When you adopt the Paleo lifestyle, also known as a "Caveman diet," you're choosing more than an aesthetic program. Paleo diets advance your chances for weight loss, but also improve your wellness. Research proves that consuming modified and processed food has contributed significantly to a rise in degenerative lifestyle diseases. The consumption of high sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and unhealthy additives contribute to heart disease, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
A paleo diet aims to go back to whole and unprocessed foods without dangerous genetic modifications, additives, and unhealthy processing. Let's explore some of the benefits of going on a paleo diet.
Weight Loss
It's estimated that around 71% of Americans are overweight or obese. The staggering numbers are attributed to the Standard American Diet, which mainly consists of fast food, junk food, processed food, and sugar.
A paleo diet scraps out these foods and introduces whole fruits, vegetables, lean meat, fish, and oils from plants such as olives and nuts. On this diet, you reduce your calorie intake, which helps you prevent weight gain. A paleo diet reduces unhealthy fat intake and substitutes saturated fats with healthy fat from plants and fish.
Also, substituting processed carbs and refined sugars for high protein meals within the paleo diet also helps you regulate your weight. Proteins provide a consistent and reliable energy source while increasing your metabolism and controlling hormones that increase your appetite.
Hormone Regulation
The food you eat affects your body's hormone regulation, which can cause you to feel out of balance. Hormones act as messengers in the body and affect everything from metabolism to reproduction. Insulin, for instance, is highly dependent on the digestive process.
Let's say you consume white bread, and the carbohydrates are quickly digested and turned into glucose for your cells to absorb. Your pancreas naturally reacts by producing insulin to channel the energy to your cells.
However, if you continuously have high blood sugar in your system, your pancreas works overtime to release enough insulin, and eventually, you develop insulin resistance, also known as type 2 diabetes. A paleo diet helps you regulate your sugar levels, and therefore, regulating insulin release.
The food you consume also affects serotonin- a hormone that affects sleep, moods, and pain. Usually, around 95% of serotonin is produced in your gut, which means that your gut activities directly affect the production of this hormone. If your diet dysregulates serotonin production, you'll likely experience trouble with your moods, sleep, and appetite.
Improved Energy Levels
Your body draws energy from the food you consume. The trouble with consuming refined sugar is that it causes you to eat more without providing adequate power. When you take refined sugar, it's absorbed quickly into your bloodstream, instead of slowly kicking in as foods in your paleo diet do. This causes a spike in your blood sugar, and your body releases insulin to lower the sugar levels. The insulin works, and soon enough, you feel hungry again, and fall into a spiral of eating high glycemic foods to satisfy your hunger. These are foods that are digested and absorbed quickly, causing a rapid spike in blood sugar.
Fortunately, you can avoid sugar spikes by consuming healthy meals and depend on a reliable energy source. A high protein diet with healthy fat yields more and better energy at regular levels for your body. It also takes more energy to burn and store proteins, which increases your energy burn.
Improved Brain Function
The fuel for your brain to think and manage your hormones and functions comes from your food. Eating high-quality foods provides premium power for your brain, which helps it function better and rest better. For example, the consumption of minerals, vitamins, and oxidants through a paleo diet ensures that your brain avoids stress.
However, high glycemic foods have little nutrition for the body. They cause inflammation and cause oxidative stress- damage from free radicals produced after your body uses oxygen. The consumption of high sugar diets also increases the likelihood of developing mood disorders and depression due to irregular sugar supply.
A paleo diet helps you improve your moods and mental health by keeping hormones such as serotonin within healthy levels. As you sleep better and also reduce oxidative stress on your brain, you're also likely to feel better. What's more, you can boost your focus, creativity, and attention spans by ensuring that you have a steady fuel source for your brain.
Good Bacteria
The bacteria in your gut play a significant role in reducing inflammation and digestive problems. Good bacteria protect you from toxins and improve your body's ability to absorb nutrients. With the right lining of microbiome in your intestinal tract, you improve your overall physical health. Usually, the consumption of fermented products naturally improves the probiotics in your body, which is excellent for controlling chronic inflammation.
When your body is inflamed, your immune system reacts by sending white blood cells to the affected area to prevent infection. For example, if you have visceral fat cells- fat stored around critical organs such as the liver, intestines, and pancreas, your body may see the fat cells as dangerous. In response, the immune system sends white blood cells to the abdomen to fight the cells, causing long-term inflammation.
The damage from inflammation may eventually show as heart disease, arthritis, or diabetes. Managing your diet helps you control your microbiome and prevent chronic inflammation. A paleo lifestyle enables you to reduce refined sugar intake and consume fiber, fruits, and vegetables, which are excellent for good bacteria.
Improved Bowel Movements
If you're continually struggling with gas, indigestion, and constipation, a paleo diet can improve your bowel movements. Nuts, fruits, and vegetables are rich in fiber, which helps with bowel movement.
Embrace the Paleo Lifestyle Today
With a paleo diet, you can embrace the art of cooking your meals at home, and looking forward to fresh and healthy meals. You get to be in charge of shopping for whole fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, proteins, and the preparation process.
Starting slowly with healthy paleo snacks can ease you into the paleo lifestyle. The Paleo Angel Power Balls are a healthy energy source and a great addition to any paleo diet. Reach out today for more information on paleo diets and lifestyles.