In the world of nutrition, there never seems to be a clear cut answer when it comes to what people should and shouldn’t be eating. One of the reasons for this is because each and every person has a completely different body and so will need to eat what is best for them, their metabolism type, and their genetics. For instance, someone who has an Italian background may be more suited to certain foods that wouldn’t agree with someone who has an Asian background.
As this is a topic that is often confusing, people will commonly turn their government for help. This may lead to following the suggested dietary guide in their country that is designed to keep the population healthy, happy, and living as long as possible. The only problem with this is that often this information is based on out of date science that was never really peer-reviewed in the first place. In the past, this had lead to things such as the food pyramid in Australia which encouraged people to eat a lot of cereals and grains. For the most part, nutritionists and government guidelines encourage people not to cut out any food groups which is why this post will take a close look at the Paleo Diet and if it is a passing fad.
The Paleo diet encourages people to eat in a way that their bodies were designed to handle
Most people out there have heard of certain celebrity crash diets ranging from the master cleanse to the grapefruit diet. In these cases, people are not only starving themselves but they are greatly restricting their essential vitamin and mineral intake as they are only ingesting one or two kinds of “food”. While these fad diets are relatively easy to spot, it can become a little harder for people to make up their minds when it comes to other options such as the Paleo diet. This is a diet which encourages people to eat in a similar way to what their ancestors would as this is likely suited to how our bodies are designed.
For instance, a cave man wouldn’t have access to a processed muesli bar and would instead have to hunt for fish and meat or would have to forage for nuts and berries. Furthermore, our ancestors would only have had access to food that was in season and so wouldn’t be able to enjoy a banana all year round as an example. While it is safe to assume that our bodies have adapted since the boom of farming, it could also be assumed that our bodies have not developed fast enough to keep up with all of the chemicals, soy, corn, sugar, and wheat that is added to food.
The Paleo diet still meets a person’s mineral and vitamin count even if it does encourage people to cut out or reduce certain foods
Many nutritionists believe (this is even taught in some universities) that as soon as a food group is cut out, this automatically becomes a fad diet. When it comes to the Paleo diet, participants are encouraged to reduce the amount of dairy and carbs that they consume (or cut them out entirely) as our ancestors would not have had access to these foods on a regular basis. And as most people out there are struggling with their weight or with some kind of chronic issue, it would seem that there is nothing wrong in taking things back to basics. While it is up to the individual to decide if they think this is a passing fad or not, there is a lot of interesting research out there when it comes to this way of eating. Furthermore, many people are finding relief from their chronic ailments and are reducing the amount of medication that they are required to take so it is curious to see if this diet will withstand the test of time.
Resources:
https://www.livescience.com/53368-paleo-diet.html
