The Caveman Diet is about Real Food Consumption . . . Period!

Caveman Diet??!

Have you ever wondered what a caveman ate? To be honest with you, I have not put much thought into it myself. That may seem odd coming from the Paleo Doctor. After all, shouldn’t I be researching this kind of stuff so I can tell you exactly what Paleolithic people indulged in so we can mimic it? The truth is, it never really seemed like it needed a lot of thought. The answer just seemed obvious to me. Cavemen did not have vast options to choose from. Not to say they did not have a large variety of foods. This they did have. However, there was not a huge selection of locations from which to obtain food. The choices were simple. You ate off of the land or you consumed an animal of something that came from an animal.

What kind of foods did they eat?

There seems to be controversy about what the Paleo, or caveman, diet consisted of. Some would suggest that it was higher in protein, assuming that most of the food was animal derived. In contrast, others would lead us down the path implying that our forefathers ingested a higher amount of plant derived foods. The assumption here is that plants were more plentiful and easier to obtain. Thus, they were more readily consumed. As you can see, arguments can be made for both ends of the spectrum. Even today, in cultures that remain less civilized and closer to their ancestral heritage and customs, eating patterns are observed that support both sides. There does not appear a clear message about what the caveman diet should be.

Let me tell you what they didn’t eat

If at this point you are starting to feel confused about which direction to take with your diet don’t. In fact, we have yet to point out the one fact that will make implementing the Paleo diet a cinch! Let’s revisit our caveman in their environment. Rather, let’s examine our forefathers across many different cultures. The one consistency among all such individuals is they lived off of what they had access to. Regardless of where they were from, that meant they ate what they could pick or gather and catch or kill. Thus, it had to be real food. It was not processed, nor preserved. It was in the natural state that God provided it. Thus, the common thread in caveman diet is not that it is high in protein, low carb, or based on plants. No! The single most important fact to take away from the Paleo diet is that it is the consumption of real food.

Dead food means devoid of nutrients, live means full of nutrients

Eating real (live) food means your are providing the body with the most perfect fuel source that you could offer it. The body functions at its best when it is given the right nutrients without the interference of damaging and quite frankly, dead foods. Would a caveman have eaten a food with no life to it? Absolutely not! In fact, such things did not even exist. There was no necessity to go out of ones way to consume healthy food. All food was healthy. Ironically, chronic disease did not exist either. I say all of this to simply say, don’t get bogged down in the argument of what constitutes the caveman’s diet. High protein, high fat and high plant could all be part of the caveman’s diet. It really just depends on the place of origin.  Moreover, the body can function well on just about any of these dietary regimens within reason.If you need healthy Paleo ideas, you can always get a Paleo Cookbook for a good Paleo recipe. For yourself, make life easy and just eat real food.