What is a Paleo Diet you may ask?
Is it a new fad diet?
The answer is no. It is a choice about eating the way nature intended based upon the diet our ancestors ate during the Paleolithic era 2.5 million years ago.
According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
The paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet.[1][2]
Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.[1][3][4]
First popularized in the mid-1970s by gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin,[5][6] this nutritional concept has been promoted and adapted by a number of authors and researchers in several books and academic journals.[7] A common theme in evolutionary medicine,[8][9] Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors and that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, and therefore that an ideal diet for human health and well-being is one that resembles this ancestral diet.[4][10] Proponents of this diet argue that modern human populations subsisting on traditional diets allegedly similar to those of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are largely free of diseases of affluence,[11][12] and that two small prospective studies of the Paleolithic diet in humans have shown some positive health outcomes.[13][14] Supporters point to several potentially therapeutic nutritional characteristics of allegedly preagricultural diets.[10][15]
While the Paleo Diet may not be for everyone it is Gluten Free friendly.
Our family is not exclusive to this choice of eating but, based on the description of foods that are consumed in the Paleo Diet, Madeleine, my daughter follows it quite closely!
Fascinating stuff! Sounds close to how we're eating these days too... except for cheese. Can't give up the cheese.
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