Why the Stone Age Diet is Good for You: - Guest Post by Susan White

Why the Stone Age Diet is Good for You

There’s a certain irony in the fact that even though we’re far more advanced than our ancestors of yore, the quality of our life, especially when it comes to health, is not much better than what Paleolithic man used to lead. They did not have as many diseases as we do today, illnesses that are caused partly because of our sedentary and hedonistic lifestyles. Diabetes, cardiac disease, alcoholism, gout, asthma, some forms of cancer, allergies, depression, and other psychological disorders are caused partly because we eat the wrong kind of food, we use convenient ways to travel, and we lead easy and comfortable lives.

Exercise is a perpetual absentee in such lives; compound this with the fact that food is always present and in large and unhealthy quantities, and you have the perfect recipe for disease. One way to effect a change in your lifestyle and prevent diseases that are caused by affluence is to go back to the way of life that our ancestors followed, not by choice, but through necessity. They ate healthier food because it was the only food available – fruits and vegetables that were available locally, animals that they killed in the wild, and roots and other plant parts that were edible. Their diet was free of artificial substances and additives because they had not invented ways of processing and refining food and so gained every bit of nutrition from the food they ate.

If you were to follow the Stone Age diet today, you would probably have to give up foods that are cultivated and manufactured – grains, legumes, oils, dairy products, juices, coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, sugar, salt, and processed meat. What you can include in your diet are unprocessed meat, eggs, seafood, vegetables (exclude some root vegetables that cannot be eaten raw), fruits, nuts, herbs, and naturally occurring sweeteners like honey and maple sugar.

The advantages of the Paleolithic diet include:

· Fewer carbohydrates in your meals and so rapid and effective weight loss.

· Zero additives and preservatives which boost your natural health quotient.

· No sugar and salt which again helps you lose weight and avoid various diseases including hypertension and diabetes.

· Lower incidence of food allergies and less exposure to toxins in food.

An added benefit of this diet is that some people who follow it also tend to adopt the Paleolithic way of life – they eschew modern conveniences and prefer to work out outdoors; sprinting, climbing and other activities that help them to stay fit add to their overall health and keep them free of disease. Besides which, a study conducted at the Department of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden, has found that the Stone Age diet is good for people with or prone to contract diabetes.

On the downside, there are critics who say that the Stone Age diet is a fad diet and is not suitable for the long term. However, they fail to take into consideration the fact that every diet requires self control for it to be effective. If you’re willing to effect the change, then the change provides improvement in all aspects of your life.

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This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of surgical technician schools. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com