There are many reasons to jump on the paleo bandwagon. Unfortunately there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the diet and a lot of nitpicking (Can I eat dairy? Are potatoes paleo? Can I eat white rice?). Some of these details get in the way of people achieving their health goals, so let’s focus on the main reasons to eat a paleo diet.
There are many shades of paleo and it’s a great template to begin your health journey.
5 reasons to eat a paleo inspired diet:
1. It’s a REAL FOOD diet.
Many diets like the slim fast diet or nutrisystem diet are nothing more than processed junk in a can. That’s not food, it’s food-like product. Health starts with real food. You might have short term success with those other diets, you may be losing weight… but are you GAINING health? Probably not.
2. It removes processed food
Food that comes in a box is not food, it’s food-like product. It’s not an all or nothing rule, some boxes contain one or 2 ingredients and can be a helpful part of your diet (think a box of almond flour), but in general, if it comes in a box… it’s probably not food.
Processed chemicals such as food dyes, preservatives, artificial fillers, etc. are linked to a myriad of health problems. Any healthful diet starts by removing processed foods.
3. It removes inflammatory vegetable oils (canola, soy, cottonseed, etc.)
Vegetable oils are heavily processed, high in omega 6 fatty acids, are typically genetically modified, and usually laden in pesticides. For optimum balance of fatty acids you want to use fat that is high in omega 3, which these oils are devoid in. They are also highly unstable and inflammatory to the body.
As for soy, the highly processed form found in soybean oil is hazardous to health. It is full of phytoestrogens which serve as estrogen mimickers in the body. Excess estrogen levels increase your risk of cancer, PCOS, and other hormone-related disorders. In addition, its high levels of phytic acid make it difficult for your body to absorb vitamins and minerals.
Approximately 90% of soy and canola oil is genetically modified.
4. It’s naturally low in sugar
There’s no diet that advocates for high sugar (even though a lot of them actually HAVE high sugar). This is for good reason, it’s deleterious to health in a variety of ways. It’s connected to every condition under the sun from heart disease to diabetes.
5. There are countless success stories of people losing substantial weight and curing chronic disease on the paleo diet.
Why is this? It’s because it’s a diet of REAL FOOD. Because it eliminates PROCESSED JUNK. It’s anti-inflammatory and it’s naturally low in sugar. Of course it’s going to make people healthy!
These are the real reasons why people have success on the paleo diet.
Thank you to Ania from www.livecleannourish.com for guest writing this post.
Live Clean Nourish is a paleo inspired, natural health blog that encourages readers to take health into their own hands. Invest in your health and join the community on Facebook: All Things Natural Health – A Paleo Perspective.
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