Question

Answer these questions below for "PALEO Diet":

1. Describe the basic composition of the Paleo diet and indicate its suggested health benefits

2. What are the main sources of energy in Paleo diet?

3. What is the breakdown of macronutrient energy sources (% carbohydrate, % fat and % protein) in Paleo diet?

4. What is the breakdown of fats (saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated) in Paleo diet?

5. What is the breakdown of carbohydrates (sugars, fiber) in Paleo diet?

6. Is the diet a sufficient source of micronutrients and vitamins? Is an individual following this diet at risk for micronutrient deficiency?

7. Consider each of the following athletes and explain why the assigned diet would or would not be beneficial to this athlete.

Endurance athlete -

Strength/power athlete -

Answer 1

1.Describe the basic composition of the Paleo diet and indicate its suggested health benefits

The paleo diet (also nicknamed the caveman diet, primal diet, Stone Age diet, and hunter-gatherer diet) is hugely popular these days, and goes by one simple question: What would a caveman eat?

The paleo diet runs on the same foods our hunter-gather ancestors supposedly ate: fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, and nuts. "By following these nutritional guidelines, we put our diet more in line with the evolutionary pressures that shaped our current genetics, which in turn positively influences health and well being," says Loren Cordain, PhD, professor of health and exercise science at Colorado State University and author of The Paleo Diet. He says the diet lessens the body's glycemic load, has a healthy ratio of saturated-to-unsaturated fatty acids, increases vitamin and nutrient consumption, and contains an optimal balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

In fact, the health benefits of the paleo diet are unproven. "Our ancestors ate this way and didn't have many of the chronic diseases we do, but that doesn't mean the food they ate is the reason why; drawing that conclusion would be like saying we live three times longer than our Paleolithic ancestors because we eat fast food," says Christopher Ochner, MD, research associate at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals. Still, a handful of small studies have tried to determine if a paleo diet is a healthier diet. One small study published in the journal Diabetologia found that the diet improved blood sugar over 12 weeks compared to a Mediterranean one that allowed grains, low-fat dairy, and oils, but it's hard to say whether researchers would come to the same results in a larger study.

Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh meat the paleo diet is all about eating foods straight from the Earth just as our ancestors did. Those ancestors didn't have livestock or crops to call their own, so Cordain advises to go with grass-fed and organic varieties whenever possible to limit exposure to pesticides, antibiotics, and other chemicals that didn't exist back then. Research from Emory University suggests that Paleolithic people obtained about 35% of their calories from fats, 35% from carbohydrates, and 30% from protein.

2.      What are the main sources of energy in Paleo diet?

55% of daily calories from seafood and lean meat, evenly divided

15% of daily calories from each of fruits, vegetables, and nuts and seeds

no dairy, almost no grains (which Cordain described as "starvation food" for Paleolithic people), no added salt, no added sugar

3.What is the breakdown of macronutrient energy sources (% carbohydrate, % fat and % protein) in Paleo diet?

Research from Emory University suggests that Paleolithic people obtained about 35% of their calories from fats, 35% from carbohydrates, and 30% from protein.

4.      What is the breakdown of fats (saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated) in Paleo diet?

Generous amounts of saturated fats like coconut oil and butter or clarified butter. Beef tallow, lard and duck fat are also good, but only if they come from healthy and well-treated animals. Beef or lamb tallow is a better choice than lamb or duck fat. Olive, avocado and macadamia oil are also good fats to use in salads and to drizzle over food, but not for cooking.

5.      What is the breakdown of carbohydrates (sugars, fiber) in Paleo diet?

Carbs still serve a purpose in our diets, but they’re not essential.

I prefer to get my carbs from vegetables, sweet potatoes, and fruit. Why is that? These foods are naturally occurring in the wild and don’t need to be processed in any way (unlike grains) in order to be consumed.

The other great thing about vegetables is that they’re incredibly nutrient dense and calorie light – six full servings of broccoli (and who would eat 6 servings at once?) has 180 calories and 36 grams of carbs. A single serving of pasta (and NOBODY eats just one serving of pasta) has 200 calories and 42 grams of carbs.

Now, eating paleo does not automatically mean that you are doing a ketogenic diet (no carb) or a low-carb diet.

However, even if you have a serving of sweet potato (26g per 1 cup serving) with every meal, it’s likely a lot lower in carbs than you’re used to having.

recommend keeping your carb content low loading up on buckets of fruit is technically Paleo, but can result in a ton of carbs and sugar consumed (and thus, fat gain. Fail).

6.      Is the diet a sufficient source of micronutrients and vitamins? Is an individual following this diet at risk for micronutrient deficiency?

The aspects of the Paleo diet that advise eating fewer processed foods and less sugar and salt are consistent with mainstream advice about diet. Diets with a paleo nutrition pattern have some similarities to traditional ethnic diets such as the Mediterranean diet that have been found to be healthier than the Western diet Following the Paleo diet, however, can lead to nutritional deficiencies such as those of vitamin D and calcium, which in turn could lead to compromised bone health; it can also lead to an increased risk of ingesting toxins from high fish consumption.

Research into the weight loss effects of the paleolithic diet has generally been of poor quality One trial of obese postmenopausal women found improvements in weight and fat loss after six months, but the benefits had ceased by 24 months; side effects among participants included "weakness, diarrhea, and headaches". In general, any weight loss caused by the diet is merely the result of calorie restriction, rather than a special feature of the diet itself

7. Consider each of the following athletes and explain why the assigned diet would or would not be beneficial to this athlete.

Endurance athlete -

Strength/power athlete -

The assinged diet isnot sufficient for athlets , because the energy trquirment will be much more than available, the specified diet is mainly usefull for those who are over weight and obese, where they can reduce weight. In contrast athlets also need more micro nutrients and minarals in additional amounts also.