Biological and Clinical Potential of a Palaeolithic Diet*

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the possibility that a Palaeolithic diet, i.e. one that corresponds to what was available in any of the ecological niches of pre‐agricultural humans (1.5 million–10,000 years bp), is optimal in the prevention of age‐related degenerative disease. Design: Literature review. Materials and Methods: Between 1985 and December 2002, more than 200 scientific journals in medicine, nutrition, biology and anthropology were systematically screened for relevant papers. Computer‐based searches and studies of reference lists in journals and books provided a vast number of additional papers. Results: Increasing evidence suggests that a Palaeolithic diet based on lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruit may be effective in the prevention and treatment of common Western diseases. Avoiding dairy products, margarine, oils, refined sugar and cereals, which provide 70% or more of the dietary intake in northern European populations, may be advisable. Atherosclerosis is highly dependent on dietary manipulation in animal experiments. Atherogenic dietary factors include fat (any type) and casein, and hypothetically cereals. Stroke, ischaemic heart disease and type 2 diabetes seem largely preventable by way of dietary changes in a Palaeolithic direction. And insulin resistance, which may have far‐reaching clinical implications as a cause of unregulated tissue growth, may also respond to an ancestral diet. Conclusions: Lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruit may be optimal, rather than a strictly vegetarian diet, in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and insulin resistance.