Each time a new fad diet shows up on the scene there are bandwagon supporters, and there are skeptics. In the case of the paleolithic diet, supporters of the diet plan fell back on claims that our cavemen ancestors followed the diet, so it must be good for us modern folk as well. New research however, says that cavemen did not actually follow a paleolithic diet, or at least not the kind modern dieters are.

The paleolithic diet has been suggested to be the most natural way to eat in line with natural human genetics. The diet incorporates fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats, seafood, and healthy fats. It completely cuts out dairy, grains, processed sugar, processed food, legumes, starches, and alcohol.

The reasoning behind this is before modern food creations people lived completely off the earth and would not have had access to many of the foods normally eaten today. Processing foods was not exactly in the cards. One could then assume then that humans have evolved by eating the proper things for their bodies, that they should pay attention to what those proper things were.

A study recently done at Georgia State University and published in the Quarterly Review of Biology however, claims that cavemen had more of a scavenger diet and did not hold tight to a paleo diet.

The study looked into environmental behaviors and feeding behaviors over a span of a million years. Their research began at the start of the paleolithic era. Some of their findings were that the early primates hominids were not very good hunters, and that they ate whatever was available to them.

The key point about that is that what was available to them would vary dramatically depending on what part of the planet they were located. Hominids close to the equator relied on a more heavily plant based diet, while those located more north would have eaten more meat.

That being said, there was no singularly followed caveman diet, just like people eat differently around the word now. One thing the current idea of the paleolithic diet got correct was that human beings’ ancient ancestors did not eat many processed carbohydrates. Critics do argue however, that they did in fact eat grains and legumes.

What is not generally taken into account in comparing modern paleo diet to ancient paleo diet, is that cavemen also did not eat a lot of eggs, bacon, and steak, which are popular choices on today’s version of the paleolithic diet. Cavemen did not necessarily eat a diet high in meat protein at all.

Other critiques inlcude the fact that fruits and vegetables were very different than the ones that people have access to now, and that comparing the health of ancient man to modern man does not bode well anyway because they tended to have much shorter life spans and were not susceptible to many diseases found today. The paleolithic man only lived to about the age of 30 regardless of what he ate.

Although the paleolithic diet cannot be claimed as the single best way to eat healthy, it can help to inform healthier eating choices. Many aspects of it get healthy eating right, such as eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, proteins, and staying away from the processed foods and sugars.