Paleo diet help?

[big brown horse]

Having properly prepared grains and legumes didn't really pan out for us. However, raw goat/sheep or heritage milk cow (jersey or guernsey and the like) is fine, according to our bodies. Your tummy/gut will really let you know what it likes or doesn't like once you switch to the paleo/clean diet. It took a month of us going paleo cold turkey for my tummy to adjust. I lost the most weight during that first month. If I 'cheated' my tummy revolted, and I paid the price.

There are tricks to get around the no bread thing. Try using coconut flour. I make the most delicious pancakes with it and use the leftover pancakes for my faux corn dogs. (They taste just like corn dogs too when you add ketchup or mustard.)

I use almond flour in my meatloafs.

I'm making grilled bacon wrapped sweet potato bites tonight. Mmmm!

And after a nice big plate of ribs, I like to say, "Gosh this diet is just sooo hard!" )

 

[Leta]

Chiming in...

I have had more nutrition hours than an M.D., and the one thing I've learned above all else is that no one diet works for everyone. We are each of us unique. So don't feel like you have to stick to the paleo diet chapter and verse- take it slowly, like Abifae said, and do what works.

For what it's worth, these are the things that all three of my nutrition profs said to avoid, in order of Worst to Least Bad:

1. (Tie) High Fructose Corn Syrup & Hydrogenated Oils

Now that the "trans fat" scare has gone mainstream, the food manufacturers have moved to a different process that more closely mimics natural fatty acids. These are known as cis fats. Be not misled- all hydrodgenates are manmade, and all need to be avoided, even "healthy" fake fats like Smart Balance.

2. Artificial Sweetners

The science on these is less damning, but why screw around? If you are diabetic/insulin resistant, try to use stevia and low sugar pectin. At minimum, limit aspartame to the amount in 2 cans of diet pop per day- upper level military personnel aren't allowed to have more than this for health reasons. Really.

3. Sugar

This is a bit of a double bind for people like me who have a sweet tooth, but there it is- we need to eat less sweets overall.

4. White Flour

5. Other Flours

If you are going to eat grain, it's best to eat in it's whole form. Flour is processed, there's no getting around it.

6. Canola Oil

This one is controversial. If you are going to eat it, get the cold pressed kind- the "mainstream" type is washed in hexane and lye to remove the oil from the canola seed. I believe the most widely available cold pressed brand is Hain.

What my profs said to not to be afraid of:

1. Animal Fat

My one prof had a whole presentation called "In Defense of Lard". Chow down.

2. Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Peanut Oil, Sunflower Oil

If you can smash it and see some fat come out, or if the whole food itself has a recognizable amount of fat in it, go ahead. (It is, however, better that these are cold pressed, too.) I mean, c'mon, how much fat is in corn and soybeans? They have to do some chemical jujitsu to pull the fat out of those.

3. Eggs

Gold standard for protein. Got an undeserved bad rap during the great cholesterol con of the 80s. Eat up.

4. Raw dairy, with caveats: Know your farmer! Know what the animals are eating! Goats can get a *small* amount of grain, cows shouldn't get any.

5. Salt

If you have hypertension, you *may* do better on a low salt diet. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Sodium is high in processed foods, which we all should be avoiding anyway, but if you like salt on/in homecooked food, go for it.

And, OF COURSE, organic is better, but eat those fruits and vegetables.

 

[big brown horse]

Oh, by the way, it was my daughter's pulmonologist and his clinial dietitian (over at Mary Bridge) that perscribed the paleo diet to my daughter. Her cardiologist also agrees. That right there told me this is the right way to eat.

Oh, and start small if it gets too overwhelming to you, like Abi says. Cut out legumes first week and so on.

 

[big brown horse]

Chiming in...

I have had more nutrition hours than an M.D., and the one thing I've learned above all else is that no one diet works for everyone. We are each of us unique. So don't feel like you have to stick to the paleo diet chapter and verse- take it slowly, like Abifae said, and do what works.

For what it's worth, these are the things that all three of my nutrition profs said to avoid, in order of Worst to Least Bad:

1. (Tie) High Fructose Corn Syrup & Hydrogenated Oils

Now that the "trans fat" scare has gone mainstream, the food manufacturers have moved to a different process that more closely mimics natural fatty acids. These are known as cis fats. Be not misled- all hydrodgenates are manmade, and all need to be avoided, even "healthy" fake fats like Smart Balance.

2. Artificial Sweetners

The science on these is less damning, but why screw around? If you are diabetic/insulin resistant, try to use stevia and low sugar pectin. At minimum, limit aspartame to the amount in 2 cans of diet pop per day- upper level military personnel aren't allowed to have more than this for health reasons. Really.

3. Sugar

This is a bit of a double bind for people like me who have a sweet tooth, but there it is- we need to eat less sweets overall.

4. White Flour

5. Other Flours

If you are going to eat grain, it's best to eat in it's whole form. Flour is processed, there's no getting around it.

6. Canola Oil

This one is controversial. If you are going to eat it, get the cold pressed kind- the "mainstream" type is washed in hexane and lye to remove the oil from the canola seed. I believe the most widely available cold pressed brand is Hain.

What my profs said to not to be afraid of:

1. Animal Fat

My one prof had a whole presentation called "In Defense of Lard". Chow down.

2. Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Peanut Oil, Sunflower Oil

If you can smash it and see some fat come out, or if the whole food itself has a recognizable amount of fat in it, go ahead. (It is, however, better that these are cold pressed, too.) I mean, c'mon, how much fat is in corn and soybeans? They have to do some chemical jujitsu to pull the fat out of those.

3. Eggs

Gold standard for protein. Got an undeserved bad rap during the great cholesterol con of the 80s. Eat up.

4. Raw dairy, with caveats: Know your farmer! Know what the animals are eating! Goats can get a *small* amount of grain, cows shouldn't get any.

5. Salt

If you have hypertension, you *may* do better on a low salt diet. Otherwise, don't worry about it. Sodium is high in processed foods, which we all should be avoiding anyway, but if you like salt on/in homecooked food, go for it.

And, OF COURSE, organic is better, but eat those fruits and vegetables.

 

[big brown horse]

Oh, by the way, it was my daughter's pulmonologist and his clinial dietitian (over at Mary Bridge) that perscribed the paleo diet to my daughter. Her cardiologist also agrees. That right there told me this is the right way to eat.

Oh, and start small if it gets too overwhelming to you, like Abi says. Cut out legumes first week and so on.

This sounded snarky, it wasn't meant to be. There are many different ways to eat "Paleo" I've learned...even the way Weston Price said to eat is considered a form of Paleo by some. There is lots of wiggle room.

 

[old fashioned]

I don't think it's going to be too hard to adjust to this diet except maybe the rice/pasta/etc & legumes, but I don't plan on being 100% off them either yet certainly cutting way back.
Since joining this forum I had already made alot of changes in the way we had been eating & preparing foods as in MUCH less processed foods & more animal fats, etc and that had shown signs of positive improvements around here. Then of course I started working last year & have been relying on 'easy' fixings, even on my days off and I'm thinking thats been the downfall. I should have known something was up when I was gaining weight even though my job is more physical & should have lost weight. It also hasn't helped that I'd eat something when I got home 10, 11 or 12 then go to bed.

I don't think I or the family would go for the almond or coconut flour & will probably stick with wheat flour BUT will be cutting back on the processed a/p. I do have a big bag of wheatberries that I have ground into flour in my blender & added with the a/p for bread and pizza. I just haven't tried using JUST the h/m flour. I'm pretty sure it will work though. I can also cook up those wheatberries for a hot cereal. I did that once before & it was good.

Since I love salads (I easily can make that into a meal cause I put everything but the kitchen sink) and already drink tons of water, I'm already getting jazzed about this.

One question though about 'rice vinegar'...the vinegar is a good thing & rice isn't but what about this? I have used it as a salad dressing & is tasty as such.
For todays lunch at work I made a big salad of lettuce, spinach, carrot, tomato, cucumber, radishes, raw zucchini & broccoli, a few sliced olives, boiled egg, turkey, sunflower kernals and will top it with evoo & red wine vinegar.


WAIT........GRILLED BACON WRAPPED SWEET POTATOES????? RIBS????.........oh yeah, I can definately get used to this diet

 

[Wifezilla]

Raw apple cider vinegar is the best, but go ahead and use up your rice vinegar. The starches will be mostly "eaten up" by the fermenting process.

As for peanut oil, there is reason to fear. Its omega 6 content is too high. Use sparingly.

 

[big brown horse]

http://fastpaleo.com/bacon-wrapped-sweet-potatoes/

 

[ORChick]

BB...if you mean good dairy as in raw....NO dammit and I did try to make sourdough once. It tasted kinda like a big soft soda cracker. It was good, just not what I was aiming for. I don't think it was warm enough in the house at the time for it to work. I do plan on trying to make it again one of these days.


Abi....I do have wheatberries, my grinder is a blender and has worked well, see above about sourdough

I don't have much to say about eating a Paleo diet ... though I will be watching this thread as DH has been told he should cut back on carbs, and I know that wouldn't do me any harm either . But just a little sidenote on the sourdough ... just who got so involved with sourdough that they eventually were given the nickname *Sourdoughs*? Why the Alaskan gold miners, of course. Unless your home is colder than a miner's hut in Alaska it is unlikely that the temperature is too cold (though I have read that, on very cold days, the miners might keep a small container of sourdough in their shirt pocket, under their outerwear, to keep it from freezing). In my experience sourdough and yeast doughs don't mind it somewhat cold; they just work slower.

 

[abifae]

Once a week cooking is my friend. Two crock pots of food last me a week with leftovers to freeze for rough weeks. Would have to adjust for more people, of course, but make a few giant meals on weekends, then store it.