How To Go Paleo

I get asked all the time about the Paleo Diet.  I think I will post my most recent response here so I can direct others who ask and not have to retype!  I was asked about Paleo for a friend of a friend...here is what I said:

She can do it. It isn't hard. I do like it because I feel so much better. But if you are a carboholic, the first couple of months can be difficult with cravings. Once you are over that it is smooth sailing.

The Paleo lifestyle is basically meat, fruit, vegies, nuts, seeds, good fats like coconut oil. Cooking with almond and coconut flour. I highly recommend these cookbooks: The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam and Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife. If she can tolerate almond flour she can make amazing things. I cannot tolerate it, so I stick with coconut flour.

The Primal lifestyle is all of the above plus FULL FAT dairy. No low fat stuff. It's crap. Both lifestyles completely eliminate processed foods, fast foods, HFCS, soda, all grains (corn, wheat, rice, everything), legumes (incl. peanuts), soy. Bacon is considered a health food. ;) Our brains ONLY run on saturated fat - Alzheimer's is connected with low saturated fat in our brains.

There is also the Perfect Health Diet which includes full fat dairy, tapioca, white rice, and potatoes. I use a tapioca flour batter to make these little wrap like things. So I float between Paleo (mostly) to a bit of dairy (parmesan) now and then, plus tapioca. I have tried potato chips, but they don't agree with me.

If you want to cheat with a grain, white rice is the only one. NOT brown. Brown rice has lectins which are poisons that your body cannot flush out. Lectins are there to prevent the grain from being eaten so it can propogate.

In other words, everything you have been taught about health and nutrition is completely wrong.

First, I recommend the book The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. It is pretty much required reading. Very easy to understand.   http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Solution-Original-Human-Diet/dp/0982565844/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317691864&sr=1-2

Also this important website: Marks Daily Apple http://www.marksdailyapple.com/  Every Friday they post a Primal success story - they are inspiring!  All kinds of people from athletes to moms and everyone in between.

Second, cookbooks are in order. I have a number of them. Primal Blueprint Cookbook and Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals both by Mark Sisson. Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso. There are TONS of FB Paleo/Primal pages with recipes as well - I think I have 'liked' them all. You could probably go to my info page and look at all my pages to like. Robb Wolf, Mark's Daily Apple, Everyday Paleo, FastPaleo, Mastering the Art of Paleo Cooking, Balanced Bites, Civilized Caveman, Nom Nom Paleo, Jason Seib, The Paleo Home, Paleo Digest and many, many more FB Paleo recipe sites.

Paleo Magazine is a new magazine out - I subscribe now. Only about 2 or 3 issues so far. On FB as well. http://www.paleomagonline.com/

I have lost sixteen pounds in four months (for my many British readers that is 1.14285 stone) (hahahaha) - I am now evening out so to speak. Muscles are returning. Another friend has lost twelve in two months and his wife has lost eight in two months. Her cholesterol has completely flip flopped (she just told me this yesterday): Triglycerides down from 173 to 45; from LDL much higher than HDL to completely the other way around. She just had blood work done the other day and her doc compared it to what it was in March.

Of course, being Orthodox you wonder since I have to have meat with every meal what can I do during fasts? I have asked Fr. Ignatius and basically I am fasting because I love pasta and I prefer to be vegetarian. I don't love all the meat, but grains were making me really sick. I would love a big bowl of pasta now and then, but I can't. I also eat MUCH less then ever before, and I can fast a meal now when I couldn't before because of blood sugar ups and downs. I have not had a migraine since starting Paleo back in June.

So there you have it.  I will write more about why I am now Paleo instead of just gluten free next time.