THE FIVE PILLARS OF THE CAVEMAN DIET#1. Nuts, berries, seeds, fruits and vegetables.
#2. Meat that has been recently slain and then cooked over a fire. Eggs are also okay, either raw, fried or cooked.
#3. Lots of water, but also juices from fruits and tea made from local plants for its medicinal benefits. eg. Birch bark tea contains aspirin.
#4. No sugary / fatty / processed factory made foods filled with corn syrup and other horrible things.
#5. No bread or grains. This means no flour, no cake, no rice, no spaghetti, nothing filled with carbs.
Now you might be thinking, what about milk? Well that is a tricky one. You see cavemen also sucked the marrow from bones, but trying to do that in our modern era just isn't practical. Eating nuts, berries, fruits, vegetables, meat, juice and water is certainly easily doable and practical. Sucking marrow from bones is not.
And there is also no proof that cavemen didn't use the milk from the animals they killed. It is widely understood that they used everything... the skins, the meat, the bones... even the intestines. So if they killed a milk-bearing female animal, its quite likely they did drink the milk too. It is certainly a matter of "what ifs" to be debated, so I leave that one to personal preference.
So in short the Paleolithic diet is really just a diet centred around eating the basics. Its very low in carbs, low in fat, its high in veggies, and you are still eating meat 2 or maybe 3 times per week, depending on the quality of the hunting.
Thus the diet of Cavemen and Cavewomen is pretty similar to what our modern athletes eat, with the exception of the protein shakes and protein bars... but that can be compensated with healthy doses of nuts and berries.
Thus the Caveman or Hunter / Gatherer Diet offers something that is easy to follow and is guaranteed to provide a stable, balanced and healthy diet - one that is sure to reduce someone's weight.
Which will people will no doubt break when they're left in charge of a box of doughnuts. Carbs and sugar in combination are difficult to resist, but if a person has the willpower they can just set the box down and forget its there.
Everyone is blessed/cursed with one particular caveman gene, and that is the gene that causes people to store fat for the winter. Whenever someone gorges themselves on fatty food, that fat is then stored on their body unless they have a remarkably high metabolism. As Winter approaches cavemen find themselves eating less fruits and berries and more meat. Combined with less sunlight and they are taking in less Vitamin D, which kickstarts a fat-storing process for the Winter. Thanks to the extra meat they will eating more fat, and if the food is plentiful they should have fat tummies by the time winter arrives and food becomes more scarce.
The reverse happens in the Spring when increased sunlight and more fruits/veggies increases Vitamin D intake and people start losing weight and feeling more energetic. So if your goal is weight loss the modern man does have an advantage: We can keep eating fruits/veggies in the colder months and maintain our Vitamin D levels so we don't store up fat like cavemen do.
The good news about the Hunter / Gatherer Diet is that its very easy to maintain. The food tastes good, you still get to eat meat and dairy, but you're avoiding carbs, sugars and fats - things which have been proven to be bad for us health wise.
Giving up our beloved sandwiches and pizzas and cakes can be tricky. But it can be done if you have the willpower and eventually you reach a point where you don't really miss the carbs because you've kicked the habit.
It also promotes the concept of buying freshly butchered meat as opposed to processed meats which have sugar, salt and other things added to them.
You can still have things like bacon, but you still shouldn't be eating bacon on a constant basis.
Seeds and nuts are a great source of healthy fats and protein. Chocolate covered almonds still make a good treat on rare occasions. You can still expect the once in awhile craving for sugar or chocolate, and you shouldn't be afraid to treat yourself - but you have to discipline yourself at the same time and remember that its all about maintaining a healthy balance.
Ultimately, it's up to the individual to figure out how they want their diet to work. Some people might choose that they don't want to give up ice cream - but as a balancing factor they aim for the low fat ice cream and they sprinkle or combine the ice cream with nuts and berries.
Deprivation diets don't work - but understanding the need for balance in a healthy diet does work.
