The caveman diet is intended to include only foods
that were available to humans that existed more than
10,000 years ago. The most basic meaning of this is that
only foods that can be eaten raw can be included, as fire
was not discovered until after this time period. On the
diet however, the food does not actually have to be
eaten plain and raw, it can be moderately prepared.
Food can be cooked but should be eaten very close to
its raw state, without complex preparation methods
being used. Because the food has to be able to be
eaten raw this excludes some foods like many members
of the legume family (such as beans, peas, and peanuts)
because they have to be cooked.
The other basic premise is that nothing that
requires technology can be eaten. Technology in this
case encompasses things as diverse as agricultural methods
to complex processing and canning. This means
that any kind of food that has been processed in any
way is forbidden. This excludes all forms of refined
sugars, and large amounts of the foods normally eaten
by average consumers today.
No dairy products are allowed while on this diet.
This means no milk, cheese, butter, or anything else
that comes from milking animals. This is because
milking did not occur until animals were domesticated,
sometime after the Paleolithic age. Eggs are
allowed however, because Paleolithic man would
probably have found eggs in bird’s nests during foraging
and hunting.
Because agriculture did not exist during the Paleolithic
era this means that no grains of any kind can be
eaten while on the caveman diet. Although wild grains
did exist during the Paleolithic period, many of them
were very different than the grains that exist today.
They were unlikely to have been as robust and would
have provided little nutrition. Additionally grains
could not be collected in any significant way until
pottery (another invention of the Neolithic age) was
invented so that there was an available method to
collect and store it. So on the caveman diet grains in
all forms are forbidden. This includes rice, wheat, and
even corn.
Root vegetables that are starchy are also forbidden
on the diet. These include potatoes and sweet
potatoes. Yams and Cassava are also not allowed,
and some people believe beets are acceptable on the
diet and some do not. These foods are not allowed
because they generally have to be cooked and are not
believed to have been eaten during Paleolithic times.
Meat and fat recommendations for while on this
diet are where the two main proponents of the diet
show their biggest dietary difference. Audette believes
that eating fat can help a dieter feel fuller on less, and
even reports that he eats a pound of bacon for breakfast
each morning. Cordain believes the dieter should
take an approach that limits the intake of such fatty
meats and includes a variety of lean meats. He believes that Paleolithic humans ate meat that was leaner
because animals raised in the wild, instead of captivity,
tend to have less fat and leaner muscle. To mimic this
he suggests eating a variety of animals such as elk and
buffalo that are raised on grass and are more free to
roam than regular farm animals.
Different versions of the caveman diet differ in
their recommendations about exercise. Some versions
do not make recommendations, while others suggest
significant amounts of exercise, especially outdoor
exercise. The premise is that Paleolithic humans
spent most of their time hunting and gathering food,
which would have required a significant amount more
physical activity than average humans engage in
today.
Cordain believes that when beginning the caveman
diet it is often advisable to begin slowly, and
slowly include more meals that follow the diet’s guidelines
as time goes on. He also believes that having what
he calls ‘‘open meals,’’ during which the guidelines are
relaxed, can be a good way to help the dieter stick to
the diet in the long run. Cordain also believes that even
just following some of the recommendations of the
caveman diet can be beneficial, and encourages people
to do as much as they are comfortable with. Audette
generally takes a more hard line approach and does
not allow for any bending of the rules with certain
meals. He reports that not only do he and his wife
follow this diet strictly, but that their son has been on
the diet since birth, as well.
