Caveman's diet/Paleolithic Diet and Its Benefits

 

I was a bit chubby, and I have tried so many kinds of dieting and slimming products just to achieve my desired weight and scales. I was kind of desperate and I even lost my hopes of reducing until one day,as I was heading to my destination in Cebu, I bought a magazine just to kill my time while waiting for my trip. It was from YES magazine, one of the feature stars is Izza Calzado. I am familiar with her because when she was still at GMA Network, I had watched several of her shows. I had seen how her figure was way back then. I seen her as chubby too, but seeing her now, she had transformed differently. Her figure now is so lean and sexy. According to her, she is into CAVEMAN's diet or Paleolithic Diet. Caveman's diet is somehow adapting our human ancestor's way back the times they are still living in the caves.

I. What is Caveman's Diet?

A Caveman's diet or the paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithicera—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet

I did some research and here's I found out.

II. The benefist of Caveman's Diet:

Caveman's diet is known to bring a lot of health benefits. It's main purpose is to lose weight at slow pace. Research findings show some promising results obtained from this diet. Initially you will not lose weight but several studies show that blood sugar control is being improved, blood pressure is better controlled and even blood vessel elasticity. This diet helps lower blood cholesterol  and what is amazing about this diet, results can be obtained in even less than a month. it's a healthy diet to control diabetes.

According to studies, people with diabetes are more likely to acquire kidney and heart diseases  Often these diseases are interrelated; high blood pressure and  diabetes cause higher risks for kidney diseases. 

To show the potential benefits of this diet, several studies have been conducted. A UCSF kidney specialist named Lyndra Frassetto and her team has supported through Clinical Researches the benefits of undergoing this kind of diet. In their studies, nine participants who are out of shape and sedentary have been placed to eat a normal diet for three days, and after that had undergone a Paleolithic diet over a week and then stuck to it for another 10 days. Results show that the reduction in bad cholesterol "low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was roughly around 22%. All nine also had lowered their levels of fats known as triglycerides.

1. Insulin-resistance and the Paleolithic diet

The former studies, do not include people with diabetes. but it supported the interrelation case of most insulin resistant patients which tremendous improvement. According to Frassetto  "Those early results led to another study -- this one focused on people with type 2 diabetes. To complete the study Frassetto and UCSF endocrinologist Umesh Masharani, MD, are looking for a few more people with type 2 diabetes who do not also have confounding medical problems. The ongoing study is not open to individuals taking prescribed insulin or thiazolidinediones such as Avandia or Actos."

Moreover, they found out that in their researches, the calorie intake in this kind of diet is mainly controlled

2. Weight Loss Potential.

In the current study there also is a control group. Those assigned to the control group receive a diet that meets criteria established by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). In both diets about 40 percent of calories come from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fat, and 30 percent from protein. Ten study patients will be assigned to each group.

Compared to the ADA-type diet, the Paleolithic diet used in the study is very low in salt – less than two grams per day. The Paleolithic diet also is higher in potassium, lower in polyunsaturated fat, and less acidic.

As a nephrologist, Frassetto initially became interested in the Paleolithic diet because of its low acidity. Aging and kidney failure are both associated with increasing blood acidity, she explains. That does not prove that the increasing acidity is contributing to poor health, but the body does try to keep blood pH tightly regulated. Fruits and vegetables help buffer acid-producing foods, which include dairy products and grains, Frassetto says.

Patients in the current study also sign on for blood and urine tests. Among them is an insulin clamp, the gold-standard test for insulin resistance, according to Masharani. Participants receive an insulin infusion at a steady rate, and then a variable amount of glucose is given to keep the blood glucose level normal. Insulin-resistant people need very little glucose to maintain normal levels in the blood. In contrast, insulin-sensitive people need much more.

III. What to eat?

Here is a list of all foods under the Caveman's Diet that are encouraged to be eaten:Taken from the book Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain (Wiley and Sons, New York 2002 pages 104-112).

Encouraged Foods Lean Meats  Lean beef (trimmed of visible fat) Flank steak Top sirloin steak Extra-lean hamburger (no more than 7% fat, extra fat drained off) London broil Chuck steak Lean veal Any other lean cut Lean pork (trimmed of visible fat) Pork loin Pork chops Any other lean cut Lean poultry (white meat, skin removed) Chicken breast Turkey breast Game hen breasts Eggs (limit to six a week) Chicken (go for the enriched omega 3 variety) Duck Goose Other meats Rabbit meat (any cut) Goat meat (any cut) Organ meats Beef, lamb, pork, and chicken livers Beef, pork, and lamb tongues Beef, lamb, and pork marrow Beef, lamb, and pork “sweetbreads” Game meat Alligator Bear Bison (buffalo) Caribou Elk Emu Goose Kangaroo Muscovy duck New Zealand cervena deer Ostrich Pheasant Quail Rattlesnake Reindeer Squab Turtle Venison Wild boar Wild turkey Fish Bass Bluefish Cod Drum Eel Flatfish Grouper Haddock Halibut Herring Mackerel Monkfish Mullet Northern pike Orange roughy Perch Red snapper Rockfish Salmon Scrod Shark Striped bass Sunfish Tilapia Trout Tuna Turbot Walleye Any other commercially available fish Shellfish Abalone Clams Crab Crayfish Lobster Mussels Oysters Scallops Shrimp Fruit Apple Apricot Avocado Banana Blackberries Blueberries Boysenberries Cantaloupe Carambola Cassava melon Cherimoya Cherries Cranberries Figs Gooseberries Grapefruit Grapes Guava Honeydew melon Kiwi Lemon Lime Lychee Mango Nectarine Orange Papaya Passion fruit Peaches Pears Persimmon Pineapple Plums Pomegranate Raspberries Rhubarb Star fruit Strawberries Tangerine Watermelon All other fruits Vegetables Artichoke Asparagus Beet greens Beets Bell peppers Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Collards Cucumber Dandelion Eggplant Endive Green onions Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushrooms Mustard greens Onions Parsley Parsnip Peppers (all kinds) Pumpkin Purslane Radish Rutabaga Seaweed Spinach Squash (all kinds) Swiss chard Tomatillos Tomato (actually a fruit, but most people think of it as a vegetable) Turnip greens Turnips Watercress

Encouraged Foods Nuts and Seeds Almonds Brazil nuts Cashews Chestnuts Hazelnuts (filberts) Macadamia nuts Pecans Pine nuts Pistachios (unsalted) Pumpkin seeds Sesame seeds Sunflower seeds Walnuts Foods To Be Eaten In Moderation Oils Olive, avocado, walnut, flaxseed, and canola oils (use in moderation—4 tablespoons or less a day when weight loss is of primary importance) Beverages Diet sodas (These often contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine, which may be harmful; you’re better off drinking bottled and mineral waters.) Coffee Tea Wine (two 4-ounce glasses; Note: Don’t buy “cooking wine,” which is loaded with salt.) Beer (one 12-ounce serving) Spirits (4 ounces) Paleo Sweets Dried fruits (no more than 2 ounces a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight) Nuts mixed with dried and fresh fruits (no more than 4 ounces of nuts and 2 ounces of dried fruit a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight) Foods You Should Avoid Dairy Foods All processed foods made with any dairy products Butter Cheese Cream Dairy spreads Frozen yogurt Ice cream Ice milk Low-fat milk Nonfat dairy creamer Powdered milk Skim milk Whole milk Yogurt Cereal Grains Barley (barley soup, barley bread, and all processed foods made with barley) Corn (corn on the cob, corn tortillas, corn chips, corn starch, corn syrup) Millet Oats (steel-cut oats, rolled oats, and all processed foods made with oats) Rice (brown rice, white rice, top ramen, rice noodles, bas mati rice, rice cakes, Rice flour (all processed foods made with rice) Rye (rye bread, rye crackers, and all processed foods made with rye) Sorghum Wheat (bread, rolls, muffins, noodles, crackers, cookies, cake, doughnuts, pancakes, waffles, pasta, spaghetti, lasagna, wheat tortillas, pizza, pita bread, flat bread, and all processed foods made with wheat or wheat flour) Wild rice Cereal Grainlike Seeds Amaranth Buckwheat Quinoa Legumes All beans (adzuki beans, black beans, broad beans, fava beans, field beans, garbanzo beans, horse beans, kidney beans, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red beans, string beans, white beans) Black-eyed peas Chickpeas Lentils Peas Miso Peanut butter Peanuts Snowpeas Sugar snap peas Soybeans and all soybean products, including tofu Starchy Vegetables Starchy tubers Cassava root Manioc Potatoes and all potato products (French fries, potato chips, etc.) Sweet potatoes Tapioca pudding Yams Salt-Containing Foods Almost all commercial salad dressings and condiments Bacon Cheese Deli meats Frankfurters Ham Hot dogs Ketchup Olives Pickled foods Pork rinds Processed meats Salami Salted nuts Salted spices Sausages Smoked, dried, and salted fish and meat Virtually all canned meats and fish (unless they are unsalted or unless you soak and drain them) Fatty Meats Bacon Beef ribs Chicken and turkey legs Chicken and turkey skin Chicken and turkey thighs and wings• Fatty beef roasts Fatty cuts of beef Fatty ground beef Fatty pork chops Fatty pork roasts Lamb chops Lamb roasts Leg of lamb Pork ribs Pork sausage T—bone steaks Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices All sugary soft drinks Canned, bottled, and freshly squeezed fruit drinks (which lack the fiber of fresh fruit and have a much higher glvcemic index) Sweets Candy Honey Sugars

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
http://health.universityofcalifornia.edu/2010/05/03/benefits-of-paleolithic-diet/
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/paleodietcavemandiet/a/paleodietfood.htm
Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain (Wiley and Sons, New York 2002