Paleolithic Diet Facts

The Caveman (Paleo) diet comes from the Paleolithic era & so is often called the Paleo diet. Hunter-Gatherers used to eat a simpler diet long before intensive farming introduced cheap easy to grow foods to service a growing population.

The foods that we consider to be normal today, including wheat, oats, barley, dairy, legumes, soya and maize are all relatively modern foods, developed more because they can be grown cheaply in bulk than because they are good for us.

In order to prevent growing populations from starving, intensive farming developed hardy crops that were cheap and plentiful to feed the masses. Less consideration was given to the suitability of those foods to our delicate digestive systems.

Paleo – A Natural Hunter-Gather Menu

It has only been in the last couple of thousand years that we have stopped being hunter-gatherers, in that time our diet has changed drastically. We are designed to be hunter-gatherers, eating nuts or berries for one meal, followed by maybe a fish the next day, or a rabbit, etc, then the next day some vegetables, or fruit.

Your stomach produces different enzymes in order to digest different food types. A different enzyme for proteins and carbohydrates. Meals containing mixed food groups have only been eaten for the last 10,000 years or so, which is no time at all on an evolutionary scale and that is why so many people struggle to adequately digest their meals properly.

The human gut creates an enzyme for each food you eat, if you combine carb’s and proteins then the enzymes fight each other and you will struggle to properly digest anything very well.

Which Food Should You Avoid?

The Hunter-Gatherer diet is focused around avoiding the following foods; wheat, potatoes, grains, legumes, refines salts, dairy, refined sugars and refined oils. We are not capable of eating these foods easily which is why you can struggle to do so.

The refined produces are especially difficult to digest which is why they often end up converting into human fat. You should avoid anything that has been processed in any way and only eat nature, organic foods.

What did cavemen eat?

The diet you should stick to includes;meat (organic naturally), fish, fruit, fungi, eggs, roots, nuts and vegetables. These are our natural diet, and one that we are designed to eat and digest efficiently.

Paleo Food List

Cavemen would generally eat these foods as they found them rather than make up complex mixed meals mixing proteins and carbohydrates which is the modern norm. With well thought out recipes it is still possible to eat fantastic tasting food that you will be able to easily digest and absorb the most nutrition from.