In recent years we have followed the emergence of a number of diets and ways of understanding diet that promise miraculous results to those who practice them, from weight loss without counting calories or hunger to greater life expectancy and health. One diet that has become the una. de most famous is the Paleolithic diet.
What is this way of eating really?Does it have a beneficial effect or is it nothing more than a scam to sell books and make money?In today’s article, you’ll discover everything you need to know about what fashion style is so fashionable.
- The idea behind the Paleolithic diet (or “paleo diet”.
- As it is called in sports circles) is that our genetics plays a fundamental role in the effect that food has on our body.
- So.
- According to the defenders of this current of nutrition.
- Humans would not be suitable for the new foods that appeared after the beginning of agriculture.
On the contrary: since evolution causes such slow changes in our bodies, the new foods that our ancestors began to consume since the Neolithic would have a detrimental effect on our body, according to supporters of the Paleolithic diet.
Therefore, they propose that we eat again what our cave-age ancestors ate, which would mainly include all kinds of meats and fish, vegetables, fruits and seeds, as well as some tubers and roots.
Although at first glance the list of foods accepted by the Paleolithic diet is very popular among people (after all, it is about re-feeding ourselves with healthy foods), the controversy about this food chain revolves around the negative view that have cereals, especially wheat and all its derivatives.
For lovers of the paleo diet, cereals are one of the worst enemies of health. Since the work of Robb Wolf (one of the first advocates of this way of eating) became popular, advocates of evolutionary nutrition have argued that agriculture is one of humanity’s goals. worst welfare mistakes.
The main reason advocates of the paleo diet mention demonizing cereals is that, in addition to not having a high nutritional density (i. e. they do not provide the nutrients necessary for life), they are full of antinutrients, substances that interfere with absorption. of all kinds of vitamins and minerals, which makes it easier for us to get sick.
So while we have always regarded bread and cereals as a good thing in our culture, all those who follow the Paleolithic diet have completely eliminated them from their lives, but does this way of eating really work?
One of the biggest problems of nutrition is that it is a science that is still in development, so and due to the difficulty of conducting clinical studies that demonstrate the effects of different diets, there is no formal consensus on what is healthy and what it is. No.
However, the latest evidence on evolutionary nutrition indicates that this form of diet can have very beneficial effects on our physical and mental health, so experts recommend doing an experiment: trying to eat according to the paleo diet for a month. we can decide whether we want to follow him constantly or not.
The principle of the Paleolithic diet is very simple: eat only what your ancestors were able to obtain from nature. Eliminating the aforementioned cereals means that you can eat almost anything that has an animal or plant origin.
The other precaution is not to eat processed foods, after all, in the environment in which we evolved as a species, it was not possible to find bags of chips or sugary soft drinks, which being very recent cause more damage in our body. , such as cereals.
Although many modern diets lack scientific evidence, the paleo diet seems to be an exception, however, before making a radical change, it is essential to consult a nutrition specialist to see if it is feasible to achieve it in each case.