Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 20, 2008

A traditional fish stew (Bouillabaisse served without bread)

APaleolithic-style dietis a contemporarydietregime, consisting of commonly available modern foods. It emulates the diet of wild plants and animals that humans and theirclose relativeshabitually consumed during thePaleolithic(the OldStone Age), a period of about 2 million years duration that ended about 10,000 years ago. First popularized in the mid 1970s by agastroenterologistnamed Walter L. Voegtlin, this dietary approach is based on the premise thatmodern humansare geneticallyadaptedto the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors. Proponents of Paleolithic-style diets differ in their dietary prescriptions, but all agree that people today should eat mainly meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots and nuts, and avoid grains, legumes, dairy products, salt and refined sugar. This dietary approach is a controversial topic amongstnutritionistsandanthropologists.Advocates argue that modern human populations subsisting ontraditional dietssimilar to those of Paleolithichunter-gatherersare largely free ofdiseases of affluence,and that such diets produce beneficial health outcomes in controlledmedical studies.Supporters point to several potentiallytherapeuticnutritional characteristics of preagricultural diets. Critics of this nutritional approach have taken issue with its underlyingevolutionarylogic, and have disputed certain dietary prescriptions on the grounds that they pose health risks and may not reflect real Paleolithic diets. (more...)

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