The Cavemen’s Secret To A Disease-Free Life

Let’s face it, gone are the days when we ate only raw, fresh and whole foods – like our ancestors and the cavemen did – better known today as the Paleo Diet.

However, factory-produced foods – including so-called low-fat and reduced-sugar health foods – have only recently become a staple. It’s therefore no surprise that once these products started to line our supermarket shelves, diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity have been rapidly on the rise.

Is Paleo the way forward?

The bottom line is, when it comes to processed food meaning any form of food that has been tampered with – you are basically eating the result of a laboratory experiment.

While clever industry driven marketing strategies are tricking you into believing that you are making good dietary choices, you are in fact doing the direct opposite. That’s because in those low-fat, sugar-free products you’ll find hidden food additives like aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated vegetable oils that have all been shown to have detrimental health effects – especially when consumed on a regular basis.

Eat a diet similar to the cavemen and you’ll avoid most modern diseases.

Cavemen only ate what they could hunt or gather. Their archaeological record, combined with studies of modern hunters, shows virtually no heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, or obesity.

And if that doesn’t convince you, then all you need to do is look at remote populations that still only eat a hunter-gatherer or Paleo diet today. In these populations, the elderly people are generally free of the chronic diseases (obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease) that almost universally afflict the elderly in modern societies.

However, studies have shown that when these communities adopt the Western diet, their health declines and they begin to exhibit the same signs and symptoms of the diseases that plague us today.

Many people question the wisdom of the Paleo diet because cavemen didn’t live as long as most people do today. The truth is our ancestors did not die from their diets either. They were more likely to be killed off by predation and infection. If an individual was fortunate to avoid these dangers for as long as he lived, he was free of the chronic degenerative diseases that afflict modern societies.

The Paleo diet is protein-based. In fact, cavemen ate more protein and fat than we do today. But they ate a whole lot less carbohydrates. And they ate no processed carbs and no fat derived from vegetable oils.

Consuming protein and natural fats with fruits and vegetables that you can eat as they grow lays a strong foundation for health. Natural and organic meat and eggs, vegetables, fruits and nuts will ward off the chronic diseases created by our modern diets and environment. These are the real health foods.

So if you want to cash in on this simple secret, all you need to do is to strip your diet back to the basics, eating only whole foods.

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Disclaimer: Bear in mind the material contained in this article is provided for information purposes only. We are not addressing anyone’s personal situation. Please consult with your own physician before acting on any recommendations contained herein.

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Sources:

Davidson MH, Hunninghake D, et al. Comparison of the effects of lean red meat vs lean white meat on serum lipid levels among free-living persons with hypercholesterolemia: a long-term, randomized clinical trial. Arch Intern Med. 1999; 159(12): 1,331-1,338

Siscovick DS, Raghunathan TE, et al. Dietary intake and cell membrane levels of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and the risk of primary cardiac arrest. JAMA 1995; 274(17):1363-1367.

Simopolous, Artemis and Jo Robinson. The Omega Diet. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.

Dhiman TR, Anand GR, et al. Conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from cows fed different diets. J Dairy Sci 1999; 82(10): 2,146-2,156

Knopp RH, et al. A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial of the effects of two eggs per day in moderately hypercholesterolemic and combined hyperlipidemic subjects taught the NCEP step I diet. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 1997; 16(6): 551-561