Have you ever met a Paleo fanatic? I have. In truth they are just like any fanatic, annoying. The annoying thing about any fanatic is no matter how obnoxious they are today, next month they will be a fanatic and obnoxious about something different.
If you have read our other articles, you probably have realized that I mostly discuss a modified Paleo diet. When I say modified, I say it because I do not personally follow all the rules set by the very scientific Paleo community. If you want to, that is fine with me. Most of us choose Paleo to get a leaner body and to feel healthier. It has been proven that you can do this, even following the Paleo diet about 80% of the time. And let’s face it, if we make unreasonable demands on ourselves we will never stick with any diet. A good diet has to work with being able to fit into a fairly normal lifestyle.Do these Paleo fanatics live in a cave? Do they not drive an automobile? I am happy to report, you can lose weight and feel healthier with the Paleo diet, and you don’t have to be a Paleo fanatic.
I think the information about the Paleo era is interesting. I believe there is a lot of truth about it. However, let’s face it, that was a long time ago and there is a lot of speculation. So the caveman thing isn’t real important to me. However, results are very important. I mentioned before that there are basically two ways to follow the Paleo diet. You can follow it 100%, or you can follow it most of the time. And they both work. If you are suffering from an autoimmune disorder, make no mistake, you want to follow it 100%. If however you are just trying to lose body fat and feel better, most of the time Paleo will work fine for you.
So it is not really the caveman hype that appeals to me. What does appeal to me is that Paleo makes sense and helps many people to lose weight, and feel healthier. How does Paleo do this? I am a fairly allergic type person, and I will try to explain this in simple terms. I am not a doctor or scientist, but I have learned a lot about allergy through the years.
It is a fact. Many peoples bodies, do not like grains, dairy and other proteins. Allergies are the bodies reaction to these things it doesn’t like. These things are all strong proteins. The symptoms are the result of the body trying to defend itself from proteins it doesn’t trust. In other words when you are exposed to something your body doesn’t like, it is in effect saying, there is this protein I am not sure about. It must be a parasite or germ that is trying to do me harm, so I will try to kill it. Now that is probably a pretty funny way to put it, but that is the allergic response in a nutshell (no pun intended). So the body tries to kill this thing that it thinks might be a parasite, or germ or other invading entity. It releases tons of chemicals to get rid of it. These include histamine, cortisol and others. Your defense system means business. So what happens is a state of inflammation at first. Something will be inflamed. If it’s pollen and your nose, your sinus passages will be inflamed and swollen. In the worst case scenarios, your body is actually attacking itself. It is doing harm to itself in its defense, and this is the basic nature of autoimmune disorders.
Hay fever is a bothersome autoimmune condition, but it is fairly harmless. If this condition takes another form, you may have diabetes or other serious and deadly, health disorders. The truth is, most people that have food allergies are allergic to the same types of proteins. And guess what they are? Mostly grains and dairy, soy and legumes. Yes that is a common problem for many people with allergies. But even if you don’t have allergies that you know of, these proteins may still trigger responses from your body. Many people keep eating things that are slowly killing them or at best, making their life miserable and expensive. You may have been eating foods since a child that are causing inflammations in your body. I know, I speak from experience. But the good news is once you remove these sources of irritation, the inflammation calms down, and you feel better.
But that is not all. It has been proven many times, that grains carbs and sugars are also making us fat. So are food preservatives. Preservatives have been linked to major diseases like heart conditions and even cognitive problems like dementia.
So this is the part of Paleo that I love.
You will continue to see news stories about wheat and other grains and how they are linked to diabetes and other diseases. It is a fact, that Paleo is the right diet for most of us, and will bring great results. So caveman or no caveman, this is a diet that makes sense and brings results. It doesn’t matter if you call it Paleo or Caveman diet, what matters is this is the diet we should be following to look great and feel healthy. Paleo by any other name.
