Have you ever met a Paleo fan? I have. They really are like any fanatic, annoying. The annoying thing about any fan is that no matter how disgusting he is today, next month he will be a fanatic and obnoxious for something different.

If you’ve read our other articles, you’ve probably noticed that I’m primarily talking about a modified Paleo diet. When I say modified, I mean it because I personally don’t follow all the rules set forth by the very scientific Paleo community. If you want, that’s fine with me. Most of us choose Paleo to have a leaner body and feel healthier. It’s been proven that you can do this, even following the Paleo diet about 80% of the time. And let’s face it, if we make unreasonable demands on ourselves, we will never stick to any diet. A good diet has to work to accommodate a fairly normal lifestyle. Don’t they drive a car? I’m happy to report that you can lose weight and feel healthier on the Paleo diet, and you don’t have to be a Paleo fan.

I think the information about the Paleo era is interesting. I think there is a lot of truth about it. However, let’s face it, that was a long time ago and there is a lot of speculation. So the caveman thing is not really important to me. However, the results are very important. I mentioned earlier that there are basically two ways to go on the Paleo diet. You can follow it 100% or you can follow it most of the time. And both work. If you suffer from an autoimmune disorder, make no mistake, you want to follow it 100%. However, if you are just trying to lose body fat and feel better, most of the time Paleo will work just fine for you.

So it’s not really the caveman hype that appeals to me. What appeals to me is that Paleo makes sense and helps many people lose weight and feel healthier. How does Paleo do this? I am quite an allergic person, and I will try to explain this in simple terms. I am neither a doctor nor a scientist, but I have learned a lot about allergy over the years.

It is a fact. Many people’s bodies don’t like grains, dairy, and other proteins. Allergies are the body’s reaction to these things that it doesn’t like. All of these things are strong proteins. The symptoms are the result of the body trying to defend itself from proteins it does not trust. In other words, when you’re exposed to something your body doesn’t like, it’s actually saying that there is this protein that I’m not sure of. It must be a parasite or germ that is trying to harm me, so I will try to kill it. Now that’s probably a pretty fun way to put it, but that’s the allergic answer in a nutshell (no pun intended). So the body tries to kill this thing that it thinks could be a parasite, germ, or other invading entity. Releases tons of chemicals to get rid of it. These include histamine, cortisol, and others. Your defense system means business. So what happens is a state of inflammation in the beginning. Something will ignite. If it’s pollen and your nose, your nasal passages will be inflamed and swollen. At worst, your body is attacking itself. You are hurting yourself in your defense, and this is the basic nature of autoimmune disorders.

Hay fever is a bothersome autoimmune disease, but it’s pretty harmless. If this condition takes another form, you may have diabetes or other serious and life-threatening health conditions. The truth is that most people with food allergies are allergic to the same types of protein. And guess what they are? Mainly cereals and dairy, soybeans and legumes. Yes, that is a common problem for many people with allergies. But even if you don’t have allergies that you know of, these proteins can still trigger responses from your body. Many people continue to eat things that slowly kill them or, at best, make life miserable and expensive. You may have been eating foods since you were a child that are causing inflammation in your body. I know, I speak from experience. But the good news is that once you remove these sources of irritation, the inflammation subsides and you feel better.

But that is not all. The carbohydrates and sugars in grains have been shown many times to make us fat too. So are food preservatives. Preservatives have been linked to major diseases like heart conditions and even cognitive problems like dementia.

So this is the part of Paleo that I love.

You will continue to see news about wheat and other grains and how they are linked to diabetes and other diseases. It is a fact that Paleo is the right diet for most of us and it will bring great results. So caveman or non-caveman, this is a diet that makes sense and produces results. It doesn’t matter if you call it the Paleo or the Caveman diet, what matters is that this is the diet we must follow in order to look good and feel healthy. Paleo by any other name.