Back to the stone age! The ancient diet included eating only unprocessed food. So only stone age people can collect and hunt. But how suitable is this diet for daily use? What can you eat? All the answers to the nutrition problems of the stone age can be found in my new blog!
Ancient diet? Isn’t it that you can only eat grass? No, the nutrition of the stone age is actually out of date in 2017. Because almost everyone became an ancient in a very short time, growing vegetables by themselves and hitting each other with stones until sparks splashed. Then we puffed up in front of our chest: “artificial fire”.
But even if we are really tired of being bombarded by Paleolithic biscuits, Paleolithic baking compounds, and anything on supermarket shelves and magazines, we still can’t get rid of the topic of “Paleolithic Age”.
It may be because it has more to do with it than just healthy eating and avoiding processed food. Paleo brings us back to the roots of the digital and abstract world.
We are collectors and hunters again. We dig holes in the ground and paint the walls. We don’t have to worry about unpaid bills or new dental insurance.
So I decided to start my own 30 day paleo self experiment.
Why is it just now, not when I have a chance to surf ancient waves? Well, to be honest, I didn’t start reading Harry Potter until the third movie was released.
This is the way I use the ancient diet now.
The positive effect of trying for a long time after the end of the actual trend is that you can objectively judge the diet and trend without hype. It’s a bit like when you take off your rose colored glasses after falling in love, you can directly see all rough relationships for the first time.
What is what people in the Paleolithic age actually ate?
Probably only things that existed at that time, such as berries, wild vegetables and meat or fish. In short: using the stone age diet, you should only eat what you can catch or pick.
The ulterior motive of stone age diet is that human beings have genetically adapted to the food supply of the Paleolithic age and can develop accordingly. He must move a lot every day and be able to endure longer periods of hunger.
On the other hand, we are now living a very rich life (at least in the western world). We often eat many high calorie and high carbohydrate foods, as well as sugar and salt.
Civilized diseases such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes or allergies are often related to the “wrong” diet.
According to stone age enthusiasts, the Paleolithic age is the answer to this question: how can we restore our balance?
The motto of stone age diet is “return to the origin”.
Because the followers of nutrition in the stone age believe that the human genome has hardly changed in the past 10000 years, while living conditions and food have changed dramatically.
Because Neanderthals hardly make yogurt by themselves, let alone eat spaghetti. At that time, there was no cattle raising and agriculture, so it was said that grain and dairy products were not part of this diet.
If you (or women) want to implement the stone age diet in today’s world, you may have to make one or another compromise, because we can’t pick a lot of fresh food from trees or catch them by ourselves.
What foods are there in the ancient diet?
The food you can choose in the stone age diet always depends on your own attitude. How strict do you want to be with yourself? Do you really want to give up everything?
Or add some food (such as coffee) to your diet that you must not have
Vegetables and roots
Green is the basis of ancient diet. Of course, the best is our own practice. Basically, you can get vegetables correctly and eat enough. However, you should only eat starchy vegetables in moderation, such as potatoes or pumpkins.
Here are some vegetables you can safely eat (a longer list):
Artichokes, cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, iceberg lettuce, lettuce, mutton lettuce, fennel, kale, cucumber, carrot, turnip, lettuce, tomato
Fruit and fruit
A small amount of fruit is allowed. Because many types of fruits not only taste very sweet, but also usually contain a lot of fructose. Therefore, it is best to use low sugar fruits (such as berries). You should also try to buy regional and seasonal fruits more frequently (so please don’t eat strawberries in winter!).
Here are some fruits suitable for the ancient diet:
Avocado, rhubarb, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, blueberry, elderberry, watermelon, currant, plum
Meat, seafood and eggs
Meat is an important part of ancient diet. Basically, there is no inedible meat here.
However, it is important that you buy meat from healthy herbivores (which is certainly more expensive, but certainly of higher quality). Stay away from processed meat. As a result, sausages and hot dogs, as well as seasoned or pickled meat products, are being removed from the menu.
Seafood, like meat, is also an important food group on the ancient menu. Here, it is also important to avoid fish farming and factory farming and pay attention to seals (such as MSc). When it comes to eggs, you should also make sure that you only eat the eggs of “happy chicken” (probably from local egg farmers).
The following is a sample selection of meat and fish you can buy:
Duck, trout, shrimp, herring, chicken, scallops, COD, veal, rabbit, carp, beef, salmon
grease
Fat won’t make you fat. If you use it moderately, at least not. Because fat is not only the carrier of flavor, but also responsible for our body to absorb some vitamins. However, you should pay attention to the type of fat you use.
You can eat the following fats in the ancient diet:
Butter, coconut oil, nut oil (such as walnut oil), olive oil (natural, cold pressed), sesame oil (cold pressed)
What foods did not exist in the ancient diet?
If you want to live according to the nutritional rules of the stone age, you should remember a basic principle: stay away from processed food!
In order to really get rid of the Paleolithic diet, it helps to simply skip certain areas of the supermarket, such as the cereal aisle, the cheese counter, the bakery, and the refrigerated dairy area.
Cereal products – pasta, bread and company.
Since people in the stone age had little opportunity to grow grain in the field, all types of grain products should be avoided during the ancient diet. Ancient believers believed that cereal products are highly processed and rich in digestible carbohydrates, which will cause our blood glucose levels to rise rapidly and then fall again.
This roller coaster will lead to fatigue and lack of energy for most people.
Of course, this is not entirely correct, because not all grains are made entirely of short chain carbohydrates. So if you don’t want to eat carbohydrates at all, you should try to use “good” carbohydrates, such as rye and spelt wheat, and avoid white flour products.
However, for the sake of accuracy, I will try to avoid using all types of grains during the stone age diet.
Dairy products – yogurt, cheese and cream
Although a cup of whole milk is part of breakfast every day, and even candy with “extra milk” has been publicized, products made of cattle, sheep or goats have been increasingly criticized.
Because many people cannot tolerate dairy products, because their body cannot break down lactose (lactose). In addition, the growth hormone contained in milk should ensure that calves grow faster than average, but it will imbalance our hormone balance and even prevent weight loss.
So the ancient diet said: please don’t quark, cheese, milk and kefir.
Beans – beans, lentils, etc.
I am an absolute fan of beans. But like Cereals, ancient believers believed that beans contained a large number of plant defense proteins (lectins) and phytates, which would prevent the absorption of important minerals.
For this reason, “the ancients” believed that beans were more harmful than good to human body, so beans should be banned during the ancient diet.
This applies to all bean products, lentils, peas, peanuts, red beans, black beans and kidney beans.
Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself whether to avoid beans in the stone age diet. Because there is no doubt that beans are healthy.
Artificial sweeteners and sugars
Absolutely taboo! It is not only highly processed, but also harmful to health if consumed in large quantities. So please: Goodbye sugar! This also applies to agave syrup, soft drinks, candy and sugary beverages (including fruit sparkling wine).
Refined oil
Rapeseed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and margarine are taboos. Because they usually have an unfavorable proportion of fatty acids, they are oxidized rapidly and processed in large quantities. You should also ensure that you only buy oil in glass bottles, because plasticizers and other additives are often used in plastic packaging, which will migrate into the oil and harm our bodies.
With these precautions, I started a 30 day ancient challenge. I’m glad to see that I can get new insights from my diet, body and consumer behavior.
The results of the 30 day challenge will be in my next blog post! Have a wonderful week!
