Palaeolithic diet (‘‘stone age’’ diet)
Staffan Lindeberg, MD, PhD.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Abstract
A popular diet in Sweden today is the palaeolithic diet, where lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots and nuts
are dietary staples, while cereals, dairy products, salt and processed fat and sugar are avoided. The underlying
rationale is that foods that were available during the evolution of primates, up to the emergence of fully
modern humans, are healthier than recently introduced ones (dairy products, cereals, beans, refined fat, sugar,
etc.), since our digestive and metabolic systems were not designed for the latter group of foods. Variation in
plant foods, another principle based on evolutionary biology, is recommended to avoid high intakes of
potentially harmful bioactive substances. It is not known whether palaeolithic diets are more, or less, effective
than other diets in weight reduction.
Keywords: evolutionary medicine; metabolic syndrome; overweight; popular diets; Western disease
[full text: [
www.foodandnutritionresearch.net]
[excerpt:]
Palaeolithic populations do not lack elderly individuals, although the high mortality in infancy and childhood dramatically lowers average life expectancy. Among hunter / gatherers, estimated life expectancy at birth may be below 40 years, while life expectancy at age 50 years may be close to European levels of today (15). Accordingly, there is no obvious reason to suspect that a different age structure is the main explanation for the apparent absence of cardiovascular disease in
non-Western populations.
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See also
Paleolithic Diet in Medical Nutrition [
www.staffanlindeberg.com]
-- incorporating evolutionary biology in nutritional science
Staffan Lindeberg, MD PhD,
Department of Medicine, University of Lund, Sweden
