Paleo Diet

The paleo diet is an eating pattern based on the idea of eating the way humans did before farming. It emphasizes meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds, and leaves out grains, dairy, legumes, refined sugar, and processed foods. Versions differ widely: some are mainly animal foods, while others, such as the original anthropological proposals, are largely plant based. There is no single standard, no governing body, and no official definition.

People try it for weight, blood sugar, energy, digestion, or because they want to reduce processed food. Practice is mostly self-directed, using cookbooks and online communities, although a registered dietitian can help plan meals and check nutrient intake. Because the pattern removes whole food groups, it takes planning to cover calcium, fiber, and some vitamins, and it can be expensive and socially demanding.

Research is growing but still limited. Small, short randomized trials report improvements in waist circumference, triglycerides, blood pressure, and insulin resistance compared with control diets, but a two-year trial found that fat-loss advantages faded by 24 months. The premise that Paleolithic eating was uniform or ideal is a hypothesis, not established fact. The paleo diet is a lifestyle choice, not a treatment for any disease, and anyone with a health condition should plan changes with a doctor or dietitian.

The idea of eating according to human evolutionary history has several roots. In 1975 the gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin self-published The Stone Age Diet, recommending mostly meat and animal products with some vegetables. In 1985 the physician S. Boyd Eaton and the anthropologist Melvin Konner published Paleolithic Nutrition in the New England Journal of Medicine, proposing that modern humans are biologically mismatched with modern diets, and they later expanded the argument in the 1988 book The Paleolithic Prescription, which described a largely plant-based pattern. These were hypotheses about ancestral eating, not clinical trials.

The diet became widely known after 2002, when the researcher Loren Cordain published the book The Paleo Diet and trademarked the term. His version was richer in lean meat and seafood and excluded grains and dairy, and it advised following the principles most, though not all, of the time. Paleo then spread through books, blogs, gyms, and social media, and many variants emerged. Archaeologists point out that ancestral diets varied by place and season, so no single Paleolithic menu exists. Today the diet has no governing body or accredited training. It is promoted by authors, coaches, and some clinicians, while registered dietitians can assess a plan for nutritional adequacy. Rules on who may give dietary advice vary by country.