The Paleo Diet has gained immense popularity as an evolutionarily appropriate way of eating, encouraging people to abandon grains, legumes and dairy in favour of lean meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables. The idea is simple: if we eat as our hunter-gatherer ancestors did, we can avoid modern diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Its emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods, lean proteins and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables aligns with evidence that early humans avoided excessive refined sugars, artificial additives and highly processed foods. The diet also promotes healthy fats from nuts, seeds and fish, which are beneficial for heart and brain health. However, recent research suggests that the version of the Paleo Diet promoted today is an oversimplified and often inaccurate representation of actual pre-agricultural diets.
As ever, please talk to your doctor or medical practitioner most familiar with your medical history before implementing any changes in diet, exercise or lifestyle, especially if you are under treatment. Links to relevant studies are at the bottom of the page.
The Reality of Hunter-Gatherer Diets
The Paleolithic period (aka the ‘Stone Age') began about 2.6 million years ago with the emergence of the archaeological record and the first evidence of human (hominin) technologies. One of the biggest flaws in the modern Paleo Diet is the assumption that human diets followed a strict and limited macronutrient composition before agriculture. The modern diet typically prescribes 19–35% protein, 22–40% carbohydrate, and 28–47% fat, while banning entire food groups such as grains, legumes and dairy. But is this how our paleo ancestors ate?
Looking at more recent evidence, a 2023 study led by Daniel Lieberman examined data from 15 ethnographic studies of 11 modern tropical hunter-gatherer groups and found that their diets varied dramatically. Some populations relied primarily on plant foods, while others consumed a high proportion of animal foods. Even within individual groups, food intake shifted seasonally and across years. This directly contradicts the notion that humans evolved to eat within a narrow macronutrient range.
A particularly revealing finding from the study is that many hunter-gatherers regularly consume starchy tubers and honey - two food sources that the modern Paleo Diet largely dismisses. For example, Hadza foragers in Tanzania get up to 20% of their calories from honey, while the Jarawa people of the Andaman Islands derive over 50% of their carbohydrate intake from it. These findings challenge the Paleo assumption that early human diets were uniformly low in carbohydrates. In reality, carbohydrates were an important energy source for many pre-agricultural populations.
The Misguided Origins of the Paleo Macronutrient Model
The modern Paleo Diet relies heavily on macronutrient ranges proposed by Loren Cordain et al. in 2000, who based their estimates on a small dataset of Australian Aboriginal plant foods. This approach assumes that the composition of wild plants in one region represents all global hunter-gatherer diets.
A 2022 study by Ruffett and Collard tested this assumption by compiling plant macronutrient data from ten different hunter-gatherer groups worldwide and recalculating dietary macronutrient distributions. Their results showed that whole-diet macronutrient ranges were significantly broader than Cordain’s estimates. Carbohydrate intake reached as high as 55%, and fat intake dropped as low as 12% in some groups.
Perhaps most damaging to the credibility of the modern Paleo Diet is that these revised macronutrient ranges overlap significantly with mainstream dietary guidelines from organisations such as the USDA and WHO. If hunter-gatherer diets fall within ranges already recommended by contemporary nutrition authorities, the claim that the Paleo Diet is uniquely healthy becomes questionable.
Early Humans and the Importance of Starch
Even the idea that grains and legumes were absent from pre-agricultural diets is incorrect. A 2023 archaeological study examined stone tools from the Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, dating back 780,000 years. By analysing starch grains found on the tools, researchers discovered that early hominins were processing a variety of plant foods, including acorns, grass grains, water chestnuts, yellow water lily rhizomes, and legume seeds.
This not only confirms that humans have been consuming and processing starchy plants for hundreds of thousands of years but also highlights the cognitive complexity required to collect and prepare these foods. Many of these plants required multi-step processing techniques, suggesting that our ancestors had already developed sophisticated dietary behaviours long before the advent of agriculture.
The idea that grains, legumes and starch-rich foods are somehow "unnatural" is completely at odds with the archaeological record.
More recently Kabuckcu et al (2022) found direct evidence of processed plant foods in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-west Asia. Around 42,000 to 11,000 years ago, people at Shanidar Cave (Iraqi Kurdistan) and Franchthi Cave (southern Greece) cooked and consumed a range of wild pulses (like bitter vetch, grass pea and wild pea), wild mustards, grasses and nuts (e.g. pistachio). Many of these plants were bitter, astringent or mildly toxic, requiring soaking, pounding or boiling to detoxify and make them edible - demonstrating complex, labour-intensive food preparation well before the advent of agriculture.
Li et al. (2013) found that between 23,000 and 19,500 years ago, Paleolithic hunter-gatherers in the Yellow River region used grinding stones to process wild plants like yams, snakegourd roots, beans and grasses. These included Paniceae grasses (modern day millets), which were consumed around 12,000 years before their eventual domestication.
A Paleo Timeline
~2.6m years ago: Earliest tool evidence (Late gracile Australopiths, early Homo, Homo erectus)
~300 ka (thousand years ago): Earliest Homo sapiens fossils (Morocco)
~200–100 ka: Homo sapiens remain mostly in Africa
~100–60 ka: Migration out of AfricaFirst wave (~100 ka) reached the Middle East but failed. Successful dispersal (~70–60 ka) spread globally
~45 ka: Arrival in Europe and Asia, interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans
~40–30 ka: Neanderthals go extinct
~50–15 ka: Homo sapiens reach Australia (~50 ka) and the Americas (~15 ka)
~12 ka – Present: Agricultural revolution and rise of civilisations
Evolution, Adaptation and the Myth of a “Perfect” Diet
A core belief in the Paleo Diet community is that humans are biologically unsuited to eating grains, dairy and legumes. While agriculture introduced major dietary changes, this doesn’t mean our bodies are incapable of processing these foods.
Lieberman’s study highlights several genetic adaptations that allow modern populations to digest these foods effectively. Lactase persistence - the ability to digest dairy - evolved independently in multiple regions, while populations with starch-heavy diets have higher levels of amylase enzymes to break down complex carbohydrates.
Moreover, not all forms of food processing are inherently harmful. While ultra-processed foods high in added sugars, trans fats and preservatives contribute to health problems, traditional methods like fermentation, cooking, and food preservation improve nutrient availability and digestibility. The notion that only pre-agricultural foods are beneficial ignores the ways in which our diets have evolved alongside technology and culture.
Final Thoughts
The modern Paleo Diet presents a captivating but misleading version of pre-agricultural diets. Evidence from recent ethnographic studies, nutritional analysis and archaeology shows that:
Hunter-gatherer diets were highly diverse, with no single macronutrient ratio defining pre-agricultural nutrition.
Carbohydrates, including starchy plants and honey, were important and actively sought-after.
The modern Paleo Diet’s macronutrient recommendations are based on flawed and regionally limited data.
Modern humans have evolved adaptations to digest dairy, grains, and legumes.
Many Paleo principles already overlap with established nutritional guidelines.
While the modern Paleo Diet’s focus on whole, unprocessed foods can be beneficial - particularly when transitioning away from a heavily processed diet - its strict restrictions are not grounded in evolutionary reality.
A diet that ensured survival in pre-industrial societies is not necessarily the ideal blueprint for healthspan in the 21st century. A truly evidence-based approach to nutrition recognises the diversity of ancestral diets AND the adaptability of the human body. Rather than idealising a narrow dietary past, enjoying a wide variety of whole foods (including grains and legumes); plus foods not available within our own ability to gather, balanced macronutrients - remains the best dietary approach to long-term health.
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Related Studies
Ahituv H, Henry AG, Melamed Y, Goren-Inbar N, Bakels C, Shumilovskikh L, Cabanes D, Stone JR, Rowe WF, Alperson-Afil N. Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jan 21;122(3):e2418661121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2418661121. Epub 2025 Jan 6. Erratum in: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 4;122(9):e2501154122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2501154122. PMID: 39761385; PMCID: PMC11760500.
Lieberman DE, Worthington S, Schell LD, Parkent CM, Devinsky O, Carmody RN. Comparing measured dietary variation within and between tropical hunter-gatherer groups to the Paleo Diet. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 Sep;118(3):549-560. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.06.013. Epub 2023 Jun 19. PMID: 37343704.
Ruffett A, Collard M. An assessment of the impact of cross-cultural variation in plant macronutrients on the recommendations of the Paleo Diet. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 Apr;117(4):777-784. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.12.003. Epub 2022 Dec 22. PMID: 36828769.
Kabukcu C, Hunt C, Hill E, et al. Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar. Antiquity. 2023;97(391):12-28. doi:10.15184/aqy.2022.143
Vidal, C.M., Lane, C.S., Asrat, A. et al. Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa. Nature 601, 579–583 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8
Jamka M, Kulczyński B, Juruć A, Gramza-Michałowska A, Stokes CS, Walkowiak J. The Effect of the Paleolithic Diet vs. Healthy Diets on Glucose and Insulin Homeostasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Clin Med. 2020 Jan 21;9(2):296. doi: 10.3390/jcm9020296. PMID: 31973038; PMCID: PMC7073984.
Ghaedi E, Mohammadi M, Mohammadi H, Ramezani-Jolfaie N, Malekzadeh J, Hosseinzadeh M, Salehi-Abargouei A. Effects of a Paleolithic Diet on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Adv Nutr. 2019 Jul 1;10(4):634-646. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz007. Erratum in: Adv Nutr. 2020 Jul 1;11(4):1054. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmaa033. PMID: 31041449; PMCID: PMC6628854.
de Menezes EVA, Sampaio HAC, Carioca AAF, Parente NA, Brito FO, Moreira TMM, de Souza ACC, Arruda SPM. Influence of Paleolithic diet on anthropometric markers in chronic diseases: systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutr J. 2019 Jul 23;18(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s12937-019-0457-z. PMID: 31337389; PMCID: PMC6647066.
Pontzer H, Wood BM, Raichlen DA. Hunter-gatherers as models in public health. Obes Rev. 2018 Dec;19 Suppl 1:24-35. doi: 10.1111/obr.12785. PMID: 30511505.
Liu L, Bestel S, Shi J, Song Y, Chen X. Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5380-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217864110. Epub 2013 Mar 18. PMID: 23509257; PMCID: PMC3619325.
Cordain L, Miller JB, Eaton SB, Mann N, Holt SH, Speth JD. Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Mar;71(3):682-92. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/71.3.682. PMID: 10702160.
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