This is the first in a series of posts explaining the Paleo Lifestyle that I’ve been following. There will be future posts on Paleo exercise and Paleo life.
Since September I have been following what’s referred to as the ‘Paleo Diet’ and I have gotten a lot of questions about it. I’m going to use this space of interweb to try to explain not only what the Paleo Diet is but also why it works for me.
Let’s get this out of the way: I hate the word diet. Well, not the word but the connotations that it has attached to it nowdays. When someone says the word “diet” you immediately think up Slim Fast shakes or the Atkins gimmick. In reality there is nothing wrong with the word diet. It simply refers to what we eat. I’ll get over it.
Simply put, the Paleo Diet is an interpretation of what our ancestors might have eaten 2.6 million years ago. You’re fairly smart (why else would you read my blog) so I’m guessing by now that “Paleo” is short for “Paleolithic”.
So what did our barefooted ancestors eat? Well, they probably ate lots of meat and veggies. I don’t mean broccoli with cheese sauce. I mean broccoli with broccoli. They also would have eaten some nuts, seeds and fruits. Basically whatever they could hunt or gather. One thing they did not have: grains. They had no way of refining grains like wheat, barley, quinoa, etc. They also didn’t have a way to refine sugar. There was no high fructose corn syrup, no sodas, no bread… no grains and no refined sugar. They also wouldn’t have eaten much in the way of legumes as many can be mildly toxic if not cooked.
So does this mean I have to go to the forest and wrestle a bear for dinner? Do I have to eat it raw?
Well… As entertaining as I might find it for you to wander around in the woods armed with nothing more than your wits I can’t recommend it. There are perfectly good sources of meat all around us. Grocery stores being the most popular. As for eating it raw: while there is something to be said for bear carpaccio* it’s not recommended either. Our hairy buddies had fire too. Good quality meats and a variety of vegetables. Done. Pretty simple. Don’t use a bunch of ketchup or ranch dressing. Simple is better with this gig.
Organic fruits, veggies and meat are wonderful. They’re also very expensive. If you can afford it then by all means go for it but most of us just can’t justify spending the money on food when we are having difficult times. I would worry about getting organic food as a close to last priority in this diet. If you are already buying organic groceries, awesome. Some fruit/veggies don’t really even need to be organic.
Eh, yes and no. It turns out that a decent amount of honest-to-goodness animal fat is good for you. There are good fats and bad. If you’re sticking pretty close to a meat/veggie + fruit, nuts, seeds kinda diet then you’ll be fine. Use your noggin on this one. Animal fats, coconut and olive oil, butter, ghee, avocados – all good fats. Coincidentally they taste really good too! Fried chicken, potato chips, Big Macs and donut monsters - bad fats. You get the picture.
Generally speaking I avoid anything that comes in a box or can. Obviously there are some exceptions, canned tuna being a major one but overall that’s how I roll. I affectionately referred to processed, boxed foods as “boxes o’ death”. Eat real food. Cook real food. That’s all I have to say about that.
There is a lot of controversy about whether or not Paleo folk should have dairy. There is some really good evidence against it but I’m on the fence. My suggestion would be to drop the dairy for 30 days and slowly integrate it back into your system and see what happens. I know I am. I dropped dairy for about a month and I found that I am intolerant now. I can have a little cheese every now and then or a little cream in my coffee but if I drink milk… well, you get the idea. My guess is that after a dairy-free month you may find that you’re intolerant as well. In reality, humans are the only species to drink milk after infancy. There may be something to that.
Legumes. I love beans. The Paleo Power that Be say we should cut them. While I agree because he is much smarter than me – I find it hard to give them up 100%. I will still throw them into otherwise Paleo chili once in a while. I don’t eat them like I used to but I do have them once a month or so. Peanuts are legumes. Peanut butter is probably the hardest thing for me to give up. It was recommended that I use almond butter but the thing is almond butter is more than twice the price of peanut butter. I could do without it altogether but I figure that I am kicking ass on the no grain thing and certainly seeing results so a little peanut butter is OK from time to time.
I fell victim to the “eating healthy is too expensive” bandwagon too. I learned different. There are a couple blog posts that explain things better – There’s this one from RobbWolf.com and one over here at Nerd Fitness.
This is just a smal overview of what I have learned about the Paleo Diet. There are other, more robust, resources that I’ll leave you with if you are interested in learning more! Mark’s Daily Apple, RobbWolf.com and NomNom Paleo are a few of my favorites.
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