Whenever I tell people that I am on the Paleo diet, they typically look at me sideways.  Sometimes, I get the "you shouldn't be on a diet" comment.  Sometimes I get the like "atkin's or south beach?"  Of course, I respond, I eat like a caveman.  Simply put, the Paleo Diet is perhaps the most natural diet you can embark on.  It is what we, as humans ate 2 millions ago up until 10,000 years ago when we were introduced to grains and dairy.  

If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gerd or literally any disease or illness associated with what you eat, then you should try the Paleo diet before you embard on a pharmaceutical run (like most Americans).  The Paleo diet will not only make you drop weight faster than any other diet, you will do so in a healthy fashion.

The Paleo Diet is perfect for.....

• Arthritis and Joint Pain
• Acne
• Asthma
• Autoimmune Diseases
• Headaches and migraines
• Menstrual cramps
• Multiple Sclerosis
  
• Athletes looking to better their condition
• Weight Loss

Without trying to make this hub a debate, there are many vegetarians around the world that would cringe at the prospect of a paleo diet plan. After all, for most vegetarians, a paleo diet goes against the grain of what the typical weight loss diet plan suggests.

Are humans a carniverous species?

The answer is actually closer than you think. The answer lies in the 100 or so indigenous tribes that are scattered throughout the world that don't have diets tainted with a modern day diet. These tribe members are slim and have athletic builds. They have straight teeth and good eyesight. They don't share the same diseases that we, the more technological advanced share. Diseases like arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke,and cancer are rare for them. They also live as long as us, if not longer.

So what is their secret? Their secret is actually a 2 million year secret. They eat like our ancestors ate well before the age of agriculture when we were hunters and gatherers.

The Caveman diet investigated....

Millions of years ago, our ancestors had a diet that consisted of meat, fowl, fish, and the leaves, roots and fruits of plants. They typically stayed away from many raw vegetables such as potatoes, beans and grains because these were indigestible raw. Plus many of these raw vegetables had natural occurring toxins in them that worked as pesticides (which I will explain later..perhaps in another hub).

From an evolutionary standpoint, the paleo diet works because it works with nature....

I saw a perfect example of this on another site that I am going to use. Let's say that you decide you want to eat an apple. An animal will eat the animal (including the seeds). This is the perfect match for both apple and animal. The animal benefits because of the energy is gets from the apple.

The apple benefits as well. Here is how. The animal eats the apple including the seeds and eventually it comes out the other end in manure. The apple seed can thus potentially sprout into an apple tree.

The apple, just like most vegetables and fruits have safety mechanisms to prevent the animal from chewing up the seed and encourages the swallowing of seeds.

1. The first is that the seeds themselves are bitter to the taste which discourages chewing...
2. The second is that the seeds have enzyme blockers that prevent digestion of the seeds.  These blockers will vanish once it sprouts.
3. Lastly, the contain something called lectins which act as natural pesticides and are toxic to bacteria, animals, ect.

You have to understand that all life, whether this is plant life or animals is dependent on reproduction.  And evolution has devised a very clever way to make things benefit everyone.

Where does the Paleo Diet fit into this?  Simple.  It is just a matter of evolution.  Our bodies are genetically coded for some things(meats, vegetables and fruits) and not coded for others (like processed foods, grains, sugar, flour, ect.

The paleo diet is simple, really. To eat as we were genetically coded to eat. We have been doing it for millions of years. Before the invention of agriculture, many of the diseases that we currently deal with (so called modern day disease...see above) were a rarity. The reason why I can say this with somes sense of assurance is because we still have tribes out there that eat a paleo diet like our ancestors did.

Here is what you can eat on the Paleo Diet Plan-

• Meats, chicken and fish.  You are probably want to eat organically as well.  Eat things that have natural diets.  To understand this better, you can check out my other hub...Diet Plans that Work.  Pay close attention to my grass fed-grass finished article.  Organ meats are good as well.
  
• Eggs- Once again, you want to eat eggs in which the chickens ate naturally.
• Fruit- For energy, among other things.  Strawberries, apples, oranges, blueberries, bananas, ect.
  
• Vegetables- Except Potatoes...these are tubers. Root vegetables are best. Carrots, turnips,kale, swedes, ect.
  
• Nuts- Just a note...peanuts are not a nut.  Almonds, pistacios, Macadamia, pecans...those are nuts.

I can say that if you try the Paleo diet, that you will absolutely lose weight. The funny thing is that because this diet is so natural, you won't need a doctor approval (after all, you are simply eating what you were meant to eat).

There are tons of reviews of this diet and most are nothing more than positive. People on this diet note that they not only have more energy, but that they find they have more muscles and less fat. Many don't even work out.

One of the best reviews I have seen is actually a blog where a 50 something man with type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol decided to go on the Caveman diet for a year.  The result?  No more medications.  Over the course of a year, he lost 70 pounds and his body fat has dropped to a very low 10.9% (an running back in the NFL averages 7-9% body fat).  Pretty impressive, if you ask me.  You can check out his blog here.

In addition to this, many people on the caveman diet have been able to fight off a lifetime of meds because of diabetes. Many say that there skin clears up, if they have arthritis, it goes away, menstrual cramping disappears, and many autoimmune disorders get fixed once you start to eat like you should.

It is really no wonder that the paleo diet plan works. After all, we are only eating the way we, as a species, have been eating for millions of years.