What did your average caveman eat?

The answer: whatever he could. Also, whenever he could.

This idea has given rise to what is known as the Paleo Diet. The Paleo Diet has expanded much beyond the idea of reproducing what a caveman and his family ate, but also how they lived. There are people who emulate a way of life that died out over fourteen-thousand years ago. They claim to have good reason.

According to the Paleo Diet Defined: man (and women) evolved over millions of years a certain way. This way of development did not include the harvesting of plants nor the milling of grain. The Paleo lifestyle was one of subsistence and hunting and gathering, no matter what you may have seen on the Flintstones.

Because the average cave family was usually on the move, chasing, yes, wooly mammoths and the like, when a kill was made it was usually eaten quickly. There were no refrigerators and it is questionable if ancient man knew how to store food for the season.

The basics of the Paleo Diet call for lean protein, fat, and a moderate amount of carbohydrates in the form of plants. The plants were usually tubers and roots or wild berries or plants that could be eaten where found, as cultivating food did not arrive on the scene in humankind until about fourteen thousand years ago.

The theory here is that the human body of today is the human body of the caveperson, and that a mere eye blink of fourteen thousand years or so does not make for a change up in the DNA.

Some credence of late has been given to this theory or line of thought, in that more and more people seem to be finding themselves victims of grains and excess carbohydrates. Everyday more people are diagnosed with Celiac Disease, or, if not the disease itself, at least a susceptibility to allergic reactions to various grains and vegetables. Too many crabs are found to interfere with the insulin level in the body and create improper storage and use of fat for energy. In the United States more people are eating low fat, high grain and carb diets and are bigger than ever. Some of that girth may come from thinking you can eat more if you eat less protein and fat, but there has to be more to the ballooning if American than that.

So modern day Paleo dieters will eat a higher percentage of protein, hopefully from grass fed animals. They eat fish caught in the wild, and they eat a moderate amount of vegetables. In addition, exercise is an important part of the Paleo diet and cannot just be considered an addition.

Proponents of the Paleo Diet believe that exercise should be modeled after the cave person. So that might involve simulating a hunt, where your cardio is revved up, but not to extreme levels, for about fifty minutes or so a couple times per week. Another aspect is quick sprinting. You have to spear and catch that mammoth, remember. This is done once a week or so, with the thought that, if you're lucky, you get that big catch once per week. Then there is the reproduction of labor in lifting heavy things. In the caveperson's life, those heavy things were either rocks or logs.

The Paleo Diet is still being defined and studied, but it is growing in popularity among young and old.