The first day. Breakfast, not like a normal. On the plate next to finely chopped bananas, scrambled eggs and chicken breasts. No oatmeal, no bread or milk and cereal. The name that the experts came up with this diet is a paleolithic diet. Menu is similar to the one that had our ancestors, collectors and hunters, approximately 40,000 years ago. Proponents and advocates of this diet believe that diet is similar to that of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, has the potential to make us resistant to many of today's most common diseases - obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Paleolithic Prescription

This diet is not new. Namely, first became public in 1988, when Dr. S. Boyd Eaton, a professor of anthropology and clinical radiology at Emory University , published a book "Paleolithic Prescription". Today, the diet experienced a boom thanks to the faithful followers of this trend.

"However, all this foolishness comes down to fashion and trend that has been ongoing for centuries," said Loren Kordian, a psychologist at the Department of Health and Science of Physical Activity University of Colorado . "After all, the whole world is thus fed back thousands of years."

Analysis

After a studious analysis of the list of forbidden foods, one gets the impression that the sole diet - no dairy products, cereals, potatoes, salt, yeast, food in cans, alcohol or caffeine. Therefore, it is allowed to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, meat, wild game and fish.

Taking everything into account, with the right to ask us if this diet really can make healthier? In an article published in the American Journal of healthy eating, etc. Kordian he and his colleagues analyzed the existing data on diet even 229 communities (hunter-gatherers) listed in the Ethnographic Atlas, which is a collection of information about the 1267 world community. Differences in diet were are well represented, but what they all had in common is that they are overloaded with protein (they make up 35% of the total calories), and the scarcity of carbohydrates (they make up 25% of the total calories) compared with the typical American diet. As for fat intake (make 40% or more of the total amount of calories), it is almost identical to that in America today, but with one huge difference - our ancestors were consuming much smaller amounts of saturated fats.

Supporters


As pointed out by supporters of such a diet, should be applied today, could have quite a positive impact on our overall health. Unrefined carbohydrates were part of a daily diet of our ancestors - a fruit that contains lots of fiber (digested slowly, thus avoiding the problem of the rapid accumulation of large amounts of glucose in our bloodstream). Many experts in nutrition believe that exposure to large amounts of glucose can lead to resistance to insulin, which further results in the appearance of disorders such as obesity and diseases such as type 2 diabetes Given that the Paleolithic diet abundant in fruits and vegetables, this diet is also rich in antioxidants, which are reliably known to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Dilemmas

Despite all the above, some experts remain concerned and alert to the potential danger of dietary PAs in which the animal fat present in large amounts. Dietary fat is still a key factor in controlling obesity, and it is known that the amounts of fats that are entered through domestic animals much larger than those that brought our ancestors by eating wild animals.