The paleo diet refers to the eating habits of men and women before the agricultural revolution, back when people subsisted on hunter-gatherer diets and the only tool was a sharp rock.  We have come a long way since then, introducing our bodies to complex carbohydrates and smartphones, but until 12,000 years ago we only ate berries, nuts, and meat we had to catch ourselves.  Our bodies adapted to this diet over hundreds of thousands of years and supporters of the paleo diet say we have not had long enough to adapt to the current American diet.  Anthropolgists have studied the remains of the elderly population of the paleolithic people and found that they were generally free of the chronic diseases that plague our society: obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Fortunately for us, we can enjoy all these same benefits without eating raw woolly mammoth.  The diet consists of anything that was available to our paleolithic ancestors.  Take our Mango Bean Salad: mixed greens, marinated black beans, mango, avocado, chicken and chipotle lime dressing.  Our ancestors could have stumbled across any one of those ingredients and enjoyed a nice meal for a paleolithic person.  Well, they probably would not have stumbled across our chipotle lime dressing and I doubt they were pressing olive oil, but you get the idea!

There are no rules to the paleo diet, it’s often left up to the judgment of the self-proclaimed paleo who follows it.  In general you should eat nuts, lean meat, lots of fruits and veggies and unfortunately for us Coloradoans, lots of seafood.  All but the latter can be found at Modmarket so come on by and feed your inner caveman.  If you have any questions you can refer to The Paleo Diet’s official website.

Tags: chronic illness, fruits and veggies, lean meat, new diets, Paleo Diet