How (not?) to Diet – The Caveman Diet

The controversial Caveman Diet has some positive and negative points. While it could definitely be useful in losing weight, it also raises concerns about potential risks that could develop along the way…
The Caveman Diet, also referred to as the Paleo or Paleolithic diet is simply a simulation of how our ancestors supposedly ate when they were still living primitive lives. As such, food sources only include that which they were supposedly able to kill or gather, limiting it to meat, fish, fruit, nuts and vegetables.
Additionally, fire was not really a big thing back then – as far as cooking was concerned, what they ate was raw.
The reasoning behind this is that our bodies were genetically engineered for these conditions, and we should simply accept that the human system will function best of treated as it was designed to be treated. In prehistoric times, it is assumed that there were no problems with heart disease, cancer, etc.
Since fire was not yet available, cavemen did not have the ability to cook foods – which means that there were no rice, grains or potatoes in their diet. The diet does, however, make provision for cooking your meat – for the sake of safety (micro-biologically).
As such, the actual calorie content of their food was quite low – which is actually healthy. Some people have raised concerns about the low calorie content – and the debate still goes on about its suitability to the modern human body chemistry as it is known to doctors today.
Compared to our modern day way of eating, it is rather drastic – cutting out most food types we have gotten used to – like bread, cereals, potatoes, pasta, etc. Additionally, man has not started milking animals yet, so dairy products were unknown. Keep in mind that pottery had not been invented yet, so even if they had fire there would not be any way of preparing grains or warming any liquid.
The risky part comes with a lack of calcium…
(although the jury is also still out on the high fat content…)
Since there is no dairy or soy involved in the diet, there is not much to supply decent amounts of calcium as we know it. There are some people who reason that the calcium is only needed to balance the acidic nature of our systems…
But we have to keep in mind that we are living in stressful times – unlike our caveman ancestors – which tends to drain calcium (and some other minerals) from our bodies at an unnatural rate.
So…
Do you dare risk applying ancient habits to modern conditions?
Your choice.
But the Caveman Diet – even if it can be used effectively for weight loss – might simply not be suitable for weight loss considering the demands placed on our bodies by modern day life.

Guest writer: Bushra