Dairy, processed foods, sugar, grains and carbohydrates aren’t allowed – only foods our ancestors would have hunted and gathered.
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According to the most recent research, our ancestors ate carbohydrates too-yes, that means that the popular “Paleo” diet-which is mostly characterized by the complete lack of carbohydrates (starches)-actually did contain some carbs.
Prof. Mark Thomas explained that carbohydrates ought to be introduced in the Paleo diet, as they, alongside meat, had been likely to permit humans to become the dominant species they are today, worldwide.
The Paleo diet has won thousands of fans with its seemingly straightforward logic that what was good for our metabolism when we lived in caves is likely to be good for us today.
“Up until now, there has been a heavy focus on the role of animal protein and cooking in the development of the human brain over the last 2 million years, and the importance of carbohydrates, particular in form of starch-rich plant foods, has been largely overlooked”, the researchers stated.
Previous studies connected human brain development with the discovery of stone tools, which caused humans to shift from a mostly plant-based diet to a meat-based one, according to a press release from the University of Chicago. In other words, without carbs, we might not have the brain capacity to contemplate history and evolution and come up with ideas like a pre-agrarian revolution diet in the first place.
“Eating meals suited to the approach our metabolisms advanced is a unbelievable concept, however when you purchase a guide on the paleo weight-reduction plan it’s in all probability garbage”. At the same time human brains began to increase in size, speeding up rapidly from around 800,000 years ago, in the Mid-Pleistocene.
By around 1.8 million years ago the human digestive tract had shrunk, which archaeologists suggest demonstrates that humans had started eating cooked meat which did not need as much time to digest.
Paleo diet could have negative effects on people’s health, scientists have concluded.
As a matter of fact, the study says that carbohydrates are the dietary component which ensured we could evolve the way that we did. What’s more, says Thomas, “Concentrated starch from plant foods was essential to meet the substantially increased and enlarged brain”. Some of the followers of this diet believe that following this diet can significantly reduce the risk of developing diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.
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The publication further reported that neglecting basic food groups could be unsafe because too much meat has been linked to conditions like bowel cancer.
