Growth of the Paleo Diet
When I started this website, my hope was that sharing my story and experiences could help motivate others to give the diet a try. I am not a person who has been eating this way for years, and the knowledge that I learn and the stories shared come from someone who is still in the discovery phase. That said, I have now lost over 25 pounds eating Primally, and I have come to believe that anyone can achieve health benefits and even weight loss by modifying their diet in the same way.
Judging from the numbers, it appears that the same realization been happening organically long before I started. For several years now, Paleo/Primal sites have dominated the health/weight-loss best sellers list on Amazon.com, and some studies estimate that as many as 3 million Americans are currently on some variation of the “caveman diet“.
America in Crisis
I am convinced that a health revolution is going to happen in this country in the next 5-10 years. We spend 2.8 trillion dollars on health care each year, and yet the number of people who are sick in this country continues to climb. According to recent statistics released by the CDC, 69.2 percent of American adults over the age of 20 are overweight, and 35.9% are considered obese. When troubling numbers like these are growing every single year, clearly something we are doing is causing problems.
We cannot continue to go down this path. At some point, we as a society are going to need to take a look at our behavior and figure out what is causing this health crisis. We are taking more drugs and medicine than ever, and the problems are only getting worse, so clearly that is not the solution. It is really quite simple when you strip everything down to its core. It all starts with what we put into our bodies. We need to examine our nutrition, and be willing to make some wholesale changes. I believe that 10 years from now, many of the common ingredients found in processed food may be looked at the same way we look at cigarettes today. These chemicals are wrecking our bodies and making us sick, and we have to stop eating them. I can’t say for certain if this shift will happen in 2014, and it will indeed be the year that the Paleo Diet goes mainstream, but I do think it will happen soon.
Availability of Paleo Friendly Foods
I do look forward to the day when Paleo becomes mainstream. Restaurants and grocery stores will have to start replacing their processed items filled with nastiness like MSG and High Fructose Corn Syrup, with all natural ingredients. The availability of organic and grass feed meats would likely increase as well. It is certainly possible to eat Paleo today at just about any grocery store or restaurant, but you do sometimes have to spend considerable time researching and reading labels to pull it off properly.
I recently read an article about a Paleo-Themed restaurant in the UK that is trying to get kickstarter funds to get moving. I believe that there will come a day in the near future when restaurants like this are commonplace, and that will certainly be a good day for our society as a whole.
Source: primalweightloss.net
We will see how the Paleo diet will take off, I hear more and more about it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason why this diet is growing in popularity is that more and more people are becoming aware of the impact food actually had on our bodies. Eating as naturally as possible is ideal.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot about the Paleo diet and tried a few of the recipes in one of my books. One recipe was a hit while the other 2 were not.
ReplyDeleteA couple of things: 1) "Grass fed" and other organically raised products will HAVE TO get less expensive (when compared with non-organically raised products) before a majority of people can afford them. 2) There are probably just as many people lining up on the "cut meat out entirely from your diet and go vegan because it is healthier for your body" side of the dietary question. (What that says to me is that different things work for different people. Something common sense would dictate anyway.) 3) The only very clear and undisputed point is that the genetically engineered and hormone-saturated ingredients now present in much of food we consume HAVE TO GO!
ReplyDeleteSure does seem as if this diet is taking the Nation by storm.
ReplyDeleteI've read many things about the Paleo diet, and I think I'd like to try it. It doesn't sound like it's difficult to keep, and I know it is a healthy lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI never need to diet but have noticed article after article on the Paleo diet so it must work for those who stick to it.
ReplyDeleteI have some friends that are on the Paleo Diet and they are losing weight on it and seem to be doing well.
ReplyDeleteI have been noticing that people around the world are looking out for their diet more and more.
ReplyDeleteWe have tried some of the Paelo diet recipes and they weren't very good!
ReplyDeleteI started paleo diet 3 years ago when I was newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. With this the diabetes went quickly into remission. Is it so hard to believe that eating a diet based on fresh produce and other foods close to nature will restore health? All I did was cut out sugar, grains and processed foods, which are all grain and sugar based anyway. The folks who will have you believe that such foods are necessary for health care – guess who – the food industry, and the governments that are financially supported by the food industry. Why else should grains and grain products occupy the largest section of the old food pyramid? These foods are what made me sick in the first place.
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