Paleolithic Diet: More Hype than Hope?

Over the weekend, I was listening to a podcast about the Paleolithic diet. Daniel Lieberman, the expert being interviewed, has focused his research on the Paleolithic era. I found it quite interesting based on the number of gurus and influencers that continue to say that era was the diet we should mimic for optimal health. You can listen to it yourself at this link, but two factors stuck out to me.

First, the foods that were available during that time bear no resemblance to the foods available today. I’m not just talking about processed foods; the plants and even the meat sources were very different.

Second, cooking changed the way our ancestors ate. Cooking allowed more variety of plants to be eaten because it broke down the matrices in plants, which released more nutrients to be digested and absorbed. More nutrients could also be released from the animals and allowed more of the animals to be eaten. Bone marrow is definitely not a recent discovery.

There are a couple more points that I’ll cover Saturday, but listen or watch the podcast and see if you can figure out where I’m going.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Zoe. August 6, 2026. The Evolutionary Science Behind Why You Can’t Lose Weight.