Avoid Type-2 Diabetes: Eat Like a Caveman

Are you at risk for developing type-2 diabetes? Type-2 diabetes, also known as late-onset diabetes, usually develops in people over 40. And, overweight people who are not physically active are more at risk of developing it. If you fall into this category, you may want to say goodbye to eating like a modern person and say hello to the dietary traditions of your ancient ancestors. Keep reading to find out how to follow the “Caveman Diet.”

Your early ancestors lived on fruit, nuts, vegetables and lean meat—and recent research suggests that eating a simple Stone Age diet could reduce the likelihood of this increasingly common form of diabetes.

Scientists have found that people whose blood sugar level was too high were better at handling sugars in their diet when they switched to prehistoric eating habits and avoided modern foods such as bread, cereals, dairy products, and sugar—food products that only became staple foods with the start of agriculture about 9,000 years ago and now provide most of the calories of the modern diet.

Swedish scientists studied members of the remote Kitava tribe in Papua New Guinea, who still eat the Paleolithic diet that our ancestors enjoyed 70,000 years ago, and were amazed to find that the Kitava people had no problems with heart disease or diabetes. The researchers then set out to test the theory that what the Kitava people eat keeps them free of type-2 diabetes.

Fourteen volunteers, all with heart disease and problems with high blood sugar levels, lived on a Stone Age diet for three months. Another fifteen volunteers with the same medical problems ate a Mediterranean diet of wholegrain cereals, low-fat dairy products, fruit, vegetables and unsaturated fats. After twelve weeks, carbohydrate-linked blood sugar levels had fallen by a dramatic 26 percent for the people on the Stone Age diet. In contrast, it changed much less for those on the Mediterranean diet, falling by only 7 percent.

At the end of the study, all the patients in the Paleolithic group had normal blood glucose. The Stone Age dieters also lost some weight.

The conclusion? If you are at risk for type-2 diabetes, cut as many high-calorie processed and “modern” foods as you can out of your diet and stick to natural fruits and vegetables and lean cuts of meat and poultry.