More than weight loss: benefits and positive side effects of the Paleo Diet

When I "went Primal" in October of 2011 and embraced the foundations of a paleo/primal lifestyle, interesting things began to happen.

For the uninitiated, the paleo diet is based on the idea of the human body's not being designed to process grains or sugar beyond what is included in fruits and sweet vegetables. This means that adherents to the diet (I prefer to call it a lifestyle) choose to stop eating all forms of bread, pasta and legumes. This naturally includes processed foods, and most choose to stop eating dairy as well.

The initial result most people seek from the paleo lifestyle is weight loss. And that certainly does happen. But if you are still undecided as to whether or not the paleo diet is right for you, consider some of the pleasant side effects of eliminated grains and sugars from your diet.

Are you aware that your skin cells regenerate every few weeks?

You are what you eat! Your body is made of fats and proteins, and you replenish them by eating meat, fish, nuts and coconut. Vegetables contain vitamins and nutrients that are necessary to your overall health and wellness. Grains, on the other hand, whole or otherwise, are not necessary for your body. They contain nothing beneficial that cannot be obtained from vegetables, including fiber.

So if your body is going to use the fuel it is given to regenerate skin, what do you think you should be eating? A glorified birdseed like wheat, or something that is already in your body, like animal fat?

Since going primal, even with all of the sweating I do in martial arts and gym environments, I no longer get pimples or rashes on my skin.

Getting the grains and legumes out of your diet means that, by association, you cut out peanuts and cashews. While they are often lumped in with actual nuts, they are actually legumes, and contain aflotoxins and allergens. Whether you have an expressed nut allergy or not, reducing your peanut/cashew intake will help reduce overall inflammation in your body, especially your sinuses.

Dairy is also recommended as something to be minimized or eliminated from your diet. Dairy unnecessary for consumption in human adults, and is a natural immune suppressant.

And, of course, grains . Grains are also immune-suppressing and inflammatory. Grain-based products are also the main source of gluten in the modern diet. Gluten is a disgusting substance that studies are showing that many people are allergic to without even knowing.

Give up grains for a few weeks in the fall or spring and see if your seasonal allergies don't become more manageable, or disappear all together!

I had dropped a lot of weight before I went primal. The first month I gave up grains, yet another ten pounds of fat fell off effortlessly.

And the best part?

It was all in my butt and legs! For the first time in ten years, I was able to be regular jeans without a massive disparity between what the measurement of my waistline and the extra room I needed to accommodate my heavy butt and thighs. Now, I can just buy my favorite cut of pants (my personal favorites are Old Navy straight cuts!) and the legs and butt fit the waist without a problem.

When you eat a standard American diet high in carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods, your body has to work harder to deconstruct the foreign substances, extract what nutrients are there, and continue with the digestion process. The carbs get turned into blood sugar, which rockets up after a meal. After your body has absorbed the blood sugar it needs for energy and has sent the excess to fat storage, your blood sugar level goes down again. This is what leads to sluggishness after meals and the infamous "two o'clock crash" after a heavy lunch.

If you eat this way habitually, your body is constantly being tricked into desiring more of that constant intake of quick energy, which leads to more post-meal crashes, and the vicious cycle continues.

A paleo-style diet is built on a foundation of meats (preferably grass-fed) and the good carbohydrates found in vegetables. This kind of fuel is what your body really needs. Cutting out the grains and processed substances allows your body to maintain a much more constant level of blood sugar, and your energies levels are stabilized!

Even better, your body will re-program itself to efficiently burn that old, stored fat for energy. You will turn into an energy-efficient creature, and you will begin to trim down and be able see what your body is really supposed to look like! Hello muscles!

The paleo diet's emphasis on a low to moderate intake of carbohydrates means that blood sugar not only stays constant, but that it will ward off the effects of type II diabetes. It is possible to virtually cure this disease if the paleo diet is adopted for the long term as a lifestyle.

Naturally, this should be done under the supervision of one's physician.

The paleo diet is simply a diet of whole foods

That's it!

It's nothing complicated, nothing scary, just a pure, natural diet of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and fruits.

Within this stunningly diverse selection of foods, you can get creative with your cooking in many, many ways. When you care about what you eat and seek out good ingredients, a new joy is found in cooking. You will wake up one day to discover that you are a gourmet!

This is a lifestyle that is filling, delicious and has manifold benefits. I've detailed a few of them that I know from direct experience. Why not try it yourself and see what it can do for you?