Paleo is short for paleolithic as in… a hell of a long time ago.
The truth is, I’m not a big fan of dogma. I feel like it can be another excuse to argue with strangers online (when you’re not looking at pictures of cats) and ain’t nobody got time for that.
So, why do I choose PALEO to describe my diet? Well, paleo is the closest way to describe the way we try to eat and live MOST of the time.
So, what do you eat and not eat on a PALEO diet?
Eat:
- meat of all kinds (preferably pastured)
- fish (preferably wild caught)
- eggs (preferably pastured)
- vegetables (preferably local, seasonal and organic)
- fat, yes even saturated fat (from pastured animals, avocados, coconut, etc)
- fermented foods and beverages
- fruit (preferably local, seasonal and organic)
- nuts and seeds (if you tolerate them well)
Don’t eat:
- grains (especially gluten containing grains like wheat, rye and barley)
- legumes (including peanuts)
- processed foods
- refined sugar
- alcohol
Other similar REAL FOOD approaches are Primal (which includes raw grass-fed dairy), and Weston A. Price (which includes raw grass-fed dairy, and soaked and fermented grains). All of these approaches would fall under the category of “ancestral” or traditional.
So back to what paleo is… to me at least.
Paleo is eating real food, NUTRIENT DENSE food; food our ancestors would have recognized; food that is grown in the ground or roams the earth, that is minimally processed and not packaged in a box or bag with a shelf life of practically forever. Paleo is crowding out nutrient poor, pro inflammatory foods like grains. It’s an anti-inflammatory approach, hence the incredible results in people with autoimmune and other diseases. Does that mean that my family roams around the backyard grabbing handfuls of produce and inserting it into our mouths without so much as a rinse? Well, sometimes…
But most of the time we just do our best to plan, shop and prepare meat and veg at each meal and have some fruit and nuts available as well, especially for the growing kids. Does it mean we never buy anything in a package or of a shelf? Of course not! We love our occasional paleo treats and the 80/20 rule is what makes paleo sustainable for us in the long term.
Do you spend all day cooking?
Sometimes! One day a week we try to do some bulk cooking, where perhaps we roast some veg to later make a soup, make a big pot of bone broth, jello, booch. Every few months it seems we evolve (pun intended) to fit our life as it changes. Sometimes that means having macadamia nuts and raisins in the diaper bag for a hectic afternoon; other times it means challenging ourselves to eat more organ meat each week to take our health up a notch. Most of the time we just try to fit as much real food into our real world life as possible. And every once in a while we resort to ordering a dang gluten free pizza cause sh*t happens. Cavemen had nothing else to do than seek, prepare and consume food all day every day, between naps. That’s obviously not the life we live. <sigh> Most of us have jobs; kids have activities to be shuffled to and somewhere in the midst of all that, we have to eat.
It is possible to eat a paleo diet and have a busy life. At least 80% of the time. I promise.
Does the paleo diet cost a fortune?
It doesn’t have to! When we first started transitioning to a paleo diet we were eating pretty inexpensively. It wasn’t easy to switch from buying beans and rice to buying grassfed meat. So we had to make some compromises. For starters, we transitioned slowly. Then we also did some shifting in how we spend our time and money. Its about priorities and sometimes sacrifices. And I’ll definitely go into the affordability of this lifestyle in more depth in a future post but in the meantime I’ll leave you with Robb Wolf’s take on it. If you can’t afford pastured, organic, seasonal, etc just do the best you can and upgrade when as you are able.
Livefreelivehealthy.com has been circulating a graphic you may have seen that reads:
You are what you eat so don’t be fast, cheap, easy or fake
I find that pretty accurate. “You get what you pay for” may be enough to explain this as well. If you can eat lunch for $3 in 2013, yikes, I don’t want to know what’s in that taco! I think it was Joel Salatin who said “If you think Paleo is expensive you haven’t priced out cancer lately”. Word.
Paleo is more than a diet, its a lifestyle.
Keeping stress to a minimum, making sleep a priority, and being considerate about making this lifestyle sustainable for the planet are all things we care about. Mark Sisson went into great detail about all of this in his book, The Primal Connection which I highly recommend, especially if you’ve already got the food and exercise thing down but feel there’s a missing link.
For more info on where we buy our paleo food see this post.
Is the Paleo diet right for EVERYBODY? Is it a cure all?
I love the way Robb Wolf explained it in a recent podcast:
The Paleo diet is a logical framework. Its not a historical reenactment. We use this as a starting point.
I don’t find the Paleo diet to be a cookie cutter approach. I think it is an amazing start and for the average person coming from a SAD (Standard American Diet) or Vegetarian/Vegan diet I think MOST people will notice substantial improvements in health. That said, everyone is not the same when it comes to the proportion of macronutrients they need (protein/carbs/fat) and people with autoimmune diseases will likely need to further restrict their diet (nightshades, nuts etc). But its a hell of a start and has remarkably changed our life!
Feel free to share and/or comment on this post! Would love to hear from you!
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Sylvie, as a vegetarian myself I can’t imagine being able to go back to eating animals. How did you do it? What was your reason to go vegetarian in the first place? I have health issues that your blog suggests would dramatically improve if I began eating animals again, but the thought of it makes me physically and psychologically ill. Please understand, I’m not judging you, I just don’t think I could or even would, want to do so. Unfortunately, I’m getting barraged by the (insurance and pharmaceutical company-driven) medical community, and now by the wave that is the Paleo Diet trend, all of which seem to believe that our bodies haven’t changed/improved/evolved since the time of the cave man, yet the very definition of evolution says that can’t be true. I worry that this trend has less to do with health than it does to sustaining the failing USDA. With all of the diseases linked to eating animals, a diet trend stating that it’s healthy to eat meat was mandatory in order to save this multi-billion dollar industry. I think people need to stop listening to every new health craze and decide what is healthy, logical and morally responsible for themselves.
Thnks for letting me know Jake- sorry I’m only seeing this now! (Crazy) 🙂
A Paleo diet, also known as paleolithic diet or caveman diet, is all about natural foods to help achieve great health and a perfect physique. Foods that are okay to eat on the Paleo diet include lean meats, seafood, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruit nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. Foods to avoid; sugar, refined processed foods, grains, beans and dairy. If you want to try Paleo diet, get this detailed guide with hundreds of easy-to-prepare recipes
A Paleo diet, also known as paleolithic diet or caveman diet, is all about natural foods to help achieve great health and a perfect physique. Foods that are okay to eat on the Paleo diet include lean meats, seafood, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruit nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. Foods to avoid; sugar, refined processed foods, grains, beans and dairy. If you want to try Paleo diet, get this detailed guide with hundreds of easy-to-prepare recipes
Hi Tammy, Those were my thoughts exactly… years ago. You get used to it. And to help in the transition there are always Paleo substitutes. Just google Paleo Bread and you’ll see plenty of recipes. Hope that helps!
I don’t understand how to possibly eliminate bread It’s always been a main staple. Toast and eggs or cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, a piece of bread n butter with diner ???
Hi Tammy, Those were my thoughts exactly… years ago. You get used to it. And to help in the transition there are always Paleo substitutes. Just google Paleo Bread and you’ll see plenty of recipes. Hope that helps!
I just heard you on a Balanced Bites podcast (yes, I’m way behind), and I found you to be one of the best guests this year. You’re on the front lines of having a total Paleo lifestyle with a family, and your comments about getting your kids on board were so helpful! I’ll be ordering “The Gelatin Secret” shortly and I’ll catch up on your blog and newsletter.
Thnks for letting me know Jake- sorry I’m only seeing this now! (Crazy) 🙂
Great info! I’ve tried to follow WAPF in the past but I have some autoimmune issues that just can’t clear up with that method. I did not know there was an autoimmune version of paleo. Will definitely be researching this as a healing option!
Thank you Megan! Best of luck on your journey!
I love the way the nutrition revolution is taking self-nurturing, and earth-nurturing out of the religious / political realm. Much less authoritarian and much less socialist, much more accessible and to me, an ultimate blend of conservatism and liberalism (both words in the classic sense/definition).
Yes of course Rosetta. Thank you!
This is a great write-up, Sylvie. You are a natural blogger! <3
I love your take on dogma and such, as you know. I do think I'm definitely becoming a "convert" though. 😉
Yay! Thank you!!
I was going to comment about how you get your children to try paleo, because that is great . I’ve been trying to figure out ways to get my 4 and 7 year olds to try some of my new real foods but ive been unsuccessful. (for that matter I’ve been trying to get my husband to try it too but he acts like I’m nuts for trying to improve my life through eating better).
Either way, I really liked this recent post because you laid out the benefits for paleo very well. All the logical reasons to eat real foods and not the processed junk that persists everywhere.
Are there any good men’s angles on this? If my husband thought there would be benefits to him eating paleo then he might be willing to give it a shot. Hopefully my boys would follow.
Thanks for the great and personal blogs!
Sammie
Hi Samantha,
Perhaps if your husband read my husband’s testimonial that would help? https://hollywoodhomestead.com/erics-paleo-journey/
Also a couple other bloggers have written on this topic quite passionately. Perhaps these posts will help you: http://paleoparents.com/featured/your-non-cooperative-spouse/
In my case, it sort of happened by accident. I did it on my own at first which was really hard and then wanted to try it for my 3 year old for a month which meant we all had to do it (no way I’m going to explain to a toddler why she’s eating different food than daddy) and daddy was sold with the results! Of course when we’d go out for a date night, he’d eat whatever and feel awful afterwords. I never said a word. It’s an individual journey but I understand your frustration with lack of support.
You’re right that men’s angles are usually better received by men. Perhaps browsing the testimonials on Robbwolf.com or Marksdailyapple.com and showing him one that he can relate to? Both those guys books are are great The Paleo Solution and Primal Blueprint.
Hope that helps!
Sylvie
Also Samantha I just realized you may have not seen my post on how to get your kids to eat paleo, right below this post! Hope that helps as well!
Sylvie I am so impressed that you and Eric lost so many pounds and your health has improved. I am looking to loose weight and improve my health. I know that something is not right inside with the amount of gas and bloating I experience so I am certainly willing to change my lifestyle.
I’m so glad Juanita! Happy to help. A great book to start out with is Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. One step at a time. For me, I believe removing gluten (and not replacing it with too much gluten free junk) was 50% of the puzzle piece.
Is Milo eating a strawberry? He’s soooo cute!
What’s wrong with legumes?
Paleo puts an emphasis on nutrient dense foods, foods the body will “thrive” on not just “survive” on. Legumes are not nutritionally optimal but are also tricky for a lot of people because of their phytic acid content and lectins which prevent us from being able to absorb the nutrients. You can read more about that here: http://paleodietlifestyle.com/beans-and-legumes/
Soaking and fermenting them would help reduce that. The Weston A Price foundation has plenty on info on how to prepare grains and legumes to make them less problematic and so you can better absorb their nutrients: http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/putting-the-polish-on-those-humble-beans
Important to note is that flatulence is common, but not normal. If a certain food is giving you gas that is a sign your body is having trouble digesting it.
Hope that helps!
I love this! Thanks for the real-life take on paleo, its totally refreshing and inspiring. As a working-mom of an 18-month old, I’m eager to see what other ‘paleo’ families are doing as we grow and evolve as a ‘paleo’ family ourselves.
Hi Lindsay, Thank you! I hope you’ll stick around. I post weekly every Friday. Congrats on pulling it all off!