Researchers from UCSF say that their research has shown people on a diet of high protein and plenty of vegetables show dramatic health improvements, including weight loss without exercising profusely and lower blood pressure. In short it's the diet of our caveman ancestors thousands of years ago who were what is termed "Hunter Gathers".
Dr. Tim White a paleobiologist from University of California Berkley says :
"Our Biology is still basically the same biology that we had as hunters and gathers 100,000 years ago in Africa."
Dr. White says that the constant physical activity that cavemen had to undertake to hunt and find food, not to mention cutting up animals or pounding grains or root vegetables to make the edible, using only very basic tools, kept them fit, lean, muscular and active. Their diet consisted of large amounts of lean meat, and basic vegetables. Fruits would have been highly seasonable and salt, pure sugar, and large amounts of carbohydrates in their diets pretty much impossible.
The problem today is that we just consume whatever and whenever we want, and generally speaking the food is heavily processed and high in sugar and salt compared to anything natural our ancestors would have eaten.
Dr. White continues :
"We don't have to pound it, we don't have to cut it, we don't have to break into the bones, we just consume it and there is very little energy that goes into that consumption ... and we are paying an enormous health cost for that."
Dr. White didn't want to confirm that obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer are directly caused by poor diet, his area of specialty is not concerned with the present day. However, researchers at University of California San Francisco tested out the diet on volunteers.
Dr. Linda Frasetto, MD. and her team selected people who were unhealthy in one way or another. They were given a specific diet of lean meat, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables. The diet includes only healthy fats, such as those in nuts and seeds, as a caveman faced with an entire carcass and no refrigerator would have been likely to go only for the best cuts in as much quantity as he could physically eat before the meat went rotten or attracted scavengers or predators.
Frasettoconfirmed the results :
"Everyone's blood pressure went down. In two weeks everybody's cholesterol and triglycerides got better and the average drop was 30 points ... That's the kind of drop you get by taking Statins for six months. "
Robert Lustig, MD. an endocrinologist at UCSF, said that people on the diet have experienced a regression of their diabetes as a result, to the point they are effectively cured.
Dr. Kim Mulvihill, a reporter from CBS tried the diet herself and doctors recommended she should stay on the diet permanently. Her cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels dropped dramatically over a few weeks. After seven weeks she was no longer pre-diabetic, and by combining the so called paleo diet with a weight loss program she lost thirty pounds.
Robert Lustig, MD. says :
"The bottom line is we are killing ourselves ... We have 66 million obese adults and 20 million obese kids in this country ... They are not all going to go on the Paleolithic diet."
He says the solution is not to be extreme, rather to get back to basics, effectively run our bodies on the correct fuel they were designed to burn :
"Low Sugar, High fibre and you've got it nailed. That's something you can do and its called ... Eat ... Real ... Food."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237563.php
