Eating Paleo

unsung

Anyone else doing this? My girlfriend and I started January 20th and despite a few hiccups along the way we are doing excellent. It's amazing how much better we feel now that we aren't polluted with grains and dairy. I know there are a few healthy eaters here.

My total cholesterol is 124, with my HDL's at 42. So the whole bacon will kill you argument might not be valid.

JTH

I'm eating pretzels and drinking beer right now.

It's Evolution, Baby.

brianlux

The Paleo diets I've read about all mention cooked meat. I always thought that early humans ate raw meat. Can't go there!

Go Beavers

I like the part of it about not eating processed foods, but it comes across more as a variation of the low carb fad, which I don't think is healthy. I eat a ton of grains and plenty of dairy, and I feel great.

Suzi78

Most people when cutting out processed foods and salt from their diet, will see an improvement in cholesterol levels, blood pressure as well as overall well being. What type of grains and dairy were you eating before? I really doubt that if you were only eating unprocessed, unsweetened grains and dairy that you would be feeling so much better by omitting that food group from your diet. It has probably more to do with the fact that you're cutting out processed stuff. I have been eating kefir and oats every day for many years and I feel great. My LDL is 65 and HDL is 45.
Also, bacon is processed meat since it's cured and smoked, and has been linked to pancreatic cancer. If you follow the paleo diet you should really be eating natural grass-fed beef (and obviously fish) and not processed food.

riotgrl

I follow a traditional diet but not paleo. Check out Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions and she explains the traditional diet very well. I still consume dairy and grains but I properly soak them first so they are easier to digest. I think getting your meats from a local source that is grass fed AND finished beef and pastured chickens and hogs are very important. Also, check out this article that explains why eating bacon is ok (from pastured hogs of course!). The notion that nitrates and nitrities in cured bacon will cause cancer is based on a flawed study (kinda like the flawed study that has us all eating low fat everything). The farmer I get my meat from tried selling uncured bacon - ewww! I can say that it did not taste good AT ALL

http://chriskresser.com/the-nitrate-and-nitrite-myth-another-reason-not-to-fear-bacon

polaris_x

unsung wrote:

Anyone else doing this? My girlfriend and I started January 20th and despite a few hiccups along the way we are doing excellent. It's amazing how much better we feel now that we aren't polluted with grains and dairy. I know there are a few healthy eaters here.

My total cholesterol is 124, with my HDL's at 42. So the whole bacon will kill you argument might not be valid.

never heard of this diet ... but i do believe in cutting out gluten and dairy in general ... although fresh bread is awesome ... i generally buy my breads from local bakers and they usually don't have the shit like wonderbread has ...

like i said in the other thread ... many people may not necessarily be lactose intolerant but dairy requires a lot of energy from the body to break down ... it is no wonder you are feeling better cutting dairy out because your body has to work less ... it is also not a coincidence that when many people go into the hospitals with some ailment - they tell them to cut out gluten and dairy ...

having said that - bacon is awesome ... i usually make my own so i know it's pretty much 100% pure pork fat ... hahahaha ...

Blockhead

The paleo diet is a marketing gimmick founded upon the false notion of arbitrary food avoidance and christened with an absurd name...
The quackery is rooted in arbitrary rejection of foods that are speculated not to have been available to paleolithic man, the assumption that the speculated paleolithic man's diet was in any way optimal for health, and general rejection of modern advances or scientific discoveries. Every explanation of paleo I've seen, while ultimately offering some decent dietary guidelines, explains the principles with laughable theories

Jeanwah

I've heard of it, but following diets doesn't work for me. Everything in moderation (and simply eating less) is the rule I go by. But kudos to anyone who can stick to a diet! The thing is, once you go off, you're likely to gain the weight back...

whgarrett

My girlfriend is a vegan, so i eat a lot of weird stuff. It's pretty expensive and time consuming. There has only been one dish that i couldn't eat and that was because she used saffron, and added way too much.

As far as raw meat. I used to frequent this restaurant for happy hour and would always order the Steak Tartar. It is absolutely wonderful.

unsung

Blockhead wrote:

The paleo diet is a marketing gimmick founded upon the false notion of arbitrary food avoidance and christened with an absurd name...
The quackery is rooted in arbitrary rejection of foods that are speculated not to have been available to paleolithic man, the assumption that the speculated paleolithic man's diet was in any way optimal for health, and general rejection of modern advances or scientific discoveries. Every explanation of paleo I've seen, while ultimately offering some decent dietary guidelines, explains the principles with laughable theories

Yeah, ok. :roll:
The entire intent was to eat foods prior to the food supply becoming processed. Some laughable theory. :fp:


To those that actually had useful thoughts to add I've found that bread is my enemy, plus I have a diagnosed severe food allergy to wheat. My GF is sensitive to gluten, and many in her family have symtoms of celiac disease. We have essentially cut out processed foods entirely. We shop at Whole Foods for everything and we like to find new recipes for more commonly used items, like salad dressing. Most salad dressing has HFCS, along with amounts of preservatives.

I quit drinking milk some time ago, the human adult has NO use for it. Diet sodas were cut out of her diet and after a few rough days she is through it. Overall we eat more vegetables, less red meat, nothing in a box, no pasta or grains, but occasionally she finds some dark chocolate she has to have.

Blockhead

unsung wrote:

Yeah, ok. :roll:
The entire intent was to eat foods prior to the food supply becoming processed. Some laughable theory. :fp:


To those that actually had useful thoughts to add I've found that bread is my enemy, plus I have a diagnosed severe food allergy to wheat. My GF is sensitive to gluten, and many in her family have symtoms of celiac disease. We have essentially cut out processed foods entirely. We shop at Whole Foods for everything and we like to find new recipes for more commonly used items, like salad dressing. Most salad dressing has HFCS, along with amounts of preservatives.

I quit drinking milk some time ago, the human adult has NO use for it. Diet sodas were cut out of her diet and after a few rough days she is through it. Overall we eat more vegetables, less red meat, nothing in a box, no pasta or grains, but occasionally she finds some dark chocolate she has to have.

There's a difference between eating whole foods and cutting yourself from beneficial foods like grains, legumes, etc... Its a gimmick/fad restriction diet.
In the end its all about cals in/cals out...
If you have any food allergies or intolerances, then it's justified to eliminate the offending foods (ie, high-lactose dairy, gluten-containing grains). But realize there's still a decent range of dairy foods that are low-lactose, just as there's a decent range of grain foods that are gluten-free.
My problem with Paleo is it makes scientifically unsupportable claims, and is dogmatically against a range of foods that have substantial scientific support. It's a fad diet that breeds alarmism, extremism, and neurotic relationships with food.
Just because you don't agree with me does not mean that my thoughts are not "useful"...

Hugh Freaking Dillon

unsung wrote:

Yeah, ok. :roll:
The entire intent was to eat foods prior to the food supply becoming processed. Some laughable theory. :fp:


To those that actually had useful thoughts to add I've found that bread is my enemy, plus I have a diagnosed severe food allergy to wheat. My GF is sensitive to gluten, and many in her family have symtoms of celiac disease. We have essentially cut out processed foods entirely. We shop at Whole Foods for everything and we like to find new recipes for more commonly used items, like salad dressing. Most salad dressing has HFCS, along with amounts of preservatives.

I quit drinking milk some time ago, the human adult has NO use for it. Diet sodas were cut out of her diet and after a few rough days she is through it. Overall we eat more vegetables, less red meat, nothing in a box, no pasta or grains, but occasionally she finds some dark chocolate she has to have.

I've been looking for something like this for some time now. I've often craved going back to basics; i.e; stop eating processed food. I'm sure it seems time-consuming, but it's not much different than when we had our two daughters. We didn't feed them ANYTHING from a can or bottle. It was all fresh fruit and vegetables ground up in a blender and frozen in ice cube trays for later consumption. Yes, it seemed like a pain in the ass, but my wife was very proud of not feeding our kids processed shit.

and just this week my oldest daughter is going through testing for crohn's, so this is something we may need to do anyway.

Does ths diet touch on what a human's natural diet is? have we always been omnivores? I've also been thinking about quitting milk. I drink skim, and have for years, but something about consuming the milk of another living thing I find odd. Always have. Lactose is something, I believe, we've only grown to digest through evolution. Which is a red flag to me.

Blockhead

Hugh Freaking Dillon wrote:

unsung wrote:

Yeah, ok. :roll:
The entire intent was to eat foods prior to the food supply becoming processed. Some laughable theory. :fp:


To those that actually had useful thoughts to add I've found that bread is my enemy, plus I have a diagnosed severe food allergy to wheat. My GF is sensitive to gluten, and many in her family have symtoms of celiac disease. We have essentially cut out processed foods entirely. We shop at Whole Foods for everything and we like to find new recipes for more commonly used items, like salad dressing. Most salad dressing has HFCS, along with amounts of preservatives.

I quit drinking milk some time ago, the human adult has NO use for it. Diet sodas were cut out of her diet and after a few rough days she is through it. Overall we eat more vegetables, less red meat, nothing in a box, no pasta or grains, but occasionally she finds some dark chocolate she has to have.

I've been looking for something like this for some time now. I've often craved going back to basics; i.e; stop eating processed food. I'm sure it seems time-consuming, but it's not much different than when we had our two daughters. We didn't feed them ANYTHING from a can or bottle. It was all fresh fruit and vegetables ground up in a blender and frozen in ice cube trays for later consumption. Yes, it seemed like a pain in the ass, but my wife was very proud of not feeding our kids processed shit.

and just this week my oldest daughter is going through testing for crohn's, so this is something we may need to do anyway.

Does ths diet touch on what a human's natural diet is? have we always been omnivores? I've also been thinking about quitting milk. I drink skim, and have for years, but something about consuming the milk of another living thing I find odd. Always have. Lactose is something, I believe, we've only grown to digest through evolution. Which is a red flag to me.

why stop at the paleolithic era though? What about the eocene era?
Or should we also go back to practicing some of that nutritional cannibalism we used to...just to remain 'authentic' to our roots... :roll:

Hugh Freaking Dillon

Blockhead wrote:

why stop at the paleolithic era though? What about the eocene era?
Or should we also go back to practicing some of that nutritional cannibalism we used to...just to remain 'authentic' to our roots... :roll:

I don't care about remaining authentic to anything, I just want to learn what is naturally healthy for humans to consume.

continue eye rolling if you wish, but if it makes me and my family healthier, then I'll do it. I'm not looking to subscribe to anything as a whole, I'm looking for research on the topic. and this may be a valuable resource.

continue your condescension if you so desire.

unsung

FWIW, I've dropped some weight, not that I was badly over, but I had some to lose. I really like it simply because of the sugar reduction and the elimination of processed junk. I suggest looking into it by reading Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution, also look at people's before and after pics.

polaris_x

unsung wrote:

FWIW, I've dropped some weight, not that I was badly over, but I had some to lose. I really like it simply because of the sugar reduction and the elimination of processed junk. I suggest looking into it by reading Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution, also look at people's before and after pics.

soon ... you'll be shopping at health food stores and local co-ops ... just try not to get tainted by all them hippy dippy socialist granola eating treehuggers ...

unsung

Ha, yeah, we did go to a farmer's market. Surprisingly the very small town one offered so much more than one that was in a larger (100K pop) city. I had a good time. Gotta look into those co-ops, and even though I no longer drink milk I do want to try raw milk once before the feds lock up all of the farmers.

unsung

polaris_x wrote:

soon ... you'll be shopping at health food stores and local co-ops ... just try not to get tainted by all them hippy dippy socialist granola eating treehuggers ...

And some of those store owners are devout Libertarians, so all the more reason to support them.

facepollution

Blockhead wrote:

There's a difference between eating whole foods and cutting yourself from beneficial foods like grains, legumes, etc... Its a gimmick/fad restriction diet. .

Any thoughts on antinutrients that grains and legumes contain?

even flow - question mark

I keep hoping that the title is going to change to : Eating Peyote, but to no avail.

riotgrl

facepollution wrote:

Blockhead wrote:

There's a difference between eating whole foods and cutting yourself from beneficial foods like grains, legumes, etc... Its a gimmick/fad restriction diet. .

Any thoughts on antinutrients that grains and legumes contain?

Again I say, soak your nuts (ok I totally blame my husband for my immature and inappropriate behavior - I use to be totally normal ) That reduces the amount of phytic acid that makes grains and legumes so hard to digest.

facepollution

riotgrl wrote:

Again I say, soak your nuts (ok I totally blame my husband for my immature and inappropriate behavior - I use to be totally normal ) That reduces the amount of phytic acid that makes grains and legumes so hard to digest.

Sensible advice, I wonder if many people do that though.......

Given the lack of nutrition in modern produce, people need all the help they can get.

riotgrl

facepollution wrote:

riotgrl wrote:

Again I say, soak your nuts (ok I totally blame my husband for my immature and inappropriate behavior - I use to be totally normal ) That reduces the amount of phytic acid that makes grains and legumes so hard to digest.

Sensible advice, I wonder if many people do that though.......

Given the lack of nutrition in modern produce, people need all the help they can get.

Very few I'm sure. Most don't know to do it and many who do may not have the time. I've only recently begun doing it and I definitely feel better after consuming nuts, grains, legumes.

know1

I was thinking of opening a Paleo restaurant, but I can't find a good location. There don't seem to be any caves in my town.

Cosmo

know1 wrote:

I was thinking of opening a Paleo restaurant, but I can't find a good location. There don't seem to be any caves in my town.

...
Actually... that's pretty funny.

Cosmo

Wasn't Paleolithic Man in better shape because he had to chase down his meat sources, get his ass off the stone couch and walk all over the fucking place to pick berries and because those saber-toothed cats were always chasing him?
Also, wasn't his life expectancy like... 30? I know, a broken leg from rolling down the hill trying to escape the saber-toothed cat often meant death... and so were things like the flu... but, who's to say he was in better shape than we are today?
Our main problem is that too many of us buy into the 3 squares a day bit. That was great when you worked your fucking ass off on a farm from 4 A.M. to 8 P.M., but who works that (physically) hard these days? We can get along on one meal a day, supplemented with some fruits and vegetables. And, we get off our asses on a regular basis and actually walk the 3 blocks to the liquor store for our cigarettes and beer instead of driving it.
Also.. cutting out the cigarettes and beer helps.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

Cosmo wrote:

Wasn't Paleolithic Man in better shape because he had to chase down his meat sources, get his ass off the stone couch and walk all over the fucking place to pick berries and because those saber-toothed cats were always chasing him?
Also, wasn't his life expectancy like... 30? I know, a broken leg from rolling down the hill trying to escape the saber-toothed cat often meant death... and so were things like the flu... but, who's to say he was in better shape than we are today?
Our main problem is that too many of us buy into the 3 squares a day bit. That was great when you worked your fucking ass off on a farm from 4 A.M. to 8 P.M., but who works that (physically) hard these days? We can get along on one meal a day, supplemented with some fruits and vegetables. And, we get off our asses on a regular basis and actually walk the 3 blocks to the liquor store for our cigarettes and beer instead of driving it.
Also.. cutting out the cigarettes and beer helps.

exercise is easy to come by......it's all the processed shit and preservatives and cancer-causing nastiness in today's food that is difficult to avoid unless you live on a farm. this is my main concern.

Go Beavers

Hugh Freaking Dillon wrote:

Cosmo wrote:

Wasn't Paleolithic Man in better shape because he had to chase down his meat sources, get his ass off the stone couch and walk all over the fucking place to pick berries and because those saber-toothed cats were always chasing him?
Also, wasn't his life expectancy like... 30? I know, a broken leg from rolling down the hill trying to escape the saber-toothed cat often meant death... and so were things like the flu... but, who's to say he was in better shape than we are today?
Our main problem is that too many of us buy into the 3 squares a day bit. That was great when you worked your fucking ass off on a farm from 4 A.M. to 8 P.M., but who works that (physically) hard these days? We can get along on one meal a day, supplemented with some fruits and vegetables. And, we get off our asses on a regular basis and actually walk the 3 blocks to the liquor store for our cigarettes and beer instead of driving it.
Also.. cutting out the cigarettes and beer helps.

exercise is easy to come by......it's all the processed shit and preservatives and cancer-causing nastiness in today's food that is difficult to avoid unless you live on a farm. this is my main concern.

I think exercise will override a lot of bad food. Not only that, when you're really active, your body wants good food and less processed/junk food. It sort of works itself out because the bad food just feels like bad energy. There's so much focus on what to eat and what not to eat. For me, it's exercise and be active first, then just listen to what your body wants.

brianlux

The more I think about it the more I'm not sure about Paleo. I'd like to try going further back. When I was a kid I tried eating all sorts of things- grass, dirt, leaves and flowers from weeds. Fortunately I didn't try anything toxic. After reading Ishi in Two Worlds I'm convinced we of Euro-Conquest origin don't know squat about eating. I'm going to pick some manzanita berries and herbs and dig some roots and get healthy again.

I'll write a song about it and call it "Stone Age Cuisine's Alright By Me".

unsung

I don't believe we need grains to thrive, and I haven't found one nutritional benefit that I can't get from something else. To me, the negatives far outweigh the positives. I have a high food allergy to wheat and my girlfriend is sensitive to glutens.

Diabetes runs in my family, so cutting out the non-natural sugars makes sense.

I also choose to avoid processed food that sits in a box on a store shelf for months. We had a work colleague off for a medical reason and he left an opened pack of townhouse crackers on his desk. Nobody really noticed it until we had to clean out his desk nearly a year later. There was no mold on those crackers. No thanks.

I eat organic as much as possible. All the washing in the world won't remove those pesticides.

As an adult I also find no point in drinking milk. Any nutritional benefits are first of all eliminated through pasteurization, then magically, or should I say chemically added afterwards. Now they want to be allowed to add aspartame to it without disclosing it on the label. No thanks.

So yeah, paleo makes perfect sense to me.