Sunday, May 12, 2013

How The Paleo Diet Turns Back The Clock On Fat

By Andrew Simpson


In the time when our ancestors had to hunt down a wooly mammoth to get our food, there were no homo sapiens who had double chins or a spare tire about their gut. Living in a time when you had to find your own food in the wild meant a healthier diet for all. You can take advantage of the practices of the past with the Paleo Diet.

The majority of calories that the average American takes in come from corn in one fashion or another. A hamburger from a fast food restaurant is about eighty percent corn based. Since corn is a grain and not a vegetable, anything from corn syrup in a soft drink to corn-fed beef is simply perpetuating the unhealthy effects of the sugar within the grain.

By consuming artificial ingredients, furthermore, you never know exactly what it is you are eating. Industrial solvents and solutions can be applied to any food so long as it is called an artificial ingredient, without any way of the consumer knowing exactly what they are putting into their body.

Artificial ingredients and corn-based products are a major reason why the majority of Americans are overweight. Managing your calorie intake by choosing only natural food choices is the best way to trim your love handles and eliminate any extra chins. What makes the paleo diet such a viable alternative to factory-farm grown food?

Before humans were able to grow wheat and corn and barley and rice, we relied on whatever food we could find in the forests and coasts and mountains that we travailed. Our ancestors had to hunt and gather for our food, going out each day in order to bring back a meal that their family unit could share. What was the result of hunting and gathering?

Archeologists have shown that human brain sizes have grown significantly in only the past few ten thousand years or so. This is because the paleo diet provided excellent nutrition needed to keep brain matter growing and muscle mass strong. Compare this to a modern diet, which only excels at creating a ring of fat around our midsections.

The major limitations on the Paleo Diet are the foods that are manufactured in laboratories rather than on farms. Since mankind did not domesticate any animals in the Stone Age, dairy products are off the menu, though you can use substitutions like coconut milk for many of your favorite treats. The oils and syrups that plague modern meals are eliminated.

What is in the paleo diet? Simply put, everything: everything that you could have eaten if you lived in the time of the Ice age. If you enjoy eating ham with pineapple, worry not, for your ancestors could have caught themselves a wild boar and then used a pineapple to garnish the feast. If you love seafood soups with cilantro and mushrooms, knock yourself out with the shrimps and mussels of our choosing.

There are so many options available in the Paleo diet that it is easier to tell you what is not available. The syrups and grains and sugars that comprise so much of the "fast food" diet are off limits, since in the Stone Age nobody has heard of cupcakes with no-touch frosting.

This does not mean, however, that you cannot substitute many of your favorite choices to make what you enjoy on the Paleo Diet. Wheat flour, for instance, was not an option of the ancients, but you can make baked goodies out of almond flour, coconut milk, and honey to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Your body burns fat when it needs energy. The Paleo diet provides quality energy in the form of lean proteins like chicken, but will cause your body to burn fat to complement a meal since it is no longer getting the cheap energy from breads or sugars.

What is the result? On the Paleo diet, you need not live like a caveman, but your physique can certainly look like one. You get the nutrition needed for a healthy and happy life while your metabolism revs up in order to process each meal. You burn away excess body fat while creating muscle mass and trim away the unsightly fat built up by a lifetime of artificial ingredients.




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