oily fish - paleo diet

The Paleo Diet and the Role of Supplementation

The Paleo Diet takes us back to the times of cavemen.

If you follow this diet you’re essentially following the same diet your ancient ancestors used to follow.

They didn’t have the vast amount of choices we have today when it came to food. Their diet was limited (if that’s the word, since it covers quite a lot) to meat and poultry, nuts and seeds, fish, fruit and vegetables. Eggs and oils from natural foods such as olives and flaxseeds were good too.

As such the Paleo Diet gets rid of many modern foods that have been blamed for causing obesity, diabetes and many other serious illnesses. These include refined sugars, salt and all manner of processed foods. All the foods on the Paleo or caveman diet are pure in the same way they were back in the day of our distant ancestors.

One thing you’ll notice cropping up time and again when people consider starting this diet is the idea of taking supplements. Do you need supplements when you’re going back to the basic building blocks of food, as in the paleo diet? The jury is still out on this one, but it is worth considering some of the possibilities that regularly crop up as suggestions.

Omega 3

While fish gets the thumbs up on this diet, modern fish can be prone to mercury contamination. This means it’s worth being careful. While cavemen may have speared and eaten fish regularly, you should consider limiting your fish intake. This means you’ll get less Omega 3 than you could. These fatty acids work hard to reduce inflammation in the body and help keep your brain in tip top condition. It makes sense to ensure you get them from the safest sources.

Probiotics

These are commonly known as the healthy bacteria – the kind our guts can do well with. If you check the list of foods you cannot eat on the caveman diet you’ll notice dairy products are on there. Since dairy products such as yogurt are usually the best sources of probiotics, it’s a good idea to add a supplement that contains them to your regime. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a daily thing, but you should consider taking a supplement fairly regularly.

Co-enzyme Q10

This enzyme acts to reduce inflammation just as Omega 3 does. You’ll get this enzyme as part of a caveman diet by eating fish and meat. However since we’ve learned modern fish can be affected by heavy metals, it makes sense to up your intake of this essential enzyme via a supplement. The good news is it is also present in a variety of nuts.

Enjoying a healthy diet and boosting your health

These are just a few of the supplements you could consider taking if you start following the Paleo Diet. While the diet does get back to extreme basics in terms of food intake, following the patterns of people who lived thousands of years ago, it’s still a good idea to make sure you get everything you need. 

In fact while many pure foods have levels of healthy vitamins and minerals in them, many do not offer the levels we need on a daily basis. For instance co-enzyme Q10 is present in broccoli, nuts and chicken – all components of the Paleo Diet – but you still don’t get as much as you should.

Supplements are often recommended for people who are starting on a new diet. Those on the Paleo Diet are no different in this respect. Perhaps your healthy eating kick could do with a little extra help too.

Be the first to comment

All comments are moderated before being published