The History of The Paleo Diet®

The Paleo Diet started as an evolving theory.

In the spring of 1987, Dr. Loren Cordain happened upon Dr. Boyd Eaton’s now classic scientific paper, Paleolithic Nutrition: a Consideration of its Nature and Current Implications, which laid much of the foundation for what would become The Paleo Diet®.

After reading Boyd’s groundbreaking research, Dr. Cordain became engrossed in studying ancestral human diets. As he collected data from over 10,000 scientific papers he noted interesting emerging patterns. He hypothesized that many of our modern diseases can be linked back to veering so far from the nutrition our bodies were hardwired to eat.

The Paleo Diet concept is now taken seriously in the scientific world thanks in part to Boyd Eaton’s pioneering work. Without Dr. Eaton’s influential 1985 New England Journal of Medicine paper, Paleo would likely have continued to be an obscure word known mainly to anthropologists. However, it was Dr. Cordain’s publication of the original book, The Paleo Diet, in 2002 that would turn the concept into a household name. His book, along with over 500 peer-reviewed research papers, form the basis of the real Paleo Diet^™ that is now known worldwide.

The Paleo Diet is not limited to the research of these two important professors. Hundreds of scientists, physicians, and people from all walks of life are responsible for creating this incredibly powerful idea that can bring order and wisdom to dietary and lifestyle questions and issues.

Theodosius Dobzhansky, a Ukranian evolutionary biologist, said it best when he stated, “Nothing in biology makes sense, except under the light of evolution.” Indeed, his statement could be translated as, “Nothing in nutrition makes sense, except under the light of evolution.”