The stone age diet: How to eliminate the health problems of modern life

Birdseye — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:06:00 GMT

The Paleolithic diet, also known as the stone age or caveman diet, is often cited as a good alternative to the modern diet. In his blog post on the stone age diet, David McEvoy summarises the main difference in the lifestyles of our ancestors: "They lived a natural life without supermarkets, ready-made meals or processed foods, and they had never heard of diets." But what exactly is the stone age diet, and what are its specific health benefits?

What are the health benefits of the stone age diet?

This post outlines the overall health benefits of the stone age diet, explaining that tribes whose diets have not changed for thousands of years "possess greater endurance and force", and are much less likely to suffer from adiposity, diabetes, hypertension or oncological diseases. Likewise, as soon as elements from the modern diet are introduced into such communities, these conditions also appear shortly after.

In particular, a recent study has shown that the stone age diet is good for people with diabetes. A clinical study in Sweden compared 14 patients following the Paleolithic diet with 15 who were following the Mediterranean diet. After 12 weeks, the blood sugar rise in response to carbohydrate intake was much lower in the stone age group: -26%, compated to -7% in the Mediterranean goup. There is a detailed discussion of these findings here.

So it would seem that the stone age diet is a good choice for people with diabetes. But a quick search of the WDDTY archives reveals other significant health benefits of this diet.

On our Forum, a practitioner contributing to a recent thread about fibromyalgia states: "My approach now is to put everyone on the Paleolithic, or stone age diet, take pharmaceutical grade fish oils, a non dairy probiotic, drink vegetable juice and start some deep breathing exercises."

Other findings suggest that the stone age diet may help metabolic syndrome, and even - as indicated by an article by Harald Gaier from the WDDTY database - can help those with HIV and AIDS.

So the health benefits of the Paleolithic diet are extensive. But what does it actually consist of?

What does the stone age diet consist of?

A good overview of the Paleolithic diet can be found in a post by Dr Ben Balzer entitled ‘Introduction to the Paleolithic Diet'. I fully recommend reading the entire article. However, in summary, Dr Balzer's advice for following the caveman diet is as follows:

Eat none of the following:

Grains- including bread, pasta, noodles

Beans- including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas

Potatoes

Dairy products

Sugar

Salt

Eat the following:

Meat, chicken and fish

Eggs

Fruit

Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes or sweet potatoes)

Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)

Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.

Try to increase your intake of:

Root vegetables- carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, Swedes

Organ meats- liver and kidneys (I accept that many people find these unpalatable and won't eat them)

Recipe suggestions for the stone age diet

Changing your diet may seem like a daunting task, particularly if you cannot think of ways of introducing particular foods into your meals. But, inspired by Annemarie Colbin's helpful post on ‘Protein Breakfasts for the Health Conscious', which gives a catalogue of specific meal suggestions for those who want a high protein diet, I have scoured the web for menu suggestions for those seeking to adopt the Paleolithic diet.

One post on the Body & Health blog, part of a series of posts on the stone age diet, gives the following provisional menu:

Variants of breakfasts:

Porridge from natural oat flakes with a grated apple and cinnamon.

• Low-fat natural yoghurt without sugar and preservatives, nuts and fresh berries.

Two boiled eggs, green salad with an olive oil, an apple.

Variants of dinners:
• The hen baked on a grill, the big salad from green vegetables, an olive oil.

Low-fat cottage cheese, berries and fruit.
Stewed with greens mushrooms and some nuts.

Variants of suppers:

Baked turkey with stewed vegetables.
Herring in the oil, grated carrots, onions and soya sprouts.
Fruits.

Even more comprehensive is a post called ‘The Caveman Diet - 10 healthy foods from a Stone Age diet', which lists 10 components of the stone age diet that are readily available today, and explains why they are good for you. The post also points out:

None of these food items exist today exactly as they did in the Stone Age, but they form a healthy approximation, with good fats, phytonutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals. A diet that contains only these ingredients is far from boring and is readily available. But be sure to wash those carrots!

The full post is well worth a read, and can be found here.

So it seems that the stone age diet could be a good, healthy diet for anyone wanting to improve their general health and reduce the risk of developing health problems. Of course, if you want to live more healthily, you would also do well to read my post on ‘How to live longer and age healthily', which collects various tips from bloggers about how to increase your longevity and improve your health throughout your life. As always, if you have any comments on the advice I've collated here, please share your thoughts below.

Birdseye: Health Tips from the Blogosphere : AIDS

The stone age diet: How to eliminate the health problems of modern life