The Paleo Diet Read online

  Table of Contents

  Praise

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Preface to the Revised Edition

  Acknowledgments

  PART ONE - Understanding the Paleo Diet

  Introduction

  How Our Healthy Way of Life Went Wrong

  Chapter 1 - Not Just Another Low-Carb Diet

  Health Secrets of Our Ancestors

  The Problems with Most Low-Carb Diets

  Low Carb Doesn’t Mean Low Cholesterol

  Healthy Fats, Not Lethal Fats

  Saturated Fats, Reconsidered

  Disease-Fighting Fruits and Vegetables

  The Osteoporosis Connection

  Toxic Salt

  Lean Meat Helps You Lose Weight

  Protein Increases Your Metabolism and Slows Your Appetite

  Lean Protein and Heart Disease

  Chapter 2 - The Ground Rules for the Paleo Diet

  The Fundamentals of the Paleo Diet

  The Seven Keys of the Paleo Diet

  Just the Foods You Can Hunt and Gather at Your Supermarket

  Meal Preparation and Typical Meals

  The Paleo Diet: A Nutritional Bonanza

  The Typical American Diet: A Nutritional Nightmare

  Why You Can’t Overeat on the Paleo Diet

  What to Expect on the Paleo Diet

  Chapter 3 - How Our Diet Went Wrong and What You Can Do about It

  Lean Meat Is Brain Food

  Hunting Big Game

  Restoring the Balance in Your Diet

  How “Progress” Has Hurt Us

  Hello Grains, Hello Health Problems

  Big Mistakes in the 1950s

  The Seven Major Problems in the Typical American Diet

  Minerals

  PART TWO - Losing Weight and Preventing and Healing Diseases

  Chapter 4 - Losing Weight the Paleo Diet Way

  Determining Whether You Need to Lose Weight

  A Doctor Loses 30 Pounds: Ben’s Story

  Why Protein Helps Burn Calories

  Losing 75 Pounds in Six Months: Dean’s Story

  Protein Satisfies Your Appetite

  Promoting Weight Loss by Improving Your Insulin Sensitivity

  What You Can Expect to Lose on the Paleo Diet

  Sharing Success Stories

  Losing 45 Pounds and Healing Crohn’s Disease: Sally’s Story

  Vegetarian Isn’t Better: Ann’s Story

  A Nutritionist Loses 30 Pounds: Melissa’s Story

  Losing Weight the Right Way

  Chapter 5 - Metabolic Syndrome: Diseases of Civilization

  Healing Metabolic Syndrome: Jack’s Story

  How Insulin Resistance Increases Your Risk of Heart Disease

  Other Diseases Related to Insulin Resistance

  Chapter 6 - Food as Medicine: How Paleo Diets Improve Health and Well-Being

  The Diet-Disease Connection

  Metabolic Syndrome Diseases

  Cardiovascular Diseases

  Diseases of Acid-Base Balance and Excessive Sodium

  Digestive Diseases

  Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

  Inflammatory Diseases

  Autoimmune Diseases

  Psychological Disorders

  Vitamin-Deficiency Diseases

  Dental Cavities

  Alcoholism

  Skin Cancers

  PART THREE - The Paleo Diet Program

  Chapter 7 - Eating Great: What to Eat, What to Avoid

  Making the Diet Work for You

  What to Eat?

  Lean Meats

  Fruits and Vegetables

  Nuts and Seeds

  Foods You Can Eat in Moderation

  Foods You Should Avoid

  Chapter 8 - The Paleo Diet User’s Manual

  Stocking Your Refrigerator and Pantry

  Look for Lean Meats

  Wild Game Meat—at a Gourmet Store Near You

  Fish and Seafood

  Eggs: Good or Bad?

  How to Make the Most of Fruits and Vegetables

  Nuts and Seeds

  Omega 6 to Omega 3 Fat Ratio in Nuts and Seeds

  Purchasing Oils

  Spices

  Individualizing Your Diet

  Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements

  Food Availability and Preparation Issues

  Dining Out, Travel, and Peer Pressure

  Ask Your Friends and Family for Support

  Chapter 9 - The Meal Plans for the Three Levels of the Paleo Diet

  Snacks

  Level I: Entry Level

  Level II: Maintenance Level

  Level III: Maximal Weight Loss Level

  Chapter 10 - Paleo Recipes

  Basic Recipe Principles

  Stone Age Food Substitutions

  Recipes

  FISH AND SEAFOOD

  DOMESTIC LOW-FAT MEAT ENTRÉES - (Beef, Chicken, Veal, Pork, Organ Meats, Game Meats)

  ORGAN MEATS

  GAME MEATS

  DRIED MEATS (JERKY)

  EGG DISHES

  VEGETABLE DISHES

  SALADS

  CONDIMENTS, DIPS, SALSAS, SALAD DRESSINGS, MARINADES

  SOUPS

  FRUIT DISHES AND DESSERTS

  Chapter 11 - Paleo Exercise

  Exercise Plus Paleo Diet Equals Health: Joe’s Story

  “Exercise”: A Funny Idea to Hunter-Gatherers

  Physical Fitness: Naturally, and with No Exercise Programs

  Exercise and Obesity

  Why Should You Exercise?

  Exercise and Blood Lipids

  Exercise, Type 2 Diabetes, and Other Health Benefits of Exercise

  Modern Exercises for Your Paleolithic Body

  Chapter 12 - Living the Paleo Diet

  The Right Reasons to Eat

  One Day at a Time

  APPENDIX A - Acid-Base Values of Common Foods (100-gram portions)

  APPENDIX B - Comparison of the Total Fat in Domestic and Wild Meats

  APPENDIX C - Practical Implementation of Parts of the Paleo Diet on a Global Scale

  Resources

  Bibliography

  Index

  Praise for THE PALEO DIET

  “The Paleo Diet helps you lose fat, improve your health, and feel great. Why? Because the Paleo Diet works with your genetics to help you realize your natural birthright of vibrant health and wellness. My book’s success is due in large part to the revolutionary solutions provided by Professor Loren Cordain and his Paleo Diet message.”

  —Robb Wolf, author of the bestselling The Paleo Solution

  “Loren Cordain’s extensive research demonstrates how modern westernized diets drastically depart from the original diet humans consumed for millions of years. In The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet Cookbook , Dr. Cordain shows how diets high in grains, dairy, vegetable oils, salt, and refined sugars are at odds with our genetic legacy and then shares his uncomplicated strategy for losing weight and getting healthy.”

  —Arthur De Vany, Ph.D., author of The New Evolution Diet

  “We found Dr. Loren Cordain’s scientific research indispensable when we wrote The 30-Day Low-Carb Diet Solution. Cordain provides the most compelling arguments we’ve seen for why a protein-rich diet is the diet we were born to eat. His weight-loss plan simply works and his recipes are simply terrific.”

  —Michael R. Eades, M.D., and Mary Dan Eades, M.D., authors of Protein Power, The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle, and The Low-Carb Comfort Food Cookbook

  “The Paleo Diet is at once revolutionary and intuitive. Its prescription provides without a doubt the most nutritious diet on the planet. Beautifully written, The Paleo Diet takes us from the theor
y to the day-to-day practice of the native human diet.”

  —Jennie Brand-Miller, Ph.D., coauthor of the bestselling The Glucose Revolution series

  “Dr. Loren Cordain’s approach to nutrition is logically compelling, readily understood, and at the cutting edge of health science. Not all scientists can translate their concepts into a straightforward, accessible format, but Cordain has accomplished this feat brilliantly.”

  —S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., lead author of The Paleolithic Prescription

  “Finally someone has figured out the best diet—a modern version of the diet the human race grew up eating. Dr. Loren Cordain’s easy-to-follow diet plan reminds us that the healthiest foods are the simplest ones.”

  —Jack Challem, author of The Inflammation Syndrome, Stop Prediabetes Now, and Syndrome X

  “In a world where we’re surrounded with information overload on dieting, this is a commonsense and effective weight-control approach that’s easy to follow.”

  —Fred Pescatore, M.D., author of The Hamptons Diet and The Allergy and Asthma Cure

  “The Paleo Diet lays out the basic nutrition plan not only for weight loss and good health but also for peak performance in athletic competition. It works.”

  —Joe Friel, author of The Triathlete’s Training Bible

  Copyright © 2002, 2011 by Loren Cordain. All rights reserved

  Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

  Published simultaneously in Canada

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  ISBN 978-0-470-91302-4 (paper);

  ISBN 978-1-118-00129-5 (ebk);

  ISBN 978-1-118-00130-1 (ebk);

  ISBN 978-1-118-00131-8 (ebk)

  To Lorrie, Kyle, Kevin, and Kenny for making it all worthwhile

  Preface to the Revised Edition

  The original version of The Paleo Diet first came into print in January 2002. After its initial release, my book gained popularity and sales were good for the next few years, but it did not achieve chart-topping levels and the national exposure for which I had hoped. Fast-forward eight years to 2010: The Paleo Diet has become one of America’s best-selling diet and health books.

  This kind of sales history is almost unheard of in the publishing industry for successful diet books, which typically act like dwarf stars—they burn brightly at first and then fade away. Not so for The Paleo Diet, which started as a gentle glow and over the years has become hotter and hotter until now it is red hot. A diet book that once began as a ripple is now approaching tidal wave proportions.

  Why? What is different about The Paleo Diet in 2010 compared to 2002? The material in the book has not radically changed, but the world has radically changed since 2002, particularly how we now communicate and inform one another about our lives, our daily experiences, and our reality. And herein is a clue to my book’s sustained and increasing popularity.

  When I first started to write The Paleo Diet in 2000, the Internet was in its youthful throes (Google had been founded only two years earlier, in 1998), and most people still used telephones (not cell phones) to talk. The U.S. Postal Service remained healthy because Bill Gates’s foundational maxim “a personal computer in every household” had not yet taken firm hold, and snail mail reigned supreme. Then, “spam” simply meant canned meat. In the era of my book’s baptism, texting, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and most of the other Internet and electronic wizardry we now routinely take for granted still lay in the future. Then, people found out about the world through newspapers, radio, TV, and weekly news magazines. Now, except for the New York Times and a few other mainstays, daily newspapers have dried up to a trickle. Who wants to hear about outdated weekly news in paid-for magazines when you can get it for free and instantly from the Internet anytime you want? Like newspapers and magazines, radio and TV are not nearly as convenient or as timely as the Web—you can get Web versions of these media, anyway—so why bother with the real things?

  When I wrote The Paleo Diet a decade ago, electronic interconnectedness was primitive, slow, and noninclusive. Local U.S. news was unavailable, obscure, or unknown in places like Uzbekistan or Botswana and vice versa. In those days, scientists reported new discoveries in their specialized journals, but this information was rarely picked up by newspapers or the popular press. It took years or decades for many discoveries to have an impact on people’s lives. A decade ago, most people didn’t argue with their physicians’ diagnoses and prescriptions because “the doctor always knew best”—presumably because, then, the doctor was better informed than the patient was.

  The Internet, Web sites, blogs, cell phones, and other various types of electronic wizardry have transformed our world within a mere decade or less. The electronic transmission of news and information and practical data to improve our lives, our financial situations, and our health has become humankind’s universal language. Anyone in the world who has access to either a computer or a cell phone can immediately connect with anyone else who has the same technology. We now can and do talk to one another in unprecedented numbers—by the billions. A local event can instantaneously become a worldwide happening. Today what your next-door neighbor knows is available not only to you and your close friends, but literally to the world.

  With such vast and nearly total information connectiveness, a subtle but crucial upshot of this brave new electronic world has arisen. When someone comes up with an answer to a complex or even a simple problem that is correct and that works, it gains followers like a snowball rolling downhill. Such has been the case for The Paleo Diet. It simply works. In an earlier era, prior to the Web, when human networks were small and noninclusive, information flowed slowly or not at all. Accordingly, correct answers sometimes smoldered for years, decades, or longer before they became widely recognized and accepted. Fortunately, The Paleo Diet came of age at the same time that the Internet was being adopted globally.

  Had I originally written about a diet—a lifetime way of eating—that didn’t work, The Paleo Diet would have simply faded into oblivion in the ensuing eight years since its publication. Yet it didn’t. My book continues to gain more and more supporters as people like you re
late their personal health experiences with The Paleo Diet to one another via the largest and most comprehensive human network ever created: the Internet. If The Paleo Diet had caused you to gain weight, made you feel lethargic, raised your blood cholesterol, promoted ill health, and been impossible to follow, it would have fallen by the wayside like most other dietary schemes dreamed up by human beings. Yet it didn’t. In fact, The Paleo Diet movement continues to spread worldwide, thanks in part to the Web.

  When people find correct answers to complex diet/health questions, they let their friends know, and thanks to the Internet, the momentum has accelerated. In the United States, the word “Paleo” has become part of mass culture, due in part to its popularity with the national CrossFit movement that is sweeping the country and recent coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other global media. The Paleo Diet has found wide acceptance not only with CrossFitters and athletes, but also with the medical and health professions, who have embraced it because of its wide-reaching therapeutic effects on metabolic syndrome diseases, autoimmune diseases, mental disorders, and beyond. In fact, there are very few chronic illnesses or diseases that do not respond favorably to our ancestral diet.

  The novelty of The Paleo Diet is that a mortal human being like me didn’t create it. Rather, I—along with many other scientists, physicians, and anthropologists worldwide—simply uncovered what was already there: the diet to which our species is genetically adapted. This is the diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the foods consumed by every human being on the planet until a mere 333 human generations ago, or about ten thousand years ago. Our ancestors’ diets were uncomplicated by agriculture, animal husbandry, technology, and processed foods. Then, as today, our health is optimized when we eat lean meats, seafood, and fresh fruits and veggies at the expense of grains, dairy, refined sugars, refined oils, and processed foods.