The Paleo Diet: Pros and Cons At a Quick Glance

Paleo diet is the contemporary version of what our ancestors ate from Palaeolithic era about 10,000 years ago. The diet plan mainly lays stress on foods that can be gathered or hunted naturally like fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seafood, seeds, poultry etc. Small quantity of healthy oil is permitted though dairy products, grains and processed foods are a complete no-no.

So let’s take a closer look at pros and cons of the Paleo diet and whether it is good to follow it or not.

Pros

Paleo diet is packed with soluble fibre, photo chemicals, antioxidant vitamins, monounsaturated fat, omega 3 fatty acids as well as low glycemic carbs. Also, it is gluten free and has less added sugar, salt, trans fat.

Foods that people generally overindulge in include chocolate caramel brownie etc and they are completely off the limits in Paleo diet. Thus, the health benefits like high energy levels may be less linked with this diet and could be a result of cutting down the high caloric processed food.

The diet stresses on the importance of eating grass fed, raw, organic foods. As our agriculture system is not like the way it used to be in previous times, our food has thus become low in quality. With toxic pesticides, harmful animal feeds etc, the food we eat these days is not safe for our health. Thus the Paleo diet places much emphasis on eating the food items that are grown naturally and organically. So, in a way, going Paleo simply means going back to basics of old times.

Cons

Paleo eating has a number of qualities and benefits. It emphasizes on fruits, lean proteins, whole foods, fruits, healthy fats and vegetables. Including more of such food items in your diet will surely help a great deal in maintaining a healthy and fit body. However as there are two sides to a coin, the diet has some cons as well.

First of all, it allows low carbs. As bodybuilders, fitness freaks and athletes, such people need more carbs than the average individual. The brain and body is fuelled by carbohydrates and by following an active life, it is impossible to get all these carbs you require from the vegetables only and that too when majority of them are non starchy.

A lot of Paleo athletes follow modified version of the diet that incorporates some rice and potatoes in order to meet the carbs needs.

Also, the diet is a bit restrictive when it comes to choosing what to eat. Talking about the Paleo diet, some foods that are generally considered to be healthy are not allowed in this diet. Legumes, grains and dairy products seem to get bad reputation today due to Paleo popularity. But for majority of people, such good nutritional staples do not have to be avoided even when they follow this diet.

These are just a few cons of the diet. But on the whole, Paleo living is more of a boon for the population.