Beginner's Guide to Paleo Diet

• The Paleo Diet

  

  The basic concept of the paleo diet is to eat whole foods and avoid processed foods. Studies suggest that this diet can lead to significant weight loss and major improvements in health.

  The Paleo Diet - A Beginner's Guide + Meal Plan

• A general guideline

  There is no one "right" way to eat for everyone. Some eat a low-carb diet high in animal foods, while others follow a high-carb diet with lots of plants.

  The Paleo Diet - A Beginner's Guide + Meal Plan

• Avoid these foods and ingredients:

  

  Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. All Grains. Legumes like beans and lentils. Most Dairy, especially low-fat dairy. Some vegetable oils like soybean, sunflower, cottonseed, corn, grapeseed, safflower and other oils. Trans fats: "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils found in margarine and various processed foods. Artificial sweeteners: Aspartame, sucralose, cyclamates, saccharin, acesulfame potassium.  Highly processed foods: Everything labeled "diet" or "low-fat" or that has many additives.

  The Paleo Diet - A Beginner's Guide + Meal Plan

• Foods to Eat on the Paleo Diet

  Meat: Beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, pork and others. Fish and seafood: Salmon, trout, haddock, shrimp, shellfish, etc. Choose wild-caught if you can. Eggs: Choose free-range, pastured or omega-3 enriched eggs. Vegetables: Broccoli, kale, peppers, onions, carrots, tomatoes, etc. Fruits: Apples, bananas, oranges, pears, avocados, strawberries, blueberries and more. Tubers: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, turnips, etc. Nuts and seeds: Almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and more. Healthy fats and oils: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil and others. Salt and spices: Sea salt, garlic, turmeric, rosemary, etc.

  The Paleo Diet - A Beginner's Guide + Meal Plan

• Modified Paleo Diets

  You can use the paleo diet as a starting point, adding in a few other healthy foods like grass-fed butter and gluten-free grains. Even small amounts of red wine and dark chocolate can be added. Water should be your drink of choice when following the paleo diet. Many people also drink tea and coffee, which is high in antioxidants.

  The Paleo Diet - A Beginner's Guide + Meal Plan

• The Paleo Diet

  It consists of cutting modern foods from your diet and returning to the way of the early hunter-gatherer ancestors. The diet can improve your health by eliminating high-fat and processed foods that have little nutritional value and too many calories, and loading up on fruits and vegetables that are bursting with healthy vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• The paleo diet and research

  

  Researchers found that the paleo diet led to more short-term improvements in some risk factors for chronic disease. There is not enough evidence to make any strong claims, especially its longterm effects.

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• Foods to Eat and Avoid

  Eat:  Lean cuts of beef, pork, and poultry and game animals, eggs, fish fruit, not starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds and olive, flaxseed or walnut oil. Avoid: Processed foods, dairy, grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, sugar, artificial sugars and fruit juices.

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• A Sample Menu

  

  Breakfast: Onion and spinach omelette with liver pâtéLunch: Tuna wrapped in lettuce with almondsSnack: Hard-boiled eggsDinner: Beef bourguignonDessert: Ice cream made from coconut milk

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• Risks and Benefits

  Pros:  Nutritious, Easy to Follow and It Involves Exercise. The diet helps with managing autoimmune diseases , although evidence is limited and anecdotal. Cons:  Expensive, Possibly Boring, and Limited Evidence of healthy benefits. An unlimited amount of red meat may be detrimental to your heart health. Grains are excluded from the diet, even though whole grains have been linked with better cholesterol levels, reduced risk of stroke, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• What to Expect

  You could lose weight following a Paleolithic diet. Get calcium and other nutrients you’re missing by not having dairy products and certain grains. Health benefits are likely to result from cutting out processed food and sugar and replacing them with fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Ease the transition to the Paleo diet with small incremental changes.

  Paleo Diet 101: Beginner's Guide of What to Eat and How It Works | Everyday Health

• The Paleo Diet

  

  The Paleo Diet is an effort to go back to eating how we’re biologically designed to eat, allowing us to tap into our genetic potential and start living healthier immediately.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Lose weight on the Paleo Diet

  Eat fewer calories than you burn every day. Eat mostly real food if you want to be healthy. Do those two things consistently for a decade to KEEP the weight off. When you only eat real food and avoid all unhealthy food, you’re more likely than not going to run a caloric deficit – and thus lose weight.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Eat the following:

  

  Meat – GRASS-FED, not grain-fed.  Fowl – Chicken, duck, hen, turkey. Fish – Wild fish, as mercury and other toxins can be an issue in farmed fish Eggs – Omega-3 enriched cage free eggs. Vegetables – As long as they’re not deep-fried, eat as many as you want. Oils – Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil – think natural. Fruits – Fruits have natural sugar, and can be higher in calories, so limit if you’re trying to lose weight. Nuts – High in calories, so they’re good for a snack only. Tubers – Sweet potatoes and yams. Higher in calories and carbs.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Avoid the following:

  Grains which are calorically dense, nutrient deficient, and contain gluten and lectins.Many are gluten intolerant. Lectins are natural toxins and prevent the gastrointestinal tract from repairing itself. Sugars . Processed foods. Dairy for the Paleo purists, although it can be consumed.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Carbs aren’t evil

  Carbs tend to be calorically dense (lots of calories) without being satiating (meaning you tend to eat way more than you intended). Try to get carbs from vegetables, sweet potatoes, and fruit. Fewer carbs = less glucose in your system, which means your body can start burning fat as your fuel source.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• How much to eat

  

  From Nutrients: Always start with a good protein source with each meal (eggs, steak, chicken, fish, pork) along with some vegetables. Add salt if you're feeling tired all the time. From Fats: Add healthy fats to the equation: avocado, almonds, walnuts, almond butter, olive oil, etc.  Eat when you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Criticisms of the Paleo Diet

  

   “This type of diet can get expensive.”  It is if you compare the cost of a paleo meal with ramen noodles or bread which contains loads of carbs and empty calories. “It’s difficult to eat Paleo in today’s society!”  It requires careful planning and willpower but can be done.  “But this is just a meat diet, and eating all meat is bad!”  The biggest component of the diet is vegetables, not meat. “The Paleo Diet is too restrictive and I can’t live like this.”  The goal is to rethink your relationship with food and develop a strategy that you can live with permanently.

  The Best Paleo Guide for Beginners Ever Made (Probably). | Nerd Fitness

• Paleo concept

  Humans evolved on a diet very different from today's eating habits. To be healthier, leaner, stronger and fitter, we must re-think our diet and remove some of the food groups we consider basic. Except Paleo fans tend to overlook the fact that hunter-gatherers were not models of pristine health. Palaeolithic humans suffered from parasites, infectious diseases, and even atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

  The Pros And Cons Of The Paleo Diet

• What to eat

  

  Animals (especially a "whole animal" approach, including organs, bone marrow, cartilage, and organs). Animal products (such as eggs or honey). Vegetables and fruits. Raw nuts and seeds. Added fats (like coconut oil, avocado, butter, ghee).

  The Pros And Cons Of The Paleo Diet

• What to avoid

  

  Grains, although research suggests eating whole grains improve our health and appear to be neutral when it comes to inflammation. Heavily processed oils, such as canola and soybean oil. Legumes, although research suggests the benefits of legumes outweigh their anti-nutrient content. Cooking eliminates most anti-nutrient effects. Some anti-nutrients may even be good. Dairy.

  The Pros And Cons Of The Paleo Diet

• The problem with Paleo

  The evolutionary arguments don't hold up. Evidence for excluding dairy, legumes, and grains isn't strong (yet). A one-size-fits-all "best diet" approach doesn't work.

  The Pros And Cons Of The Paleo Diet

• Paleo diet facts that stick

  The Paleo diet was born in academic circles in the '70s.  Walter Voegtlin wrote that modern kinfolk would be much healthier if only they returned to the pre-agricultural food habits of the Paleolithic era. An academic evangelizer, Loren Cordain, trademarked and built a brand around advocating for hunter-gatherer eating.   Celebrities and low-carb enthusiasts have helped fuel the craze. Our ancestors didn't actually eat this way.  "There is no one 'Paleo diet.' There are millions of Paleo diets. People in East Africa ate different foods than people in West Africa versus the Middle East, and South America, and North America." Daniel Lieberman According to evidence, hunter-gatherers ate plenty of grains and other carbs. Our bodies have evolved to eat modern foods. Paleo diets do help people lose weight — but so do all restrictive diets.

  What Paleo diets get wrong: We're not evolved for meat, and our ancestors ate carbs