Rationale and Evolutionary Assumptions Behind the Paleolithic Diet for Optimal Weight Maintenance
Growing in popularity, the Paleolithic diet, or caveman diet, has helped thousands of people return to a normal body weight.
The modern dietary regimen focuses on mimicking the foods eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors prior to the advent of agriculture.
The modern paleo diet includes fish, domesticated grass-fed meats, wild game, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, while avoiding refined sugars and grains.
Although the diet does have its critics, the recent positive reviews and dieting successes have pushed the paleo lifestyle closer towards popular acceptance.
Paleolithic nutrition derives from evolutionary biology and genetic adaptation.
The theory goes that natural selection changed the genetic make-up of Paleolithic humans to adapt their metabolism and physiology to the dietary conditions at that time.
Beginning 10,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution imposed major changes on the human diet.
Recent innovations in food processing and genetically modified foods have only accelerated this change.
Natural selection has not had sufficient time to optimize the genes of modern humans to these new foods.
The resulting metabolic maladaptation contributes to the recent surge in agricultural diseases (e.
g.
asthma, cancer, cirrhosis, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke, and depression).
After millions of years of biochemical and physiological modifications, modern-day humans still retain similar genetic pattern as those of our Paleolithic ancestors some 20,000 years ago.
Yet, more than 70% of the total daily food energy consumed by people in Western cultures (like the United States) comes from dairy products, cereals, processed vegetable oils, refined sugars, and alcohol.
These food products were never even seen by preagricultural hominids.
Proponents of the paleo diet assert that the excessive consumption of these industrial-era foods contributes to the epidemic levels of obesity, cancer, and the other western diseases in the United States and in similar industrialized countries.
The same evolutionary rationale in the paleo diet can be applied to physical activity for the Paleolithic lifestyle.
Some researchers have stated that human genes require a certain threshold of physical movement for proper functioning.
The sedentary lifestyle of most people today results in abnormal gene expression.
Compounding this problem, modern humans have much less lean muscle than our Paleolithic ancestors, which prevents the proper regulation of certain hormones like insulin.
Some scientists estimated that preagricultural humans spent one-third of their daily caloric intake on physical activity.
Although the evolutionary assumptions underlying the Paleolithic diet have been disputed, many nutritionists recognize the value of a Paleolithic lifestyle to help maintain weight loss.
The main discrepancy involves the specific plant-to-animal ratio of the diet.
Great disparities existed between the hunter-gatherer societies of the past, with animal-derived calorie intake ranging from about 20% to 99%.
This may suggest that humans can adapt to a wide range of foods and that macronutrient ratios are not important.
Either way, following a Paleolithic lifestyle with plenty of exercise and a healthy diet will help people lose weight and enjoy life.
The modern dietary regimen focuses on mimicking the foods eaten by our hunter-gatherer ancestors prior to the advent of agriculture.
The modern paleo diet includes fish, domesticated grass-fed meats, wild game, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, while avoiding refined sugars and grains.
Although the diet does have its critics, the recent positive reviews and dieting successes have pushed the paleo lifestyle closer towards popular acceptance.
Paleolithic nutrition derives from evolutionary biology and genetic adaptation.
The theory goes that natural selection changed the genetic make-up of Paleolithic humans to adapt their metabolism and physiology to the dietary conditions at that time.
Beginning 10,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution imposed major changes on the human diet.
Recent innovations in food processing and genetically modified foods have only accelerated this change.
Natural selection has not had sufficient time to optimize the genes of modern humans to these new foods.
The resulting metabolic maladaptation contributes to the recent surge in agricultural diseases (e.
g.
asthma, cancer, cirrhosis, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke, and depression).
After millions of years of biochemical and physiological modifications, modern-day humans still retain similar genetic pattern as those of our Paleolithic ancestors some 20,000 years ago.
Yet, more than 70% of the total daily food energy consumed by people in Western cultures (like the United States) comes from dairy products, cereals, processed vegetable oils, refined sugars, and alcohol.
These food products were never even seen by preagricultural hominids.
Proponents of the paleo diet assert that the excessive consumption of these industrial-era foods contributes to the epidemic levels of obesity, cancer, and the other western diseases in the United States and in similar industrialized countries.
The same evolutionary rationale in the paleo diet can be applied to physical activity for the Paleolithic lifestyle.
Some researchers have stated that human genes require a certain threshold of physical movement for proper functioning.
The sedentary lifestyle of most people today results in abnormal gene expression.
Compounding this problem, modern humans have much less lean muscle than our Paleolithic ancestors, which prevents the proper regulation of certain hormones like insulin.
Some scientists estimated that preagricultural humans spent one-third of their daily caloric intake on physical activity.
Although the evolutionary assumptions underlying the Paleolithic diet have been disputed, many nutritionists recognize the value of a Paleolithic lifestyle to help maintain weight loss.
The main discrepancy involves the specific plant-to-animal ratio of the diet.
Great disparities existed between the hunter-gatherer societies of the past, with animal-derived calorie intake ranging from about 20% to 99%.
This may suggest that humans can adapt to a wide range of foods and that macronutrient ratios are not important.
Either way, following a Paleolithic lifestyle with plenty of exercise and a healthy diet will help people lose weight and enjoy life.
