Primal Living
“Can living like a caveman prevent disease and make you lean and fit?” — mensjournal.com
Maybe you’ve heard about it, the paleo movement. It is a caveman version of the Atkins diet — eating and exercising as our forefathers did. It is a diet that consists mainly of fish, meat from animals that only eat grasses, vegetables, fruit, roots and nuts. It contains no grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar and processed oils. Also alcoholic beverages are off the table.
People in this paleo movement believe that eating the way our forefathers did, is better for our health. They didn’t suffer from diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and alzheimer for example. They only died from old age, viruses of calamity like extreme weather.
But is living like a caveman really working for our generation? It is hard to argue that a simpler life with more exercise and fewer processed foods is good for our modern bodies and genes. A lot of caveman foods are no longer available to us, it is also based on modern food “equivalents”, you have to get your meat from today’s supermarket, or do you want to hunt for cows yourself? The meat you eat comes from domesticated animals raised using modern mass production methods, even if they are grass-fed.
There is no evidence, either ancient or modern, that the Paleo diet is inherently healthier. For example, Diabetes was virtually unknown in China until people began eating the modern Western diet. But before people started eating modern diets in China, they weren’t eating anything remotely close to the Paleo Diet. They did eat grains, tubers and beans, which are forbidden in the Paleo Diet.
So what does this say?
Yes, our generation has an eating problem, in that way that we eat to much additives. We do need to realize that and try to live healthier, but return to cave days is not going to solve it. Everyone needs to live in a way they feel best.
Can you handle a caveman life? Quiz yourself!
Sources: jonbarron.org; blog.smithsonianmag.com