The ancestral diet is a diet whose main principle is to consume natural and unprocessed foods from an industrial point of view. However, it is an “umbrella concept” that refers to the diet of our ancestors. Although many identify the paleo diet as the true ancestral diet, we can find several diets that fall under this term.
Examples are the Primal diet , the hypotoxic or Seignalet diet, the carnivore-only diet and the Tim Ferriss diet – all of these diets are called ancestral, but they are different from the paleo diet.

How is it possible?
In this article I will try to clarify.
We will see the universal characteristics of the ancestral diet, which includes all the diets that are defined as ancestral and we will discover how, based on them, we can easily and healthily lose weight as long as we know how to customize the menu according to our needs.

THE ANCESTRAL DIET: THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES THAT MUST ALWAYS BE FOLLOWED

• All ancestral diets start from an assumption: that is, that it is the modern diet that causes our overweight and health problems.

  In reality, this concept is rather vague . If it is true that many diseases have a bad diet among the causes, it is also true that today I can also choose to eat natural, but if I breathe polluted air, drink polluted water, lead a stressful life so I am away from home all day, nutrition will not give me the key to optimal health.

  
  What I mean, and I’m not the only one saying, is that eating natural is a good thing without a doubt, but it’s not the only thing that used to be better and less sick. The environment was different, profoundly different. And man had a different relationship with his environment, with rhythms of life opposite to ours.

• The second principle of any ancestral diet is to identify foods that should never be consumed or which should not be consumed at least six days a week.

  These fall into three essential categories.

• Refined flours from cereals and in general any type of refined flour.
• Industrial oils, especially seed oils.
• Refined sugar.
  This category includes both white sugar and glucose-fructose syrup.
  Consequently, all foods that contain at least one of these ingredients must be banned from the table.

• The third principle that characterizes every ancestral diet is the massive presence of vegetables.

  Vegetables and vegetables but also fruit in some cases, for example at breakfast, must take up more than half or two thirds of the plate.
  

• The fourth and last principle of the ancestral diet is the one that everyone transgresses, even the most fanatical: it is about simplicity.
  Cakes, biscuits, lasagna should not be invented. This means eating in a modern way. The ancestral diet is designed to reverse this attitude towards food: there should be no “alternatives” to industrial foods with allowed ingredients. Cordain, Ferriss and others have insisted on this point on several occasions.

THE ALTERNATIVES IN THE ANCESTRAL DIET MENU

Now that we know what are the rules that characterize each ancestral diet, let’s come to the differences. Apart from some exceptions, such as in the Primal diet or in the paleo autoimmune diet, the paleo diet also provides for the exclusion of legumes, all types of cereals, all types of dairy products apart from butter. Other ancestral diets, such as the Perfect Health Diet or the Seignalet Diet, have a different list of permitted foods.

Okay, but why these differences?

Because as I said in the introduction to say ancestral diet is a somewhat vague concept: if the Paleo take into consideration the Paleolithic, other diets are based on nutrition from the Neolithic onwards, still others on the current diets of the few tribes of hunters and gatherers .

It will be useful to make a list of foods from which to compose our menus.

• FRUITS AND VEGETABLES : yes, of all kinds, including avocado, coconut, green plantain, rhubarb.
• TUBERS AND ROOTS: yes, all. Potatoes are also allowed in the Paleo diet today.
• SEEDS AND DRIED FRUITS : they are all allowed, with some exceptions, while as we have seen, seed oils are to be avoided.