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Paleo/Caveman Diet?
Vagabond
Explorer
The Paleo diet, also known as the Caveman diet, is where you can only eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and meat. It is supposed to be the guidelines for what humans SHOULD actually eat; the stuff we ate before capitalism and all that bad stuff, lol. Anyway, I live with other people who refuse to buy ONLY those four things, so I haven't really done the Paleo diet, although I know that's kind of a cop-out. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has, or if anyone here at least has some information on it and is willing to share. Thanks
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Just as well. I gather the hunter gatherers had a life expectancy of about 28 years.
What has ' capitalism and all that bad stuff' done for us...?
/thread
#1 Everyone's bodies are slightly different. What is ideal for one person is not for another. I, for example, will gain weight if I eat bad foods no matter how many calories I eat. For me, a well balanced diet is what works alone with regular (daily) vigorous exercise and healthy sleep. That's what keeps me going and keeps me healthy and feeling good. Other people can eat anything they want as long as they don't eat too many calories. Not true for me.
#2. Tubers aren't evil. Neither is other fruit. You still should watch your fruit intake slightly because fruit is sugar, and too much fruit is still treated as too much sugar by your body and causes ill effects. There are many socieities in the world that would not have survived if they had not been able to eat any tubers. Potatoes aren't the enemy, lol.
#3. If you want to be healthy, don't follow government diet recommendations for nutrients or calories. Limit or completely eliminate added sugar, and vegetable/canola etc oils. Both contribute greatly to inflammation which is the #1 problems really facing people. It's not too much fat, it's inflammation, which can cause heart disease, diabetes, allergies, arthritis and all sorts of other things western society suffers from. Follow an anti-inflammatory diet. Instead of 50% carbs and 30% protein 20% fat like is often recommended, eat more along the lines of 50% veggies (the more color the better, squash, eggplant, dark leafy greens) and then the rest meat and fruit (if you are wanting to eat meat that is). Limit red meat and eat meat from true free range local farms if you can rather than meat from the grocery store.
Basically, what you do with your time, and what you eat, programs your cells. It tells your body whether the cells should grow normally, or not. It tells your body if the cells should be used to build muscle, or should be stored as fat. If you want a body that is healthy and heals itself, you have to tell your body to do it by exercising (and that doesn't mean just taking the stairs at work) and by eating healing, healthy, food. The stronger the natural flavor of food, the better it is for you. If you can get it fresh from farmers markets, that's the best way if you don't grow your own. Many veggies at the grocery store lose up to 75% of their nutrients in transit. Veggies are best eaten as soon as possible after they are picked, within 5 days if possible. Most westerners balk at things like swiss chard and arugula because of their strong flavors, but they taste that way because they are packed with nutrition and antioxidants. We just deaden or taste buds because everything we eat is filled with salt and sugar and vegetable oil fats.
Foods that are unprocessed and as fresh as possible
Meat *on the bone* (processed chicken breast from tyson doesn't cut it). When you eat meat from the bone and especially if you make stock or something from the leftovers, you get the benefits of the marrow and collagen and connective tissue, which is what helps to keep ours healthy. Instead of taking a glucosamine supplement, you can get the same stuff but more effective from eating meat this way.
Organ meats (I still have a problem with this one, I just cannot get past them, lol)
Sprouted and fermented foods. Make your own yogurt and sauerkraut. Very good for you. Not so much the yogurt with a ton of added sugar (which is most of what has fruit is, because it's fruit in syrup that is added...you're better off getting plain yogurt and adding your own fruit). Get sprouted grain breads or make your own. Add sprouts to salad. Very good for you.
Archaeologists have found that humans got fat and developed new diseases and tooth decay after the development of agriculture. I don't know how dairy products figure into the whole thing. Are they considered Paleo? They're definitely pre-agriculture.
Paleo does not include dairy products. It's basically meat/fish/eggs, nuts, nonstarchy veggies and non-high glycemic fruits and healthy fats like olive oil. The meat and eggs ideally are grass-fed only. Tubers and legumes are out because they require cooking and according to the books, cavemen didn't cook so much. I don't know that I believe that. But it is true that they are toxic if they aren't cooked (legumes and tubers) at least to some degree.
Cavemen did cook by putting fire-heated rocks into tightly-woven baskets of water to cause the water to boil. But whether or not they kept water boiling long enough to cook legumes (did they figure out it takes less time if you pre-soak them?) isn't known, I don't think.
So, too much insulin in the system causes inflammation? Good to know.
It doesn't help that the govt recommends so many carbs for a person to eat. Really, few people need more than about 100 grams of carbs a day. Most people eat closer to 300. More protein, fewer carbs would be better for most people. Obviously, elite athletes, growing teenagers and some others are a bit different, but for the average person that's a better way to go.
That's interesting about the Egyptian's showing carb-related disease. I had not seen that. They have a purpose for sure, but we eat far too many of them, and almost all entirely processed carbs. Pasta is one of the worst. Most people I know eat pasta at least once a week, often far more often. A serving of white pasta is 42 grams of carbs. A serving is a half a cup. Most people eat more like 2-3 cups. You can easily get an entire day of carbs in one pasta meal.
It's interesting, when you give up processed carbs and sugar, and then eat it again after a long period, it'll make you sick. Just like if you stop eating meat and then start again, it makes a lot of people sick. But with sugar, it's more because concentrated doses of it are basically toxic to our systems.
Because the food pyramid was, and continues to be, based on "recommendations" by the very food industries (later turned big-money lobbyists) who were pushing their particular food source.
And no disrespect to "trained nutritionists" but it is the rare certified nutritionist who thinks outside the government/corporate-sponsored box and doesn't just parrot the information fed to us that is still based on the 'food pyramid'....
"Good Nutrition" is best classified by medical people and scientists who study the body and how it processes food and works over-all; not nutritionists trained to assign merits (and demerits) to "diet plans"
Generally, doctors are given a shamefully weak education in nutrition (if any education at all!) and most know even less than the average lay person who's been dieting for years - and intensively researching every new fad diet program as it comes along.
Generally doctors know what they know about diet and nutrition from exactly the same sources as you and I do. Only the ones who specialize in medical fields which are heavily dependent on nutrition and food values (for good or bad effects on illnesses and conditions) really "know" about nutrition and what constitutes a "healthy, balanced diet". Those doctors who specialize, and scientists who study nutrition and the effects of foods on the body is what I meant. I should have clarified it a little better....
But I'd like to add that doctors, generally speaking, are slowly- very slowly- coming to realize how lacking they are in the field of nutrition and are educating themselves. At least that's something. Better than it was a short 15-20 yrs ago.
When you talk low-carb, it totally depends on how many carbs, the person and their lifestyle and *what kind* of carbs. Almost all Americans would benefit from a lower carb diet because of the types of carbs they eat. Now, the diets that advocate for like 30 grams of carbs a day and make up the rest in proteins and lesser so in fat, I don't personally agree with. Just because processing that amount of protein is hard on the kidneys and running the body on ketosis is pretty stressful for many people. it's not something that should just be done willy-nilly. Now lowER carb, yes. Almost everyone in the western world could benefit from that. For most people even a change from the 250-300 grams a day they eat on average down to 100 grams would be a huge change, and contribute a lot to their general health levels.
We're used to eating lower carbs because we have a diabetic child. When he was diagnosed we had no choice but to change the entire family's eating habits and it was for the better for all of us. It was a crabby few weeks in the house though, LOL. Because we have to track everything he eats in terms of carbs, we know by memory how many carbs are in most foods, and man, when I see people sit down to eat at Olive Garden and other places, it's just literally sickening how many carbs they are eating.
Breakfast:Package of poptarts: 74 grams of carbs
Mid morning snack: Can of pop (due to blood sugar crash from poptarts) 34 grams
Lunch: Subway. Foot long melt, sandwich only. 94 grams of carbs (not including any ranch or dressing)
Mid day: Another can of pop. 34 more grams.
Dinner: Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and an iceberg lettuce salad: appx 120 grams of carbs
Snacks: a Whiskey diet coke and some chips: about 50 grams of carbs.
Total day carbs: 406. That's horrific. Yet very common. And we wonder why we're so unhealthy. You can substitute the poptarts for 2 packages of oatmeal or 2 big bowls of cereal and get about the same amount.
I got more kicking and screaming out of my husband when his fries were replaced with asparagus than from the kids. But he feels a million times better now. I think more people here care more about their health than the typical person. But track your typical day for a day or 2. Be honest. Track everything, including condiments. It adds up really fast. The sugar is everywhere, and your body treats all carbs as sugar. Just some are better (true whole grains, not just caramel dyed bread) because they absorb slower than others.
Actually, the one and only diet that ever (yes, that's EVER) worked for me and resulted in losing about 28 lbs in 6 weeks or so, was the Atkin's low-carb diet. LOW-carb, not NO-carb.
The first 2-3 weeks are really rough, when you cut your 'normal' carb consumption down to less than 30 grams per day. Because like @karasti says, "normally" we all eat WAY too many carbs!
If I recall correctly, once you are in the maintenance phase you are eating about 90-100 grams of carbs per day. Not too drastic, right?