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It’s more strict than other low-carb diets, like paleo, but keto also provides a lot of extra health benefits that you won’t find on other diets. Keto has become one of the most popular diets for people who want to lose weight. The ketogenic (keto) diet is a very low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet. In short, the paleo diet is a fairly low-carb diet that focuses on eating whole foods like meat, eggs, high-quality fats, nuts, fresh greens, low-sugar fruits, and starchy vegetables. Melon (sparingly somewhat high in sugar).
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Here’s a sample list of foods you can eat on a paleo diet. When you cut out refined carbs, your blood sugar stays stable and low throughout the day, and you end up with steady, even energy levels and decreased sugar cravings. Your blood sugar goes on a rollercoaster ride: a quick spike in blood sugar, along with a quick jump in energy, followed by a blood sugar crash that comes with fatigue, sleepiness, trouble concentrating, and cravings for more sugar.Ī low-carb diet like paleo smooths this whole process out. If you’ve ever had a sugar crash after a particularly carb-heavy meal, you know how this process feels. The insulin will pull too much sugar out of your blood, and you’ll end up with low blood sugar.īasically, you’ll go from high blood sugar to low blood sugar in a short amount of time. However, if you eat too many refined carbs, your insulin system may be shocked by the sudden blood sugar increase and release too much insulin in response. In response to that increased blood sugar, your body releases insulin, a hormone that pulls the sugar out of your blood and returns your blood sugar levels to normal.
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When you don’t eat sugar, refined carbs, or other high-glycemic foods, your blood sugar stays much more steady throughout the day.Įating sugar and refined carbs cause a sudden spike in your blood sugar. A study of women with type 2 diabetes found that paleo, in particular, improves blood sugar control significantly. Energy Levels, Sugar Cravings, And Blood Sugar Control People who follow a paleo diet long-term show a decrease in blood triglycerides, inflammation markers, blood pressure, and visceral fat - several of the biggest risk factors for heart disease. Paleo is also good for cardiovascular health. So if you want to lose weight, paleo is a healthy choice overall, and low-carb paleo may work even better for you. Low-carb diets are especially good for weight loss, outperforming low-fat diets and a variety of other popular weight-loss diets, like DASH and Zone diets. However, most people treat paleo as a low-carb diet, and if your goal is to lose weight on paleo, you may want to limit your carbs to around 20% of your daily calories. Paleo allows sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squash, and other starchy vegetables, and technically you can eat as much of them as you want. That said, there’s one thing to note when it comes to paleo and weight loss. Similarly, a broad review of paleo diet research found that people on paleo lost weight and had an overall decreased risk of chronic disease. In a 2014 study, overweight people who followed a paleo diet for two years saw significant fat loss. Cutting out junk food and replacing it with satiating, nutrient-dense whole foods is an excellent way to slim down. Weight LossĪ lot of people lose weight on paleo, which makes sense. Here’s a look at what paleo can do for you. It’s a balanced, fairly relaxed diet that allows you to enjoy a wide variety of foods. That means paleo is usually high-protein, moderate-fat (or high-fat), and fairly low-carb.Ī sample macronutrient ratio on paleo might be: In place of those carbs and sugar, paleo encourages you to eat lots of greens and meat. That said, eliminating processed food and grains tends to make paleo lower in carbs than your standard modern diet. It’s more about ideology: eat whole, nutrient-dense foods, regardless of their macronutrient content. Paleo doesn’t have a specific macronutrient ratio - the ratio of fat, protein, and carbs that you should eat. The paleo diet aims to mimic a hunter-gatherer diet, with the idea that you’ll be healthier if you trade processed modern food for the food that your body evolved to eat. Instead, they ate what they could hunt, catch, or forage - mostly meat, fish, greens, low-sugar fruit (modern fruit is much sweeter than it used to be), and nuts. Our ancestors didn’t farm grains or make refined sugar, and they definitely didn’t have access to fast food. The reasoning behind paleo is that humans didn’t evolve to eat the diet we eat today. The paleo diet is built on a simple principle: for optimal health, you should eat food similar to what your caveman ancestors ate.
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