Paleo Diet ~ To Be or not to Be Paleo?

The Paleo diet is a gluten-free, grain-free, legume-free, dairy-free and sugar-free diet. The foods that constitute the foundation of the Paleo diet are lean proteins, from free-range eggs, free-range chicken, wild-caught fish and seafood and grass-fed meat, as well as seasonal vegetables and fruits and healthy fats from avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts and seeds. The Paleo way of eating is high in nutrients, antioxidants and omega-3 fats, while being low in carbohydrate, moderate in protein and high in fat.
*Source ~ www.livestrong.com

While I like all the food on the Paleo diet, I am not into raw meat. The true Paleo man or woman was not cooking. Man's gut is no longer a paleolithic intestinal system. It is evolved and largely through cooking and baking over heat over a long period of time; therefore, we are used to a non hunter gatherer diet.

We can imagine that the true Paleo man ate fresh, and ate clean in his time and place. He was less likely to cook anything and was more likely eating raw animal organ meats and fish. The closest group on the planet today to the Paleo man are Eskimos whose native diet still consists of a liberal use of organs and other special tissues of the large animal life of the sea 'whales', as well as other fish. The latter were dried in large quantities in the summer and stored for winter use. The fish were also eaten frozen. In the past, seal oil was used freely as an adjunct to this diet and seal meat was specially prized and was usually available. Caribou meat was sometimes available and the organs were used.

Their fruits were limited largely to a few berries including cranberries, available in the summer and stored for winter use. Several plant foods were gathered in the summer and stored in fat or frozen for winter use. A ground nut that was gathered by the Tundra mice and stored in caches was used by the Eskimos as a vegetable. Stems of certain water grasses, water plants and bulbs were occasionally used; but the bulk of their diet was fish and large animal life of the sea from which they selected certain organs and tissues with great care and wisdom.

To be or not to be a Paleo man/woman? That is the question. I am not saying that such a diet is bad for you and neither am I saying that such a diet would be 100 percent good for you. What I can say and have stated many times as the real culprit in the American diet is ~ Sugar!
The Paleo diet may well be a fad that will go out of fashion  or stay fashionable as restaurants serving only rare steak will survive becoming the most popular place (s) to eat.  And, think about it, how could we sustain 300+million people on steak and eggs given the amount of space and time needed to produce that kind of food?  Unless, we start cloning organs for the new Paleo man to eat.


*Source ~  www.rawpaleodiet.com