What is Paleo Diet?

To answer this question: have you ever heard of the Paleolithic era. This is the era that man used stones do his work. It is interesting to know that Paleolithic era occurred at the same time as late Stone Age. The difference was that Stone Age is associated with Africa according to archeological findings, while Paleolithic era is associated with Europe. Still, Paleolithic era happened during late Stone Age.

Nevertheless, the people at that Age have got a lot to teach us. Probably, we think that we are good because we are not using stones. We have computers, guns, bulldozers, cranes, ships, aircrafts etc. Name any type of machine and the people of the Paleolithic era would not have dreamed to have. However, there is one thing they had, healthy bodies, which we all hope to attain.

During that period, the people were hunters and gatherers. They hunted for their food with pick axes. I am tempted to mention that, currently, if any one goes hunting, he would not go with anything less than an AK47. However, this people used pick axes! I am not promoting the use of pick axes, but I want to show how brave they were in their hunting.

Moreover, they were very healthy, yet their diet was meat and grains from what they gathered. They did not have any processed food. Though they did not have a choice to their diet, whatever they had, was good for them. So let us do a mathematical equation here.

If what the Paleolithic had equals good for them, (Paleolithic food = good for Paleolithic man), then;

The Paleolithic people are the same as the current man, (Paleolithic man = Modern Man), then;

In conclusion Paleolithic food = Good for modern man.

The mathematical equation was simple and it came up with a simple conclusion. It shows that we should look to copy after our ancestors.  They have got a lot to teach us. They lived according to nature and we should emulate them and have our strategies in place. We need to take more of natural foods such as grains, fruits, meat, potatoes etc.

However, what is happening currently? People are taking a lot of processed foods. How many burgers have you taken today not to mention the whole week. Yet the processed oils that are being used to prepare this processed foods is killing you. This is where I advise you, bring the Paleolithic times to your time, have a Paleo diet.

Let Us Have a Paleo Nutrition

So, let us have a Paleo diet! What are we taking home for dinner tonight. It is fish, vegetables, and for desert we are to take fruits. We are interested in having Paleo nutrition. Therefore, all the food that is processed is out of the question. Do you want to join in? In this article I want to take you through the basics of having a paleo nutrition and how you should go about it.

First, what you should know is that we are emulating our fore fathers who were very healthy for the foods they partook. Some would argue that they did more work and that is why they were healthy. Well, it is a valid point, but you forget of all the exercises that you do, or should do. You run every day or at least walk. You go to the gym and have a work out. All this exercises that you do emulate a person who has been in a garden, digging with a hoe. At the end of the day, if you jogging for some time, and a person goes to the garden to dig, both of you shall remain fit.

It is, therefore justified to say that the diet should go together with exercise just like the Paleolithic man did. So, going back to our nutrition, we need to learn of the necessary foods that we shall take. We shall have foods such as meat, fish, vegetables, vegetable oils, eggs, and natural occurring foods.

I am sure your mouth is salivating by now because we mentioned meat. Some wonder why meat is considered  as part of the diet. To answer, meat is not only nutritious, but it is sweet. However, we are considering a particular type of meat. The meat has to come up from a particular animal. The animal is in essence one that is raised by grazing. We are interested in naturally bred animals and no other animal qualifies.

The nutrition is strict to what is natural. Do not go having processed foods. The processed foods include, crisps, burgers, and many others. I hope I have not touched you here. If I have, then you just need to style up and follow the crowd. We are going Paleo today and we are to enjoy healthy lives. Try it out and you shall see for yourself.

History of Paleo Nutrition, Health and Fitness

When advocating for something, it is important to have your facts right. I am advocating for Paleo nutrition, health, and fitness. I want to convince someone, anyone and if possible everyone to go with my stand. I heard of Paleo Nutrition the first time from a friend and that is when I decided to research on it.

It was a good idea and seemed interesting; worth trying. However, I do not like half-baked cakes, I like knowing all the details of anything before I find myself in a fix. I found out that Paleo is something that did not start in the 21^st century but started around the 1970 i.e. 20^th century.

Considering how good Paleo nutrition is, I think it was unfair to have taken so long to reach my ears. Anyway, the person who more or less advocated for it and promoted it initially was Walter L. Voegtlin. He did so during the mid of 1970’s and he said what the nutrition involved. It involved a lot on diet. You have to be careful of what you eat because the body will intake what you take through the mouth.

Therefore, the founder, Walter, promoted the eating of foods such as grains, meats, fish, vegetables plus many other natural foods. It is not that this foods fulfill all the prophesies of good health. But, with your hard work in keeping fit; jogging, going to the gym, playing football, or any other hobby you have developed to keep fit, you shall make your body healthy and fit.

So with this dug up information, I was able to work on the basics of Paleo diet and continue being fit. The nutrition is nice; it does not make me a vegetarian because I love having meat especially for a party. I do not want any diet that touches my fish that I have on Fridays at an exquisite restaurant located at my home area. However, I still need something to keep me fit. So this was a great answer to my cry.

To add on to this article, Walter was not just a nobody, he was a Gastroenterologist. This is a field in medicine where such specialists are involved in looking after the digestive system. In the least, I knew that a specialist who knew what he was doing was advocating this nutrition.

The Logic Behind Paleo Nutrition, Health and Fitness

Walter L. Voetglin, a gastroenterologist, was the first person to suggest that we should take up the Paleo diet. He said that the diet is good to humans just as it was good to our fore fathers. The diet is a mixture of wild fruits, vegetables, and animal bred through natural grazing. The diet also includes fish, eggs, and many other things. It is probably because of Walters’ profession that he came up with this conclusion. A gastroenterologist is someone that deals with the digestive system.

Walter knew what was good for the stomach. Moreover, he wanted people to stay healthy from what they ate. The horizontal dimensions of out body are defined by what we eat. Nevertheless, other experts have come up with many other reasons, which show that we should take up Paleo.

It is not a surprise that many experts have come up with this conclusion. The reason is that man had some kind of evolution. Even though you do not believe in evolution, at least you can consider that man had a history in order to get to where he is.

The evolution or history made him who he is. Man has adapted to many things to make him whole. If we consider that the first people to come to this earth were eating a particular type of food, then that is what our bodies must have adopted to.

Fortunately, this foods are still available in the current world. The dodo must have gone extinct, but there are other animals that we can rear and enjoy their meat. The early man ate wild foods by gathering and hunted the wild animals for a meal. He did not have processed foods for lunch but a truly good meal of naturally occurring foods.

Due to this adaptation, the foods mentioned are considered best suited for man. In order to continue justifying our argument, research on cells has shown that they do not die. Cells will multiply or divide. Division is what makes it possible for our human race to continue. New offspring’s are gotten from this division.  You can already see where this argument is going. Therefore, cells through their memory will remember habits of long ago. They will partake what they need. Since, the early man had shown the cells that they should have wild foods for meals, then we should all be taking wild foods.

Details of Paleo Nutrition

There is much in nutrition in the world. Currently, with the increase in health awareness, people are involving themselves with a nutrition they are comfortable to use. In order to measure whether a nutrition is fit, then you have to look at its effects when taken for a long time. Paleo advocates for a nutrition that is good for every person’s health.

Paleo has the advantage of not removing the good things from the food. There are diets advocated for which are just a farce. This nutrition does not chuck out the meat from our usual diet. What it advocates for is the eating of lean meat that is from animals that are bred naturally. The animals should be bred by grazing using grass, and other natural fodder such as Napier grass.

The people that started this nutrition reasoned well. They came up with a basic explanation of what should be eaten and why. The reason was simple. They said that since the Paleolithic times, are he millions of years ago, man has adapted to several types of foods. The foods are good for health because have sustained man throughout years.

Now that man has been able to manufacture his own food, he should not turn away from the old acquired habits. Man should continue his acceptance of these natural gifts. In recent years, it is a widely accepted fact that junk foods are unhealthy. The problem with junk foods is that they are sweet and once you are hooked with a particular taste, it is had to leave it. Junk foods make people grow horizontally without any exceptions.

However, with paleo nutrition, you can still eat the same foods that are used to when you eat the junk foods, but this time it is different. The potatoes and vegetables shall be well cooked with vegetable oil and not the fatty chips or burgers’ that you eat. You shall like the nutrition just like the junk food.  Moreover, the food is now healthy and involves less fat. You can then go and work out in a gym and have your body grow strong.

Paleo is considered among one of the nutrition’s widely accepted in the world. It has been under review in many researches and there are many opinions from experts about the nutrition. Some experts consider its importance while others regard other nutritious diets to be far much better. What comes out clear, it is your choice in doing whatever is good to your body.

Keeping Fit With Paleo

Do you want to become fit? I have been coming up with better and better methods of staying fit. I do not advocate that staying fit is staying thin, but it is staying strong. Thinness is not fitness but you are likely to be fit when you are thin. Therefore, I am going to give several ways that you can stay fit.

First, I advocate the use of Paleo diet, which I have been using for my nutrition. Secondly, I want to show how this diet is important and can be mixed with exercises to produce a fit body. Finally, I want any person touched to join me in this campaign.

• Paleo Nutrition

You shall take wild foods. It does not mean that you shall go out of your way, going to the forest, to get the foods. These foods are available in the market. You can also grow them in your garden or kitchen garden in the backyard of your house. If you are thinking of going on with this kind plan, the wild foods refers to vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, potatoes etc. Buy them in their raw form and cook them with vegetable oils.

For proteins, there are beans, peas, and other natural foods, which can be acquired from the market. You are probably wondering whether I am advocating for you to become a vegetarian. No, there is also meat involved. What we are trying to avoid is the processed foods and other unnatural types of food that we find. The meat, as long as it is from an animal that was bred by grazing with natural fodder, should be bought. You can also have fish or eggs to make your diet complete.

• Work-Out

Of course, with this diet, you can still grow fat. What I need from you is to be able to keep fit and your body strong. This kind of diet has the chance of making you leave a healthy life. Choose some time during your busy day schedule and decide on a hobby that introduces exercises. Go jog, play basketball, play football, work out in the gym, or just anything like taking a stroll. If you decide to take a stroll, walk fast with a purpose of opening up your muscles.

With this two combined together, be sure of having a healthy body. The body is supported by a good diet then it is allowed to exercise. The muscles become well-toned.

What is Considered a Paleo Diet

A paleo diet is something that we should all decide on taking. Since the advent of refining of foods, we have had several small changes in nutrients that affect us in ways that we are not aware of. These small changes include the change of fatty acids, micronutrient composition and many other changes that it would take a nutrition specialist or a doctor to explain. It has, therefore, been considered that such refined foods have introduced the diseases of civilization.

Therefore, we are going to back to the Paleolithic time and bringing it to the modern times. Let us look at what we can eat to avoid these civilization diseases.

• Vegetables

Look at the natural occurring vegetable available in your area. These vegetables will include anything, which introduces vitamins and others proteins to your body. Others will introduce micronutrients such as potassium, calcium in our bodies. Vegetables such as legumes; peas, beans, peanuts, and other pods that come from plants are rich in proteins. They are very healthy and keep the body fit. However, we require taking greens. Therefore, we go shopping for spinach, cabbage, and other greens. Do not go for the dried material that can be considered as refined. Go for fresh produce straight from the garden.

• Fruits

After the main course of every meal, it is always advisable to finish the meal with a proper fruit. Many fruits are fresh. Many fruits are not perishable and they can be exported from far of lands for you to taste. Fruits such as apples, oranges, mangoes, pineapples, water melon, and any other fruit that you know of is important in your diet. Go for the unprocessed foods.

• Meat

Meat is one of those things that people find controversial when talking about keeping fit. Some people think that taking meat is not good for your health. However, anything that you take that is too much to your body is unhealthy. If you take the required portions of meat, it is healthy. Nevertheless, this meat has to be from an animal that was bred with natural fodder.

Chicken bred through free range grazing are good for consumption. However, some are bred through manufactured foods, they are considered unhealthy in our paleo diet. Take eggs and cook them using vegetable oil. Fish meat is also considered nutritious for its micronutrients. Especially fish from the wild waters is advocated for.

Micronutrients and Macronutrients in Paleo

Paleo does not seek to reduce any of the macro or micronutrients in the body. However, what it seeks to achieve is a good balance such that the body remains fit. I have wanted to discuss the basis of Paleo in providing sufficient micronutrients in various Paleo forums, but I shall include my discussion in this paper.

You probably do not know how to differentiate between macronutrients and micronutrients. Their differences can be simply explained through simple words.

• Macronutrients

Macronutrients are the foods that are taken in large portions into the body. They provide the necessary energy to the body and help the muscles stay strong and the body stay rigid. They will include the various foods that you are well aware of. These foods are carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins.

• Micronutrients

They are very important in the body. According to modern medicine, they are very important especially in body reactions. The body will require achieving many reactions every day in order to attain body order. There are chemicals that should be produced in order to do several works in the body. This work is not visible, but its effect is felt and seen.

Importance of Paleo Diet
It is observed that people in the current age are getting diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and other mysterious diseases. They occur from what is referred to as civilization diseases. If we now go back to a diet that we were accustomed to during man’s evolution, then we are in safe hands. The diet we were accustomed to made the body reactions that were safe to the body. The body was not mistreated to harsh foods that introduce chemical reactions that it is not comfortable with.

With the change in the levels of micronutrients that we take, the body will have different reactions. The bodies microorganisms will develop differently and we are therefore prone to diseases. However, if we went back and stopped eating the foods that are introducing these different level of micronutrients, then we are safe.

Conclusion

Take proper foods for your diet and get your body healthy. I want to show that this helps us to pave way for a better generation that is healthy. The cells that we have shall be passed on to the future generation. They will still have the memory of what is good for them. Therefore, do not defile your body with refined products.

Expert Opinion on Paleo

Paleo is a nutrition method that began in the 1970’s. Walter L. Voegtlin advocated for it; he proposed that this diet is important because we shall be eating what our bodies were used to taking. Since then, many experts have taken up the idea and are recruiting more and more people into the idea.

However, sharp contrasts have come up from other specialists. They try to give many other reasons, which show that the theory is wrong. Such arguments include, those that argue out the very basic fact of Paleo. Some arguments say that it is not true that we have developed a pattern of what we can eat through evolution. It says that a man can adapt to anything including what is currently being manufactured.

What I would like to point out is that every person is entitled to an opinion. I am of the view that Paleo helps and I hope that I will not be subjective in my observations. In analyzing the expert’s opinions, we come up with a conclusion that every person is trying to advocate for what they believe in.

Other experts consider that this diet is good for particular people. Because the diet does not reduce on carbohydrates, or proteins, or vitamins, it is considered to be beneficial to people going to the gym. I think that the notion is misguided because the diet involves a lot of reduction of taking fatty oils especially from manufactured or refined products. Junk food introduces many things that are unfavorable to the body and this is avoided. However, exercise is important in everybody, it does not matter what you use as your diet. If you want to have good health, exercise should be a part of the regime.

In addition, there have been reviews from several researches done to check proper dieting methods. Paleo has not been favorably ranked although many other experts individually advocate for it. It does not matter who you are; athlete, senior citizen, young, a person going to the gym, or anything that you do, Paleo is good for you.

There are experts for Paleo, and those against Paleo. At the end of the day, it becomes your choice in what you shall choose. I once heard a saying that interested me, ‘you can take a cow to the river, but you cannot force it to drink.’ I do not mean to be rude but I just want to show that Paleo is a river, drink from it.

Diseases To Avoid When Taking Paleo

In the current world, there are diseases that are considered as main civilization diseases. They have appeared because we are eating and using substances that the body is not used to. Future generations and we can avoid the diseases. If you follow the Paleo nutrition, you can stay healthy and have energy to go about your daily duties.
Civilization diseases were not found in man during those early periods. If at all they were there, the frequency was small compared to the recent age. Nowadays, the percentage has increased and people are growing sick by the day.
Adult Diabetes
Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases. It can only be managed and it can kill fast. This is a disease caused by the basic lack of sugar in the body or an increase in the sugar. If there is an increase in sugar, then the person does not have enough insulin to break it down. Therefore, such people will usually have several injections every day for their bodies to function well. However, this disease did not affect many adults in prior periods to the 19th century as it does now. People who were diabetic in these earlier periods, were simply born with the defect.
Cancer
Also a disease is killing many people in the current world. The disease occurs when a part of the body starts growing uncontrollably. This part has to be removed at an early stage. It is due to this that there are diabetic people. However, diabetic people have grown in the recent age compared to the early 19th century. The disease is affecting many more people than expected.
Celiac

A disease is caused by an allergy to gluten. Gluten is found in wheat, byre, and other such like cereals. However, when taking Paleo into consideration, you will only be taking unprocessed foods. Therefore, you can easily control what you eat. Leave out wheat from your menu and you are safe.
The diseases mentioned are just but examples that can be taken care of by Paleo’s nutrition guide. In civilization diseases, asthma and other diseases are considered. However, Paleo is based in nutrition and it will not help solve the disease problems that are not nutrition conscious.
However, for proper advice, contact your doctor. Your doctor should be capable on advising you on what diseases require which diet. He is the expert you should look up to.