Can you really become healthier eating like cavemen? If you’re a historian or study the development of man, you’re probably going crazy over the inaccuracies of calling the diet a Paleo diet or caveman diet. Setting the whole historical perspective aside, especially since it’s believed the carbs early man consumed actually helped the growth of a larger brain, can eating a lower carbohydrate diet free of grains make you healthier? Does cutting out legumes and milk products make sense and help you lose weight?
You’ll be more upset by what you can’t eat than what you can.
Caveman diets don’t contain anything with white flour or grains of almost any kind. That means that pizza is off limits. It also means most of the food in the American diet is no longer on your food list. While hamburgers may be there, the bun is gone. Processed foods are out the door, so you can’t help but eat cleaner and that’s a good thing. It automatically improves your eating habits.
What you should eat on the caveman diet.
Animal meat is okay, but not on a bun. One of the focuses of the caveman diet is eating the whole animal. That means eating organ meats, cartilage and bone marrow. It’s often one of the most difficult parts of the diet. While organ meats tend to be easier to consume, cartilage and bone marrow might stop you in your tracks. Bone broth is the route to take for those nutritious animal parts. It’s made by cooking the bones with a bit of vinegar, celery and onion for a full day or two, then using the broth for soups or just drinking once the nutrients have leached out of the bones into it. Who could argue about the healthiness of eating fresh fruits, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds? Adding natural fats, such as foods with healthy fat like salmon or avocado or using coconut oil is a final step. How could it not be healthy?
Is fermented fruit or drink part of the caveman’s diet?
Cavemen probably did have alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic drink is a natural process of fermentation. There are all sorts of drunken monkey and drunken elephant videos that are taped when animals find fermenting fruit. While cavemen needed all types of food to survive, especially when selections were lean, alcohol isn’t allowed on the caveman diet. Many people find that severely cutting their consumption or cutting it out completely, not only helps them lose weight, it helps them lose weight around their mid-section, the most dangerous type of excess pounds.
- Eating like a caveman isn’t all that’s necessary for good health. Moving like a caveman is important, too. Man used his two feet to get around, since other forms of travel, including riding animals, weren’t available. Moving more is just as important as changing your diet.
- Eliminating processed foods can be the start of a healthy diet that is a modified form of a paleo diet.
- Besides adding exercise as part of “paleo living,” consider getting outside more and making contact with nature. Some people believe that taking off your shoes and walking in grass, called grounding, can help make you happier and healthier.
- Besides eating healthy, don’t forget that what you drink plays an important role. While giving up alcohol is part of the diet, so is giving up soft drinks and anything sugary and man made. Eat fruit and drink water.