The Paleo Diet

You might have heard a lot of people talking about different diets these days and be wondering “What is the Paleo diet?” For most supporters, many enthusiastic supporters claiming that the Paleo diet has changed their life, bringing such great results, they plan to follow the associated eating patterns of the Paleo diet for the rest of their life - living a Paleo lifestyle.

The Paleo diet is designed to support fat loss (up to a pound a day!) while maintaining muscle and lowering inflammation. Not only will your energy levels and cognitive function increase, the Paleo diet is designed to balance hormones and blood sugar. By following a few simple principles, you can learn to effectively fuel your brain and body while ridding your life of toxins and bad habits.

Thousands of people following the Paleo Diet have reported results like:

• Fat loss
• Better mood
• Increase in overall happiness
• More energy
• Better focus and concentration
• No more food cravings
• Better work performance
• Muscle Gain
• Improved sex life

Have you ever started a diet and felt overwhelmed? Would most diets leave you feeling tired, hungry, grumpy, frustrated with huge cravings? Would you find your that diet required so much willpower and restricting that as soon as you had a bite of something that was “not allowed” you would just give up?

These are all very common feelings associated with dieting, which is why most people have trouble sticking to any diet long enough to see sustainable results. The Paleo Diet is different.

Instead of counting calories, on the Paleo diet, you focus your energy on eating high-quality, nutrient-dense foods that fuel your body. That’s right, no more counting Calories. Ever. Instead of feeling tired and hungry and grumpy, the Paleo diet you will feel full for hours with boundless energy and an elevated mood.

What Is the Paleo Diet?

When researching, you will find that there is a HUGE amount of information published, with many different angles and version of the Paleo Diet. The main idea of the Paleo diet is that if humans were not able to consume food thousands of years ago in the Palaeolithic Period, then humans shouldn’t consume these types of foods today.  If a caveman didn’t eat it, neither should you. Food processing technology and manufacturing has improved rapidly, especially in the last 100 years, but our evolution of our digestive systems has not been able to keep up. The digestive tract and nutritional needs of humans have not changed enough since the Palaeolithic people, so it makes logical sense that modern humans should be eating a very similar diet, and why the modern diet results in poor health.

Paleo Diet Health Benefits

During the Stone Age, humans could only survive by hunting and gathering their food. They ate a lot of meat from hunting animals, are were subsequently extremely fit and active from this lifestyle. Fruits, berries and plants were also gathered as part of their diet.  As there were obviously no refrigerators in the stone age, all this food was consumed either fresh or with minimal processing.  As well as eating fresh, seasonal food, humans of the Palaeolithic period never exposed their bodies to fertilizers, preservatives and other chemicals that are found in a majority of our food today. With the modern diet including so many heavily processed foods, humans are simply not eating the nutrient rich diet we once were.

People who follow the paleo diet very often have great health results, including improvements in their heart health, weight loss, reduced symptoms from auto immune disease, a decline in diabetes, and more. This is believed to happen because harmful, heavily processed foods are removed from the diet. Essentially, people cannot digest and use many modern foods for energy. The foods we typically eat are not in line with our body’s needs and lacks essential nutrients. It’s believed by the founders and followers of the paleo diet that one of the main reasons so many people are facing chronic illnesses today- heart disease, cancer, auto immune disease, nutrient deficiency, chronic diseases and obesity. Basically, we are living in a country that is overfed and obese, yet still malnourished on a cellular level.

With the Paleo Diet, there is a dramatic increase in the number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants absorbed by your body. Instead of depriving your body you are feeding it the nutrients it needs to thrive and live a happy healthy life.

How do I start a Paleo Diet? What can I eat?

To eat Paleo is to eat like a caveman. Anything they could find they would eat, and it was organic, pesticide free, and nearly always fresh. Eating Paleo is about finding what works best for you in this modern world.

Paleo Food Lists:

What we do eat

• Meat
• Seafood
• Fish
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Seeds
• Nuts
• Eggs
• Good fats and oils (Avocado, Olive Oil, Macadamia Oil, coconut oil)
• Kumara
• Pumpkin

What we don't eat / avoid

• Grain or Cereal
• Legumes
• Dairy products
• Processed / Junk foods (Chips, cakes, lollies, chocolate)
• Fizzy drink
• Potatoes

Although organic / grass fed, and free range is recommended it can get pricey so shop within your budget.  Don’t stress too much about this if you are starting out, just try to source good quality lean cuts of meat, poultry and always try to buy free range eggs.

Check out this Organic Food List:

If you are willing to do a comparison of several specific Paleo diets, you will come across some in-depth recommendations for these food sources. For example, some Paleo lifestyle followers will only consume meat from grass-fed animals, some of them will only eat lean meats to limit their fat intake, and some of them will only consume what was found in the wild. But, others are open to eat any meat they feel like eating. You will find many example Paleo Meal plans and paleo food lists online.

The thing you won’t find in any legitimate Paleo diet meal plan are processed ingredients, meaning no vegetable oil and refined sugars. Many Paleo followers will in many cases eliminate foods that weren’t around during the Paleo Era, and those include dairy products and potatoes. This here is another area where you can spot variations between diet plans.

‘Paleo’ packaged foods have been come readily available at many health food stores and super markets. You will also find some processed foods (canned items) like coconut cream, Coconut yogurt, grass fed butter, coconut sugar and many more items. These things are ok in moderation - we live in a modernised world so don't get too caught up in the whole ''but they wouldn't have had that in the stone age''.

If you want to start on the Paleo lifestyle journey, then a good start is to eliminate the foods on the to avoid list and add in lots of colourful vegetables especially green leafy ones, Good fats, Organic and free range lean meat, Poultry, fresh fish and minimal root vegetables. There is no weighing of food, simply eat as much as you need to stay fuelled. Always make sure the ratio of greens is always at least 1/2 of your plate.

Here is an example of what your plate should look like.

Does fat make you fat?

Most people worry that eating fat will make them fat. And it's no wonder-- we have been told this for decades. And, we know that fat has more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein. If fat made people fat, wouldn’t anyone who ever consumed lots of extra virgin olive oil (like in the traditional Mediterranean diet) be morbidly obese? Or what about the Inuit, who consumed a very high fat, low carbohydrate diet? The problem doesn’t lie in fat, but rather in sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Hormones play a huge part in regulating everything, and body weight is no different. It turns out that if you want to burn your own body fat for energy, you must have low insulin levels. Insulin tells fat cells to pull fatty acids out of the blood and to keep fat in the fat cells. Whenever you eat carbohydrates, your body floods your bloodstream with insulin. So, eating more carbohydrates means less time burning, which means more fat accumulation in the fat cells.  Eating a high fat low carb diet (HCLF)means easier fat burning, less hunger, and a better shot at losing weight.

Leptin is another hormone important for feeling satiated. But insulin dominates and interferes with leptin's ability to make you feel full and satisfied. So, when insulin is present, due to excess consumption of refined carbohydrates, it turns off leptin's signals, leaving you unsatisfied and on the road to weight gain.

If fat was bad, why would we be supplementing with fish oil (omega-3 fatty acids) every day? Why would these low-fat diets recommend eating nuts, which are loaded with fat? The problem isn’t fat, but the kind of fat. Any diet that contains lots of vegetables, quality sources of protein, and healthy fats, will be ideal. Focus on eating high quality far like the avocados, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil. Try to avoid trans fats, processed and refined fats such as canola, corn and soybean oil and hydrogenated vegetable fats. Avoid eating foods made my man and not by nature.

Paleo Lifestyle and Exercise

Even though many Paleo diets are mainly focusing on food, it makes perfect sense to exercise while you are living the Paleo lifestyle. Many of the health benefits that our ancestors enjoyed during the Palaeolithic Era were likely because of both their Paleo Diet and high activity levels. Obviously having to gather and hunt your own food requires a lot more energy than walking from the couch to your fridge or ordering a paleo meal with Uber eats…  

In those days, there were no deep freezers and modern refrigerators. This does not mean that you must start hunting your meat, but you can increase your daily activity levels.

There are so many ways to exercise. It doesn’t have to mean going to the gym and pumping iron for hours. Why not try something different like a yoga classes? Go dancing? A weekend hike with friends?  Moving your body can be super fun!

So do you think you'll try out the Paleo Diet? Check out our collection of Paleo Snacks and why not try a few of our Paleo recipes!