Paleolithic Diet Facts

The Hunter-Gatherer diet is also known as the Paleo or Paleolithic Diet. It derives from the basic hunter-gatherer diet that we used to live on for millions of years before a growing population, intensive agriculture and modern farming changed our diet.

Many foods including dairy, wheat, grains, legumes, soya and maize are not natural foods that we are designed to eat. Modern farming methods made them a necessity despite their unsuitability for us to digest.

In order to prevent growing populations from starving, intensive farming developed hardy crops that were cheap and plentiful to feed the masses. Less consideration was given to the suitability of those foods to our delicate digestive systems.

How Hunter-Gatherers Ate

Up until the last few thousand years, we lived by hunting our food or eating nuts, berries, roots and vegetables that we gathered. We are designed to be hunter-gatherers, eating nuts or berries for one meal, followed by maybe a fish the next day, or a rabbit, etc, then the next day some vegetables, or fruit. Your body produces a different enzyme depending on whether it is trying to digest proteins or carbohydrates.

We have only been eating a modern diet of complex mixed food groups for around 10,000 years and that is why so many people struggle to digest their meals properly, they are eating foods they are not designed to eat in combinations that their stomachs can’t deal with.

For each food that you eat, your stomach will produce a suitable enzyme to digest it, but if you eat combined proteins and carb’s at the same time the two enzymes fight each other and your food isn’t digested very well.

What Do You Need To Avoid

The Paleo diet is centred on avoiding modern processed foods and foods we aren’t naturally accustomed to digesting, including; wheat, potatoes, grains, legumes, refines salts, dairy, refined sugars and refined oils. We are not capable of eating these foods easily which is why you can struggle to do so.

The refined produces are especially difficult to digest which is why they often end up converting into human fat. You should avoid anything that has been processed in any way and only eat natural, organic foods that belong in a caveman diet.

What Can I Eat Then?

The caveman’s natural diet included; meat (organic naturally), fish, fruit, fungi, eggs, roots, nuts and vegetables. These are our natural diet, and one that we are designed to eat and digest efficiently.

Cavemen would generally eat these foods as they found them rather than make up complex mixed meals mixing proteins and carbohydrates which is the modern norm.

By combining these foods correctly you can still eat great tasting meals but meals that are easy to digest and gain the maximum nutrition from.