Fad diet based on the presumed diet of Paleolithic humans
This article is about a modern-day diet. For information on the dietary practices of Paleolithic humans, see Paleolithic § Diet and nutrition.
The Paleolithic diet, Paleo diet, caveman diet, or Stone Age diet is a modern fad diet consisting of foods thought by its proponents to mirror those eaten by humans during the Paleolithic era.[1]
In the 21st century, the sequencing of the human genome and DNA analysis of the remains of early humans have found evidence that humans evolved rapidly in response to changing diet. This evidence undermines a core premise of the paleolithic diet – that human digestion has remained essentially unchanged over time.[5] Palaeontological evidence has indicated that prehistoric humans ate plant-heavy diets that regularly included grains and other starchy vegetables, in contrast to the claims of the Paleo diet.[6][7][8][9][10]
Advocates promote the paleolithic diet as a way of improving health.[11] There is some evidence that following it may lead to improvements in body composition and metabolism compared with the typical Western diet[12] or compared with diets recommended by some European nutritional guidelines.[13] On the other hand, following the diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies, such as an inadequate calcium intake, and side effects can include weakness, diarrhea, and headaches.[14]
^de Menezes et al. 2019: "The Paleolithic diet has been gaining ground in the field of fad diets. It is based on food patterns of human Paleolithic ancestors, about 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago, a period that precedes the advent of industrial agriculture and is different from today's modern society".
^British Dietetic Association 2014 - "The Paleo diet (also known as the Paleolithic Diet, the Caveman diet and the Stone Age Diet) is a diet where only foods presumed to be available to Neanderthals in the prehistoric era are consumed and all other foods, such as dairy products, grains, sugar, legumes, 'processed' oils, salt, and others like alcohol or coffee are excluded."
^Whoriskey 2016; Zuk 2013, p. 133: "No one [...] can legitimately claim to have found the only 'natural' diet for humans. We simply ate too many different foods in the past, and have adapted to new ones".