The paleolithic diet is a modern nutritional plan based on what we believe our ancestors would have eaten before the development of agricultural methods more than 10 000 years ago. It is also known as the hunter-gatherer diet, and is based around the consumption of meat, fish, fruit, nuts, vegetables and roots. Advocates of the diet claim it reduces the risk of heart disease, but critics argue that it is a faddy diet which does not address modern nutritional requirements.

History of the paleo diet

The paleo diet was first introduced into contemporary culture in the 1970s by Walter Voegtlin. The theory behind adopting paleolithic eating habits rests on the premise that the genetic identity of humans has remained virtually unchanged since the dawn of agriculture, so modern humans remain genetically adapted to survive on a hunter-gatherer diet. This approach is controversial among experts on nutrition, but has experienced a recent revival since its adoption by the elite fitness program CrossFit, followed by military units and professional and elite athletes worldwide.

What is the paleo diet?

Paleolithic humans consumed all the edible parts of the animals they hunted, including fat, internal organs, brain and bone marrow. As a result, their intake of fat represented about 35% of their total energy intake, which is higher than the accepted limit of 30% set by a number of modern authorities on nutrition. However, saturated fat intake was lower, since wild animals tend to have a lower proportion of saturated fat than their farmed counterparts.

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