Paleo Diet Pros And Cons

Around 2.5 million years ago our Paleolithic ancestors roomed the earth. With the lack of technological advances that we have today, the first humans had to hunt and gather food for their survival. With the abundance of native foods the Neanderthals lived off the land and what they could scavenge from it. Leaving a big part of the diet consisting of meats, fruits, veggies, and some nuts. Now in this modern day, and with all the advances biologically, geographically, and of course technologically our modern diet is the furthest from that of the Neanderthals. With our modernly modified, chemically filled, and hormone injected foods our bodies cannot properly digest or extract the essential vitamins that our systems require to effectively function.

In this case the pros of the paleo diet have been, obviously, the banishment of processed foods, along with the clarity and wholeness that are results of clean eating. On the other hand the cons have been examined by many fitness fanatics and health care providers that rave about the anti-GMOs and anti-processed food but have weighed in on the negative side of the no grain no diary concept. Because the paleo diet is so extreme in an era that cannot accommodate for the very restrictive and high maintenance aspects of the diet the participants report that a long term plan of strictly organic foods is almost impossible. While excluding these big food groups the body is at risk to lose the ability to process these foods properly and efficiently. By excluding large food groups, it brings about the vulnerability in the body that risks becoming intolerant to dairy or grains, when not consuming dairy the body loses the ability to process the heavy protein and fat content of milk and other dairy products. This causes a multitude of problems ranging from self-induced lactose-intolerance to a calcium deficiency in bones and muscles. Same goes for grains, although you cannot self-induce celiac disease the body loses the proteins and acids that helps absorb and digest gluten in breads. While the absence of complex carbs from grains can be made up from consuming fruits and nuts it opens a window of extremely high sugar intake to try to replace all the lacking complex carbohydrates our bodies thrive on. But the bigger problem is the missing calcium and specific protein found in milk is completely eliminated from the diet while on this prehistoric meal plan. “While eliminate whole grains and dairy, Gans says, you 'll miss out on key nutrients, including fiber, iron, vitamins B and D, and calcium. Resulting in: “You 'll feel tired and wind up eating unhealthy amounts of saturated fat