Another Perspective On Paleo Revealed

If you have been exploring different ways of losing weight by way of diet, you would have come across the idea of the Paleo diet. This is a way of eating where your diet consists of plenty of protein, some fat and very little carbohydrate. It is meant to emulate our ancestral way of eating. And yes, it comes by other names as well.

While the basis for the Paleo diet has been somewhat well understood, a recent paper from The Quarterly Review of Biology has shed new light on our ancestral eating patterns that refute some of the method by which the Paleo diet works. So today we will take a walk down memory lane, even though these are memories attained before our birth.

Essentially, the Paleo diet is all about restricting carbohydrates, and to be honest, it is a wise move, although the Paleo diet does take it to extremes. Well, the experts published in this paper that the real Paleo diet probably consists of as much carbohydrates as protein. They argue that carbohydrates are the main source of nutrients that have helped us grow our huge brains.

According to the latest genetic research, our ancestors’ brains began to dramatically increase in size and complexity around 800, 000 years ago. While meat eating was purported to have already been the norm at that period, the only way to fuel our brains with the high amount of energy required to rapidly grow it had to come from carbohydrates.

So what were the carbohydrate sources at that time that gave rise to this? According to researchers, these were likely to be starchy tuber carbohydrates; you know, the things that grow under the soil like tapioca, cassava and potatoes. These tubers contain the type of carbohydrates that can easily be converted to glucose, which is a quick way of providing energy to the body.

Further evidence of this has been supported by the finding that humans have an enzyme called amylase, which assists us with extracting nutrients from starches. We have a lot more genes coding for this compared to our closest relatives, which happen to be chimpanzees. While it was thought that these genes were only developed during the agricultural stage, recent evidence on hunter-gatherer has shown otherwise.

While all these evidence are surfacing gradually, the reality is that we don’t know enough about the exact diet of our ancestors. We can only speculate based on the evidence that we have. We can’t even show that they used Amylase in the same way as our stomachs use them today.

The point of producing this article is not to diss the Paleo diet. In fact, I like it, even though I’m aware that it might not be suitable for anyone. I came up with this article simply to educate you and put forth the message that there are many ways to “skin the cat”, i.e. there are many ways you can achieve your goals. Getting the Granite Fitness Solution or Granite Fitness Masterclass would be a great start!

Mark

If you really like Paleo: