The Paleolithic diet was a fatpredominant,
low-carbohydrate diet.
Calories came mainly from fat-bearing
animal foods, but plant foods were an
essential part of the diet and comprised
most of the weight. Typically:
• Carbohydrates made up 15 to 20
percent of calories, with
excursions toward 50 percent
depending on food availability.
Most calories came from fatty
animal foods.
• Plant foods consisted
predominantly of starchy inground
carbohydrate sources
such as roots, rhizomes, tubers,
and corms plus above-ground fat
sources such as coconuts, palm
fruit, and mongongo nuts. Sweet
fruits were rarely a major part of
the diet.
It was on a majority-fat, low-carb
diet mainly composed of animal foods
and in-ground plants that our ancestors
evolved from a regional population of
small-brained African apes numbering
(probably) in the tens of thousands to a
highly intelligent species at the top of the
food chain and a global population in the
millions.
As our Paleolithic ancestors who
dominated the globe were characterized
by tall stature and healthy teeth and
bones and their health deteriorated as
soon as their diet was altered, we think
it’s safe to say that such a low-carb,
high-plant, starch-meat-and-fat-based
diet is a healthful human diet.
