Paleo

As a Chiropractor let me say right up front, while Paleo isn’t perfect, the people that eat Paleo are miles ahead of 99%  of people passing through the supermarket checkout (Hopefully Foodland) and they know it.

Paleo diet is based on eating like humans presumably did during the Palaeolithic era. It is high on meats including offal, healthy fat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, berries and fruits. They discourage all processed foods including grains and dairy foods.  You would typically eat a muesli made of mixed nuts and seeds (subscribe to our newsletter for my favourite Paleo muesli recipe) Have a large salad daily and you eat unlimited veges and meats. Eating this way will certainly encourage lean body mass.

The criticism of Paleo is based on the fact that grains and dairy aren’t included and there is too much meat. The Paleo defence of these criticisms is that we have only been using grains as a staple of human diet very recently in our history on the planet and on the dairy question they point to the facts that 74% of the worlds population is lactose intolerant, no animal has the milk of another animal in nature except in rare adoption cases and no animal has milk after being weaned. These are strong arguments if we look to nature as our guide on how to look after our bodies.

The first question people always ask about Paleo is what about calcium. Well, bone broth is encouraged and greens are an excellent source of calcium, as are sesame seeds. Tahini (sesame)paste with lemon juice and cold pressed virgin olive oil makes a great salad dressing and boosts calcium considerably because sesame seeds are actually much higher in calcium than cows’ milk. My question to people is if you are concerned about calcium why aren’t you equally concerned about magnesium which is easily as important to bone strength and you will get that and more calcium by increasing your intake of green vegetables.