Is a caveman diet right for you?
By Ellen Griffin
Well Journal
There was a time when calling your dinner companion a "real Neanderthal" was a major insult. Not any more.
A new breed of foodies insists that eating like a caveman is the secret to staying lean and living longer.
Following a prehistoric, or "Neolithic," diet is simple. If a food is perfectly edible as it grows in the wild, it's OK, says Ray Audette, author of NeaderThin (St. Martin's Paperbacks).
But the diet forbids foods that require man's intervention to grow or make edible. So, you can hunt, gather or buy fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, roots, berries, eggs, legumes and nuts.
But, throw away your alcoholic drinks, refined sugar and such mainstays of the modern diet as potatoes, wheat, corn, rice, beans, soy, peanuts, milk and cheese.
While some Neolithic chefs insist on foods in their natural state, others allow cooking, so long as the food qualifies as edible in nature. Most cave cuisine aficionados, for example, advocate cooking meat for safety reasons.
Bad news for coffee lovers. Those beans need intervention even before brewing, so the caveman needs to get his morning jolt from something other than java.
Eat like your ancestors
What's so new and improved about a high-fat, high-protein diet? Not much, and that's the appeal.
Paleolithic proponents contend that agriculture, domestication and industrialization have introduced foods that man isn't created to handle. Our over-reliance on grain-based nutrition is especially problematic, says exercise physiologist Loren Cordain, Ph.D., author of the popular The Paleo Diet (John Wiley & Sons).
The best path for avoiding diabetes, heart disease and other "diseases of civilization," says Cordain, is to follow the hunter-gatherer diet that mankind spent 2 million years adapting to.
The diet's long-term effects on modern man's heart and general health haven't been studied well enough to convince experts that it's safe. And clearly, consuming up to 30% protein and a whopping 40% fat each day flies in the face of the food pyramid.
But many aspects of caveman eating are in synch with traditional nutritionists. The majority agree on the benefits of leafy vegetables and low-sugar fruits, and that it's best to eat when hungry vs. to satisfy an emotional need. Keeping salt, preservatives and pesticides to a minimum are widely accepted goals, as is eating fish rich in heart-healthy omega fats.
Grazing is amazing
Perhaps most important, cavemen don't overindulge. "By grazing throughout the day, the energy level stays more constant with fewer blood-sugar drops, which results in less binge eating and cravings," says Susan Mitchell, Ph.D., RD, FADA, a nutrition expert and co-author of Eat to Stay Young (Kensington).
Beware that cutting dairy and grains from your diet has a down side, Dr. Mitchell says. You'll have to work harder to find sources of calcium and vitamin D that match those found in milk and cheeses. And, the B vitamins in grains are proving to play an important role in cardiovascular health. "Folic acid, B6 and the other Bs reduce the homocysteine level in the blood, a major risk factor for heart disease," she points out.
© 2002 Well Journal Inc.
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