Caveman Diet

The caveman diet is an alternate term for what is known as a Paleolithic-type diet (usually also in association with being less formal). The term, caveman diet, refers to the common association of cavemen as the Paleolithic, pre-agricultural groups that dominated much of human and pre-human history (e.g., with a club, experimenting with fire, etc.). Although some Paleolithic peoples certainly dwelled in caves ( a nice spot in Paleolithic neighborhoods!), many were not in areas that had caves, so most were not "cave men" cultures. What the caveman diet is actually alluding to is a hunters and gatherers' diet (i.e., pre-agriculture), which is a more consistent and comprehensive term.

The term, "caveman", is sometimes used colloquially to refer to Neanderthals.
The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens) that contemporaneously inhabited Europe with another human subspecies, Cro-Magnon man. The term has been discouraged in academic circles for its inaccuracy, as it mostly leads to misconceptions of early humans.

The Caveman ... poor, brutish, and short?

In the past, many people have shared the view of 17th century Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher. In his famous book Leviathan (1651), he states
that the life of early humanity and the state of nature was "...solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short", and this description over time has been transposed in literature to that of a "caveman". The more modern and scientific perception of prehistoric lifestyle is that of the hunter-gatherer, and some of them certainly did live in caves and rock shelters. However, most did not live in caves - and the historical descriptions of hunter-gatherers invariably describe indigenous people to be lean, muscular, and fit, free of the signs and symptoms of the chronic diseases that currently plague modern humans.