Adam Farrah talked recently about his workout routine. In that profile, it was mentioned that he is writing a book on the Paleo diet. In this interview he gives important information on the diet, why he got into it, and how it benefits his overall health. Because Adam is very knowledgable on the topic the interview is broken down into 2 parts.

1. What is the greatest benefit of the Paleo diet to you? Why does it trump all other diets?

Paleo is the diet we evolved on as the human species. We ate meat, vegetables, and fruit exclusively for about 2 million years of our evolution. Agricultural foods like wheat and dairy have only been available to us for the last 10,000 years or so and processed, sugary junk has only appeared in about the last 50 years. The foods we evolved on and how we consumed them is very well documented scientifically and no one can really argue with the evidence.

I found the Paleolithic diet about 6 years ago when I was having a major health crisis. In fact, my first exposures to it weren't even in relation to training and fitness. They were 100% based on health and recovering from a digestive illness. I read and researched for a long time and tried many different diets and different variations on Paleo and others. So, basically, Paleo is the one diet that proved itself to be a health building diet for me over years of testing and refining.

When I was exposed to CrossFit a few years ago I was completely surprised to see the diet I was forced into for health was actually considered to be the best diet for athletic performance as well. That was when I started investigating and researching Paleo from a performance standpoint. In reality, it comes full circle because eating for health will be the same as eating for athletic performance on a fundamental level. You can't perform at your best if your body is struggling. I wrote an article on this called "Eating for Building Muscle and Eating for Health."

CrossFit is based on empirical evidence and they'll discard any methodology or theory that doesn't stand up to real world testing. That's why it's a popular diet with CrossFitters. In the same way, I tested Paleo and proved to myself that it was the healthiest and best diet for me. It just works.

2. How has your eating changed since you adopted this diet? Were there any foods/drinks you had to give up?

My eating has changed profoundly and I've stopped eating many, many things. Paleolithic is basically a "Caveman Diet." I have a blog post that asks and answers: "What is a Caveman Diet?". What that means is that we don't eat anything that wouldn't have been available about 20,000 years ago. That means absolutely no grain of any kind which means no bread, corn, cake, crackers, pizza, rice, oatmeal, etc. There's also no dairy on the basic diet, although I incorporate goat yogurt and kefir. Cow dairy is out for the most part, although some will incorporate raw cow dairy from properly raised animals. In it's simplest terms, the diet is meat, vegetables and fruit. That's about it.

Food quality is also very important. Nothing processed or packaged ever, no sugar, starch, etc. Meats are free-range and beef needs to be grassfed and organic. It's an attempt to remove, as much as possible, the imprint of industry and technology on what we eat. Produce is organic also.

3. There is a lot of protein consumption with this diet. Perfect for you since you are very active and building muscle. What about for the average person would you still recommend it?

I believe Paleo is our natural diet and will be the best diet for anyone's health. A sedentary person can eat the diet as well, they'd just eat less total food. The Paleo diet can be more important for an average person in some ways because they'll need the extra protection from heart disease, diabetes, etc. that the diet affords. It's also a perfect diet for people with health issues in most cases because the main causes of illness from diet are removed.

More broadly though, Paleo is a lifestyle and there is a prescription for movement and periods of exertion and exercise like we would have had in earlier times. Are bodies and hormonal systems are designed to move and hunt and be active. We are not evolved to sit on a padded seat and stare at a computer screen for 10 hours a day. We're also not designed to be chronically stressed, but that's another topic.

Click on Part 2 of the interview here to learn more about Adam Farrah and the Paleo diet.