The Paleo diet is a dietary plan that is based on foods that might have been eaten during the Paleolithic time, which dates from approximately 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. Other names that the Paleo Diet has are, Paleolithic Diet, Hunter-Gatherer diet and Caveman Diet. The purpose of the Paleo diet is to help get us back to our way of eating during our early human stages of evolution because due to the current modern diets that are filled with sugars, processed foods and fats, obesity and heart disease has risen.

Before starting a new diet, first see your primary physician to assure that you are healthy enough to start a strict diet or see a physician that specializes in bariatrics or weight management so that they can properly evaluate you and do a full blood panel to determine if you have any other underlying issues that is preventing you from losing weight.

What is a Paleo Diet?

A Paleo diet is a whole food based diet that is designed to resemble what our human hunter-gatherer ancestors ate thousands of years ago. The Paleo iet consists of whole foods, unprocessed foods, grass-fed meats such as chicken, beef, wild game, lamb and turkey and fruits, nonstarchy vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, and seafood like shrimp and tuna and healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil and olive oil. Foods that you can’t have while on a Paleo diet are grains such as wheat, oats, bread, pasta, any dairy products, high fat meats such as salami, ground meet, bologna and any other high sugary foods like soda, sports drinks and any foods that are processed.

Health Benefits

It has been found that being on a Paleo diet can have a lot of health benefits. Studies have shown that a Paleo diet has an anti-inflammatory benefits and has shown increase weight loss, decrease heart disease, improve Glucose tolerance, decrease Tryglicerides and control blood pressure.

Paleo Disadvantages

Like anything, there are always disadvantages to them and the Paleo diet is no different. Although there are enough health benefits to take up a Paleo diet there are also some disadvantages to it. Even though you will be sure to lose weight, there is a risk for you to possibly missing out on many essential nutrients such as Vitamin D deficiencies, which can ultimately lead to osteoporosis.

How to determine if Paleo is for you

The best way to determine if a Paleo Diet is for you is by getting a comprehensive full blood panel from a physician that specializes in weight and health managements so that they can see if there are any deficiencies that you may have. Getting a full blood panel done will help determine if the foods that are part of the Paleo diet will be beneficial. Due to the strict diet of the Paleo Diet, if you suffer from Vitamin D deficiency, the Paleo diet would not be the best diet to partake in because you would not be able to eat any dairy products, which is a prime source that we get out vitamin D from.