Unfortunately this often means resorting to unrealistic fad diets. These types of ideas usually revolve around a disastrously complicated system and involve some sort of ghastly celery and water soup for lunch and dinner every day. That means that many of us are now quite wary of ridiculous diets that quite clearly are just designed to make people buy their products for a little while.
So when you hear about the Palaeolithic diet, also known as the caveman diet, you’d be forgiven to write it off instantly as another of those stupid ideas that will never really work. However, the caveman diet is one that might actually make a lot of sense. And unlike most fad diets, its secret is in its simplicity rather than in the specifics.
Fundamentally the diet asks you to live like a cavemen – and no, that doesn’t mean sell your house and go live like a hermit in the mountains. Fundamentally it means that you aren’t allowed any processed foods, which pretty much limits you to meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. It doesn’t mean you have to go and hunt your own wild boar dinner either (although that would probably be good dieting exercise).
In a way this basically makes sense – processed food is one of the biggest causes of obesity as it is so easy to consume small treats that are packed with fat and sugar and can make you pile on the pounds. The cavemen diet also encourages regular exercise, but as you might expect, it’s nothing complicated. The diet tells you to run – that’s it. Run like you’re being chased by a sabre-toothed tiger or an enemy tribe.
It might well be a fad, but at least it’s a fad that works together with common sense. Eat simple and exercise simple and you’ll lose weight – simple!