Are You Avoiding Paleo Because ‘Cavemen Died Young’?

How many times have you heard the argument that The Paleo Diet is not all it’s chalked up to be because of a shorter life span of a ‘caveman’?

“Cavemen didn’t live very long, so I don’t really think what they ate was that healthy after all, if they died at age 30”, is one example of a statement I’ve been presented with many a time.

The latest article I came across was in Living Green Magazine which included statements such as: 

“The experts found fault with the lack of dairy and grains, which puts dieters at risk of nutrient deficiencies“

and

“there are potential risks to heart health due to the high meat intake, and the fact that sample Paleo menus contain more calories from fat and significantly fewer carbs than the government recommends“.

Oddly, despite the title, there didn’t seem to be any references to how long cavemen actually lived, aside from this quick little mention, which is far from scientific:

“Critics of this diet argue that it is too restrictive and scoff at the whole concept that our bodies are built the same way as our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Plus, they add, our caveman ancestors didn’t live too long, did they?”

What was the average life span of a caveman?  

I honestly do not know.  I’ve read studies that suggest they lived only into their 30s while others suggest longer.   How many cavemen died early because they themselves fell prey to the very animals they hunted?  Or due to infections suffered from wounds they were ill equipped to treat?

What I do know, however, is that after nearly nine years of Paleo, I continue to feel the healthiest I’ve ever felt, sleep phenomenally, am rarely sick and all the gastric issues that plagued me for the first 25 or so years of my life are ancient history.

Further, given the strong correlation between following a modern day hunter gather diet and a much lower risk for so many of the diseases that plague our society together, I’m happy to continue being a Paleoista for as long as I can envision.

Giving up on Paleo and adding dairy, grains and legumes for fear of an early death if I chose not to add those (non) foods just doesn’t make sense to me.