Converts of the caveman lifestyle advocate eating and exercising in ways that replicate how people in the Neolithic era might have. (Photo: GT/Li Hao)
Is living like a hunter-gatherer healthier for your body?
What do film heartthrob Matthew McConaughey, screen siren Jessica Alba, and US Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush have in common?
According to a recent New York Times report, Bush, the 62-year-old former Florida governor and brother of former US president George W. Bush, is one of the latest high-profile converts to the paleo diet - a weight loss regime advocated by the two Hollywood stars.
Following the diet - which requires devotees to reduce or entirely remove processed foods, diary products, grains, legumes, alcohol and starchy vegetables from their daily intake, Jeb Bush has managed to shed 13.6 kilograms since last November, per the report.
The diet, proponents claim, is based upon what hunter-gatherers in the Paleolithic era, might have eaten. The theory is that such a diet is more suited to the human metabolism than modern diets - which proponents claim are responsible for a host of common health issues, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Some advocates have taken its logic even further, adopting what they call a "caveman lifestyle," according to a September 2014 New York Times report. Besides consuming huge quantities of meat and little else, as they imagine their Paleolithic ancestors did, they fast between meals, to emulate the fallow periods between hunts, and engage in exercise routines meant to replicate chasing prey or running away from predators.
Eating only meat
Jiang Yu, a 27-year-old lawyer based in Beijing, said he had lost 5 kilograms since adopting the caveman lifestyle in October last year.
"I wanted to lose weight but kept failing because I struggled to eat less, especially less meat," said Jiang. "But the paleo diet is different, because you're encouraged to eat meat, and as long as it's lean meat, you can eat as much as you want."
At the beginning, Jiang said he adhered strictly to the rules of the paleo diet, but he now allows for a small quantity of grains and diary products.
"I don't think they're unhealthy, and maybe if cavemen did have access to them, their health might have been better," said Jiang.
What was important, said Jiang, was that he no longer ate any processed foods. "Ice cream and spicy beef jerky used to be my favorites, but now I have no feelings toward them," said Jiang. "Instead, I buy raw beef and cook it at home in the simplest way I can, which is healthier."
Shi Jie, a Beijing-based nutritionist, said she was completely in support of eliminating processed foods from daily consumption, and preparing food in a simple way or eating it raw to preserve its nutrients. But Shi was skeptical about some of the paleo diet's other claims. "Processed food usually contains a lot of harmful additives, such as excessive quantities of salt, fat, calories, and chemical additives," she said. "[But] lack of carbohydrate intake due to refusing to eat grains can be bad for health, and can adversely affect brain, bone and kidney function."
From a scientific nutritional view, said Shi, dietary variety was the basic foundation of good health, and the biggest shortcoming of the paleo diet was its lack of variety.
She pointed to the food pyramid endorsed by numerous countries including China as a good rough guide to how people should consume from different food groups, including diary products and grain.
"People following the paleo diet should know that although it might seem healthier than a modern diet, the average life expectancy of people [during the Paleolithic era] was only around 30 to 40 years," joked Shi. "[If people insist on following it], I would recommend doing it for no longer than three months at a time, with a month's rest in between, or it could lead to malnutrition."
