Personally, this primal/paleo, stoneage way of eating has been nothing short of incredible! The ultimate performance diet, always nourished, satisfied and free from guilt.
I encourage you to take this 30 day challenge. What do you have to lose (other than a few inches of excess fat and processed dead, empty foods)?
I have to start by sharing this great article on Paleo....
Should We All Go Paleo?
Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 6:41 am
by Bev
From U.S. Wellness Blog
By: Catherine Ebeling, RN, BSN
The latest diet buzz is about the “Paleo Diet”. Is it just another trendy diet or does it have real merit? While I may be preaching to the choir here, I just wanted to take a look at what this diet is all about.
While the Paleo diet is a term coined by author Loren Cordain, MD, there have been quite a few variations on this theme over the years, Weston Price’s ‘Traditional diet’, the ‘Caveman diet’, the ‘Primal diet’ and my very own, “Fat Burning Kitchen” diet. Even Michael Pollen’s dietary principles favor this type of diet.
All of this, plus my own experience makes me feel that this is the diet to follow. And the more I read and study this type of diet, the more I move away from ANY type of processed foods, grains, sugars and more towards this ‘Primal’ way of life.
It has only been recently, surprisingly enough that a few enlightened scientists have put two and two together to come up with the basic biological theory that our genetic structure and our dietary needs come from that of our ancient ancestors. We have gotten so far away from that primitive diet in modern society, is it any wonder to discover that we have all these illnesses, obesity, diseases and disorders?
The modern Standard American Diet has ruined the health and strength of our population for the most part. To get a good idea of this, check out before and after pictures of native people around the world after they adopt a modern, Western diet.
In a single generation, these people go from the perfect ideal of health to a sick, deformed and diseased society, and it has nothing to do with things like cholesterol or saturated fat. For more on this, check out Weston A. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It’s very enlightening and eye-opening, if you have not seen it.
In fact, the dramatic health benefits from this type of diet, seem virtually endless - reducing or preventing:
High cholesterol, high triglycerides, cancers, heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, inflammatory disease like arthritis, and other joint diseases, acne, behavioral disorders like ADD, and depression and the list goes on.
That alone should speak for itself.
I’d like to add that my own personal dietary journey attests to the fact that this diet is the healthiest to follow. I have dealt with health issues such as celiac disease, asthma, dairy allergies, seasonal allergies, joint problems, arthritis, depression, frequent colds, acne, fatigue, foggy-headedness, PMS, rashes, and more. Through that whole journey I have moved closer and closer to my version of this diet and realized it is, by far the best choice I could make.
What? Is this just another low carb diet? No, not really.
Research shows that our ancestors ate even more of a low carb diet than was previously thought. While different cultural groups ate different combinations of animal/plant food ratios, before the agricultural revolution, the average human’s diet was about 2/3 animal foods, and 1/3 from plant foods.
Then, the agricultural revolution came with cities, civilizations, and different foodstuffs. Mass agriculture brought with it a boatload of nutritionally related diseases that were unknown to hunter-gatherers. New foods continue to wreak havoc on our Stone Age bodies and these foods are hugely different in many ways from the healthful foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.
The foods that agriculture brought us (cereals, dairy products, fatty meats, salted foods, and refined sugars and oils) are disastrous for our bodies which are essentially unchanged from that of our Stone Age ancestors – bodies that are ideally adapted to a diet of lean meats, fresh fruits and veggies.
Medical researchers released the results of a study very recently that demonstrated just how beneficial a primal diet can be. They took a group of non-obese, sedentary volunteers and fed them a paleo diet for 10 days. Just 10 days!
The results were absolutely amazing! Their conclusion?
Even short-term consumption of a paleolithic type diet improves BP and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans.
It’s not surprising news (at least to me).
The Primary Dietary Principles of this diet that I Follow:
Eat only REAL food. Avoid all packaged or processed foods as much as possible. Make your meals from combinations of one-ingredient foods and spices. Don’t go for fast food or foods that you have no idea what they contain. Same goes with what you drink.
Avoid sugar of all kinds. This includes fruit juice, fructose, agave, artificial sweeteners, corn syrup, and table sugar. Exceptions to this rule include small amounts of raw honey, maple syrup, stevia on occasion, and raw cane sugar.
Avoid grains of all kinds. Especially refined, processed, white flours. But also avoid the ‘whole grains’ that the FDA and others keep pushing on us as healthy. They are not.
Eat plenty of high quality fat from grass fed meats, grass fed butter, raw dairy, avocado, free range eggs and poultry, and wild-caught fish. Extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil are also good fats, although I’m guessing a caveman probably didn’t eat these oils.
Eat high quality protein as stated above. Grass fed, free range, or wild caught meats, fish, poultry and eggs.
Eat tons of vegetables, locally grown if at all possible, fresh, raw or lightly cooked. Organic if you can. Fruit is ok in moderation, but make sure it is organic.
Eat organic whenever possible. Eat as close to nature as you possibly can. That means local instead shipped from some far-off locale. That means as fresh as possible, raw if possible or lightly cooked. That means few ingredients or one ingredient.
Watch what you drink. While I doubt cavemen drank a cup of java in the morning to get going, drinking a bit of organic coffee or tea isn’t the end of the world. An occasional beer or glass of wine is ok, but a sugary, artificially flavored mixed drink is NOT good. Avoid drinking fruit juices as these are full of fructose, which is a not-so-good sugar. Drink pure water as much as possible.
While it would be great to say that it’s easy to follow this diet 100% of the time, that just isn’t a reality. If you can follow it 90% of the time, then you will see the health benefits. Even I, occasionally fall victim to the temptations of a french fry or a sweet treat. The cool thing about this diet is that it is really catching on, so there is lots of info on it.
For the athletes out there, this is the new training table. Many professional and amateur athletes alike are adopting this diet with the performance improvement as the results. In the coming months, I am going to be following this diet as I make my way through the bicycling racing season and I will let you know how I do on this type of diet.
There are a lot of resources on the web. Perhaps one of the best and most popular ones in terms of explanatory content is Mark Sisson’s blog, Mark’s Daily Apple. There are also a lot of recipes on his website so you can get a better idea of how good and creative food can be that doesn’t use grains or pasta.
I can’t let it get away without telling you to check out my website, Simple Smart Nutrition. There is tons of great information there about various health conditions, from weight loss to maximizing your athletic performance and more. I also post great primal recipes weekly as well.
But the best way to check out the Paleo diet is to give it a shot and see how you like it.
Even just following principle number one above would go a long way for most people in terms of health as it essentially removes all of the junk, fast, and “frankenfood” that is so prevalent in the Standard American Diet (SAD).
Remember, healthy and feeling good is the new normal. We should not feel tired after we eat, get sick, gain weight or have all kinds of health complaints. That isn’t normal. Animals that eat what they are supposed to eat don’t need an extensive training and diet regime to keep healthy. And neither should you!
Even if you decide the Paleo diet isn’t for you, you could do a lot worse for your health than to adopt at least a couple of the principles outlined above over the long term!
Sources:
Jennifer Pinkowski, Should you Eat Like a Caveman? Time magazine, Jan 2011.
Dr. Loren Cordain, the Paleo Diet, 2010-2011.
