Feed Your Heart a Hunter-Gatherer Diet

Eating a bit more like our hunter-gatherer ancestors could be a boon to your heart health.
A growing number of evolutionary biologists posit that in order to live healthier lives, we should return to more of a hunter-gatherer diet -- with more grass-fed beef, root vegetables, berries, nuts, and eggs. And in a recent study, this style diet appeared to boost cardiovascular health.

Heart of the Matter
In the study, investigators fed nine healthy non-obese men and women their usual diets for a few days. After switching to a Paleolithic-era diet for 7 days, study participants experienced improved cardiovascular health; greater insulin sensitivity (which means their bodies needed less insulin to keep blood sugar steady); and less after-meal arterial stiffness, a measure of cardiovascular health. Which led some researchers to speculate that our grain- and dairy-based diet over the last 10,000 years may have resulted in epidemics of cardiovascular disease, since our bodies have not had time to adapt to it, genetically speaking. What's more, a Paleo diet may be more satisfying than other diets. In another study involving men with heart disease, men on the Paleo diet ate fewer calories per day than men on a Mediterranean diet -- but the Paleo eaters felt just as satisfied. Which suggests that the Paleo diet could result in heart-healthy weight loss as well. (Related: Find out why you should move like a hunter-gatherer, too.)

Ready to sate your appetite with a Flintstone-style diet? Here are four basic rules to get you started:
  • Eat lots of root vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, carrots, and rutabagas.
  • Snack on nuts when you get the munchies. 
  • Replace grain-fed beef with grass-fed beef, bison, or other wild game meats to mimic the nutrition profile of Paleolithic meats.
  • Cut back on grain products as well as cheese and other dairy, which weren't part of the Paleo diet.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Put the garlic piece in the ear before sleeping, the benefit will shock you

Bone Health: Not only Calcium, these 5 Ways also make your Bones Strong

Study: 'Thyroid Support' Supplements May Be Risky

Adsense