What is the Paleo Diet?
As Rozsansky shares with us, the main goal of this diet is to return the way of eating of the early humans. The paleo diet’s reasoning is that the human body is genetically predisposed to eat those foods that have been obtained with hunting and gathering and is mismatched to the foods that are obtained with farming practices. This idea is also known as the discordance hypothesis.
Farming changed people eating habits, with establishing dairy, grains and legumes as additional staples in the human diet. As some of the Rozsansky’s researches have shown, this was relatively rapid change in diet, so the human body couldn’t adapt properly. There is a hypothesis that this mismatch is a contributing factor to the prevalence of obesity, diabetes and heart disease today.
What to eat on a paleo diet?
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts and seeds
- Lean meats, especially grass-fed animals or wild game
- Fish, especially those rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna
- Oils from fruits and nuts, such as olive oil or walnut oil
What to NOT eat on a paleo diet?
- Grains, such as wheat, oats and barley
- Legumes, such as beans, lentils, peanuts and peas
- Dairy products
- Refined sugar
- Salt
- Potatoes
- Highly processed foods in general
Some researches have shown that this diet has many benefits when compared with other diets. According to Rozsansky, these benefits include:
- More weight loss
- Improved glucose tolerance
- Better blood pressure control
- Lower triglycerides
- Better appetite management
The above mentioned foods are considered to be healthy, but they are also more affordable compared to the paleo diet foods like, grass-feed animals, wild game and nuts. This diet can be too expensive for some people.
“The paleo diet may help you achieve the goal of losing of maintaining weight. It may also provide other beneficial health effects. However, there are no long-term clinical studies about the benefits and potential risks of this diet” - says Yosef Rozsansky on his LinkedIn profile.
Yosef also highlights that you must combine the diet with enough exercise.