Paleo Diet: Benefits, Side effect & List of food

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Introduction

Do you know? most of the deaths are occurred due to lifestyle diseases. WHO published a report of the top 10 global causes of deaths in 2016 and in the list of these 10 causes, 6 are non-communicable diseases. And somewhere the reason behind this is obesity. So, maybe Dr. S. Boyd was right to say that the human body is not much evolving for this modern-day diet. We evolve our lifestyle very drastically but maybe our body is still not evolving for this change. So, that’s the reason why physicians and researchers see toward the paleo diet and That’s why people again talk about the paleo diet.

What is Paleo Diet?

Paleo diet is also known by different names like the caveman diet, stone-age diet, and hunter-gather diet. The term paleo diet comes from the paleolithic era which ended approximately 10000 years ago, in those times there is no agriculture so there are no chances of grains. So, the early human is totally based on fruits, vegetables, seeds, meat, fish, nuts, and, berries for their food. Now in the 21st-century paleo diet has returned once again from the paleolithic era with some benefits and controversy also.

Paleo diet attracts more attention to people in 1985 when Dr. S. Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner published a disputable article in the New York Times. According to them, modern human is biologically very similar to their primitive ancestor to consume pre agriculture food.

Benefits Of Paleo Diet

In researches, the researcher showed many benefits through the paleo diet:

  • Decreased west circumference
  • Helpful in weight loss
  • Improved glucose sensitivity
  • Improve blood pressure
  • It Improves lipid profile
  • Lower triglycerides.

How it works

 

As we know the sources of food in paleo diet is meat, nuts, vegetable, and fruits. Roughly the ratio of veg and nonveg sources is 60:40 respectively. Meat is a great source of lean protein and other important things like carbs and fat are taken from fruit, vegetables, and nuts.
Carbohydrates are the first source of energy so it is one of the reasons the serving of carbohydrates in this diet is more. But the thing is to keep in mind is that only the low glycemic index food is consumed in the paleo diet. Because lower the Glycemic index then slows the rate of carbohydrates absorption.

According to the researches, There are several important health benefits that exist if we consumed low glycemic index food. It helps to maintain weight loss, lowering insulin demand, reduced blood lipid levels. And it plays an important role to protect us from various lifestyle-life threatening diseases. It includes coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and obesity also.

List of Food to eat during Paleo diet

Fruits Vegetable Protein Fats Flavoring Agents/ Spices Nuts Sweetening agents
Apple Broccoli Egg Avocado Chilies Wall-nut Honey
Banana Cabbage Chicken Olive oil Basil Almond Almond Butter
Berries Cauliflower Fish Coconut oil Ginger Cashew fennel
Citrus fruit Kale Beef Flex Seed Garlic Hazelnut
All melons Mushroom Pork Chia Seed Black Pepper Macadamia nuts
Peaches Tomatoes Turkey Mustard
Grapes Peppers Lamb Coriander
Bitter guard Crab
Cucumber Oysters
Spinach Shrimp
Beetroot Lobster
Gourd
Onion
Leafy vegetables
masculine
cucumber
Carrot
Pumpkin Seed
Radish

*Drink plenty of water

What not to eat

In this modern-day lifestyle, we humans totally based on agricultural food for nutrition. And why not be necessary it is a great source of nutrition. But the paleo diet not favored this. If you want to follow this diet then you should totally avoid agricultural food like rice, wheat, lentils, grains, and beans. Not only for agricultural food, but paleo also emphasizes to avoid other things which we think it is necessary for balanced nutrition.

Here is the list of Avoided food items :

  • Rice
  • Wheat
  • Lentils
  • Grains
  • Beans
  • All dairy product including milk
  • Tuberous root-like Potato and sweet potato except for carrot and radish
  • Processed sugar and salt
  • Packet food
  • Soy product
  • Soft Drink
  • Vegetable oil

Probable Loophole

Like everything, the paleo diet has also pros and cons. Meanwhile, many dieticians, Nutritionists, and physicians oppose the Paleo diet. Because It is a little bit difficult to make food habits like our ancestors. According to them lots of things are changed at present from the paleolithic era. So, the paleo diet not fulfill our daily requirement of nutrition due to a lack of agricultural food and dairy product.

Those who oppose the paleo diet, point out its shortcomings in this way:-

  • Paleo diet can cause calcium deficiency
  • Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar level)
  • Feeling low Initially
  • Bad breath

Conclusion

No doubt the paleo diet is one of the promising diets which helps to reduce the weight loss and lowering the high blood sugar level and it is scientifically approval by many researchers. But Nutritionists and dietitians recommended it to not follow this for a long time because we know, it has some loopholes also. So, adopt it for some week or for a target which you want to achieve. For e.g. make a weight loss target and then achieve it then left it and then further balanced your diet through whole-grain food once again.

The nutritionist said there is no need to adopt it by healthier people but if you want to try it then adapt it for 2 weeks. And if you are at a pre-diabetic stage, diabetic patient, or overweight or a hypertension patient then you may adopt it for 3 to 4 weeks.

Follow the paleo diet under the supervision of health experts. And immediately contact them in case of weakness or if you feel other major side effects.

 

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