The Paleo Lifestyle: Living and Playing Like Cavemen
The Paleo Lifestyle: Living and Playing Like Cavemen
I have started to adapt to a more Paleolithic lifestyle after reading Arthur De Vany’s book “The New Evolution Diet”and Mark Sission's book "The Primal Blueprint," I have found that it’s a much more natural lifestyle that our bodies may have been better suited for. The following were some question I asked myself when I began to learn more about the Paleo lifestyle.
1. What is Paleo?
In the simplest terms it’s adapting to a lifestyle (primarily our diet & physical activity) to best suite what your body was intended to do in terms of genetics. The best examples of how such a life was lived are derived from how our Paleolithic ancestors lived.
2. What is the Paleolithic Diet (or Paleo Diet)?
A diet “based on the simple understanding that the best human diet is the one to which we are best genetically adapted” (thepaleodiet.com). In essence, consuming whole fruits and vegetables, lean protein (lean meat, chicken, fish), avoiding processed foods and grains. This is analogus to the fact that our Paleo cousins consuming what was in their environment (e.g., hunting wild game, fishing, consuming berries, etc) and avoiding what they did not with the logic that our genetic makeup has not changed significantly from our Paleo cousins.
A book I recently read by Dr. Arthur De Vany - author of "The New Evolution Diet" and a prime example of how the Paleo lifestyle can be beneficial - makes a very important point: It is difficult for the average person to live exactly like our Paleo cousins, instead we should try to mimic our diets to what was consumed (a diet high in protein and whole fruits & veggies) by adapting to what is already in our environment. For example, shopping only the periphery of the super-market (meats, fruits, veggies) and avoiding the center isles (processed foods, cereals, breads, etc), except for certain nuts which are rich in protein and healthy fats.
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