The Paleo Diet: following our ancestor's diet By Yasaman

Have you heard about "The Paleo Diet"? If not, you are going to become familiar with it after reading my blog. 
One day I was reading some articles about diverse diets on the internet; I came across "the Paleo diet," it seemed interesting to me. I always wanted to comprehend my ancestors living conditions, what they ate, and how they provided the ingredients to cook. This diet encourages you to know about your ancestor's diet, and it's evident that it is tough to approach the way to know about them. ​

What is the Paleo diet? 

The Paleolithic diet has been around since the 1970s but was popularized by American scientist Loren Cordain’s books on the diet in the 2000s. The Paleo diet is fundamentally a contestant to other low-carb alternatives to the modern Western diet that have become popular this century, such as the Keto diet and the Atkins diet.

The Paleo diet mainly presents a reflex to the harmful aspects of the modern Western diet. It stimulates the eating of unprocessed food and avoids preservative foods and encourages fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables (exclusively root vegetables), raw nuts, free-range chicken, and grass-fed meat. Moreover, it discourage foods such as dairy, grains, legumes, sugars, salts, processed oils, alcohol, and coffee. 

What to Eat on the Paleo Diet

 The paleo diet allows you to intake different kinds of fruits and vegetables.  The diversity of food that you can pick in this diet is extensive, and you can observe a few examples below: 

• Grass-fed and organic meats, e.g. chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, and pork.
• Wild-caught fish and seafood, e.g. salmon, trout, and shellfish.
• Free-range or pastured eggs
• Vegetables, e.g. carrots, tomatoes, peppers, onions, broccoli
• Root vegetables or tubers, e.g. sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, yams, turnips
• Fruits, e.g. apples, bananas, oranges, and wild berries
• Nuts and seeds of most varieties
• Unprocessed salts and herbs, e.g. sea salt, garlic, rosemary ​​

Salmon and braised fennel and green creamy dressing

Recipe: ​

• 1 orange
• 1 fennel bulb with stalk and fronds
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 wild Alaskan skin-on salmon fillets (about 5 ounces each)
•  paleo green creamy dressing (paleo mayo - parsley - apple cider vinegar - scallions - anchovy - fresh garlic - salt)​ 

What Not to Eat on the Paleo Diet

The purpose of this diet is to avoid processed food and intake whole food, and it decreases the rate of lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. In addition, if you want to follow the paleo diet, you should ignore the sweeteners and trans fat.This is the list of some examples to avoid: 

​

• Grains, e.g. bread, pastas, wheat, barley
• Legumes, e.g. beans and lentils
• Dairy, and particularly low-fat dairy products
• Vegetable oils, e.g. sunflower oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil
• Sugars and corn syrup, e.g. soft drinks and fruit juices

​Studies on Paleo Diet so far

​The research about the paleo diet shows it's one of the most significant short term diets based on national nutrition guidelines. In addition, the nutritionists perceive the paleo diet can help with weight loss, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced waist circumference, improved cholesterol, and decreased blood pressure. And studies have been proven people who participate in a short term diet they will get the result.

      
​​References:

• Paleo diet: Eat like a cave man and lose weight? (2017, August 8). Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/paleo-diet/art-20111182​​.
• Diet Review: Paleo Diet for Weight Loss. (2019, October 28). Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/paleo-diet/.​
• McMillen, M. (2018, May 2). Paleo Diet (Caveman Diet) Review, Foods List, and More. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/paleo-diet.