I feel the need to post about the Paleo diet. What is the Paleo diet?
According to Robb Wolf’s website:
“In simple terms the paleo diet is built from modern foods that (to the best of our ability) emulate the foods available to our pre-agricultural ancestors: Meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, fruits, roots, tubers and nuts. On the flip-side we see an omission of grains, legumes and dairy.
As this is directed to folks new to the paleo diet idea we need to address the “What Abouts.” This is the seemingly endless list of ingredients that folks ask: “What about artificial sweeteners, agave nectar, red wine…” In simple terms, if it’s not meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, fruits, roots tubers or nuts…it’s a “no-go.” At least initially.”
I have heard about this diet for a couple years, and have only heard of all the good things it does for your body. One my best friends, Dr. Amanda Thompson, who is a chiropractor and applied kinesiologist has been telling me for years how bad carbs are for our bodies. I have read blogs about the Paleo diet, I dabbled in what I thought was the Paleo diet; but it wasn’t until my brother got me a Sam Sung Tab (it's kinda like an ipad) for my birthday with a Kindle on it that I downloaded Robb Wolf’s “The Paleo Solution” and actually read the book, then I started to really follow the Paleo diet lifestyle.
Of course it’s hard to change when you’ve been eating a certain way for years, your house is stocked with cereals, crackers and chips, and you allow yourself to cheat once or twice a week. During the week I tried to eat as clean as close to the Paleo diet as possible, and then allowing some cheat meals of pasta and other carbs on the weekends. I definitely noticed a difference in how I felt after eating the cheat meals: lethargic, tired, having stomach pains, and usually hungry an hour later.
I started planning my meals ahead of time; I would go grocery shopping and make sure I had all the ingredients I needed for healthy, Paleo-inspired meals. I received another Paleo book for Christmas, this one by Dr. Loren Cordain “The Paleo Diet”. I really liked "The Paleo Solution" but I LOVE this book. I cannot put this book down, it is awesome.
The part I like most about this book is how food can be used as medicine to cure and prevent metabolic diseases. There are so many pages and sections in the book I want to copy and send to my family and friends and say “Look! Eating Paleo can help fix your sleep disorder/asthma/weight problem” etc etc. Not only does it have great recipes’ to cook that are easy to make, but it explains why our bodies aren’t meant to eat grains.
In the past month alone I have really been sticking to the Paleo diet/lifestyle and I have felt like I had so much more energy, my skin feels clearer, my workouts seem easier, I feel like I have more endurance, I get projects at work done faster, I don’t have stomach pains (which I used to get all the time after eating carbs!), my clothes fit better, and my friends claimed I looked like I lost weight (which I don’t really know how true that is because I don’t have a scale right now). But regardless! All awesome stuff.
Brings me to my next point.
Last night I was reading a part of Cordain’s book about how too much salt (which is found is white and wheat breads, among other carbs) affects our sleep to my mother, because she is border line insomniac and will never take any type any pill unless she is prescribed to, so taking NyQuil to fall asleep is out of the question. She also eats a ton of cereal and oatmeal, and I mentioned how most all cereals are filled with sugar and more harmful to our body than good.
This morning she emails me “What was wrong with eating cereal again? I forgot! Off to bowling!” Love those emails.
I didn’t bring either books with me to the office, so I quickly looked up some Paleo articles to send to her (and the rest of my family while I’m at it. I know they appreciate that.)
The first one I found was from Mark’s Daily Apple, written by Mark Sisson, author of “The Primal Blueprint”
As I was writing this at 10 AM this morning, I noticed I started feeling tired, and losing focus and was getting hungry again. Then I realized what I had for breakfast.
A few months ago my friend Beth, who is allergic to gluten, went on a new diet to lose weight. I always talked to her about what kinds of food she eats because she can literally NOT eat any gluten which is found in most carbs. And ever since she has been diagnosed with Celiac disease she has lost weight and feels a million times better.
When she told me she was going on this new diet to lose weight, I was curious to see what it was about, so she emailed me her meal plan. Now this was back in November, before I was really sticking to the Paleo diet, so I decided I would try her diet too.
Included in her diet was oatmeal instant packs and rice cakes. I was surprised that she would be able to eat them but she claimed she lost weight, and she did look smaller. I stole some oatmeal instant packs from my mom and put them in my office for days when I running late and didn’t eat breakfast at home, or needed a snack. Since then, I have probably eaten one oatmeal pack. Until this morning.
This morning, I was rushing and didn’t have time to make breakfast. I ate a banana in the car on the way to work and once I got to work I remembered the oatmeal packets I had stored away. According to this diet, I’m only supposed to use ½ packet and eat fruit and eggs with it, but I just made a full packet instead. Not filling whatsoever. And by an hour later, I was hungry and could tell my blood sugar was dropping.
It seemed so ironic I was trying to explain to my family why carbs are so bad, and I was feeling the full effect myself!
Almost every single weekday, I eat eggs. I usually eat them scrambled or hard boiled, but my best friend, Dr. Amanda wrote me this regarding eggs:"Eggs need to be eaten with the yolk runny, or else you denature the cholesterase enzyme found in the yolk via the heat and you can no longer metabolize the lipids in the eggs!
Including those good lipids!
So I eat my eggs over easy. Sunny side up works too. You will still assimilate the protein if the yolk is cooked but you will not get that good cholesterol."
The very next article I found to send to my mom (and family) was a clear reminder why instant oatmeal is not a satisfying, healthy breakfast. It actually mentioned the exact oatmeal I had that morning and listed its nutritional value, which is about the same as 6 different types of junk food. And oatmeal is considered healthy??
Bottom line:
Read books written by Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson and Loren Cordain, try the Paleo diet for at least 2 weeks and see how you feel. If you are still hungry, not impressed, or don’t see a difference; go back to your old eating habits.
But if you want to improve your quality of life and health, eat how we were engineered to eat, like our ancestors.
Robb Wolf's (The Paleo Solution) website:
Dr. Loren Cordain's (The Paleo Diet) website:
Mark Sisson's website:
Dr. Amanda Thompson's website:
