Top 9 Health Benefits of Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet is an ultimate throwback diet. This means it promotes the return to eating as the forefathers did in the early Stone Age. Basically, the regimen on the idea that the human body does well when fueled by foodstuffs existed in the Paleolithic times.

This means no beans, sugar, legumes, grain, and dairy on the Paleo diet. It also means no cakes or cookies and foodstuffs with added artificial ingredients or hormones. Contrary to a common belief, the Paleo diet is usually plant-centered. It normally includes a lot of vegetables, mostly non-starchy – meaning all the yellow, green, orange, and red fruits and vegetables in moderation.

Apart from that, the Paleo diet includes unprocessed meat, fish, eggs, seafood, nuts, and seeds. As for beverages, you will have to drink mostly water, some herbal infusions, tea, and small amounts of alcohol or fruit juice. If you want to embrace the caveman way, here are common paleo diet benefits you could get:

1. Weight Loss

The core aspect of this diet is taking unprocessed foodstuffs. This means that the diet is low in carbohydrates because it excludes foodstuffs, like grains that need processing. 

Proteins are also very important nutrients for weight loss. They reduce your appetite, increase the metabolism, and control some hormones, which regulate your weight.

Reducing carb intake can also be a perfect way to lose weight. Unlike other diets, the Paleo diet reduces carb intake by avoiding common carb sources, such as potatoes, bread, and rice. 

It is also vital to keep in mind that carb is not necessarily unhealthy for you, though restricting the carb intake may enable you to lose weight and lower your everyday calorie intake. To ensure your diet helps you in weight loss, you have to:

• Exercise during the day

• Address the entire part of your life

• Get social support

• Keep your foodstuffs simple

• Eat enough

2. Get Leaner Muscles

The Paleo diet has basically gone from a fringe high-protein to a trendy mainstream option, which millions of individuals have adopted. Doctors, celebrities, and journalists are touting the health benefits of this diet, and some bodybuilders maintain a good physique while taking Paleo.

There are many components suitable for building the muscles, though the most important elements are the presence of caloric surplus and anabolism. Muscles are metabolically active tissues, which need a substantial amount of daily caloric intake. This means taking enough calories on the Paleo diet is important to build your muscles.

Since the Paleo diet heavily depends on meat, you will get a fair amount of protein so as to feed your muscles. Ideally, this results in a leaner physique and may even help with the growth of muscles when you engage in weightlifting.

3. Lower Blood Pressure

Arteries are known to carry blood from the heart to other parts of the body. A particular amount of pressure is normal to push blood against the walls of the arteries.

However, this blood pressure may differ throughout the day. If the pressure increases and remains that way for a longer period, it might result in heart damages and other related health issues.

Blood pressure, which is higher than normal, is regarded as hypertension or high blood pressure. Hypertension can put you at greater risks for stroke and heart disease.

According to a recent study, the Paleo diet can help people with hypertension. For instance, some plant sources, like walnuts, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which effectively promote the health of blood vessels.

4. Promote a Healthy Gut

For many years now, true believers have been heralding Paleo as the optimal diet when it comes to gut health. This is based on speculation, as there was no study to refute or support this claim until today.

Paleo dieters are categorized into different groups, depending on how closely they follow tenets of the Paleolithic diet. This includes pseudo-Paleo and strict Paleo.

According to researchers, these two groups were the same, though significantly different from the control group. Digging further, they noticed three types of bacteria, which differed between those two groups. These bacteria include Hungetalla, Bifidobacteria, and Roseburia.

Both Ruseburia and Bifidobacteria are regarded as part of healthy gut microbiota. They metabolize complex carbohydrates, like resistant starch and fiber, so as to produce fatty acids, which promote the health of the gut and the whole body.

Unlike Roseburia and Bifidobacteria, Hungatella is a bad gut bacteria. It produces the precursor molecule for TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide). When Hungatella metabolizes choline or carnitine, usually found in high-fat dairy, red meat, and egg yolk, they result in the production of the TMA, which is changed into TMAO in the liver. This is what wreaks havoc in the body and positively correlates with:

• Alzheimer’s disease

• Coronary artery disease

• Type 2 diabetes

• Kidney disease

• Stroke

5. Control Blood Sugar

Among the major risks for heart disease is diabetes type 2. Individuals with diabetes type 2 may develop obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Some research shows that the Paleo diet may help individuals with diabetes type 2.

People on this diet have lower mean values of BMI (body mass index), waist size, hemoglobin A1C, weights, triglycerides, and diastolic blood pressure. Mean values for HDL (high-density lipoprotein) are higher.

The study also shows that people who take the Paleo diet have a decreased blood sugar level and systolic blood pressure. In other words, a Paleo diet can improve diabetes type 2 symptoms, and as a result of this, boost general heart health.

6. Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is the root of several diseases, like arthritis, cancer, asthma, stroke, heart disease, lupus, and gum disease. Apart from that, inflammation contributes a lot to obesity and persistent pain.

Managing inflammation is an important step towards improving your general wellbeing and health. One of the common ways to manage inflammation is by adopting the Paleo diet.

Some studies indicate that carbohydrates and highly processed foodstuffs may result in whole-body inflammation by raising the amounts of free radicals in your body. These studies also prove that healthy fats may decrease the level of inflammation in the body.

This means that any diet that promotes the consumption of healthy fatty acids, such as omega-3 fatty acids, will fight against inflammation and positively impact your body.

7. Better Sleep

Unlike the keto diet, Paleo doesn’t lay a specific carbohydrate, fat, and protein ratio. It is up to you, as you can eat from the selection of approved foodstuffs. In practice, the Paleo diet usually skews pretty low carbohydrates. These carbohydrates mostly come from plants, not from sugars or grains.

Wild-caught fish comes with many benefits. From its vitamin B content and rich minerals to anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid, wild-caught fish is a superfood. 

In wild-caught fish, B6 is complemented by an omega-3 fatty acid, which boosts sleep. This B6 plays a vital role in producing melatonin, the hormone that tells the body when it is time to sleep.

Steak can also promote better sleep since it is tucked with iron, which is important for restless legs syndrome. RLS (restless legs syndrome) is an overwhelming urge to move the legs around. When this happens, it wakes people up. Apart from steak and wild-caught fish, other foods you can incorporate into your diet to promote better sleep include:

• Tart cherry juice

• Almonds

• Bananas

• Walnuts

8. Good Mental Health

Mental health conditions are highly prevalent in the United States. Millions of individuals get affected each year by a form of mental condition. Approximately 1 in 4 adults across the US gets mental illness.

If you have a mental health issue of any form, there are different dietary strategies you may use so as to address the cause of the symptoms. One common dietary strategy is to incorporate a Paleo diet.

Basically, the Paleo diet encourages the taking of whole foodstuffs, which happen to be nutrient-dense. Apart from this, the diet encourages the consumption of healthy fats that effectively protect the brain from inflammation.

Among the benefits, you can get from considering the Paleo diet is regulating your mood properly. Since serotonin plays an important role in mood fluctuations, maintaining stability may enable you to control your emotions.

9. Decrease Toxins

A toxin is a poison that some animals and plants produce to serve as a defense mechanism. There are man-made and natural toxins. Basically, natural toxins from edible plants are not harmful to humans, though foodstuffs, with mercury, trans-fats, and added are unhealthy amounts of toxins.

Getting rid of these foodstuffs and incorporate a Paleo diet rich in vitamin C may reduce the number of toxins in the body.

Is Paleo Convenient for You!

Many studies have demonstrated significant cardiovascular and metabolic benefits involved in considering the Paleo diet. Like other diets, it is vital to make sure that you properly plan your diet and only incorporate fresh foodstuffs so as to avoid nutrient deficiencies.

If you are suffering from any illness, be sure to talk to an integrative healthcare professional who may monitor your health, choose the right diet, and recommend the best supplements suitable for your needs. Anyone may benefit from adopting the Paleo lifestyle, though not necessarily being too devoted to the plan.