Caveman Diet for Prehistoric Health

The Deadly Modern Man Diet

About 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Paleolithic era, our human ancestors started farming and raising livestock. Humans began eating foods that their bodies had never dealt with before in the preceding hundreds of thousands of years in human evolution. This new diet relied on many dairy products, cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and barley, all kinds of beans, alcohol, refined sugars and salt. As a further assault on our bodies, extreme food processing, to prevent spoilage and maintain low costs, introduced chemicals and other substances, such as antibiotics, into our modern food supply. Not only did the industrial revolution start to pollute the planet, the modern food supply started to pollute human bodies.

Diseases of Civilization

When the Paleolithic Revolution began, marked mainly by the advent of farming and keeping livestock, our bodies were in no way ready to start adapting to the new diet these technologies afforded. Human bodies are pretty much the same as before these advances. According to some nutritionists and dieticians, these abrupt changes led to obesity, cardiovascular disease, blood pressure irregularities, diabetes, bone diseases, colon cancer, acne and even depression. All of these diseases are called diseases of civilization. Our modern diet contributes to these civilized maladies because it is also deficient in so many vitamins and minerals.

Healthy Hunter-Gatherers

On earth today, there are eighty-four societies of humans who are stronger and faster than those on a modern diet. They are, for the most part, slim; they also have straight white teeth and no need for eyeglasses. They are rarely afflicted with cancer, strokes, arthritis, diabetes or heart disease. They are mentally healthy, too. Depression, schizophrenia, and other mental aberrations are virtually non-existent among the eighty-four existing societies of hunter-gatherers. These people are still eating much the same diet that has been a part of their culture for hundreds of thousands of years.

Foods to Find

The Paleo Diet doesn't introduce any exotic foods or special preparations. In fact, it calls for simplicity both in the foods selected and their preparation. A Paleo Diet includes these foods: Lean meats, chicken and fish. Eggs (free-range). Fruit, including berries, strawberries, blueberries, etc. Nuts, but not peanuts or cashews. Vegetables, especially root vegetables, but never potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Foods to Avoid

Any processed foods are absolutely forbidden. Processed foods contain heavy doses of salt and sugar. They also contain chemicals, additives, colorings, preservatives, pesticides and antibiotics. Other forbidden foods include: Grains in any form or fashion, including bread, pasta, noodles, beans, including snow-peas and peas and peanuts (really a bean). No potatoes. No dairy products. No sugar, no salt, no caffeine (some say coffee or tea is okay, but with no cream or sugar).

Benefits of the Cave Man Diet

As can be seen from the list of forbidden foods, sticking to the Cave Man Diet can be somewhat arduous. Probably the foods on the list make up a good three-quarters of what is in everybody's pantry. But, according to those on the diet, they are leaner, stronger, healthier than at any time of their lives. Check out the diet yourself. Whether it's called the Paleolithic (Paleo) Diet, Garden of Eden Diet, Cave Man Diet, Hunter-gatherer Diet, or the Stone Age Diet, there are hundreds of web pages devoted to the health-giving regimen.