Paleo is a protein-heavy diet that has gained a great amount of popularity in recent years. It suggests a pretty simple meal plan of healthy eating—eating whole foods and avoiding processed foods. If you are fascinated by its back-to-the-basics philosophy, why not give it a shot. We’ve curated all the basic facts about the plan focusing on basic healthy diet so that you get right to trying it.

Read on to get more information on Paleo diet so that you can make informed decisions while following it:

What is Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet is inspired by our hunter-gatherer ancestors from the Palaeolithic era. The diet includes a lot of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and seeds—basically whole, unprocessed and unrefined foods. You are required to follow such healthy eating when you follow Paleo diet. On the other hand, food items emerged as a result of agriculture over the centuries—cereal grains, legumes, dairy, soy, potatoes, refined sugar, salt, and other processed foods—are to be strictly avoided in Paleo diet.

The idea behind Paleo diet is such that its advocates believe that the human body was better suited to the diet of our ancestors from Palaeolithic era. They further believe that our body has been unable to adapt to the dietary changes that came about because of farming.

The proponents of Paleo hold that since there probably weren't any overweight cavemen or cavemen with heart disease running around in prehistoric times, problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are the result of the new agricultural diet.

Health benefits of the Paleo diet

The Paleo  diet is heavy on fruits and veggies that are high in nutrients and low in calories. The diet can help manage weight without compromising on essential nutrition. Replacing unhealthy, calorie-rich, sugary, and processed items with protein & fibre-rich whole foods can contribute to weight loss. Since Paleo diet is a low-carb diet, it reduces the risk of heart diseases.

Problems with Paleo

An important issue with the Paleo diet is that it excludes entire categories of certain healthy foods making it difficult for its followers to fulfil specific essential nutrient requirements. For instance, whole grains and legumes are good sources of fibre, vitamins, and minerals. Dairy products are rich in vitamin D, potassium and calcium. Both of these categories are eliminated in a Paleo diet. This can result in deficiencies and related diseases due to the deficiencies.

The diet is also difficult to follow over a long term since it doesn't allow casual binging, which is such a common part of the current fast-paced world. Moreover, the diet is expensive to follow as organic foods are much costlier than ordinary ones.

Finally, it can be argued that the Paleo diet is based on a weirdly simple logic. We're biologically different from our predecessors, and the foods today aren't the same as what the hunter-gatherers were eating.

Tips for getting started

Make a slow transition. Since the diet eliminates a lot of common foods, it will be difficult to directly jump into it. You'll be giving up on a lot of your staples, and this could result in intense cravings. Hence it makes more sense to make a few changes, and give your body time to adapt to the diet.

Once you're successful in the early stages, move on and give up on more difficult items. This will help you keep up with Paleo diet in the long run and enjoy its rewarding benefits.