In the last six years, the paleo diet has become the most popular diet among health and wellness advocates. As we all know by now, this regimen is based on the idea that our bodies do best when fueled by foods that existed during the Paleolithic era, before agriculture came along 10,000 or so years ago. That means no sugars (except maybe honey and those occurring naturally in fruit), no grains, no dairy, no legumes or beans, and only nonindustrial meat, fish, whole nonstarchy vegetables, some starchy root vegetables and winter squashes, fruit (but not too much), nuts, and seeds. And that’s about it. As extreme as that may sound, it can be a healthy, low- glycemic diet, especially at a time when so many people are in ill health from eating grain-based sugary foods made with overly processed fats and oils. In fact, emerging research is using this approach, and a more aggressive approach called a ketogenic diet (very-low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet), to reverse type 2 diabetes. This is not a quick fix that you follow for 10 or 30 days and then quit. After you reset your body, I recommend eating this way every single day. It is inclusive, not exclusive, and based on sound nutritional science and working with patients for more than 30 years. Based on excerpts from Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? by Mark Hyman, with the permission of Little, Brown and Company. Copyright © 2018.
