Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet was developed by Dr. Loren Cordain, a renowned researcher in the field of the paleolithic age. The paleo diet is the “hunter gatherer” diet – based on foods our ancestors would have eaten as they followed herds of game for food and clothing and foraged for whatever vegetation was readily available.   Here is a thumbnail sketch!

Recommended:

• Eggs
• Meat except bacon or processed meats
• Seeds and nuts except peanuts
• Vegetables and fruits
• Oils - avocado, coconut, flaxseed, ghee, corn, hempseed, macadamia, olive oil, walnut, margarine
• Natural sweeteners (use sparingly)
• Flours - almond, coconut, cassava, hazelnut, tapioca starch, arrowroot
• Misc - apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, cacao, coconut aminos, fish sauce, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, corn-free Worchester sauce

Avoid:

• All grains including corn
• All dairy except ghee
• Beans, lentils, and legumes
• All processed foods
• Oils - vegetable, canola, cottonseed, grapeseed, palm, peanut, safflower, soybean, sunflower, and shortening
• Some seafood - shark, swordfish, mackerel, tilefish
• Salt
• *Some foods we think of as vegetables are actually legumes and should be eating very sparingly as part of a cheat meal or eliminated altogether: such as sweet peas, snap peas, snow peas, green beans, alfalfa, bean sprouts, and peanuts

Advocates of the paleo diet believe that food is genetically coded to our human bodies. They believe that regular consumption of foods outside this category are what result in inflammation and a variety of our modern day diseases.

Dr. Cordain recognizes that it is impractical in our modern day to eat a paleo diet 100% of the time. He suggests that novices start with an 85:15 approach allowing for 3 “cheat” meals per week to enjoy foods that have been a part of their regular diet. After a few weeks they then advance to the 90:10 level, reducing their “cheat’ meals to 2 per week.

*Revised February 2023