Paleo?

Any diet where I can't have beer, coffee, or red beans and rice with cornbread isn't going to work for me. Yes, I CAN live without those things, but I don't WANT to.

Gamma G, dogs are mostly carnivorous, but they do ingest vegetation, even in the wild. Cats are obligate carnivores.

I did a detox last month that's a modified paleo...no alcohol, caffeine, red meat, sugar, artificial sweeteners, dairy, gluten, or high gi fruits. The goal was to eat less than 15 grams of fructose a day, which is hard but doable. The detox included supplements, fiber and 1-2 shakes a day made with a vegan shake mix (protein from pea, hemp, etc.). I feel great - lost 6 lbs quickly, more than an inch each from my waist and hlps, sleep better, have no more aches and pains in my joints and muscles, no headaches, more energy, improved digestion, etc. It's been great!

I think some of the differences between my current diet and Paleo are that Paleo includes red meat and my diet includes legumes and Paleo allows more fruit.

If you're interested in a quick metabolic re-set, now that my detox is over I am moving on to Dr. Mark Hymen's 10-day detox, which is very similar to what I just did but is all food (no shakes) and includes daily exercise. I have to order a fiber blend and some supplements, do some prep and will kick off next week and am looking forward to it. I'm the kind of person who does well with these intense plans where you really clean out what you eat for a week or two and then try to add foods back in and see what you tolerate and then keep going from there.

A program I've heard great things about is the Whole 30 program (http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/) which is also paleo.

Good luck!

If you decide to try it, the cookbook Well-Fed is a great one. Really well-written and great recipes.

I have dabbled with Paleo because sugar and flour are my vices and I feel like if I could just cut them out, my weight would fall right off. I have a hard time going 100% on the Paleo plan but I have been successful this year in at least trying lots of Paleo recipes, eating veggies and fruits as my snacks and eliminating a lot of packaged foods. I have not completely eliminated sugar, flour, dairy or beans. I am using cauliflower instead of rice and spaghetti squash instead of pasta. I also switched to PB2, a powdered peanut butter that is only 45 calories for 2 Tbs, since I am a peanut butter fiend. I have lost 15 lbs this year with those changes. On top of that, the biggest changes are that I sleep so much better, I wake up without an alarm now and feel well-rested, also my restless leg syndrome has pretty much gone away - but returns on the days that I have sugar and flour. I am craving veggies quite a bit. I have not been hungry at all either.

I did start off the year going 100% Paleo. I did it for 3 weeks in January. I had the absolute worst withdrawal. I literally had a splitting headache for 3 weeks straight. I was popping Tylenol all freaking day. I believe it was due to sugar and gluten withdrawal. Now that I am not militant about it- choosing mostly healthy foods but having an occasional treat or piece of cornbread with my chili- I am not having headaches but am still losing weight and feel like my cravings for junk are much easier to manage.

I just don't get it. We want to eat like paleolithic humans did because they lived - hmm - 33 years. Ok, if you made it to age 15, you likely had a total life expectancy of 54 years. There are also thoughts that paleolithic humans followed cycles of plenty and famine. The gorged on fruit (and high sugar items) when they all ripened together and gained lots of weight (that was a good thing then). Then when lean times came (like winter), they starved (hopefully using the calories they had packed on as fat and not just starving to death, although they did that too). I don't think this is a style of eating that really works today.

While there are likely some real metabolic benefits to limiting/reducing sugars and highly processed foods in our diets, the paleo diet is just based on some weird pseudoscience.

Also, pre-agricultural peoples DID have heart disease, contrary to what pushers of the paleo diet would like to believe.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uosc-mcs03...

Finally, human beings and dogs are omnivores, not carnivores. Cats are obligate carnivores (meaning there are essential amino acids that they CANNOT produce and must obtain them from meat they ingest NOT that a cat never eats the (veggie and grain containing) entrails of its prey.

i haven't, but you guys inspire me. i've made a gazillion terrific changes to my diet and exercise regimen, but the one HUGE bugaboo i haven't been able to overcome is sugar, and if i could get control of that i think every single problem i have would fall into the controllable range.
khairete
S.

I have to eat grain-free, not dairy free, but we often leave out the dairy for certain meals too. So, we're kind of in the middle. I feel better than ever. I was trying gluten free for a while and didn't notice much of a change. Once I dropped all grains and startchy foods, I feel fantastic. Strong, not hungry, lean and energetic. I have better skin and I'm not losing as much hair in the shower as I did before. Weird, but probably a sign of healthy eating. I highly recommend it. I can tell I'm losing fat and not muscle, since I am stronger than before and only weigh a little less than before, but my clothes fit loosely now. My stomach is much smaller and my love handles are gone. I think if I want to lose more weight I'll have to cut out more fruits, since the sugar in the fruits seems to make me hold onto the weight. We have friends who are strict paleo as a family and they love it, but for us I have concentrated on cutting back on starches (grains, potatoes, beans) and sugar. We are very healthy and hardly ever get sick.

My sister eats paleo and has lots a lot of weight over the past year. She also works out or runs everyday. Her food is yummy. It is all about eating the foods that are healthier for you with more nutrients. and green smoothies can taste good.

I think we're carnivores. I think we were made to eat certain foods and not others.

So looking back at what first man ate and what we eat now....wow! what a difference.

I often see dog food commercials. They say stuff like "Includes the vegetables your dog needs!" or "20% protein!".

Ummmm, they're a dog, they're supposed to eat meat, not veggies and grains. They were made to eat meat.

SO then I think about what we were made to eat. Low carb works, we're not supposed to eat as many as we do. Heart docs are writing reports like crazy that the "heart healthy diet" isn't working over the long haul. It's causing our bodies to do other odd stuff.

Eating the Paleo diet may be another extreme. So many diets are. Cutting out foods completely doesn't seem like a great thing to me. I think that eating a wide variety of natural foods with common sense as to serving size, fat content, carb content, and more is what is the over all most healthy thing to do.

Good luck! Most of the dinners I ade were bland or took forever, hopefully u will find better recipes.

I thought that "paleo" was anything that could naturally exist? I have friends that do paleo and do eat beans and potatoes, since they grow naturally in the earth?

I have a friend who does this - she and her husband lost some weight, and certainly getting off sugars and processed foods is an excellent thing.
But on the negative side, they are just sick all the time, catching everything. (To be fair, they had some problems beforehand too - lots of colds, flu, etc.). SO that tells me that they just aren't getting the right cellular nutrition. Th problem is that they just can't go anywhere - our group has a pot luck meal a few times a year, and it becomes a huge problem of identifying what's acceptable. Part of this is because there are different definitions of what "paleo" is.

The other problem I see, as a nutritional consultant and educator, is that the meats they are eating are just not what was eaten in paleolithic times. Ancient meat was not corn-fed animals loaded with antibiotics and raised in CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operation). Even our definitions of "free range" or "cage free" are not consistent or regulated. The foods (fruits, veggies etc.) we eat today are nutrient deficient even if they are organic (and the "policing" of organic foods is spotty).

I agree there are problems with our grains as well - the wheat of today is not those "amber waves" from 50 years ago! I also know that the vast majority of people should be able to eat all foods in moderation - this huge increase in food sensitivities and "allergies" is unnatural, avoidable and correctable. I've worked with dozens and dozens of people who've been avoiding certain foods, and in most cases they can go back to eating them. Those with an anaphylactic reaction may not be able to eat that food, but with the right techniques, they can at least be near them (can be in the house of someone who eats them, can eat out in a restaurant, etc.) or not have a life-threatening reaction if they are accidentally exposed. Once people understand that an autoimmune response to a normally harmless food (soy, wheat, egg, nuts, you name it) is unnecessary and can be repaired/eliminated, the need for these elimination diets goes away.