Health nuts and hot-bodied celebrities such as Megan Fox and Jessica Biel have attested to the beneficial effects of going on a paleo diet, but it is not always easy to maintain a diet that restricts one to eat food that were eaten by man's ancient ancestors.
This is why nutritionist Loren Cordain, creator of the paleo diet and founder of the Paleo Diet Movement, released his first cook book that aims to make paleo dieting a little bit easier for folks who would like to stick to the trendy diet but are running out of options.
The cook book, titled "The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat," contains sections for breakfast and brunch, salads, slaws, vegetable side dishes, vegetable treats, appetizers, and beverages and promises to provide the millions of paleo eaters around the world new ways to keep their restrictive eating plans more interesting.
The paleo diet banks on the premise that humans are not supposed to eat all the modern gunk we eat, including processed foods, dairy, wheat, grains, legumes, and sugar. Our bodies, Cordain says, have not evolved far enough to accommodate these substances in our system. Instead, the food primitive men ate tens of thousands of years ago is the food that is right for us. Cordain, a professor emeritus at Colorado State University, writes in his cook book: "We are Stone Agers living in the Space Age."
"Nature determined what our bodies needed thousands of years before civilization developed, before people started farming and raising domesticated livestock," Cordain says in an interview aired on Good Morning America. "Our genes haven't changed a lot in the last 40 or 50,000 years, so we do quite well on the foods that we're genetically adapted to."
The cook book contains recipes that adhere to the basic principles of paleo dieting: high protein, low carbohydrate, high fiber, moderate to high fat, high potassium and low sodium, more alkaline foods, and more foods with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals. That means the recipes are restricted to fruits, vegetables, fish, and grass-fed meats.
Cordain says following the paleo diet can help people lose weight, protect themselves from heart disease and diabetes, and promote clear skin and reduce acne. However, some nutritionists are not fans of going paleo, such as Rachel Beller, author of "Eat to Lose, Eat to Win." Beller says such a restrictive diet leaves out other sources of nutrients that are essential to stay healthy.
"The downfall is missing out on certain foods that many nutrition experts, including myself, feel are important to have in one's diet, such as legumes that are rich in fiber and other good nutrients," says Beller.
Cordain responds to this criticism by saying that eliminating all those foods will allow all the other nutrients to fill in for the foods removed. He also recommends not to eat paleo all the time. Cordain says one of the best ways to stay on the diet is to follow the diet only at least 85 percent of the time to give room for the occasional ice cream and pizza cheat meal every now and then.
Photo: Amy Selleck | Flickr
