The Paleo Diet Revised: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat

by Loren Cordain

Book Overview

Eat for better health and weight loss the Paleo way with this revised edition of the bestselling guide--over 100,000 copies sold to date!

Healthy, delicious, and simple, the Paleo Diet is the diet we were designed to eat. If you want to lose weight--up to 75 pounds in six months--or if you want to attain optimal health, The Paleo Diet will work wonders. Dr. Loren Cordain demonstrates how, by eating your fill of satisfying and delicious lean...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470913029
• ISBN13: 9780470913024
• Release Date: December 2010
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

I was recommeded this book by a fitness coach. I was about 50 lbs overweight and suffering health problems. Anyhow, I been following the program for about 2 months now and occasionally work out and have lost 25 lbs. I tried Atkins before and did lose about 40 lbs, but as soon as I went off and added carbs back I gained weight like no tomorow. I wore everything I ate. With this program I eat a lot of fruit and vegtables and the part that is great is it seems to kill your hunger after awhile. I used to think about food most of the time and with this program, I actually sometimes have to remind myself to eat. That is completely un-heard of for me prior. Additionally, I feel much better, my compexion, and skin is much healthier looking. I ve lost about 25 lbs already and I have energy to want to work out. With Atkins I had no energy and no endurance. Occasionaly when I cheat, and eat bread, it actually upsets my stomach now. I used to have indigestion frequently, now that is also gone. I highly recommend this program.

At least one of the 'editorial' reviewers didn't read it

... or maybe s/he simply didn't understand what s/he read. I'm talking about the one that made the stupid statement about the lifespan of paleo humans being only 30 years. Cordain's research shows that if the paleo human was able to avoid childhood mortality and accident, he or she was typically a healthy and productive member of the tribe well into the 60's or 70's, and that the agricultural 'revolution' substantially shortened the human lifespan. Skeletal remains of elderly paleo humans are common -- plus they don't usually show signs of degenerative diseases (or even crooked teeth). Both Cordain and Audette make this observation, so I'm assuming the reviewer simply relied on what somebody else said about the book when writing the 'review'.Cordain's diet recommendations have two big plusses: 1) they make sense, and 2) they are simple enough for anybody (except maybe the 'reviewer' in question) to understand and implement.In addition to this book, I recommend Ray Audette's NeanderThin.

The Stone Age Diet brought up to date

Before I found this book, I'd heard of the Stone Age diet and wished I could adopt it. The restrictions--no grains, legumes, dairy products, or processed foods--sounded formidable, as did the requirements--fresh meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit, the wilder/more organic the better. But my health problems have recently goaded me into adopting a rough form of this diet, and I've needed a diet manual to focus and refine my new food choices. Voila! I found The Paleo Diet just yesterday and am already convinced it's the right diet book for me. I do feel better since I started eating more animal protein and no starch a few weeks ago, but I've been having trouble with fatty meats, and Loren Cordain's book explains why.The reviewers here who argue that saturated fat has been getting a bum rap, that our Stone Age ancestors undoubtedly ate the whole bird and not just the breast, etc., appear to have read the book cursorily, if at all. Cordain clearly explains that the animal protein prehistoric people thrived on had nowhere near the amount of saturated fat found in today's domestic meats, poultry, and dairy products. Quoting from the book, "Paleolithic people couldn't eat fatty meats if they tried--they had nothing like the tubby grain-fed animals that produce our steaks today." Readers who want more science may consult the 20-page bibliography in the back of the book.The Paleo Diet is primarily a diet manual, a nutritional primer, and a cookbook, loaded with practical information (e.g. "How to Be a Savvy Shopper for Fish," "Dining Out, Travel, and Peer Pressure," etc.) for readers who want to adapt the Stone Age diet to the 21st century. What's more, the book is engagingly written and extremely readable. Above all, Cordain makes the Stone Age diet seem simple. If I could give his book an extra five stars, I would!

Solid Research

This is a wonderful book. I have a degree in dietetics, and I have tried to follow the Food Guide Pyramid for years. For years, the weight has just kept on piling up. This book really does make eating easier. You don't have to count calories, carbs, or anything else. As a nutritionist, I know the dangers of high protein, high fat, no carb diets. These dangers include calcium loss from the bones, excess ketone buildup, constipation and other problems. For those reasons, I do not recommend high protein diets and would never go on one. But this book is different. You can eat all the carbs you want, as long as they are the right kind *fruits and non-starchy veggies*. You get lots of fiber and adequate calcium. This diet is truly healthy. I analyzed several days worth of meals with the FoodWorks program, and this diet is very high in vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber. It has also cut my calories in half, and I've lost four pounds this first week. For those who are worried about giving up favorite foods forever, the diet allows two open meals a week, at which you can eat grains and dairy. I also ordered "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" by Walter Willett, an M.D. at Harvard who heads up some long term nutrition studies. I recommend this book to those who are interested in research or a second opinion. Many of the paleo diet points are echoed in Dr. Willett's book. After reading these two books, I don't see how they could fail to convince anyone.

simply THE book to read on proper nutrition

I would like to write this review for 2 reasons:1)I just want to say that I first started to lose weight when I switched to a low-carb diet, but continued to eat lots of dairy and soy, as I was a vegetarian. I have always been a size 12-14, and was quite pleased when I dropped to a size 10 by eliminating bread, pasta and sugar from my diet. I still experienced occasional fatigue and lots of digestive upset, though, and it wasn't until I took an allergy test and found I was allergic to grains and dairy - and subsequently cut both completely out of my diet - that I started to feel the energy and vitality for which I have been searching for years. I'm also allergic to most beans, so my only alternative source of protein was meat. I started to eat lean, unprocessed meats and fresh fruits and veggies, and my energy was not only soaring, but my depression lifted, my skin became smoother and softer, and I dropped down to a size 4 without even trying to lose weight! (I've never been less than a size 10 in my life!) Anyways, I effortlessly maintained that level of vitality and a size 4 until I started to eat rice flour, oats, processed meats and candy. I quickly gained 15lbs and fell into depression once again, leading me to realize that once on a paleo diet, it must become a way of life. The foods that Dr.Cordain describes as detrimental to our health (grains, dairy, legumes) are indeed factors in all sorts of health problems. If you are a possible buyer of this book, please take note of this, you cannot expect to lose weight and then go back to your usual style of eating. Buy this book and undertake Dr.Cordain's suggestions only if you are ready to change your lifestyle - it will be well worth it, I promise! In any case, I have since started back on the paleo-lifestyle route (feeling better already and have lost 5lbs in one week), with the help of Lauren Cordain's book, and it has been an invaluable resource for me. I have beeen waiting for him to write a book for a while now, as I have been reading interviews and papers written by him on www.beyondveg.com since I first started on the paleo nutrition route 2 years ago. This brings me to my second point in writing this review:2)In response to the reviews that mention disdain at the apparent contradiction with Dr.Cordain discouraging the use of saturated fat while promoting the idea that humans' natural diet contained lots of meat, known to be rich in saturated fats, I have read research that sheds some light on this, at least for me. It seems that the saturated fat found in lean game meat - buffalo or wild boar that has been running around the jungle or the plains all day - has a different composition entirely than the saturated fat found in your average piece of supermarket meat - cows, chickens, even free-range game. There is a more favorable ratio of omega 3:omega 6 fatty acids in the lean game meat, as well as other aspects that I can't remember offhand, but you can read more for yourself on this sub