The Paleo Cookbook. Rockridge Press

      WHAT IS THE PALEO DIET?

      The Paleo diet has become incredibly popular in the past few years, leading many people to assume that it’s a new way of eating. In reality, the Paleo diet has been around for almost forty years.

       How the Paleo Diet Came About

      In 1975, a gastroenterologist named Dr. Walter Voegtlin published a book called The Stone Age Diet. In the book, he documented how he treated patients with a diet that replicated the eating patterns of people during the Paleolithic era. The diet prescribed consuming large quantities of animal fats and proteins and very small quantities of carbohydrates. Dr. Voegtlin reported that his patients, who suffered from disorders such as Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome, showed significant health improvements when following the diet.

      Unfortunately, The Stone Age Diet didn’t make much headway with the public. At that time, almost everyone believed that a low-fat, low-calorie diet was the only healthy way to eat.

       An Ancient Diet for Modern Times

      Ten years later, however, Dr. S. Boyd Eaton and Dr. Melvin Konner published a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine that supported Dr. Voegtlin’s research and that received a lot of attention from the medical community and the media. The popularity of their paper on the Paleolithic era diet led to the publication of their book, The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet & Exercise and a Design for Living. This book established the principles most variations of the Paleo diet people follow today.

      The book explained the way our Paleolithic ancestors ate and why that nutritional lifestyle was such a healthy one. The most important thing the authors accomplished was to make the ancient diet suitable for modern times. The book laid out the nutritional content of the original Paleolithic diet and then showed readers how to get that nutritional profile from modern and widely available foods. It was an adaptable way to eat like our ancestors, and it paved the way for today’s Paleo diet phenomenon.

       The Paleo Diet for You, the Modern Cave-Dweller

      There are several versions of the Paleo diet around today; these versions generally differ in terms of how strictly they follow the eating patterns of our Paleolithic ancestors. The Paleo diet described in this book is a version that intends to closely duplicate the nutritional makeup of a Paleolithic diet without being unrealistic, difficult or complicated. You’ll reap the health and weight loss benefits of the Paleo diet without having to turn your entire lifestyle inside out or spend time searching for exotic ingredients. You’ll be practicing a diet that is moderate in its approach, but you will likely see incredible results.

       What the Paleo Diet Looks Like

      The Paleo diet is designed to duplicate the results and benefits of our pre-agricultural diet without duplicating