John Walker a few days ago wrote about his one-year experience with the paleo diet: he’s happy with it. A snippet:
….I decided to give it a try, and now it’s time to review the results. I consider them remarkable. First of all, shortly after eliminating the non-paleo foods from my diet, my blood pressure dropped from the low yellow right into the middle of the green range and has remained there ever since. I have seen a downward bias in my weight which didn’t exist before and, in fact, without any deliberate intention, my weight today is 6 kg less than it was a year ago. (I experienced what I call the “paleo plunge”, which others have reported: after some turbulence when initially adopting the diet your weight will stay about the same and then, after six or nine months begin to drop smoothly. Some argue that this delay is due to the body’s need to repair ongoing damage and inflammation from non-paleo nutrients and once it’s caught up, weight loss will begin. I don’t know if this is really the explanation for the paleo plunge, but I certainly have experienced it. Should it continue and I begin to bump the bottom of my target weight range, I will add calories to my diet as described in The Hacker’s Diet to stay within the target; it’s a nice problem to have.) I feel great: after a couple of months almost all of the perceptible symptoms of chronic inflammation are gone, along with just about every other complaint of growing old. The persistent skin irritation from low humidity during the winter, which I’ve experienced since the 1990s, is gone. Nine months after the change-over to paleo, I had the first blood work done since before. The doctor went so far as to shake my hand and say, “I’ve never seen a blood panel like this for somebody your age. You have the blood of a 35 year old man.” Works for me.
I hadn’t heard of the “paleo plunge” before. Mr. Walker’s website and blog look interesting; I’ll have to return for a look when time allows.
Paleo Diabetic 