I'm a fifty-five year old man and I was in good shape in my forties, doing strength training and walking six miles a day. Since then, I've developed high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and, now, just two weeks ago, I was informed that I am a type 2 diabetic. That's the bad news.
The good news is that I had begun reading Loren Cordain's The Paleo Diet before I was diagnosed and would have been giving it a try, anyway, to reverse the other conditions I'm afflicted with, aside from the diabetes. Having started the Paleo Diet within two days of my diagnosis, I have already begun to see my blood sugar coming down from the 200's to the 100's, in just days, folks.
Now, I'm a believer. I am finding the Paleo Diet is not only easy to do and easy to stick with, but is so because it is the natural diet of humankind. It is what our ancestors ate for over 2 million years, before the advent of agriculture and the domestication of cattle, some 10,000 years ago, brought grains and dairy into the human diet. In short, this is the diet we were all meant to eat.
Since the introduction of grains and dairy, human beings have been afflicted with an increasing array of diseases and conditions that were unknown to our paleolithic ancestors. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and diabetes are all diet-related diseases that, even today, are unheard of in modern day hunter-gatherer tribes (what few of them are remaining. We keep killing them off by introducing them to "civilization"), let alone in our paleolithic ancestors. We know, from archaeological evidence, that our paleolithic ancestors never suffered from these conditions. We know that they didn't eat grains or dairy, as these weren't introduced until about 10,000 years ago. So, it has been principally the introduction of grains and dairy products, as well as modern man's processed foods and chemical manipulation of foods that has created all these dietary diseases.
Today, there are more obese people than ever in history. Paleolithic people were lean and muscular. Today, there are more people with high triglycerides and high blood sugar than ever in history. Paleolithic people had normal blood sugar and triglyceride levels because they didn't have the elevated levels of sugar in their diet that we have today. Today, there are more people than ever in history suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease, Paleolithic people never knew such conditions. They didn't exist.
Getting back to my own case, since starting the Paleo Diet, just days ago, not only has my blood sugar begun coming down, but I'm feeling 100% better than I was and I'm anticipating that when I return to my doctor in a couple of weeks to check my lipids and blood pressure again, I'll find that has begun to normalize, as well.
Since I was consuming cheese daily and drinking a gallon of milk every three or four days or so, I'm convinced that dropping dairy from my diet entirely has, by itself, been of tremendous benefit. That's to say nothing of the effects of cutting grains and processed foods out, also.
