A vegetarian paleo diet is a fantastic way to combine the well- documented advantages of non-meat diet plus a paleo approach. This way you can have all the health benefits of both which not only may help to keep you healthy and minimise illness and disease, but also help with healing. Now the problem is that a paleo diet is high in meat and depends on this for protein! So in this article I am going to use my Naturopathic experience and expertise to clearly show you how you can combine the two and enjoy the tremendous potential health benefits.

A Vegetarian Paleo Diet

In this article I am going to give you a comprehensive blueprint on how to use this dietary approach to help maximise your health and healing. I do want to stress, however, that you need to double check with your health care practitioner about any dietary changes you are going to make because there are some situations when such changes, if not done correctly, may adversely affect your health. (eg: pregnancy)
There has been some controversy regarding the paleo diet and I want to sow you what the concern is and how to address is. But it certainly has become popular because of its health-promoting effects. I would point out that a lot of the benefits someone notices when they are on a paleo diet is due to the fact that they are eating better and mor nutritiously than before and avoiding a lot of processed and nutrient-deficient foods!
We can’t quite say the same for a vegetarian diet as it is very easy to be on a nutrient-deficient vegetarian diet, the most common problem being a lack of high quality protein.

So when combing the two approaches and beginning a Vegetarian Paleo Diet, it has to be done in a carefully planned way, ensuring you are covering all the nutrient requirements and not having too much of certain foods and food groups. Essentially the paleo diet involves avoiding sugars, diary, legumes, grains, and including meat, fish, poultry, vegetables. A vegetarian diet involves avoiding meats.

So let’s look at both diets and then see how we are able to have a diet that is both vegetarian and paleo.

Hunter – Gatherers: Long Gone

Our ancestors ate directly form the land, using whatever resource were available to them and as agriculture and technology developed, so to did the diet. There is a lot of historical information available about how we went from hunter-gather to including growing crops & farming enabling a wide variety of foods to be eaten including an increase in meat consumption. A step further on from there is the processing of foods which we see today and is often nutritionally- deficient compared to the raw ingredients, not to mention the additives.
If you want to read more about the history of diet, heck out this very interesting article (1) by William, Stock & Valeggia, Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Diet and Nutrition.

Paleo

There are a few different ideas around about what constitutes a paleo diet. I think it is a bit confusing really. And I’m a Naturopath!. All you need to understand is the fundamental basis of the diet and then, if you need to or want to, make appropriate changes from there according to your specific needs. (If you are trying to treat a specific condition, for example, this might be a situation where you seek the guidance of a health care professional.)

Protein Sources In Paleo

The main protein source in paleo is from eggs and meat and a small amount in nuts and seeds. If you are vegetarian then you are only left with the eggs, nuts and seeds.  Generally speaking this will  not be a sustainable source of protein for someone. May be ok for the short, term but indefinitely.

So the big question is where else to get a non-meat source of protein? It is from pulses and legumes. So for a vegetarian paleo diet, you really do need to modify a little and include legumes and pulses into your diet. This includes, many different varieties of dried beans, legumes, peas. Soy products like tofu. Now the trick is to get some really great recipes and use them.  I travel a lot to India for homoeopatic studies (and equally for their food!) as they have some wonderful protein-rich, vegetarian recipes.

One diet will not suit everyone and this is the case for a vegetarian. The paleo diet needs tweaking for you.

References
(1)
William R. Leonard, Northwestern University. E-mail: w-leonard1@northwestern.edu
Jay T. Stock, Cambridge University. E-mail: j.stock@human-evol.cam.ac.uk
Claudia R. Valeggia, University of Pennsylvania. E-mail: valeggia@sas.upenn.edu
VC 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
DOI 10.1002/evan.20250