Monday, July 25, 2011

What is the Caveman Diet and Paleo Diet

There's a diet craze on town that would supposedly give you optimum health and weight the way human ancestors had back in the jungle man era. Introducing the Paleo Diet, also known as the Caveman Diet. But what is the Caveman Diet and Paleo Diet?



The Paleo Diet is a practice of eating locally-based gluten-free food i.e. organic lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables. The catch: No grains, legumes (that means no peanuts for you. It's a legume, not a nut), dairy, salt, refined sugar and processed oils—some which would of course totally make your food taste like bleh. This of course is a "powerful way to normalize health and well-being" according to Loren Cordain, a professor of health and exercise at Colorado State University.



Fred Flintstone is totally on Paleo. Just look at his bod-urrrrr...


Regardless, the Caveman Diet has found success in the users of whole9life.com,which pitches a Paleo Diet post way back May 2010 (which makes me wonder why this diet is just reaching mainstream shores). You could check the whole story here.



But does this so called Caveman Diet really work? According to WebMD's quizzer to health specialists, a person can achieve a better state of health in the Paleo Diet regimen, but also added that a balanced diet and food consumption moderation is still the way to go.



There's not much research done about the Caveman / Paleo Diet's effects, but in fairness to the said diet, it placed an honorable fourth on the number of people who said yes at the question "Did this diet work for you?" on the U.S. News & World Reports Best Diets—4807 users to be exact. Ironically, it also has the most numerous nos in the tally—23,689—which unquestionably makes it the #1 not-working diet in the list and sits at 20 out of 20 all in all.



If you're still interested in trying the Paleo Diet—or Caveman Diet, whatever suits your taste—check the Paleo Diet Wikipedia page. Unsurprisingly, it also has it's own website at thepaleodiet.com.



So there you go. If you're trying to go a la caveman with a matching Rogaine-like hair thickness to match or just want to experience something similar to what our olden folks ate tens of thousands of years ago, go for the Paleo Diet. Next post: The Jurassic Diet.



'Till my next installment.



[Photo by askmen.com]