The paleo diet is based on the fact human beings have evolved as hunter gatherers over the last 2,000,000 years. About 10,000 years ago humans become agriculturalists, settling, collecting seeds and growing cereal grains, domesticating animals and drinking their milk. Since this is such a short abut of time from an evolutionary standpoint we have not adapted to digest and deactivate the proteins and anti-nutrients in these foods. As well, grains are high in starch leading to excessive amounts of carbohydrates in our diet. We have become sicker as a species with a growing list of health issues such as gut inflammation, obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Over the last 100 years the evolutionary discordance has increased tremendously as we have added increasingly larger amounts of highly processed foods, sugar, synthetic additives, and chemically extracted vegetable oils, which relegate natural whole hunter gatherer type foods to a smaller and smaller percentage of our diet.
A modern paleo diet is one which uses the principles from evolutionary biology and designs a diet by asking the question – what is the healthiest diet for human beings using today’s foods?
The paleo diet is a whole food based approach to eating: using locally grown quality protein from poultry, meats, fish and seafood, fruit and vegetable carbohydrates, and whole food fats, like nuts, freshly pressed oils and avocado. Your paleo diet should give you adequate but not excess, carbohydrates and fats sufficient for your fuel needs, and protein to maintain lean body mass. Your paleo diet should be varied and supply all essential vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidants, polyphenols and fibre.