The Paleolithic diet, Paleo diet, caveman diet, or stone-age diet is a modern fad diet consisting of foods thought to mirror those eaten during the Paleolithic era. There are different variants of the diet; some are predominantly plant-based but the most recent popular variants focus on animal products. In the s Walter L. Voegtlin popularized a meat-centric “Stone Age” diet, and in the 21st century, the Paleo Diet was popularized in the best-selling books of Loren Cordain. In the 21st century, the sequencing of the human genome and DNA analysis of the remains of early humans has found evidence that humans evolved rapidly in response to changing diet. This evidence undermines a core premise of the paleolithic diet, that human digestion has remained essentially unchanged over time. The paleolithic diet is promoted as a way of improving health. Adrienne Rose Johnson writes that the idea that the primitive diet was superior to current dietary habits dates back to the s with such writers as Emmet Densmore and John Harvey Kellogg. Densmore proclaimed that ” bread is the staff of death”, while Kellogg supported a diet of starchy and grain-based foods in accord with “the ways and likings of our primitive ancestors”.
Fruits, nuts, and seeds make excellent snacks or desserts. Health Tools. Current Developments in Nutrition. The limited research backing this claim has serious methodological flaws. While processed meat is not healthy, grass-fed red meat is still considered nutritionally beneficial by science. Special Reports. Key Nutrients Protein. Who we are.
Researchers have argued that the underlying hypothesis of the paleo diet may oversimplify the story of how humans adapted to changes in diet. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Built by science. Fruits, nuts, and seeds make excellent snacks or desserts. Science-Based Medicine. Legumes and Nightshades. Low Glycemic Load.