Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

I have been reading about paleo and primal diets has anyone tried them?

I too get awful stomach pains when I eat gluten - I was so bloated and uncomfortable, I worried about Ovarian Cancer - I was tested for that and gluten intolerance among other things and everything came back negative, but as soon as I dropped the gluten my symptoms cleared up, I'm not sure what that means from a medical diagnosis but it has made me avoid gluen with more vigor than before.

Coconut flour is defatted - they it may be the by product of oil extraction. Grinding down dried coconut doesn't give you the flour most recipes recommend so you can end up with an oily mess. Coconut flour is pricy but you don't use very much in a recipe, mostly a couple of tablespoons - it absorbs huge amounts of liquid, so it lasts for ages.

Thanks for the aubergine recipe idea misscp we're having that tonight with a lamb chop and some cauliflower rice.

Struggling a bit with sugar cravings this aft, despite having just polished off a punnet of blueberries. I've eaten a lot today too- poached egg on spinach, banana and half a large avocado for breakfast. Blueberries and a couple of cashews for morning snack. 3 egg muffins (with bacon, courgette, pepper and onion in), some olives, salad, blueberries and grapes for lunch. Well I am eating for 2 I suppose. Not sure I'm gonna make it til tea without another snack. Feeling very virtuous though!

marzipan - bear in mind that bananas, blueberries and grapes all in one day might not be helping with the sugar cravings!

That Auvergne recipe looks fantastic. Think I will try it tonight with our beef casserole.

Had a non paleo day yesterday as it was a family get together with lots of cake and other sugar based stuff. Back on track today though and not feeling too dreadful - I don't tend to get stomach pain with grains but I do get really tired and struggle to get up in the morning.

Been for a run to get my sunshine fix and need to look at getting some barefoot running shoes. Anyone got any recommendations?

My favourite breakfast is probably scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. V posh but v nice too!

My favourite breakfast is a bit of a leftovers dish - fried onion, chili, garlic, mushrooms, tomato, maybe some shredded cabbage and sausage or bacon or chicken - actually whatever veg/meat needs using up and chilli sauce with an egg cracked over the top...and if I'm in the mood and there's some in the fridge, maybe some hard cheese melted over the top.

I found the original Aubergine recipe, Madhur Jaffrey uses more curry leaves which is always a good thing IMO, used tamarind rather than lime juice as we have citrus allergies ....it's a bit salty and I added too much chilli for dd but she liked the flavour, so I'll definitely make it again but maybe a milder version - could this be the first aubergine recipe that meets her approval? I hope so!

The aubergine curry is lovely! I must admit I only skimmed the link with the recipe, I have her cook book "World Vegetarian" where I found the recipe, so sorry if it is not exactly the same, and I agree, snow, curry leaves are great, and wonderful in this recipe. it can usually take more coconut milk and lime juice than suggested. Sorry to hear that you have citrus allergies, though!

I love smoked salmon, but I don't have it often as wild smoked salmon is too expensive for me and the farmed salmon (think battery salmon) puts me off and has the wrong omega 3 ratio. I sometimes pick up wild salmon fillets cheap in the reduced section, which is lovely. I have tried tinned wild salmon but I did not like all the soft bone, made me worry about how they had become so soft!

I had homed made burgers (minus buns) for dinner, DH has invented cumin burgers, which are so tasty, mix beef mince with egg, beef stock, chopped onion, salt, pepper, cayenne and cumin seeds (about 2 tsp per kg). Roasted butternut squash, blanched broccoli with butter and rocket leaf salad on the side, lovely meal!

I have just had a whole day without any sweets apart from a few pieces of melon, apple and banana after dinner. I am quite proud of myself and I really enjoyed my almonds with my cup of tea. It's hard after a weekend of paleo treats (read: Enough sugar to fuel a toddler's birthday party) and then fasting till lunch today ;) Missed my planned workout, though, too many deadlines a work (although as a freelancer that's a good thing).

I have World vegetarian too but to my shame I have never opened it before today - it was a gifted to me when I had temporarily lost my cooking mojo....really like the idea of a veggie curry served on the side - I love thorans....think I'll plan a cabbage one for later in the week, I'm currently obsessed with all things cabbage!

I'm fasting today too, nearly 24hrs done - eating when dh comes home, which will hopefully be very soon!

Re gluten/wheat and other grains causing digestive problems, as a few of you were discussing this.

Gluten intolerance and coeliac tests- both have significant false negatives. This means even with a negative test, if you have a consistent reaction to gluten, stop eating it! You are either intolerant or have coeliac, or are in the process of developing it!

It is common when you cut it from the diet, to feel better, fitter, have no pain, have lots of health issues disappear- but react much worse to eating occasional amount of grains than before.

The symptoms can include constipation, or the opposite!

The above is all true for me. I have noticed I can't eat maize (corn) for a cheat meal either, although it has no gluten, some of the proteins are similar, and I have read that about 10% of gluten intolorents/coeliacs have issues with gluten free products containing maize.

Also - if having crisps for a cheat, read the label very very carefully, many potato crisps have wheat or barley powder sprayed onto them!!! Recently I had a week of awful joint pain in my hands after eating a small amount of crisps with gluten on them.

Read labels always!!!

Thanks RawCoconut. I only eat Kettle Chips crisps these days as they seem to be the best quality around. I know I shouldn't but sometimes the will is weak ....

I've never had any tests for gluten intolerance etc as I just don't trust GPs, the NHS or their tests. I've had numerous tests for other things and they have been a total waste of time as no one seemed to be interested. The times I've visited a GP re. possible IBS they just tell me to eat more fibre - eating fibre causes me huge problems!!

So for now I struggle on alone, trying to find the right diet that suits me...

snow, well done with fasting! World Vegetarian is by far my favourite cook book ever. It is full of anecdotes, historical facts and buying guides for the meals and food types. And of course the food is amazing, I have used many of the recipes and almost all of them I cook regularly. Check out the green bean and potato curry (you could probably use sweet potato), it is even better than the aubergine curry. The spice mix from the tex mex chili is the best I have ever used and the recipe for harrissa is just amazing. I could go on ...

the best and raw, many people find that it its easier to narrow down food intolerances on paleo, once you are off grains, its just easier to pin point what else might not be so good for you. Have you tried a very strict paleo protocol or are you already doing that?

I started off following the Harcome diet, so cut out everything bar meat and veg and natural live yoghurt for five days initially last June, I felt much better on it (the reason I started was partly losing weight, but partly just feeling tired all the time, no energy, feeling nauseous and ill all the time, even though I barely drank and had stopped smoking years ago). I cut out the natural live yoghurt when I didn't lose weight and then started losing weight and felt better again, so think possible dairy is a problem. These days I eat just meat, veg, fish, eggs, berries and drink water and decaff coffee and fruit teas. I have no sugar or dairy except butter. However, we do keep lapsing (my husband eats this way too as he has a lot of weight to lose) and have weekends where we eat chocolate and crisps, not good, I know. I can't seem to shake the sugar cravings. I try hard now not to have any wheat. The nausea seems to have gone for now and I've had that all my life, as long as I can remember, so that's a start, as I also suffer with emetaphobia!

I'm now adapting the diet a little more towards paleo, including some fruit and nuts too.

Hello,

I found the first 7 weeks relatively easy, but I'm really struggling now.
For snacks I like Tyrells salted popcorn, I think it's Okish apart from the sunflower oil.

Does anyone have a good recipe for pork spare Ribs? I've got them for dinner tonight but no idea what to do with them...

Sugar is just so hard! When the weekend comes, I just want a treat. I am going to try my best to just not have any sugar apart from a few pieces of fruit. I have done it before, it is just habit, but it is so hard as we are surrounded by it. I find it much easier to give up grains!

The theory is that if you get enough fats, your sugar craving should go. I am not sure my body heard that though ;) When I lived in a very rural area with limited shopping, it was much easier, as there were hardly any temptations.

Nuts might be your saviour, I certainly enjoy my almonds.

I find the sugar cravings tough at times too - nuts are a bit of a weakness of mine too. I used to not just have stuff in the house but I want the dcs to have a homemade cake at lunch time and dh likes to have 85% cocoa in the house - he of course can eat only one or two squares without craving more. I've gone cold turkey again - no sweet stuff and no nuts at all for at least 4 weeks - think whole 30 with red wine

Madhur Jaffrey is not a chef I've ever taken to, I have a few of her cookbooks - gifted to me but find them a bit lacking somehow, maybe too simple for me to be convinced the flavour is going to be interesting and multilayered - but I'm going to give her a fair go, I started reading it this morning. My favourite Indian cookbook is called Curried Favours, I've used it for years.

How often do your DCs have cake at lunchtime? Weekends? I am finding it hard with my DCs as they have school meals once a week (just so they don't feel they miss out), but they have pudding with their school meal, something I do know is a cornerstone in British schools, but for me (I am from Denmark) it's just wrong and ruins all my efforts. When in Rome I guess ...

They do have treats, but we try to limit it and they love their fresh and dried fruit, thankfully. A fruit salad and home made coconut kefir is quite the treat in our house ;) Unless of course there is a birthday, then we will have gluten free birthday cake.

I did go through a phase with a lot of "Paleo cakes", I must admit. And they are yummy!

They have cakes everyday - Paleo but cakes nonetheless. All their classmates have lots of processed treats usually at least a chocolate bar and a packet of crisps. I think to hold back on the homemade cake would be going to far - they don't necessarily have it during the weekend but there always seems to be some sugary treat. It was easier when they were younger, fruit - fresh and dried, used to suffice but they are bored with it now and who can blame them, quite a lot of fresh fruit tastes of nothing. I wish they didn't have as much sugar but I feel I am to some extent treading a fine line between encouraging a positive attitude to a healthy diet and full on rebellion - I don't want our diet to be the basis for negativity and bad feeling, it's not that important.
How old are your kids misscp?

Snow, I feel I'm in a similar position. I struggle with my daughter and sweet things too. All her friends have processed rubbish a lot of the time, they all have crisps and chocolate biscuits in their lunchbox, if my daughter has a school dinner all she has is ham and cheese panini (secondary school). I try to limit the rubbish she eats but don't feel I can make her too different to her friends. Instead we try to educate her about sugar and the addiction and how unhealthy it (and other food stuffs) is. I'm looking for a good paleo friendly cake recipe that won't cost me an arm and a leg to shop for but will be healthier and still appeal to her too.

She does like berries and will eat lots of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Our diet at home is healthy most of the time (it's just breakfasts that are difficult, we have cooked breakfast, bacon and eggs, scrambled eggs, etc., but she doesn't like bacon or egg, just sausages, so goes through phases, last week she had natural yoghurt with honey and berries every day, but this week she's preferring (Heinz) tomato soup with bread and butter. Making home made tomato soup probably wouldn't be the same, unless I pureed it down to the same consistency.

I make a batch of Paleo friendly muffins and then freeze them. Must admit I don't think too much about the cost, can't imagine each muffin costs more than a bar of choc though. I take the quality approach, I tried to give my kids the best quality flavoursome home cooked food, so they could tell the difference in quality and find junk food lacking in flavour, it worked to an extent - they won't eat school dinners because the quality and flavour is poor. Their lunchboxes are commented on, sometimes positive, sometimes negative....all dd's friends wish they had homemade cakes though and neither child is fond of sandwiches, which make bread avoidance easy.

This is a brilliant recipe for banana bread, I made muffins with it and I got loads, nearly 20, I reckon they work out around 20p each. It's hard to compete with wheat on price - it's just so cheap.

Unfortunately my daughter doesn't like bananas so no chance of getting away with banana muffins.

What sort of things do you put in their lunchbox?

Nigella Lawson's chcolate cake is really nice:

www.nigella.com/recipes/view/CHOCOLATE-OLIVE-OIL-CAKE-5551

My kids are 6 and 8. They are used to have "strange" food, last year we were vegan ;) They are quite adaptable, I must say, but I think I am quite strict compared to other parents regarding sugar. I do fear that they will rebel, last week I am almost certain that my DD (age 8) took pocket money to school to buy a hot snack in the morning break time (although she denied it)!

My DD is having a bit of a picky phase, she won't eat ham and tinned fish, both of which she loved up untill recently. She loves most things with beef mince, chicken or sausages.

My DS (age 6) is not very picky at all (at the moment). He has just had a very hungry phase where he would eat more than his dad or me, I have never seen anything like it. He loves blanched broccoli with butter!

Their lunch box is difficult. I do worry as they never seem to eat much. They do have big breakfasts, 2-4 rashers of bacon and omelets /scrambles eggs made on 2 eggs. Typically they will have carrots, ham/paté/pepperami/chicken ham/salami, apple/banana and some dried fruit. On a Friday they will have a sesame snap or similar. Often there is one or 2 things that they don't eat, like the banana or the meat. As far as I know, their class mates do not think they have strange lunch boxes.

They always have a cake, currently the choice is gingerbread men, banana and choc chip muffins, lemon cake or choc brownies - they like variety. Today they had fried chicken, carrots and a cake. Tomorrow I have no idea - probably a stew made with chorizo and some tomatoes I need using. They often take in the leftovers from dinner - curries, stews, leftover meat, sausages. Soups are popular - I made sweet potato and coconut last week, meatballs, falafel made with almond flour, fritters and sometimes gluten free pasta with sauce. They get chopped up veg, parma ham, they used to take cheese but they like the smelly stuff and the ither kid's comments made them feel uncomfortable.
They tend to eat a big breakfast and a smallish lunch - they don't have time to eat a lot.
I feel I am strict with their food but I also want them to start making choices. When we started introducing Paleo, dd didn't take it very well, some compromises were needed, but she came around in the end.

This gingerbread was very popular too, my kids love sweet spices.

Sounds good, snow, sounds like a very balanced diet. Kids can manage many more carbs than us. I am glad to hear that it is not only my kids who don't eat much at lunch in school. I try to include fatty, nutrient dense food, paté is perfect (home made with lots of butter and lard), but unfortunately DS doesn't like it cold, but DS will eat it any way it comes.

We are also big fans of leftovers for lunch and breakfast.

Oh dear, I feel like a total failure. I cracked on only day 2 of my whole30. I think maybe it's just too hard when you're pregnant. The sugar cravings were so intense I felt like I might faint, and although it might have been ok to push through, I don't want to do anything that might be risky to the baby. We're planning to carry on eating lots of protein, fat and veg but not to strictly cut anything out (neither of us need to lose weight). For some reason though the thought of eating lots more veg and meat is making me feel nauseous, even though I normally love them. I am a total paleo failure! I also had some very sad news yesterday and realise how much I rely on sugar for comfort :(

oh, marzipan. I'm so sorry.

Pregnancy cravings are just awful. I was out of control. Don't be hard on yourself, and make sure you do get enough good nutrients!