The Paleo diet is sometimes recommended by the ‘Diet Guru’s’ as the best option because it’s what our ancestors evolved to eat, but what is the Real Paleo Diet?
If you’ve read my book you’ll know I don’t recommend any specific Diet as a maintenance Diet, i.e. something we stick to all the time. This is mainly because we’re all different, something Scientists and Biochemists refer to as ‘Biochemical Individuality’. If you want more info’ read my book;
‘How to Overcome Tiredness, Fatigue, Stress and Burnout and Boost Your Energy for High Performance’.
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But it’s also due to 1 critical factor that is an essential component for good health. And that is we need to have a variety of food to maintain a healthy Gut Microbiome. A variety of good quality foods will ensure that there is a healthy balance of good bacteria in our colon. The greater the variety of healthy bacteria that we have in our Microbiome the healthier we will be. This is also a critical key to having a HIGH ENERGY Lifestyle.
So you know I disagree with the idea of sticking to a specific diet of any kind, be it Paleo or any other.
But if I had to describe my diet, I would say that it resembles what many people would call the ‘Paleo Diet’ today about 75% of the time. Although I generally eat a lot more fish as my main protein source because I love seafood!! and I generally feel good eating fish!!
Many people do follow what I call ‘The In Diet’ but a better approach is to take the best from the so called ‘Modern day diets’, e.g. Paleo, Atkins, South Beach and even Keto.
What does this mean for you? Well at any particular time in your life you might need to increase the amount of protein in your diet. Or reduce the amount of carbohydrates. Or even increase the amount of ‘GOOD’ fats in your diet. In my experience most people don’t eat enough fat mainly because of the flawed Science surrounding fat and Health.
What’s the takeaway here? It’s following a rigid diet and Nutrition programme for any length of time is NOT good for your Energy or your Health.
The Real Paleo Diet was NOT meat and 3 veg 2 or 3 time a day. In my experience it can take a little time to find a diet that’s optimal for you. One that gives you a constant amount of daily Energy, Vitality and helps you build resilience against our daily Stressors.
The recent research by Paleontologist Peter Ungar has shown that our Paleolithic ancestors diet varied over time. They were flexible eaters and I’m sure that this contributed to the health of their Microbiome and their survival.
But I’ll let Peter Ungar have the last word and I paraphrase;
‘Dietary versatility allowed our ancestors to spread across the planet. It was the key to our evolutionary success’.
If you would like my help with your diet or improving your Energy? Click HERE for a free strategy session with me.
If you would like to find out more about the Paleolithic diets, I recommend Mark Sisson,
Click Here for more information. What I like about Mark is, he has a unique ability to look at things in a very different way.
A good book full of recipes and covers in detail the Science behind Paleo is; Paleo Principles
By Dr Sarah Ballantyne the hardcover is quite expensive at over £32 but the kindle version is much cheaper.
This post was inspired by the work of Peter Ungar,
‘The Diets of Early Hominins, P. Ungar et al Science 2011 Vol 334 p190-193
The Real Paleo Diet, P.Ungar Scientific American July 2018.