Paleolithic lifestyle

A paleolithic lifestyle (also known as paleo or primal lifestyle) refers to living as humans did in the paleolithic era (Old Stone Age), or attempting to recreate such a lifestyle in the present day. The rationale for such an approach is that humans have evolved for millions of years in a paleolithic environment. Therefore, their body and mind can be expected to be perfectly adapted to the concomitant hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Agriculture, on the other hand, only appeared about 10 000 years ago at the beginning of the neolithic era, and industrial society only about 200 years ago. Proponents of a paleolithic lifestyle assert that insufficient time has passed for humans to adapt to the changes brought by farming and industrialization, leading to a misfit between modern lifestyle and the human genome.

While small number of cultures in the world continue to live a paleolithic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, a subculture of people has emerged in modern societies who try to recreate elements of a paleolithic lifestyle.^[1][2] Their motivation is to enhance health, fitness and happiness by avoiding the common "diseases of civilization", such as obesity, some cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, increasingly prevalent allergies, some forms of depression and chronic stress. These diseases are not yet evidenced among hunter-gatherers, and therefore they are attributed to modern, "civilized" lifestyle.^[3][4]

The movement is primarily associated with the paleolithic diet, but also includes going barefoot, and replicating a paleolithic exercise routine, or involve paleolithic survival skills. Some people advocate prehistoric lifestyles for animals, notably raw feeding and natural hoof care. More generally, the paleo movement fits within a "back to nature" philosophy, as advocated, e.g., by many environmentalists. However, it distinguishes itself from some other ideas associated with this philosophy by focusing on a realistic, scientific view of what humanity's "true nature" is. For example, it rejects any notions that vegetarianism or veganism is a natural lifestyle, given the evidence that paleolithic people and most present-day hunter-gatherers consumed substantial amounts of animal protein.^[5] Evidence such as this comes from scientific disciplines like anthropology, paleoanthropology, evolutionary medicine, evolutionary psychology and environmental psychology.

Basic Recommendations

In order to bring our modern lifestyle more in line with the one of our paleolithic ancestors, authors inspired by the paleo philosophy^{[6][7][8][9][10]} formulate a variety of guidelines, which include the following:

• adopt as much as possible a Paleo diet: lots of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit, while avoiding most forms of food not in existence in paleolithic time. It implies avoiding all processed food, and in particular junk food. It also stresses avoiding high carbohydrate vegetables that have been recently created; mostly, avoiding wheat.
• exercise frequently, but with a variety of durations and intensities (including rest periods) rather than doing always the same, extended routines in a gym or while jogging
• perform a variety of complex "natural movements", such as walking, running, jumping, crawling, climbing, carrying, throwing, swimming..., rather than artificially constrained exercises (like those afforded by most gym equipment)
• maximize contact with nature, e.g. by keeping plants, gardening, working with animals, hiking in the woods, or climbing trees (as also proposed by the biophilia philosophy)
• use a minimum of clothes, shoes or other protective material: exposure to heat, cold, pressure, and other natural forces strengthens rather than weakens the body
• expose yourself regularly to the sun or at least to natural light, to get sufficient vitamin D and prevent depression
• try to sleep at least 8 hours a day, preferably in line with natural day-night rhythms
• spend sufficient time relaxing, playing, and just "being in the present", without worrying about later
• reduce overall levels of stress; avoid overworking in favor of downshifting and simple living
• allow contact with "dirt": soil contains plenty of beneficial bacteria that strengthen immunity. Eat fermented foods like sauerkraut, kim chi, kombucha, etc.
• rear children like hunter-gatherers do: extended breast-feeding, carrying of babies on the body, co-sleeping, while allowing children to play and explore autonomously ^[11]
• sit with legs level with rear end (essentially, in the squatting position). Raising legs somewhat is also advice given by mainstream medical practitioners to avoid Deep Vein Thrombosis and to increase circulation in those at risk from such concerns. This squatting position is how indigenous tribes, poorer people in unwesternized regions of the world, and all other primates (and indeed many other mammals like cats and dogs) not only sit, but also defecate.
• reject civilized institutions of economy and exchange, patriarchy, governments / democratic representation (or any false representation or institution which forces persons in "roles" that reproduce the civilized order), social hierarchies, refusal of work, et cetera.

References

External links

The following, regularly updated websites provide a variety of additional material about the paleo lifestyle:

• Evolutionary Well-Being: the paleolithic model, by Francis Heylighen
• Essay on Evolutionary Fitness, by Arthur De Vany
• Mark's Daily Apple, "primal" health and fitness by Mark Sisson
• Movnat: Erwan Le Corre's "moving naturally/moving in nature" method of exercise inspired by the Paleo lifestyle
• Evfit: reflections on health and fitness from an evolutionary perspective, including a short chronology of the Paleo movement
• The Fitness Explorer: a health and fitness blog inspired by the paleo lifestyle.

See also

• Ishi – last contacted Native American, source of many paleolithic skills
• Evolutionary psychology
• Darwinian medicine
• Darwinian Happiness
• Universal Darwinism
• Jean Liedloff's The Continuum Concept on the way hunter-gatherer childcare produces mental health and happiness