Should i try paleo

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. October Triglycerides and Heart Health. My Cleveland Clinic. Is the Paleo Diet Safe? UC Davis Health.

June 10, Saturated Fat. American Heart Association. March 24, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. April January Diabetes, Heart Disease, and You.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. November 23, The industrial revolution, which is what made it possible for your local grocery store to supply an endless array of highly processed foods, marks an even more extreme transition in the human diet. Many major diet plans are founded on the basic notion that learning how to control your caloric intake — or balance your energy intake against your energy needs — is really all it takes to achieve a healthier body weight. The Paleo approach asserts that weight loss, overall wellness, and long-term health are best attained and sustained by focusing on the type and quality of food you eat, rather than how many calories you consume each day.

So what can you eat on the Paleo Diet? Meat, pork, poultry, eggs, fish, and seafood are all fair game, as are all fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and oils from fruits olive, avocado, or coconut oil and nuts walnut, almond, or hazelnut oil. Grains, legumes including peanuts , dairy products, potatoes, refined sugar, alcohol, and processed food of any kind.

Critics of the Paleo Diet like to point out that there was tremendous variation in what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, depending on what was available both geographically and seasonally.

If you have an autoimmune illness or other inflammatory condition, for example, your personal Paleo plan may require you to avoid eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, and other vegetables in the nightshade family. If you have an underactive thyroid, you may need to limit or avoid kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and other cruciferous veggies.

Some people find it easy to stick to the guidelines in their purest form, while others find they feel better when they can incorporate a small amount of whole grains, legumes, or dairy products in their daily diet.

Foods you can eat on the paleo diet include:. While there are clear nutrition benefits to following a well-balanced paleo meal plan full of nutritious whole foods, there is no research suggesting that all modern foods are harmful to our health and need to be avoided. Additionally, eliminating nutritious options like beans, legumes, whole grains, potatoes, and low-fat dairy might put you at a nutritional disadvantage since you are eliminating easy sources of essential vitamins and minerals like calcium, vitamin D, thiamine, folate, niacin, and riboflavin.

It can be easy to get lost in the debate around nutritional theories like why we should be eating like our ancestors when we really should be asking ourselves - does this style of eating provide any real advantages to our health and nutrition? And do you have to follow a strict paleo diet to reap these benefits?

Because a paleo diet encourages higher intakes of fresh fruits and vegetables, heart-healthy nuts and seeds, fish, and lean meats and restricts foods high in added sugars, trans fats, and processed ingredients, it can be one way to improve nutrition intake and support health when included as part of an overall healthy lifestyle. However, the factors that make a paleo diet nutritious, are not radically different from what a generally healthy diet should look like. Going paleo has been linked to improved heart health markers like reduced cholesterol and improved blood pressure, along with favorable impacts on blood sugar control.

However, these studies are extremely limited and far from conclusive - all of which only look at a sample size of 40 people or less and a short time period of fewer than six months 1 , 2 , 3 , 4.

Much more long term, peer-reviewed studies on larger sample sizes are needed to make any health claims around a paleolithic dietary approach for improved health. While commonly used to promote weight loss , paleo diets are not required to be calorie-controlled or macro balanced. In order to lose weight on paleo, portion control is essential.