The Paleolithic of Paleo diet is a regimen based on the presumed eating habits of ancient man during the Paleolithic Period, which began about 2.5 million years ago and ended around 10,000 years ago with the introduction of agriculture.
As man began to domesticate plants and animals, he gave up hunting and gathering. Over the course of a relatively short period of time, man’s eating habits and activity levels changed drastically.
Agriculture can be credited with allowing people to congregate in one place and exchange ideas. The rise of the early empires could not have happened without an ample and readily available food supply. Advances in science, art and literature were only possible, because people no longer had to spend all of their time finding something to eat. On the other hand, agriculture may have contributed to certain health problems, commonly referred to as the “diseases of affluence”.
The diseases of affluence include heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, asthma, alcoholism, gout, allergies, certain forms of cancer and depression. The Paleo diet might help prevent those diseases.
If a person living in the Paleolithic era managed to survive to the age of 15, his or her life expectancy was between 39 and 54 years of age. The average lifespan is believed to have been around 33 years of age. The average lifespan at birth of a person living in the early 20th century was between 30 and 45 years of age, not much difference really. The average lifespan today worldwide is 67.2 years of age, but there is a significant difference in the average lifespan in different countries of the world.
People living in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan can expect to live more than 80 years. People in the US can expect to live to the age of 77, barring accidental death. In some parts of Africa, the life expectancy is less than 50 years of age.
The differences in life expectancy are attributed to available medical care, the stability of the government, the government’s efforts to ensure public health such as water purification and people’s diets. If you are reading this, you probably have access to good medical care and your country’s government is stable. Could sticking to the Paleo diet help you live longer? Advocates say “yes”.
For many years following the Paleolithic era, the average lifespan actually dropped. If you lived in Ancient Greece or Rome, you could only expect to live 28 years. In Medieval times, the average lifespan was around 30 years of age.
Did the drop in life expectancy have to do with shifting from the Paleo diet to the consumption of grains and other farmed foods? Maybe, that’s all we can really say. There were many other factors involved including wars and epidemics caused by large groups of people living in small areas. Trash and raw sewage was commonly dumped in the streets during the middle ages. It was not a very clean time.
If you decided to try the Paleo diet, you might avoid refined grains, processed sugars and many types of oil including corn oil. You might eat fruits, root vegetables, spinach, olives, olive oil, nuts, fish and seafood. The recommendations vary depending on which experts you listen to. In some cases, it is not the specific foods, but the nutritional content that differs. For example, one group suggests that skim milk, brown rice, whole grain breads and potatoes prepared without fat are fine, even though those foods were not available prior to the introduction of agriculture.
Truly, the best advice is to choose a healthy eating plan you can stick with. The Paleo diet is one of your many options.