By Nutritionist Janvi Chitalia
Founder, Body Cocoon
The diet limits consuming food that is believed to be available to mankind during the paleolithic age. The main key is to eat wholesome food and avoid packaged and unprocessed foods.
The concept of Paleolithic diets are derived from the Paleolithic age where people would eat natural, unprocessed readily available foods from forests and natural surroundings, making the diet as unprocessed and fresh in produce as possible
Foods which should be consumed:
- Fruits: All different varieties of fruits especially berries should be included
- Nuts/ seeds : Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnut, watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
- Meats and eggs : All varieties of meats which are unprocessed, chicken, lamb, turkey or eggs (buy free range eggs high on omega 3)
- Greens: Green leafy vegetables , salads, broccoli, kale, spinach
- Oils : avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oils
- Fish: Fish high on omega3 fatty acids like mackerel, salmon or sardines are allowed on the diet. (to choose wild caught fish as much as possible)
The main things to avoid on a Paleolithic diet is
- Sugars: Any food items which are rice based or which are high on sugars should be avoided such as cakes, pastries, any milkshakes, ice creams
- High fried foods: Foods which are high on trans fats or saturated packaged fats should be avoided, such as chips, other fried snacks, processed meats should be avoided
- Grains: Any whole wheat or any other simple carbohydrates to be avoided
- Dairy: Any dairy products which are processed should also be avoided
- Beans: Any beans or pulses to be avoided due to their carbohydrate content and them being processed
- Oils and fats: Avoid sunflower, safflower, corn oils due to their high omega 6 content.
Recently with variations of Paleolithic diet, gluten free grains such as buckwheat and Amaranth have also been added to the diet