Basic recommendations Authors inspired by the paleo philosophy formulate a variety of guidelines, including the following: • Adopt a Paleolithic diet as much as possible: plenty of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts 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 and food with a high glycemic load, such as sweets and cultivated crops like potatoes and cereal grains (in particular 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...) that use the whole body rather than artificially constrained exercises that focus on specific muscles (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 and dont wear shoes: 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 (though people in pre-industrial societies do not sleep in contiguous blocks - see anthropology of sleep and segmented sleep) • 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. Lifelong exposure to a variety of microbes may actually be necessary to prevent allergies and autoimmune diseases, as proposed by the hygiene hypothesis. • Rear children the way hunter-gatherers do: extended breast-feeding, carrying of babies on the body, co-sleeping, while allowing older children to play and explore autonomously [20] • Sit with legs level with rear end (essentially, in the squatting position), as people in indigenous tribes do. • Socialize and interact closely with a small group of real friends, instead of staying alone or networking with thousands of superficial acquaintances.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:25:55 +0000
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