Paleolithic Diet

When evaluating human health, it is necessary to look at the how the human body evolved. An evolutionary perspective is important to fully understand human health because it tells us how and why our bodies adapted. By knowing how our bodies adapted, we are giving them the best possible chance to function at their full potential. By functioning at their full potential, we are diminishing our chances for life threatening conditions, and improving our overall life quality and expectancy.
One example that comes to mind is the paleolithic diet. In order to understand what our body consumes best, to keep it functioning properly, we need to understand what our ancestors were consuming when our bodies were developing. Research has shown that our body was not designed to eat the processed foods that are so heavily consumed today. One study had ten participants consume a paleolithic style diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and nuts for ten days. At the end of the ten day period, significant improvements in blood pressure and lipid profiles, as well as decreases of insulin secretion, were seen (Frassettto et al. 2009). In the long term, the effects are outstanding. A group of 70 obese woman, all of whom were postmenopausal with an average age of 60 years, were placed on either the paleo diet or a nutritionist recommended diet for two years. In just six months, waist circumference decreased for individuals on both diets. Women on the paleo diet had
In understanding what our body is meant to eat, we can use an individual’s diet as a mechanism of healing. Our diets are evolving faster than our body can process, and we need to do a better job of accommodating our bodies and what they need to function. By doing this, we can use something as simple as diet to alleviate different conditions like high blood pressure, and better our quality of