{"id":22049,"date":"2013-12-03T07:15:04","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T12:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=22049"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:06:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:06:31","slug":"paleo-diet-improve-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/paleo-diet-improve-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Paleo Diet Improve Your Health?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paleo
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When our caveman ancestors roamed the earth thousands and thousands of years ago during the Paleolithic era, they relied on hunting and gathering to survive. Over time, along with the rise of agriculture \u2014 and eventually computers and other modern conveniences \u2014 humans became more sedentary. The result: greater health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and food intolerances.<\/p>\n

But could going back<\/a> to our prehistoric roots improve overall health? That\u2019s the premise behind the paleo diet<\/a>, which has gained a steadily growing following over the last few years. Here\u2019s everything you need to know to decide if this blast from the past is the answer to a healthier life for you.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>What is Paleo? Breaking Down the Paleo Diet Food List<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to the Basics<\/b><\/h3>\n

While times have certainly changed since the Fred Flintstone days, the human body hasn\u2019t quite<\/i> evolved to keep up, with the digestive tract about 99 percent similar to a caveman\u2019s digestive tract, explains JJ Virgin<\/a>, nutrition and fitness expert and author of The Virgin Diet<\/i><\/a>. This could explain why so many people have trouble properly absorbing and digesting added and artificial sugars, processed foods, gluten and other relatively \u201cmodern\u201d foods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you eat a candy bar or other processed foods, your body says \u2018What the heck am I eating?\u2019 It doesn\u2019t recognize those fake foods,\u201d says Virgin. \u201cThe paleo diet goes back to the whole, unprocessed foods your ancestors ate thousands of years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

That entails eating foods consumed by prehistoric humans, including fresh fruits<\/a>, vegetables, grass-fed meat, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood and nuts. On the other hand, it also means avoiding foods that were unavailable during that time period, such as refined sugars, grains, vegetable oils, dairy and processed packaged foods, says Loren Cordain<\/a>, Ph.D., author of The Paleo Diet<\/i><\/a>, who is considered the founder of the movement. \u201cBy following these nutritional guidelines we put our diet more in line with the evolutionary pressures that shaped our current genome, which in turn positively influences health and well being,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Why? The environments in which they live, explains Cordain, shape all organisms\u2019 genes. \u201cIf you were to try to feed shrubs to a lion or meat to a cow, both would suffer nutritional deficiencies, illness and disease because of evolutionary discordance between their genome and the newly introduced environmental selective pressures,\u201d says Cordain. \u201cIn a similar manner, newly introduced foods during the Neolithic, Industrial and modern eras are discordant with our species’ ancient and conservative genome, and can also result in illness and disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s for Dinner? <\/b><\/h3>\n
\"Paleo
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Deciding to rewind back to prehistoric times? A typical paleo dinner menu might look something like this:<\/p>\n

Appetizers<\/strong><\/p>\n