Content

By Mayo Clinic Staff

A paleo diet is an eating plan based on foods humans might have eaten during the Paleolithic Era. The Paleolithic Era dates from around 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago.

A modern paleo diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds. These are foods that in the past people could get by hunting and gathering. It doesn't include foods that became more common when small-scale farming began about 10,000 years ago. These foods include grains, legumes and dairy products.

Other names for a paleo diet include Paleolithic diet, Stone Age diet, hunter-gatherer diet and cave man diet.