Paleo 2.0 also focuses more on scientific principles and data from pre-industrial cultures than simply trying to reenact a Paleolithic diet. In fact, in Paleo 2.0, “paleo” stands for “old” rather than Paleolithic. In Paleo 2.0, avoiding the diseases of civilization is more important than imitating a diet that cavemen ate. In that regard, more recent pre-industrial cultures might be more beneficial to look at because we can better investigate their diet and eating habits, while with cavemen we are just making educated guesses.

Another important difference is that many people came to Paleo through the low-carb movement and a certain amount of carb-phobia persists among with the Paleo movement, but Paleo 2.0 does not reject entire classes of macronutrients for no apparent reason. In Paleo 2.0, fructose and wheat are viewed with suspicion, but starch is not. Some within the Paleo 2.0 camp recommend a minimum of 100-150g of starch per day or about 20% of calories. This may be lower carb compared to modern American diet, but it is more carbs than what Atkins and other low-carb diets recommend.

The term Paleo 2.0 was first suggested in a blog comment on Chris Kessler’s blog where people were throwing out suggestions to distinguish this more enlightened approach from the more orthodox variety practiced by some. The term was popularized however when Dr. Kurt Harris, one of the pillars of the Paleo 2.0 movement, published his Paleo 2.0 – A Diet Manifesto. Dr. Harris’s Archevore blog, along with Whole Health Source, Perfect Health Diet, and The Daily Lipid are some of the main proponents of a Paleo 2.0 diet (whether they identify with the term or not.)

Grains are Avoided

The main contribution of agriculture is the use of grains. Unlike most of the plant foods, grains can be stored for long periods, including winters. When humans adopted grains, populations could grow more easily and more advanced civilization became possible. On the other hand, humans have eaten meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables for 2 million years but have only eaten grains for 10,000 years, a relatively short period in the scheme of evolution. The Paleo Diet is skeptical of grains and prefers foods that we are more adapted to instead.

Dairy, Legumes, and Vegetable Oil are Avoided

Other foods that are avoided on a paleo style diet is dairy, legumes, and vegetable oil. Dairy and legumes are both products that our ancestors also did not start using to a large degree until the Neolithic age.

Vegetable Oil

Vegetable oil, also called industrial seed oils, has not been consumed by humans in quantities we consume today in all of human history except for the last 100 years. These are very new in terms of evolution. Humans did not have the machinery necessary to refine the oil out of plant seeds like corn seed or cotton seed until very recently. When this oil was originally refined back about 100 years ago, it was primarily used as an industrial lubricant. The agricultural industry soon started pushing this industrial lubricant as a new food source.

Flexibility

People might have an idea of what our human ancestors ate hundreds of thousands of years ago, but no one knows for sure. So while many are pretty strict about what they consider Paleo, many other people see a Paleo style diet as more a general guide and principles to choosing the best diet. Some will look at modern hunter-gatherer tribes and our more recent ancestors and compare their diet to ours to see where the main problems might be. For example, while polished white rice is a grain, most cultures that eat rice don’t seem to have as many problems as those that have adopted wheat.

Neolithic Agents of Disease

Many believe that if you compare modern diets to our ancestors, there are three main suspects to what have brought about the diseases of civilization:

• Wheat
• Excess Fructose
• Vegetable Oil

Many believe that if you can avoid these, then you will get 90% or more of the benefits of a Paleo Diet.

For those that prefer a more structured diet, this should be a good option. Also, those that want to strive for optimum nutrition and health based on current scientific research may find this diet program particularly interesting. The Zone Diet program does promote a healthy lifestyle that can be followed once the weight loss has been achieved. Those that want a simpler diet plan might not be interested though, and the diet program may be too involved for those that don’t want to have to balance the number of grams of protein, fat, and carbs each day.

The principles behind South Beach seem very sound, and if these are followed it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. The focus of the South Beach diet is really is about choosing particular foods over others, and this is a good basis for weight loss. All diets have sticking points and plateaus, and it is not clear how well this is addressed. This basic plan can be enhanced to get even better weight loss, and some of the tips and information provided on the Diet Help website work well with this type of diet plan to achieve better weight loss results.

Weight Watchers has become less about the particular foods and diets over the years as the public’s views on diets have been ever changing, and they have become for focused on being supportive and encouraging a healthier lifestyle that can be adapted to each individual. Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website are compatible with a Weight Watchers program and can be used to enhance weight loss and overall health.

The basic idea of “good carb” diets is pretty popular now, and Nutrisystems could be a suitable option depending on how appealing you find the pre-packaged meals (and whether you can afford to buy weeks worth of food at one time.) Some people may like idea of having everything implemented for them so they don’t have to think about it; they just eat the meals. The drawback to this is that eating pre-packaged meals for the rest of your life is not that appealing of a lifestyle, so from this standpoint the program for many people amounts to just a temporary diet if they don’t understand and adopt the principals behind the meals. The common disadvantage to any temporary diet plan is putting the weight back on once the diet is over.

Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website follow the sample principles as Nutrisystems, and this website can assist in maintaining weight after the program is over. Other “good carb” programs like the South Beach Diet will follow similar philosophies and can be used for guidance as well.

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This personal support can be very helpful for some people, but it is not free. The Jenny Craig program also uses pre-packaged meals which adds to the expense as well. The pre-packaged meals can make a diet easier to follow for some people though. The problem with these is that it may be difficult to maintain the lifestyle if you are not used to making your own food choices and you no longer have a consultant to guide you. The common disadvantage to any temporary program is the chance of putting the weight back on once the diet is over. Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website can assist in maintaining weight after the program is over.

The first issue is that if you cheat, then the Atkins diet can become unhealthy so you must follow it very strictly. In other programs, occasional cheating just delays your progress; in this program where you are consuming so much fat, there can also be health issues. The Atkins diet plan forces your body to metabolize fat a certain way, and this generally prevents the ill health effects of all the fat you are consuming. However, the moment you cheat and eat a lot of carbs, your body switches back to metabolizing sugar instead of the fat, and you can be left with an unhealthy level of fat in your blood stream.

Another issue is that while some diet programs are designed to promote a new healthy lifestyle, the Atkins program would not be that conducive to it since giving up carbs forever is not that attractive of lifestyle for many people. For many it is simply a program to fairly quickly lose some weight then to abandon once the goals are met. This leads to another issue – you have to ease out of the program and slowly introduce carbs back into your diet. Otherwise the weight will come back on very fast if you consume too many carbs too quickly after ending the diet. The common disadvantage to any temporary diet is putting the weight back on once the diet is over, but Atkins has a particular problem with this.

This diet does work very well for some people, but it is not for everybody. You will have to gage for yourself how well you think you can follow the plan.