The Paleo diet and lifestyle is the healthiest way to eat because it’s the way that works with your genetics to help you get stronger, stay leaner, be more energetic, think better and avoid a life of suffering from diseases like diabetes.
Paleo is about living more like our ancient ancestors – taking the best things they did and ate and adapting that to the 21st century.
After all your body is ancient technology in a modern day madhouse.
Our bodies aren’t used to handling the kind of stresses, foods, technologies and lack of exercise that we’re seeing today among many people (perhaps you).
Evolution is slow in humans – it isn’t changing any time soon.
Research in various fields of science have shown that today’s diet of junk and processed foods (laced with high fructose corn syrup), trans fats and sugar is the leading cause of obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression and infertility.
| Okay to Eat | Avoid |
| Lean Meats Fruits | Grains |
| Vegetables | Processed Food & Sugars |
| Healthy Fats | Starches |
| Seafood | Alcohol |
| Nuts & Seeds | Dairy |
| Fruits | Legumes |
Lean Meat Protein
You need lean protein to build stronger muscles, healthier bones and keep your immune system running at 100%.
You’ll also be more satisfied between meals especially when combined with healthy fats.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.
I’d personally recommend to keeping your fruit intake to about 1-2 whole fruits per day.
Eat more vegetables.
You’ll lower your chance of getting diseases that cause your body to waste away (i.e. Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease/ALS), cancer, diabetes and brain decline.
Seriously, no one wants you to spend your days in a hospital bed living longer and yet suffering every day (or being senile and not realizing it), least of all you.
Healthy Fats
You can get healthy fat from nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oil , fish oil and grass-fed meat.
The science on preventing disease overwhelmingly shows that eating a lot of food rich in omega-3 and monounsaturated fat reduces obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and brain decline.
Saturated Fat is Good for You
And the talk about saturated fat is currently all wrong.
Is 20 g maximum per day really all you need?
Are there different kinds of fat you should be eating?
You need saturated fat.
20 g isn’t enough.
If you want to learn more and can do the science, read this paper by Professor Loren Cordain that tells you about the amount and kinds of saturated fat that our pre-farming, ancient ancestors ate: Saturated fat consumption in ancestral human diets: implications for contemporary intakes.
The Amount and Types of Fat
There’s a big difference between the modern grain fed animals we eat today compared to the grass fed wild meat, fish and fowl that our ancestors (and today’s hunter gatherers) ate.
Wild meat is super lean with less saturated fat (though again saturated fat is good for you if you’re following the Paleo way).
Wild meat has a lot more omega-3 fats like EPA (if you want better brain power) and DHA (heart health).
Learn More: Fats and Fatty Acids Primer by Loren Cordain
In a paper by Professor Loren Cordain, you’re given the complete fat profile from several types of wild deer and elk.
The conclusion?
Free range meat that’s got plenty of pasture and has had a natural diet is far healthier than factory farmed meat fed only grains.
Learn More: Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: Evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease.
Health Benefits
Just getting real results that work is more than enough for you or me.
After all you lose weight, have normal blood sugar, reduce or get rid of pain and suffering from allergies or arthritis.
You also think better and are more focused.
Eating the way your body was designed to also reduces the possibility of getting brain sapping diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
Of course don’t take my word for it.
There is not only tons of scientific research – many people have gotten the results they wanted time and time again (see below).
All you have to do is stop eating the things that poison and weaken your body including grains, legumes and dairy.
At the same time you increase vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
If you’re wondering how much protein, carbohydrates and fat our ancestors ate then read this: The nutritional characteristics of a contemporary diet based upon Paleolithic food groups.
Did Our Ancestors Live Short Brutal Lives?
Actually they didn’t. It just seems like they did. In fact, the estimated statistics for dying including death by accidents and other things not just diet.
Even death statistics today don’t account for diet alone. Mind you the statistics don’t even account for the number of sick people who are living lives of pain. People in the past were more likely to die from accidents or being mauled by an animal than they are today — thanks to modern medicine.
When researchers looked at the life span of today’s Western societies compared to modern hunter-gatherer tribes — we only outlive them by maybe ten years or so. That definitely smacks down the wrongheaded idea that modern Americans lived to age 70 while ancient humans died at 40. It also means that ancient humans could not have died before suffering potential diseases of today’s society (i.e. Obesity, overweight, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.).[1]
Of course they never did get those diseases because of their diet and lifestyle.
Ultimately you should decide things for yourself. Experiencing the results of this program is better than having me tell you the same thing.

If you want to learn more about the counter arguments take a look at this paper:
Evolutionary Health Promotion. A consideration of common counter-arguments
Or here
[1] “Your best answer to the “caveman died young” argument?,” last modified July 23, 2012, http://paleohacks.com/questions/6982/your-best-answer-to-the-caveman-died-young-argument#ixzz26ocJrdg5.
Michael Gurven and Hillard Kaplan, “Longevity Among Hunter-Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination,” Population and Development Review 33(2) (2007): 321-365, accessed Tuesday; September 18, 2012, http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/papers/GurvenKaplan2007pdr.pdf. (click here)
Can You Prevent Diabetes Now and Forever?
You sure can.
In one study where a paleo diet was compared to the gold standard of the Mediterranean diet for controlling diabetes type 2, Paleo reversed the problems while the Mediterranean diet didn’t do anything.
Yet the gold standard of the Mediterranean diet that the government and health agencies push doesn’t work.
Primarily because of grains.
And when you go Paleo you don’t eat grains.
So what’s your better option if you have diabetes?
Learn more: Here’s one woman’s success story.
Can You Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease?
You sure can and all you have to do is stop eating the things that your body and genetics weren’t designed for.
The Centre for Disease Control in the US says it’s the #1 cause of death in the United States.
In Canada, heart disease is now the #2 cause of death right behind cancer.
Our ancient ancestors and today’s hunter gatherers share similar health benefits from eating in a way that suited their local area and left out grains and processed sugars.
They all suffer no heart attack or stroke while eating their genetically and locally suited diets.
Learn more:
Hunter-gatherers, foragers have low hypertension, risk of heart disease.
American Heart Association. “Hunter-gatherers and horticulturalist lifestyle linked to lower blood pressure increases, atherosclerosis risks.” ScienceDaily, 21 May 2012. Web. 11 Jul. 2012.
Michael Gurven, Aaron D. Blackwell, Daniel Eid Rodríguez, Jonathan Stieglitz, and Hillard Kaplan. Does Blood Pressure Inevitably Rise With Age? Longitudinal Evidence Among Forager-Horticulturalists. Hypertension, 2012 DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.111.189100
Daniel Lemogoum, William Ngatchou, Christophe Janssen, Marc Leeman, Luc Van Bortel, Pierre Boutouyrie, Jean Paul Degaute, and Philippe Van de Borne. Effects of Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence Mode on Arterial Distensibility in Cameroonian Pygmies. Hypertension, May 21 2012 DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.111.187757
How to Stop Your Immune System from Turning on YOU
Go Paleo and drop the grains, dairy, beans and legumes.
You’ll stop your own body from turning into your own worst enemy.
That’s because autoimmunity is where your own body’s immune system defence attacks your cells.
It’s supposed to protect you from diseases.
When this happens it leads to inflammations – think arthritis, swelling in joints, muscles and even the brain (leading to brain diseases like Alzheimer’s).
It’s confusion caused by deadly poisons in foods you shouldn’t be eating leading to additional diseases like multiple sclerosis, arthritis, lupus and Parkinson’s.
It’s also partly linked to schizophrenia, infertility and various kinds of cancer.
The root cause is damage to the intestine lining, which lets undigested food get into your blood stream, which leads to a leaky gut and the confusion you saw above.
It’s ironic that conventional western medicine and doctors still don’t realize this root cause (if you read some of the links explaining what these diseases are).
Learn more:
Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Diseases
Zonulin and its regulation of intestinal barrier function: the biological door to inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer (PDF)
Spectrum of gluten-related disorders: consensus on new nomenclature and classification
Leaky Gut May Be The Primary Mechanism For Autoimmune Activation?
Understanding Autoimmune Diseases
Here are some additional resources by or about people who deal with the problems that our modern diet gives us and using Paleo ideas to solve them.
How CJ Hunt suffered a severe heart attack and changed his life around using Paleo completely fixing himself up: HealthWatch: New Documentary Highlights Health Benefits Of ‘Paleo Diet’
How Bob Main used Paleo to improve his health and weight loss (though personally I don’t recommend using a huge amount of almond butter): Paleo diet advocates claim increased energy, health benefits.
7-part video series by Professor Loren Cordain telling you about how multiple sclerosis happens and how it’s linked to diet
The Paleo Diet and Multiple Sclerosis (MS)Part 1/4 by miladskaya
Watch Dr. Terry Wahls, MD TED talk on how she reversed Multiple Sclerosis with a Paleo based diet – it’s both heart breaking and inspiring at the same time.
Recent research from Queen’s on dropping carbohydrates which cause bad bacteria, leaky gut and obesity: Comparison with ancestral diets suggests dense acellular carbohydrates promote an inflammatory microbiota, and may be the primary dietary cause of leptin resistance and obesity
How a leaky gut causes severe obesity: Gummesson A, Carlsson LM, Storlien LH, Bäckhed F, Lundin P, Löfgren L, Stenlöf K, Lam YY, Fagerberg B, Carlsson B. Intestinal permeability is associated with visceral adiposity in healthy women. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Nov;19(11):2280-2. doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.251. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
If you have your own story about how you used Paleo ideas to heal yourself and fix your health problems please let me know and I’ll gladly share it with my readers.
Fair winds,
