Why the paleo way of life isn't another fad low carb diet

I was recently reading a BBC news report on diets that dropped in a comment about low carbohydrate diets 'like Atkins and the Paleo diet'. I always cringe when I read something like this that is likely to put people off trying a paleo style diet, thinking they will be stuffing fat and protein down like crazy and not able to eat foods like vegetables, fruit and salads.

 A very low carbohydrate diet may be suitable for some people, those with high blood glucose levels and pre diabetes or those who are very obese and looking to drop weight without being permanently hungry. However my experience of a very low carb eating plan is that can be difficult to maintain and for me being able to stick to healthy eating long term is the most important thing when changing the way you eat.

My take on the paleo way of eating is to pack my diet full of starchy veggies such as potatoes, parsnips, squash, sweet potatoes, beetroots, carrots and non starchy veggies such as greens, cabbage, sprouts broccoli, cauliflower and salads. Eating plenty of these vegetables but cutting out (or cutting down) cereals, pasta, rice and bread that can irritate the gut lining and cause IBS as well as raising blood sugar levels leading to highs and lows of hunger and energy levels during the day will enable you to keep your carbohydrate levels to a mid range rather than very high or very low. 

If you keep it simple and clean by eating foods like meat, fish, eggs, all vegetables, berries, nuts and seeds in their natural state whenever possible, listening to your body and eating when you are hungry you will find you will look and feel better than you can imagine.

Five reasons why a paleo diet doesn't include grains and legumes

 

One of the main tenets of the paleo diet is the exclusion of grains, beans and legumes. This can seem to be a bit drastic to some people and is contrary to nutritional advice given in the UK and the US.
So, why does the paleo approach go against the official government advice and exclude these particular foods? Here are five very good reasons why:

1  Grains and legumes are high in lectins (gluten is probably the best known lectin) which over time can damage the lining of the gut leading to increased permeability (leaky gut) where incompletely indigested food and other substances are able to cross over into the bloodstream. There is a strong link between leaky gut and autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease, coeliac disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis and if you have any autoimmune disease the first step should be to avoid all grains and legumes.

2  Grains and legumes are high in phytic acid which binds to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and zinc making these minerals unavailable to be used by the body. These are important minerals that are increasingly deficient in our population. 

3  Grain based foods contain digestive enzyme inhibitors that can block the breakdown of food into smaller particles before it can be used effectively by the body. This can cause nutritional deficiency, damage the gut barrier and lead to an imbalance in gut flora.

4  Grain based foods are less nutritionally dense than meat, fish, eggs, vegetables and good fats. Gram for gram animal based protein foods and most vegetables will provide many more valuable nutritents to keep your immune system strong and your body healthy.

5  95% of seratonin production is carried out in the gut. Seratonin is a neurotransmitter vital in preventing depression and anxiety; therefore a healthy digestive system is important in keeping the mind healthy.

Want to jump off the diet treadmill? Read on....

OK, so here's a scenario;

You are out all morning and very busy, its lunch time and your stomach is growling at you and you are feeling a bit wired and shaky and VERY grumpy. You need some food but don't have any with you. You are trying to eat much more healthily and have been doing pretty well, you had some belvita biscuits for breakfast, all the adverts say they are very healthy and keep you going all morning but you have reached the end of your patience with being hungry. You stop at a garage and look for something healthy but there are just rows of sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars and some amazing looking cookies and doughnuts. You buy a sandwich, it looks healthy as its made with brown bread and has some salad in it and you get some of the special low calorie crisps, only 99 calories per pack. You avoid the cakes and feel virtuous because you bought a cereal bar instead. You get back in the car and eat it all very quickly as you are so hungry. By 4pm you are hungry and again and your hands are shaking and you've got a headache. Unfortunately you are in the car and have nothing to eat. By the time you get home you head straight for the fridge, you were going to make something healthy but you can't be bothered and need to eat right now so you open a big bag of 'lower fat' crisps and a dip and munch your way through those while you are buzzing about doing chores. As you've eaten those you don't want any dinner but just before bed are feeling peckish again so you have another 'healthy' diet cereal bar and crash out in bed exhausted.

So what is wrong with this scenario? Why are your weight loss efforts not working? You think you are making much more healthy choices and eating special low fat diet foods but you are still struggling with your weight and quite frankly are feeling quite tired and drained - not what you were expecting.

This is how many people approach weight loss. The food industry has created all sorts of special 'diet' foods that purport to fill you up and keep you full, release energy slowly and give you all the nourishment you need with synthetic added vitamins and minerals. You are actually eating the worst possible diet for health and weight loss; what your body needs is real food that we were designed to eat and that will nourish us and help us maintain a healthy weight for us.

Here is another scenario;

You make yourself a 2 or 3 egg omelette in the morning cooked in healthy fat like coconut oil and with mushrooms, tomatoes and in fact anything you have hanging round in the fridge. Sounds time consuming but actually takes minutes. You are busy all morning but you don't get the growling hunger like you do when you eat cereal or toast. You feel hungry by lunchtime but you have brought a large salad with you with a tin of tuna, an avocado and some olive oil dressing. You eat this and feel satisfied. Mid afternoon you are feeling a little peckish so you have a handful of mixed raw nuts that you keep in a pot and take everywhere with you. Good job you do as the trains are delayed and you are hungry at the station, you nibble on a few more nuts to keep you going until you get home. When you get home you griddle a steak, wilt some spinach and cook some mushrooms in butter and have with some sweet potato wedges you have in the fridge from yesterday (you always cook more than you need and put some in the fridge for the next day). It only takes ten minutes and you feel satisfied and all the food you have eaten today will support your health and weight loss goals.

Moral of the story - ditch the diet foods and processed foods marketed as health foods and eat real food! Your body will be nourished, satisfied and happy so cutting cravings and binges that sabotage your long term goals.

Go on, give it a try! What do you have to lose. If you want help transitioning to a new way of eating that will improve your health and wellbeing contact me on eatrealfooduk@gmail.com.

PS See my next post for an explanation of why the second scenario will help you achieve your long term health and weight loss goals and why the first will keep you stuck on the diet treadmill forever.

So what has the paleo diet done for me?

Whilst I was running through the benefits of the paleo diet with a prospective client and coming up with more and more positives to tell her I was reminded of the part in the Monty Python film Life of Brian where they ask 'So, what have the Romans ever done for us?'. Of course the reply comes 'well there was the aqueducts  then the sewers, then the roads, sanitation, irrigation, education, public baths, peace, etc etc. The reason I'm bringing this up is because it is how the Paleo diet feels to me, there are just so many important benefits that have been life changing for me (maybe not quite as important as the ones the Romans brought to humanity!)

Firstly my long standing IBS symptoms have gone after about 20 years suffering from stomach pains, bloating, gas and all the other unpleasant symptoms of this really debilitating condition. I used to have a bloated stomach every evening and would go thorough phases where the pain was so bad I would need a hot water bottle on it. I can honestly say that since cutting out grains and sugar about 90% of the time I haven't had any IBS attacks and my stomach is pretty flat (for someone who has given birth to twins!).

I can eat a lot of food and still stay lean! I love my food and hate being hungry. If ever I was 'on a diet' in the past I always felt hungry about 2-3 hours after meals because I was following the low fat calorie counting type of diet. I now eat low carb, moderate protein and high fat and I can stay a very good weight, I don't get too hungry between meals and I really enjoy all my food. 

My 'all or nothing' approach to dieting has been replaced by eating 80-90% paleo throughout the year and then eating other foods I enjoy such as crisps, paleo cake, dark chocolate, red wine, crackers and cheese the other 10% of the time. I used to eat very sensibly for a few months never deviating, but then I would eat pretty badly for another three months. I now believe that my body was rebelling and trying to regain lost weight to make up for deficiencies in nutrients. I find it easy to get right back on track now after my 'cheat's'.

My cellulite has disappeared! Although I have always been fairly slim I always had unsightly cellulite in my thighs. My thighs are now the best they have been for years and I feel so much happier showing them in public.

I have energy and enthusiasm for life most of the time and I don't get mood swings. Previously I did have times when I felt low but I can honestly say that I generally feel 'up' and I am sure that is to do with feeding my brain with good fats and eating in a way that balances my hormones.

I have learnt to listen to my body and most of the time give it what it needs. If I'm hungry I give it food, if I'm not hungry I wait until I am. Years of having an unhealthy relationship with food meant that I would always eat at mealtimes or when there was food around regardless of whether I really needed it or not.

So when anyone asks what a paleo style diet means to me you can understand why it's quite hard to shut me up! I started EatRealFoodUK so I can pass on all these positive benefits to as many people as possible. If you would like help and support in the transition to paleo style eating to help you to lose weight and gain better health contact me on eatrealfooduk@gmail.com.

Can you have your (paleo) cake and eat it?

A new client was asking me about a muffin recipe that I had given her Nut and raisin muffins (press ctrl + click to view recipe). She was a bit confused that the recipe contains raisins and honey which are on the list of foods to eat rarely or never as they are very high in sugar and carbohydrates. As the Internet is chock full of cakes and desserts tagged as paleo friendly I thought I would clear up this confusion and explain my position on the place these baked goods have in your healthy eating and weight loss journey.

When you first take on a new way of eating, especially if it supporting any weight loss goals you have, you are normally full of good intentions and often find it easy to do for a few weeks. However on traditional calorie controlled or low fat high carbohydrate diets the fact you are often hungry and your body is not getting the nourishment it needs will mean that you end up 'crashing' your diet and eating all the wrong foods again, often quickly gaining weight you have lost. There is also the psychological factors, not being able to go out to eat for example and for many people the agony of NOT HAVING CAKE! Tea and cake is a very British tradition and often can be a social event with friends and family. Therefore on my EatRealFood plan I advocate following the paleo style guidelines strictly 80% of the time and then enjoying other types of food (namely CAKE) 20% of the time.

So does this mean you can devour a whole chocolate fudge cake from the supermarket? I wouldn't advise it for many reasons. Shop bought cakes contain a wide range of processed fats, refined carbs such as sugar and sugar substitutes, additives, grains and all sorts of other questionable ingredients. They raise your insulin levels sky high and put your body into fat storage mode. They will probably make you feel quite ill now you have been eating paleo style for a while. 

Of course there may be times when eating a piece of shop bought cake is unavoidable, birthdays for example, and this is fine. Just have a moderate amount, enjoy it guilt free and then go back to the plan. Just remember shop bought cakes and other baked goodies are empty of nutrients where as the paleo cakes will still provide you with healthy fats and vitamins and minerals and will not sabotage your weight loss efforts as they shouldn't cause nasty sugar cravings. 

Search for paleo brownies, muffins, cookies, fruit cake whatever is your particular favourite.  Most recipes use coconut flour or almond flour which you can get online if you can't find it in your local supermarket or health food shop. These nut flours are much lower in carbohydrate than grain based flours. The recipes use healthy fats such as butter or coconut oil and natural sweeteners such as honey and dried fruit. The end products are usually very filling and nutrient dense. (I would always use paleo/primal recipe sites as low carb web sites often still use artificial sweeteners in recipes which should be avoided).

A word of warning. These goodies are still high in calories and although this diet doesn't count calories they do still matter in the overall scheme of things. If you are just replacing a  cake habit with a paleo cake habit and eating them every day it's unlikely you will see much weight loss. They are still a treat food, maybe saved for weekends or holidays. It is important that 80% of your diet is based around meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds and healthy fats Ctrl click to see this post if you want more information about the paleo style of eating).

A day in the life of a paleo diet.....

When I say to people that I don't eat sugar, grains or processed foods they often say 'what on earth do you eat then'?. I thought it would be good to post pictures of what I have eaten today, all really tasty meals that are very nutritious and will enable me to maintain a healthy weight and give my body what it needs to be strong and healthy.

So, breakfast......

Scrambled Eggs, smoked salmon and watercress

I added a teaspoon of butter to the scrambled eggs both for taste and to keep me from getting hungry until lunchtime. Good fats such as butter, coconut oil, olive oil, macadamia nut oil and avocado oil can be added to all meals instead of high carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, bread and pasta. Your body will learn to burn the fat in your food and on your body rather than using carbohydrate for fuel. Fats take longer to burn and so will keep you full for longer and don't cause spikes in blood sugar levels which tend to make you hungry and can cause symptoms of hypoglycemia such as headaches and shaking.

Lunch............

Goats cheese and roasted vegetable salad

.I used a mixture of salad leaves, some cherry tomatoes and celery and then added roasted onions and peppers left over from a meal of fajitas last night (a good meal for all the family, I just substitute large salad leaves for the wheat tortillas to make it paleo friendly). Whenever I have a salad I always add a good serving of my home made salad dressing which I make up with 1 part olive oil, 1 part avocado oil,1 part macadamia nut oil and 1 part apple cider vinegar (raw if possible but the normal stuff you get in the supermarket will do). If you find the avocado and macadamia nut oil too expensive just use all olive oil, the best you can afford. 


Dinner..........

Mackerel fillet, braised red cabbage, courgettes and broccoli

Oily fish makes a great choice for a filling meal and is packed full of nutrients. I braised the red cabbage with spices and steamed the green veg, then added a tablespoon full of coconut oil.

Snacks during the day were a handful of mixed nuts and a miniature bar of green and blacks 85% cocoa solids chocolate. I drank two cups of builders tea with a tiny splash of milk and two cups of green tea. Also had hot water with lemon when I got up and a couple of mugs of nettle tea and about 6 medium glasses of water.

I really enjoyed all my meals, felt satisfied but not stuffed and all these foods will support my efforts to lose the couple of pounds I put on over Xmas and get me back on track with clean eating. It's not completely perfect with the builders tea and chocolate but it's the little things like that that make it sustainable long term. Without those small but healthy(ish) treats the deprivation often gets the better of us and we then start to binge eat the things we miss. Consuming small amounts of these foods or drinks regularly is better than being super strict for a few weeks and then caving in and giving up completely. 

Why paleo dieting works (for me) - Day 16 of my 30 day Paleo challenge

I admit that I entitled this post Why paleo dieting works. In fact I would have left it like that but I decided that in the interests of being politically correct I would acknowledge that I am speaking from my own experience and that of my handful of clients who have dropped 3lbs to 5lbs in the first week of eating clean unprocessed foods such as meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, berries and nuts and seeds (see some of  my earlier posts for more details on paleo eating and some recipes to get you started). I would be absolutely amazed if there was anyone who stuck to this diet for at least 90% of the time and didn't lose weight, I really would.

What is so different about this diet than those from WeightWatchers, LighterLife, Slimming World, the Cambridge diet etc? Mainly it's that its about REAL food, the kind of food our bodies evolved to eat; not the so called 'frankenfoods' in the supermarkets which are a concoction of sugar, unhealthy fats and chemicals. (Most of the big diet companies have their own ranges of these frankenfoods which they are keen to push to those on their diets.) When you are eating real foods you feel fuller and more satisfied and as you are getting a good dose of nutrition at every meal the cravings you have for sweet sugary foods disappears over time.

Like every diet though you need help and support to make it stick. Habits are formed over time, and food and drink habits are very powerful based around social, physical and emotional thoughts and actions. Habits take time to change so you need to give yourself a good month of eating clean foods before new habits are formed and old cravings disappear. It's good to work with a coach, a group from your gym, friends who are also looking to lose weight and become more healthy or a spouse who also wants to make the change.

If weight loss in itself was enough to give people motivation then everyone that went on a diet would be successful and would keep the weight off but we know that is not the case. With a paleo or primal style diet (main difference for me is that primal is less strict and allows dairy) there are so many health and wellbeing benefits such as staving off inflammation in the body, preventing type 2 diabetes, staying young longer, better skin and hair, more energy (in the long term, it might take a week or two to adapt at first) that these in themselves are enough to spur me on. I am planning on living to a ripe old age and being active and mobile and enjoying myself not stuck in a chair in an old peoples home. There are no guarantees of course, but I would like to bet on the fact that I have more chance of making it than those eating a junk and processed food based diet.

If you want to join me for the last 14 days drop a comment below and I will support you through it. Go on, you know you're worth it (and it will do you a lot more good than using the right shampoo!!).

Days 5 to 8 Paleo Challenge - Changing Unhealthy Behaviours

Day 5 was a Friday and I got to thinking about the habits and rituals that are tied to food. Years ago my husband and I ALWAYS had a Chinese takeaway and a bottle of wine on  a Friday evening as a 'treat' to celebrate the weekend. Invariably I would fall asleep on the sofa and then be awake at 4am thirsty, with a headache and feeling generally awful. Not a good start to the weekend but we did it for years!

These days we very rarely eat Chinese takeaways although we often do have a glass or two of wine on a Friday. This was the first Friday evening of my paleo challenge and so I didn't have wine although I did feel a tiny bit put out that my Friday night ritual wasn't going to happen. However I went to bed clear headed, slept well all night and woke up refreshed Saturday morning. As I was doing an 8k race on Saturday that was probably just as well.

So in order to break habits you sometimes need something drastic in the first instance. Something like a sugar/alcohol/grain ban for a certain length of time can just enable you to change your behaviour and put in place something new. So, some tips for new healthy behaviours around treating yourself with food at the weekend:

1. Instead of a glass of wine or beer pour yourself a long glass of sparkling water fresh from the fridge, add ice cubes and a squeeze of lime. Add a straw and you can make yourself believe it's a cocktail!
2. Instead of takeaways make your own versions of stir frys or curries using good healthy ingredients. I will post some good recipes on here over the next few weeks.
3. Substitute sugar laden cakes and biscuits for paleo friendly cakes such as the muffins you will find on this blog. They satisfy the need for cake but don't contain sugar and trans fats that will cause cravings and weight gain.
4. If crisps are your weakness (as they are mine!) then the kale chips I published on here a couple of weeks ago are an absolute MUST. They are just so yummy!

All of the meals I have eaten during this challenge have been tasty and satisfying. The great thing about eating paleo style is that you don't feel that gnawing hunger that you feel when you are on a calorie controlled diet based around carbohydrates and the food cravings are much more manageable.

Dinner day 5 - meatballs, sweet potato chips and cabbage 

Breakfast  day 6 - kippers, scrambled egg, rocket and cherry tomatoes

Day 4 - paleo challenge

Day 4, Thursday and the weekend is approaching. I was thinking this evening that I wouldn't be able to have a glass of wine tomorrow evening - my 'treat' to celebrate the end of the week and the start of the weekend. It made me wonder why I didn't consider a nice long glass of cold sparkling water with a squeeze of lime juice (my drink of choice other evenings) a treat? My body certainly considers it more of a treat than alcohol which is of course fairly toxic especially in large quantities. So why do we consider foods that are unhealthy for us to be a treat? We are programmed to like the taste of fat and sugar; as cavemen we would gorge on fat if we got it because we didn't know when we would find it again. Nowadays fatty sugary foods are readily available and the media are very clever at making us believe that foods such as chocolate bars are the ultimate treat. Parents teach children from an early age that sweets and crisps are a treat. These foods are addictive - sugar and wheat contain substances that act like a drug which keeps us wanting more. So how do we break out of this cycle? Most importantly we can clean up our diet and eliminate grains and sugar to cut these cravings. The paleo/primal style of eating is perfect for this, if you are full, satisfied and getting proper nutrition you will be much more inclined to stick with a healthy eating plan. Give it a try and see how you feel, you can always join me, I've got 25 days to go!

What I ate today:

Breakfast -  3 egg omelette with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, coconut oil

Lunch - Sardines cooked in coconut oil, big salad

Snack - bacon and egg muffin from my recipe on this blog

Dinner - three free range pork sausages from a local butcher, roasted veg, broccoli

Paleo challenge - day 3

Today I have been mostly eating egg and bacon muffins! I have had 6 of them, 4 for breakfast and two as a snack this afternoon before going off to take a spin class.

When cooking dinner tonight I had a dilemma about sugar. I was making a stir fry from a recipe that we often use but realised that it uses oyster sauce which on closer inspection contains sugar and some other additives such as soy extract. As I am strictly adhering to a no sugar policy I decided to see what else I could use and found the chinese five spice powder and lo and behold that also contains sugar! So I played it very safe and just used coconut oil on the stir fried veggies and prawns. Actually it was fabulous, so much better than any stir fry sauce. I just added 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to the veggies and prawns after they were cooked and let it melt. I won't be going back to any sauces again, I know coconut oil is so much more healthy. It's a good lesson about looking carefully at ingredients and how sugar lurks in so many everyday products.

Breakfast - 4 egg and bacon muffins with spinach and rocket and nettle tea

Snack - handful of macadamia nuts, green tea

Lunch - chicken breast cooked in coconut oil, large salad, oil (macadamia nut) and vinegar (raw apple cider vinegar) dressing, green tea

Snack - 2 egg and bacon muffins (only 2 left now, need to make some more tomorrow!)

Dinner - loads of stir fry vegetables and prawns with two tablespoons of coconut oil, camomile tea

Paleo challenge - day 2

Second day went well but I am still missing my squares of dark chocolate! It got me thinking about how people are motivated to stick with a healthy eating programme. One of the main motivators for me in this particular challenge is the fact that there is a group of us doing it together, communicating regularly on a Facebook group page to support each other. We don't know each other well personally, in fact I haven't even met a few of them but we are united in our goal. I feel accountable to these people which is spurring me on to stick with the plan. So if you want to clean up your diet or try a more strict paleo programme I recommend you find some support, either a coach or a group of like minded people, it really makes the difference.

Food today:

Breakfast - omelette with butternut squash and courgette and coconut oil

Post workout mid morning snack - stick of celery and a small portion of macadamia nuts

Lunch - cold cooked chicken, rocket, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, sunflower seeds,
macadamia nut oil and raw apple cider vinegar dressing

Mid afternoon snack - 3 egg and bacon muffins, see recipe on this blog

Dinner - cod fillet cooked in coconut oil with bacon, onion and peppers, green salad with oil salad dressing

Evening snack - handful brazil and macadamia nuts

I kept my fat intake pretty high with the coconut oil and macadamia nut oils to keep hunger at bay.

30 day paleo challenge - a step by step guide

A personal trainer at my gym has laid down the gauntlet to some of us keen paleo hacks - a 30 day strict paleo challenge, no dairy, no grains, no alcohol, no legumes, no sugar and of course no processed foods. For anyone who has read any of my blog you will know that I am already a big fan of paleo/primal eating and stick to it at least 80% of the time if not 90%.

Grains are easy for me to shun and I haven't eaten any wheat based grains for a few months apart from one piece of chocolate birthday cake in August. The fact that wheat is so genetically modified and pretty toxic for our bodies these days is enough to keep me on track. Funnily enough the smell of bread is better than the taste for me these days! I can get high on the smell of freshly baked bread that my husband brings home on Saturday for him and our 10 year old twins (they are not yet convinced about paleo eating but I'm working on it!).

What I will miss is dairy mainly natural yogurt and goats cheese/halloumi cheese. I also have a small amount of milk in black tea a couple of times a day so I'm giving up black tea too. I will still have a couple of cups of green tea per day. Wine of course is a nice indulgence at weekends so that will be missed and I have two meals out to contend with during the 30 days.

So, why I am doing this at all then?Well it's good to challenge myself to see it I can stick on plan for that long. It's also great for my body to rid it of any lingering toxins or intolerances.

For 30 days I'm planning on posting what I've eaten, how I'm feeling and what is keeping me going. If you feel like joining me in my 30 day challenge leave a note below and we can support each other. Each day I'll also post what I've eaten, partly as it keeps me accountable and partly to give other people ideas about what the paleo diet is all about.

Breakfast  - three egg omelette with left over veg from yesterday and a spoonful of coconut oil

Mid morning snack - kale crisps (very yummy) see my recipe on this blog

Lunch - tin mackrel, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, red pepper, half avocado, dressing made from raw apple cider vinegar, avocado oil, olive oil and macadamia nut oil

Late afternoon snack - stick of celery, small handful macadamia nuts

Dinner - free range chicken breast cooked with coconut oil and spices, half sweet potato cut into wedges, green vegetable mix (cabbage, courgettes, broccoli)

See my post tomorrow for day 2!

So what exactly does eating a primal/paleo diet mean to me and how do I make it work?

When I say I eat a primal/paleo diet what I actually mean is that I embrace the principals, wholeheartedly believe that it is the right way to eat for health and weight loss and maintenance and then adapt it to suit my body and my lifestyle. Some aspects of the primal diet I have totally taken on board, some I am still working on; the rest I probably will stick with what I am already doing which seems to be working. And I guess this is the way most people who are trying to clean up their diet work although there are the so called purists who may say that their way is the only way, the primal/paleo diet fascists!!

A quick recap of what primal/paleo eating is all about; basically eating a diet similar to the one we would have eaten as hunter gatherers before the agricultural revolution and certainly before Tesco and Sainsburys! It's based on fresh unprocessed foods, mainly meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds and good fats (check out tomorrow's post on what are classed as good fats and what should be avoided). It may sound limited but it's surprising how many fantastic tasty dishes you can make using these ingredients. Hunter gatherers would probably have eaten insects too but most people following this diet (but not all!!) would draw the line at eating ants and grubs!

So, that is what you can eat, what about what you can't eat? (or rather I like to think of it as choosing not to eat). In a strict/pure paleo diet grains, dairy, legumes, refined sugars, white potatoes and all processed foods are out. This may seem like a daunting list to some people; as this is an eating plan for life and not just for a period of time in order to lose some weight then it is important that you can live with it long term.

OK, so how do I live with it long term, in fact more than living with it I am loving it? Firstly I embrace the 80/20 rule, generally sticking to my primal diet during the week, then maybe on Friday or Saturday having something I wouldn't normally have but really enjoy such as a couple of glasses of wine or a bowl of crisps. Secondly I make my paleo meals as tasty as I can so I always enjoy my food. Probably most importantly I eat enough to ensure I am not hungry between meals so I am cutting food cravings and the temptation to binge.

For me the foods that I will avoid mostly are grains, sugar and articfical sweetners, and processed foods. I do eat some dairy, mainly full fat natural yogurt and small amounts of cheese, especially goats cheese and halloumi cheese. This seems to work OK for me although some people may have allergies to dairy.

The aspect of the diet I am still working on is the belief that all food should be in it's most natural state, in other words free range, grass fed and organic. This would mean that meat would be grass fed, free range and organic, poultry free range and organic, dairy would be raw and unpasturised, eggs free range and organic and all vegetables organic. In the real world this makes food much more expensive especially when you are feeding a family of four. So, some of our food does follow this principal and some doesn't; I get an organic veg box delivered and buy organic fruit, some of our meat comes from a butcher that does provide grass fed and organic meat and some of it comes from a supermarket.

Food has and always will be a big important part of my life, I have never been one of those people who eats to live! By following the primal/paleo principals I have found that I can enjoy lots of very tasty foods whilst staying lean, fit and healthy. Who could ask for more?

What is a healthy diet anyway, part 2 - finding paleo/primal

Having banished the worst of my IBS symptoms by cutting out all the fruit I was eating (especially high fructose fruits like apples, pears and grapes) I continued to read avidly about nutrition and was attracted to the paleo/primal way of eating that basically encompasses foods that we would have eaten back when were cavemen. The thinking behind this is that simply our bodies do much better if we eat foods that we were designed to eat, namely meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds and some berries. It is not certain how long we have been eating grains but in the grand scheme of human evolution it is a short time and many people may not be well adapted to them. We are certainly not designed to eat all the processed foods now found in the modern supermarket and the prevalance of obesity and chronic disease today speaks for itself. I have a personal reason for wanting to stay as healthy as possible and live as long as I can as I had children relatively late in life (I was 40 when I had twins in 2002) so I want to be around as long as possible for them.

So, I began to adopt some of the paleo principles eating fresh foods whenever possible and very little processed foods. The major change for me was embracing fats which I had always avoided as I was brainwashed into the low fat high wholewheat carb diet that most people in the West eat today (and the one that is recommended by governments and health authorities). The big question was could I cut out grains? Fresh bread, breakfast cereals, sandwiches, scones - all foods I loved and enjoyed. Well so far so good, I haven't eaten grains for about 6 months now except for an occasional tiny piece of birthday cake now and again when it would look really churlish to refuse (more about the 80/20 rule in a future post).

So what drove me to finally cutting out all these foods I liked but decided not to eat? It was finding out that actually all these starchy carbs simply turn into sugar in the digestive system and the body treats them like any other sugar and raises insulin levels to deal with them. This constant assault on our pancreas to produce more and more insulin is what causes type 2 diabetes and leads to inflammation which in turn leads to disease. I was also motivated by looking lean and attractive into my fifties!

Since giving up grains and processed foods I have felt better, looked lean and my stomach is now flat (well as flat as it's ever going to be considering I carried twins to 37 weeks gestation!!). I wasn't really overweight before but did have cellulite on my thighs which has gone, and had the start of middle aged spread around my stomach which has also gone.  And the best thing is that I can maintain low body fat whilst never being hungry. So a win win situation!

Next post will discuss how to make a start on a paleo/primal way of eating if you want to have a go. Why not try it for 10 days and see how it goes?