Research by scientists at Cambridge University and Sweden’s Umea University shows that post-menopausal women who want to lose weight may benefit from adopting the dietary habits of their Stone Age ancestors. The so-called Paleolithic or ‘caveman’ diet is based on modern understanding of how our human ancestors are likely to have eaten, tens of thousands of years ago, before the dawn of agriculture. Like the hunter-gatherers of times past, this means you should stick to lean meat and fish, vegetables, fruit and berries while avoiding processed foods such as cereals, pasta and dairy products. After six months on the Palaeolithic diet, a group of women lost over twice as much fat as a similar group following a modern Scandinavian-type diet. According to researchers, a Palaeolithic diet has greater beneficial effects than a Nordic diet regarding fat mass, abdominal obesity and triglyceride levels in obese post-menopausal women.