I think the entire point of the modern paleo movement is that I can figuratively have my cake and eat it too. I completely understand from an anthropological standpoint why an agricultural society in conjunction with the human body's capability to adapt its diet pushed us completely to the forefront of the animal kingdom. I even get why we started selling crops that were originally only intended as nitrogen restorers (many of which are poisonous if eaten raw), but that does not mean that I have to keep eating that way in light of what living in the 1st World of 2012 offers me.
I have been attempting paleo for a few weeks, it is not the easiest transition if you are the only member of your home participating. It takes a bit of prep time and much dedication. I have had some off days and on days, and there is a remarkable difference in how I feel when I adhere to it. I am not sure why, but my endurance has tripled for my runs. I feel like my mind is running cleaner, which makes my focus on running sharper and smoother. I went from running about two miles in twenty minutes (cross country, still terrible!), my problem was my breathing, and I often would throw up on the trail. My last three runs were phenomenal, however. My last one lasted forty-five minutes and I covered about six miles. I covered it easily, my breathing was smooth and I didn't get sick. Perhaps it has more to do with physical progress, not diet, but I have struggled badly since my last surgery. I haven't run this well in nearly a decade. I am not bragging about my running skills, because there is nothing to brag about, merely sharing that my endurance has improved greatly. Also, some of the sites I have found suggest eating red meat daily. This goes against everything I have ever learned about "healthy eating." Thoughts?
To steer the thread away from anthropological debate, here is a recipe that I had for dinner last night. I ate it with rice before I started Paleo, and just left it off for last night's dinner. The only downside is that sea bass is $30/lb at Whole Foods, but for a nice meal every now and then, it is well worth it. I have never tried to sub a less expensive type of fish, but perhaps something like Halibut or Snapper would work. Sea Bass braised in a Fennel Tomato Broth 1 1/2 pounds skin-on Chilean Sea Bass or other meaty white fish like Halibut cut into four pieces Salt and freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons coconut oil 1 bulb of fennel - cut into thin slices 2 cloves of garlic minced 1/2 cup dry white wine 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes with juice (you could probably sub fresh) 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro Rinse sea bass fillets under cold water, dry completely with some paper towels, season with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan - add the fillets skin side up and sear the skinless side until golden brown, about 3 - 4 minutes. Flip and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and then the sliced fennel. Season with a little salt & pepper and cook 4 or 5 minutes until softened. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat and add your wine. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer the fennel for about 8 minutes until tender. Add the tomatoes and the juice they were packed in, ½ cup of water, and 2 tablespoons of the cilantro. Replace the cover and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the cover and salt and pepper to taste Return sea bass to the pan skin side down, cover the pan and cook at a low simmer until the sea bass is cooked through. About 4 -5 minutes. Voila! Delicious
Yeah, basically the studies that were done linking LDL cholesterol count (rather than size, density and correlation to high triglycerides) to heart disease were kind of bullshit. That's not a free ticket to eat red meat with reckless abandon, because the quality of red meat still matters. The huge farms pumping out grain fed meat in a clusterfuck environmental should be eaten sparingly, meat from a local and natural farm are good to go, but eaten in moderation. Grass fed is where it's at, especially for the fattier cuts, the main problem with grain fed meat is the poor omega6 to omega3 ratio. The grass fed stuff has a much more natural balance. I eat uncured organic bacon with breakfast every morning and usually have another serving or two of red meat throughout the day, I make sure the fatty cuts are all grass fed, but I'll make exceptions for leaner, more expensive cuts because fuck paying $25/pound for meat. But I get those from the local butcher, not the chain grocery store. Most of my red meat is grass fed ground beef or game meat. Also, if you're looking for a good way to start the morning, try some eggs, grass fed or lean meat and kale chips. Just made some with coconut oil, probably over cooked it a bit, but damn do they taste good. Be warned though, you are either going to need a lot of baking sheets or do this in batches, I filled up two baking sheets and have at least another half sheet's worth leftover.
Like I said before, I've reintroduced organic wild-grain rice into my diet and have had no ill effects. Maybe after you've done hardcore Paloe for a few weeks, you might want to give it a shot. Otherwise, you bring up a great point: if you no longer have 'fillers' (pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.), what do you have with your meal? I've found that this stuff works wonders and substitutes where I would have had fillers before: - Kale. Lots of different varieties; purple, white, green. It can be found anywhere, and if you steam it with some chicken broth, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper it goes with anything. It can also be added to chilies and stir-frys to increase yield. - Cauliflower. Shred it or dice it fine, and use it as you would use rice. It even looks like rice! (Kinda) - Swiss Chard. Same as the kale. - Broccoli. Goes with anything.
Good for you! I tell ya, my experience has been about the polar opposite. I'll even be feeling pretty good at times and then BOOM, I can't do anymore. The best way I can describe it is like a car that simply runs out of gas. Maybe a lot of it is just simply my body adjusting to what I used to do vs. what I am doing now. I am semi thinking that after this half marathon (that I am contemplating actually sitting out for because walking 13.1 miles doesn't sound very fun) I will retire my running shoes. I will continue to do short runs, but give up on the longer ones. I have long been saying I need to do more strength training so perfect time to start that. Regarding the red meat, I hadn't heard that. I guess I eat it probably about 3-4 days per week. Kind of crazy to start eating all the things that I had thought was taboo for years (red meat, full fat things, etc). I am also the only person in my household (which only consists of two people, so a little bit easier) doing this. But he just has what I have and adds in rice or pasta or whatever for dinner. I am hoping that once I get going and used to it, the preparation part of it won't be so bad. I can go through the grocery store on auto pilot and pick up all of my staples. I can see lots of salads and stir frys in my future!
First Whole30 breakfast was really simple as just an egg scramble with red and yellow peppers, red onion, and mushrooms. I was excited to see that Frank's Red Hot, I put that shit on everything, is actually okay for Whole30 (no sugar unlike a lot of other hot sauces).
Cauliflower I have found can be a sub for lots of things. I have done the cauliflower rice, cauliflower mashed potatoes. I have seen recipes for cauliflower crust for pizza (haven't tried this yet). Overall, yes, I have been substituting lots of veggies and have been pretty satisfied. Kind of surprising since I was a bit of a carb junkie before. The biggest upside for me is that I haven't had that overly full and bloated feeling after meals that seems to come with things like pasta and bread.
Mya, it sounds like you're bonking: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/06-07/paleo-for-the-active-person/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.paleoplan.com/2011/06-07/pal ... ve-person/</a> Here's a message board where the woman in question gave up on Paleo because she kept bonking, and some suggestions (sounds like greatly increasing fat intake helps): <a class="postlink" href="http://www.meetup.com/Eating-Paleo-in-NYC/messages/boards/thread/8916817/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.meetup.com/Eating-Paleo-in-N ... d/8916817/</a>
I guess I can skip dragging this into the science thread. That pretty much covers it. I just want to throw a few things out there to add weigh to what winterbike is saying. This is a good article that covers the changes in height over the last hundred years. Koreans happen to be a good example that can be seen today. As the article points out, despite being a homogenous population South Koreans today are much taller than North Koreans, mainly because of access to a better diet and health care; essentially the results of rapid economic development. People 200 years ago would have been just as tall as we are today, if they had access to our quality of life. Our ancestors living 2 million years ago weren't humans. Sure, they're closer to us than chimps, but you're still talking about an entirely different species. In short, there's huge differences in the genome from now and then, it's those different genes that result in different phenotypes that separate us, not visa versa. The genotype will result in the same phenotype provided the environment is the same. Basically, varying phenotypes don't mean evolution, it's just a different expression of the gene. Check this out, especially this snippet. Naturally there has been genetic mutations over the last 10k years, but most of those changes are neutral, and changes that have been adopted are minor and aren't prevalent across the entire species. As for changes in how we process food, it likely was micro evolution, taking place over various spurts. As for evolution of human diet, here's a good lecture. Aside from reaping the benefits of larger societies (the primary reason), humans adapted to agricultural development due to increases in CO2 promoting more efficient plant life, and decreases in big game that had been over-hunted and was going extinct. A lot of the criticism about the paleo diet emphasizes evidence of hunter gatherers after the agricultural revolution had already taken place, suggesting a higher emphasis on foraging, and less hunting. The logic is flawed to me because it only accounts for a few sparse, isolated groups, and the researchers are selectively using evidence from tribes that live where big game isn't present. It seems more important to me to examine evidence from when most humans were living as hunter gatherers, which promotes the idea of intense hunting and fishing (both providing the necessary nutrients that fuel brain development).
Some nut jobs completely eliminate it, but most people including the experts partake. They recommend sticking to straight liquor (or mixed with low sugar, but not artificial sweetener, mixers) and red wine. Most, myself* included, give up beer completely with the gluten and all. *I'm going to be making an exception soon since a buddy of mine is getting me a bottle of Pliny the Elder which is suppose to be the best beer in the country.
First off, it's cool that you guys started up something like this. I considered switching from the Mediterranean Diet to Paleo last year, but much of the information I came across at the time seemed to push it hard enough to be a religion (see also: CrossFit) that it turned me off from the idea altogether. So, I'm giving it another look. I've been looking through most of the websites posted so far, but I have a few random questions I haven't seen addressed yet: - As far as cooking oils go, the only approved ones I've seen mentioned are olive oil (which I already use), and coconut oil. What about canola oil? It's the oil I use most often while cooking, and I've never seen it attributed as anything beyond a great source of monounsaturated fat and omega-3. - Where do you get your calcium? With dairy being cut entirely, how does Paleo not give way to all sorts of bone deficiencies later in life? The only options I can think of that would comply with the diet's standards is calcium-fortified orange juice. I'm not a doctor, not do I play one on TV, but low calcium intake goes against everything I've been taught in any aspect of nutrition. - I've been taking fish oil supplements since last summer, and I've noticed tremendous mental clarity as a result. On days that I forget to take them, I feel like a moron. Can I continue to take them on Paleo, or does the diet make them unnecessary? I love my DHA. - I shop only for myself. What's a good estimate of what I should expect to spend monthly? Quality meats and vegetables can get pricey. I'd like to keep my monthly budget in the $220-$250 range, if I can help it.
Rob, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can based on my own experience, but I'm sure others will have other opinions as well. Most of the diets recommend using natural animal fats such as bacon grease or lard to cook with whenever possible. Also, clarified butter, or ghee, is another good option since all of the milk proteins have been stripped away. As far as why not Canola Oil, is because of the process involved in making it takes away any of the initial benefits it may have once had. Read this article if you want to see the complete process of making canola oil. This is another emerging misconception regarding exactly what role calcium plays into actual bone health and structure. More and more studies are showing that other vitamins and minerals; especially vitamin D is actually more important to bone health than calcium. Here is a blog post talking specifically about calcium consumption on a paleo diet. Now I don't know the level of expertise of the guy who wrote that specific article, it was just the first one I found online. If you can, look up some of Robb Wolf's info on the subject, he's a much better expert on the subject and really gets into the science of the subject. And regarding your final statement, it's becoming more and more evident that a vast majority of people's "knowledge" on nutrition is skewed or just blindly reiterated misinformation taken as "fact" in spite of resounding evidence to the contrary. Yes, you can continue taking your fish oil supplements, in fact, they're encouraged by most experts to help out in the balancing of the deficiency of most people's omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. In theory your ratio should be about 1:1, but most people's current diets have them at about a 20:1 or 30:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Just make sure you're getting quality long-chain DHA omega-3's in whatever brand of supplement you're using and that they're not using stuff like soybean oil or other fillers to up their omega-3 #'s. This is kind of an unanswerable question in the fact that the answer is really however little or much you want to spend. If you want to buy nothing but top of the line grass fed meats, wild caught seafood and all organic vegetables, than you can spend quite a bit rather quickly. However, it's more about figuring out what your budget is, what you consider must have items and then making your purchases based on that. For example, I can't always afford to get top of the line grass fed meats, so I shop at Costco where the quality, at least in my experience, is still much better than most chain grocers, because it's cheaper and I can buy in bulk to better portion out across time. However, I put my priority into making sure I always get seasonal, fresh organic produce as often as I can, due to the fact that I've just started moving my daughter onto solid foods and I want to make sure she's getting the best quality stuff since she isn't onto proteins yet. I think people sometimes overstress the it HAS to be free-range grass-fed meats only. While that's ultimately the end game goal, it's not always feasible. If you look at it in a bigger picture sense and say, "I'm not eating grains, I'm not eating processed sugars, etc. but I'm still eating some grain fed meats." you're still going to be way ahead of 90% of the general population as far as your diet and health is concerned.
While he does put a caveat, he recommends diuretics as a way to lose and cut weight. I haven't logged into InStrength in 2 years so I can't link you to the post, but Mike called out Tim Ferris for being a complete fucking moron recommending extremely dangerous exercise regimens. I'm sure if you ask him, he will be happy to enumerate the reasons why. By the way, Ferris landed in the ER a few months back trying one of the many injections he is so fond of. It was really just more of a coincidence! Tons and tons of meat, a decent amount of vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers), rice, and a litany of different fruit. I wasn't trying a Paleo diet consciously; that's just how it turned out though, in retrospect. Thanks. Yeah, I'm well aware of it. Our genome is still very similar to theirs. Hell, our genome is very close to that of a chimp. That's why I wanted to understand on what scale you were talking about "genome change". Yes, very true. Appreciate the links. No one, least of all me, is arguing that meat isn't a vital and necessary part of the human diet. At the same time, cutting out several major food groups, especially grain and dairy, completely out of one's diet is a different matter. I'm actually debating on whether to try parts of a Paleo diet or not. Is there a variation where one cuts down on grains but keeps dairy?
Yeah, as zealous as some of this can sound a lot of people eat a paleo type diet as a baseline but throw in non-paleo foods they respond well to, steering clear of gluten and highly processed foods. Specifically, a lot of people looking to add mass will eat a paleo diet and still have dairy.
In my opinion, the best part of the diet is cutting out processed foods, corn oil, refined sugars, etc. I don't think diets need to be that strict unless you're looking for rapid weight loss, or training for professional sports. It probably is healthier to cheat occasionally, or at least throw in some supplements. Personally, I want to add in pastas and some grains for cardiovascular work outs. I won't quit drinking beer just because. Of course, that's a bad idea if you want to follow the diet. As for dairy, I'm not too sure about the category as a whole. From what I've read, milk at least doesn't offer much in the way of nutritional benefits. I don't see why butter would be a problem since it's low in lactose and pure fat. Adding yogurt shouldn't hurt either, assuming you aren't eating 'candy yogurt', you'd want the fatty fermented stuff.
Not sure if it's too soon, but my day 1 has been very carb light and I still went to the gym. I got through my lift fine, it was short and intense, but on the way home I thought I was going to hurl in the car. I am drinking a coconut water and ate a banana and it went away relatively quickly. Even after giving others the advice, I definitely will need to up my fruit intake to replace the bread and tortillas that I got used to eating. Secondly, anybody have a good kale chip recipe? We bought some kale at the farmers market today and I think we want to start with chips for snacking.
Sigh. Glad to see my posts are going to good use. Anyway, this is the one I used, I'd suggest checking the oven every five minutes, pretty sure I overcooked. <a class="postlink" href="http://paleodietlifestyle.com/kale-chips/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://paleodietlifestyle.com/kale-chips/</a>
Sad part is that I even looked through the thread, because I remember that you mentioned it. Reading comprehension fail there.