The Paleo Diet.
First off, I’m going to try to refrain from using the term ‘diet’ and I’ll explain why in one of my blogs. So let me re-start...
The Paleo Lifestyle.
There, that has a nice ring to it. What does it mean to be Paleo? Well, in a nutshell the rules are as follows:
- 1. Eat lots of meats and vegetables and eat some fruits, nuts, seeds and healthy fats—like avocados, and animal fat.
- 2. Avoid carbs, sugar (and dairy if you want to be hardcore) like the plague.
That’s it. Really. Now, if you’re like most people, you can’t just sit there and be like “oh, cool…I’ll start right away”. We’re human, we’re curious. So why be Paleo? I’ll try to be brief
Processed simple carbohydrates and sugars wreak havoc on our bodies. They have a significant effect on our blood sugar and are the main reasons why obesity and diabetes have blown out of control. When we eat carbs and sugar, we are introducing an excessive amount of glucose into the blood stream. Our body closely regulates glucose to keep it within a safe range because excess glucose is toxic to our bodies. When our bodies sense this spike in glucose, your pancreas sends out insulin to resolve the problem. Insulin’s job is primarily to feed the glucose in your blood stream to hungry cells and then send the leftovers to the liver to be turned into triglycerides for storage in your fat cells. When insulin hangs around too often, it also means you store a lot of fat and have trouble using fat as energy. Too much insulin too often also causes another major problem…
Now, on to dairy. The bad news about dairy is that milk triggers a big insulin response and it also elevates insulin-like growth factor. These are hormones that promote rapid growth but it also speeds aging and potentially increases the risk of some cancers. Epidemiological studies also indicate that dairy intake may increase breakouts of acne…cue the ugly duckling flashbacks from high school!
Dairy ain’t all that bad though. Some paleo partakers don’t find the risks worth completely eliminating dairy and will still eat full fat dairy products like heavy cream and greek yogurt. Milk has been linked to lower incidences of Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It may also help suppress the oxidative and inflammatory stress associated with overweight and obesity.
When it comes down to it, our bodies weren’t made to process most of the food available to us these days. If you take a look at anything in your cabinet that isn’t natural you’d be shocked at all the chemicals that are required to make it taste amazing (yeah, I said it. Judge me!). Those chemicals help makes those foods addicting so that we will come back and buy buy buy. Eat natural and you’ll be amazed at its benefits.
That was me being brief…something I clearly need to work on. If you want even more information, check out this site. It’s JAM PACKED with awesome articles on just about every topic.
