Paleo Principles

If you’re completely new to the Paleo diet, this is the place for you. The Paleo way of eating is becoming more and more widespread, so you may have heard about it at work, in the gym (especially if you’re a CrossFit type), or at a party where your friend was telling you how he lost all that weight. But while it may be a new diet, it’s actually quite (well, extremely) old, hence its name.

The Paleolithic era was from about 2.5 million years ago until about 10,000 years ago when we humans started intensively cultivating crops and raising animals for food. At the end of the Paleolithic era, people started to transition from eating the animals they hunted and the plants they gathered to eating the grains from their crops and the meat and milk from their domesticated animals.

Since then, heart disease, obesity, diabetes type 2, cancer and other inflammatory diseases have crept in to our societies, whereas modern hunter gatherer societies (who are believed to eat similarly to our Paleolithic ancestors) show almost no signs of any of those maladies.

Since food is so integral to our health, we can assume that the hunter-gatherer way of eating had a lot to do with their impeccable health, and in the last 100 years, there has been a lot of research to substantiate that idea. The Paleo way of eating takes us back to our roots, and you’re hearing so much about it because it makes people feel better: they lose weight, gain muscle, have more energy, have less inflammation of all kinds, their skin looks better and they feel younger. Digestive problems often disappear, seasonal allergies and asthma may abate, and people regularly go off their diabetes medications, including insulin.

The great thing about it is that this way of eating is not a crash diet – you’re not going to feel hungry if you do it right, so it’s sustainable – 2.5 million years sustainable.

So if you’re new to Paleo Plan or the whole Paleo thing, you’re probably wondering where to begin finding solid, reliable info. Here’s a list of the pages we’ve written that we think are most helpful in answering your questions.

Paleo Blog Posts to Get You Started

Paleo Plan Food Guide

How to Follow The Paleo Plan Meal Plan

How to Modify the Meal Plan to Fit Your Needs

Paleo for The Active Person

How Much Food Should You Eat?

The Dreaded Detox

The Importance of Cheating

Paleo Plan Weekly Nutrition Breakdown

Will I Lose Weight on Paleo Plan?

Why No Grains and Legumes: Lectins

Why No Grains and Legumes (and Nuts?): Phytic Acid

Stop Eating Dairy (At Least For A While)

The Calcium Conundrum

Getting Enough Nutrients In Your Paleo Diet?

Supplements – Do You Need Them?

Saturated Fat Truths

The Cruel Calling of Coffee

Confused About The Paleo “Rules”

Why Paleo?