimic the diet of preagricultural hunter-gatherers, one that corresponds to what was available in any of the ecological niches of Paleolithic humans. Based upon commonly available modern foods, it includes cultivated plants and domesticated animal meat as an alternative to the wild sources of the original preagricultural diet. The ancestral human diet is inferred from historical and ethnographic studies of modern-day hunter-gatherers as well as archaeological finds and anthropological evidence.
The Paleolithic diet consists of foods that can be hunted and fished, such as meat, offal and seafood, and that can be gathered, such as eggs, insects, fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and spices. Some sources advise eating only lean cuts of meat, free of food additives, preferably wild game meats and grass-fed beef since they contain high levels of omega-3 fats compared with grain-produced domestic meats. Food groups that advocates claim were rarely or never consumed by humans before the Neolithic (agricultural) revolution are excluded from the diet, mainly grains, legumes (e.g. beans and peanuts), dairy products, salt, refined sugar and processed oils, although some advocates consider the use of oils with low omega-6/omega-3 ratios, such as olive oil and canola oil, to be healthy and advisable. Practitioners are permitted to drink mainly water, and some advocates recommend tea as a healthy drink, but alcoholic and fermented beverages are restricted from the diet. Furthermore, eating a wide variety of plant foods is recommended to avoid high intakes of potentially harmful bioactive substances, such as goitrogens, which are present in certain roots, vegetables and seeds. Unlike raw food diets, all foods may be cooked, without restrictions. Cooking is widely accepted to have been practiced 250,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic, and possibly as long ago as 500,000 years ago.
According to certain proponents of the Paleolithic diet, practitioners should derive about 56–65% of their food energy from animal foods and 36–45% from plant foods. They recommend a diet high in protein (19–35% energy) and relatively low in carbohydrates (22–40% energy), with a fat intake (28–58% energy) similar to or higher than that found in Western diets. Furthermore, some proponents exclude from the diet foods which exhibit high glycemic indices, such as potatoes. Staffan Lindeberg, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Lund, advocates a Paleolithic diet, but does not recommend any particular proportions of plants versus meat or macronutrient ratios. According to Lindeberg, calcium supplementation may be considered when the intake of green leafy vegetables and other dietary sources of calcium is limited.
Rationale and evolutionary assumptions
According to S. Boyd Eaton, "we are the heirs of inherited characteristics accrued over millions of years; the vast majority of our biochemistry and physiology are tuned to life conditions that existed prior to the advent of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Genetically our bodies are virtually the same as they were at the end of the Paleolithic era some 20,000 years ago."
Paleolithic nutrition has its roots in evolutionary biology and is a common theme in evolutionary medicine. The reasoning underlying this nutritional approach is that natural selection had sufficient time to genetically adapt the metabolism and physiology of Paleolithic humans to the varying dietary conditions of that era. But in the 10,000 years since the invention of agriculture and its consequent major change in the human diet, natural selection has had too little time to make the optimal genetic adaptations to the new diet. Physiological and metabolic maladaptations result from the suboptimal genetic adaptations to the contemporary human diet, which in turn contribute to many of the so-called diseases of civilization.
More than 70% of the total daily energy consumed by all people in the United States comes from foods, such as dairy products, cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils and alcohol, that advocates of the Paleolithic diet assert contributed little or none of the energy in the typical preagricultural hominin diet. Proponents of this diet argue that excessive consumption of these novel Neolithic and Industrial era foods is responsible for the current epidemic levels of obesity, cardiovascular dise
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