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If you have been anywhere near the internet in the last decade then you will almost have certainly come across the Paleo diet. To put it in a nutshell, paleo is taking our bodies back to their natural diet before all our hunter gatherers became farmers. Back in the day where we ate what we could find in the natural environment and cook it without the aid of modern day processing. So refined sugars are out. Grains are out. Dairy is a no no and to put this a little more simply, no bread, pizza, cheese on toast. No hot chocolates, coffee and almost certainly no alcohol. Sound tough? Well it isn’t really. You see it’s not just farming we discovered, since the 1990’s we’ve had the internet making shopping for exciting and exotic foods simple.
The difference between the Paleo diets of our ancestors and the paleo diet we can enjoy today is that we have variety. Using a little imagination and ingredients from other continents we can create all kinds of incredible recipes. We also have a few modern day cheats too.
Coconut milk can be used to substitute dairy and it is possible to use spices and herbs from any country in the world. This means we can create delicious curry or creamy chicken dishes without adding lactose to our diets.
We also have better access to tools. Whilst it is almost definite our ancestors would have crushed up fruit to create a mushy version of today’s smoothies, or hand squeezed fruits to extract the juice, they certainly weren’t blessed with the technology we have today. Within seconds you can create a totally natural juice drink or a nutty smoothie to add a real boost of nutrients to your diet. We can blend soups better too meaning a sweet potato stew can become a smooth, spicy sweet potato and coconut soup. Delicious!
The internet has also bought us a host of people ready to make our dinners for us! The cavemen certainly didn’t have home delivery. There are some brilliant home delivery companies here blog.paleohacks.com/paleo-meal-delivery/ although the point of paleo is to be more like our ansectors so maybe use the spare time you aren’t cooking, to run around and keep your heart pumping nice and strong.
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Tea has become less of a drama in modern times too. Whilst the cave era would have offered up some brilliant fresh herb teas, such as mint and rosemary, they wouldn’t have had access to Green tea like we have today. Green tea is a fabulous compliment to the paleo way of life and definitely worth experimenting with. Recipes such as gunpowder green tea chicken would have blown the minds of cavemen in the U.K.
Paleo doesn’t have to mean primitive. The essence of it is eating what nature intended and not sitting still waiting for our food to come to us! Give it a try and see if you can feel the benefits.
