A few paleo artist's thoughts on the paleo diet

In recent years, the so-called "paleo diet" is gaining in popularity. 

"The paleolithic diet is a nutritional plan based on the presumed diet of Paleolithic humans. It is based on the premise that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, which marked the end of the Paleolithic era, around 15,000 years ago, and that modern humans are adapted to the Paleolithic diet.
The Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, eggs, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, and processed oils."
(from Wikipedia)
Looking at this topic as a paleo artist, I may say, I am rather sceptical about the whole paleo diet concept.  First of all, I am quite positive, that there is definitely not enough data available to make certain that the diet practised by our predecessors was the same one as proposed by the authors of the "Paleolithic diet". I doubt it is even close to it. So, the diet is only a theory. An educated guess. The humans were highly mobile and nomadic in the old days. Their habitats were diverse and the food available to them was different, regarding the climate and geographic area they had occupied. Even today, in the global market, this is the case. The diets differ greatly from country to country. Often even the neighbouring countries have quite different menus. In some cases the food is extremely different. Take for instance what the typical Inuits eat and what the peoples of Indochina eat. Reconstructing the proposed paleo diet is in my opinion, like trying to make a life restoration of a "dinosaur". A painter friend of mine, who obviously didn't have a clue on the subject of paleo art, once proposed to make a sculpture of a "generic" dinosaur on the Main Brijun island (where the numerous dinosaur tracks are preserved). I thought the idea was hilarious, because nobody can make such a sculpture. Dinosaurs were just too diverse a group of animals. Well, I think the same about the paleo diet. It is trending now, because the reasoning behind it sounds logical at first hearing. All of you who think it may work, or even got some positive results from already going through paleo dieting, go ahead. Knock your selves out. I'll stick to the variety of foods the modern civilisation has provided us. Deep inside, all of the dieters who intend loosing excess weight, know that the basic problem is the intake of too many calories and not exercising enough.

 

Here is a fun article on the subject:

Paleo Man Debunks the Paleo Diet