The Paleo Diet is a method of eating that excludes foods that were not widely available or consumed by our pre-agricultural ancestors, such as grains, legumes, dairy products, refined sugar, oil, and salt, instead favoring non-starchy vegetables, less-sweet fruits, meat, fish and seafood, poultry, eggs, nuts, and seeds.
Personally, I no longer find this way of eating to be “kooky” in any sense. When I first heard about it, it seemed both radical and silly. Sure, it’s reasonable to cut back on white sugar and white flour, but to also cut out whole-grains? Wholesome oats and brown rice are out? Whole-grains are good for you, aren’t they?
Whole-grains may be good for you when compared to eating refined grains, and that’s what most of the research examining the health benefits of whole grains has looked at. For whatever reasons, few researchers have compared a diet including whole grains to a diet including no grains. Those that did found that a grain-free diet led to rapid weight loss, improved glucose tolerance, faster muscle gain, and a number of other benefits (please see Part II for links to clinical studies).
The Paleolithic Diet has been around since the 70′s, but more recently a number of Paleo evangelists have been spreading the word; grain-free is the way to go. I’ll introduce three of these health nuts and you can draw your own conclusions.
Personally, I no longer find this way of eating to be “kooky” in any sense. When I first heard about it, it seemed both radical and silly. Sure, it’s reasonable to cut back on white sugar and white flour, but to also cut out whole-grains? Wholesome oats and brown rice are out? Whole-grains are good for you, aren’t they?
Whole-grains may be good for you when compared to eating refined grains, and that’s what most of the research examining the health benefits of whole grains has looked at. For whatever reasons, few researchers have compared a diet including whole grains to a diet including no grains. Those that did found that a grain-free diet led to rapid weight loss, improved glucose tolerance, faster muscle gain, and a number of other benefits (please see Part II for links to clinical studies).
The Paleolithic Diet has been around since the 70′s, but more recently a number of Paleo evangelists have been spreading the word; grain-free is the way to go. I’ll introduce three of these health nuts and you can draw your own conclusions.
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