Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

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

I agree with Favadi's post above about "little treats" and all that awful non feminist language around what women should and should not eat and the way they seem to get into cycles of starvation, deprivation and then over indulgence - that they are controlled by their diet, rather than simply eating for health and life because they like the good food they choose to eat.

I don't like alcohol. I used to drink a bit but I never liked it so am happy now that I am over 40 and socially there is no pressure never to drink it. It's not something I need or like. I have never drank milk actually. I do think time in the sun with not much on for 20 minutes a day when you get the chance is really good for you without sun cream for Vit D etc. I do not mean 2 hours sun burning your skin of course.

My alcohol intake is high - I love a glass of wine, we have 2 nights off a week. We've done dry January for 10 years now and it's fine, very doable but oh the joy of that glass of wine when we're done. I'll never be so Paleo that I'll give alcohol the elbow. No lectures please about evils of alcohol - the pleasure is worth the risk for me!

Last night I was feeling rough - hayfever has been tough so we ordered a takeaway - I had salt and pepper, chilli ribs with braised veg, not a bad choice.

No breakfast this morning and lunch was smoked chicken breast with Paleo slaw. Very filling, the chicken was tasty but I think it was missing some chipotle! Dinner will be salmon and asparagus, might make a hollandaise sauce too. Dd will have Jersey royals with her's. No doubt a glass of wine will find it's way into my hand.

Is there a website or book I should be reading?

How to you make your hollandaise? We've salmon tonight too.

I wouldn't worry too much about melon, but perhaps you could have quarter of a melon next time ;)

Rhubarb, yum! I make a lovely rhubarb crumble with almond flour based on Mrs Beetons apple crumble, very plain. Zapp rhubarb chunks with a table spoon sugar in microwave, only just to get it sligthly softened. Make a crumble of roughly 50 g butter, 50 g sugar and 120 g almonds and sprinkle on top, bake at 175 celcius untill golden - careful, it burns quickly! Serve with full fat creme fraiche.

eliza' there are tons of blogs but for a good start I'd recommend The Primal Blueprint (book) or website - it's what got me transitioning from just low-carb eating to thinking about my whole lifestyle...

Oh, and booze is my downfall (not literally though thankfully!). I do drink more than is 'paleo', definitely . But it's almost always red wine so that's nearly healthy, right?! Or an icy-cold g&t with loads of lemon...mmmmmmm.

tea at your post of 11.43. I always want to slap people who talk about food being good or naughty etc. Men have started doing it now as well. Drives me nuts.

Maybe I'm a nasty parent, but I never feel like I'm depriving DD by not letting her have cakes and ice cream. We don't have any puddings anyway, but she is allowed a sweet if she finishes her meal and stacks the dishwasher. I beleive I'm a better parent by making sure she eats a wide variety of veg and has good quality meat, fish and dairy.

I just don't believe she is deprived by not having grains and processed carbs. Anyway she has school dinners and goes to her Disney Dad every other weekend where it's carbs all the way. He's a cyclist and is of the carbs equal fuel school. She comes back ravenous!

Everyone needs to make their own choices. I would never use sugar as a reward for children, though.

karbea it's years since I've made hollandaise - I intend to google for a recipe.....we don't eat till late, might have given up by then.

Well done, Queen, shame your DD's dad ruins it ;) In our family we all get really hungry if we have too many carbs.

I had a lovely big sirloin steak for dinner, so big I couldn't finish it ;) Will probably have the rest for breakfast. I ended up not cooking any treats as kids brought home sweets from birthday kid in school and then the quota was kind of overfull.

Have a lovely weekend all, I am sending supportive thoughts to anyone who needs it in the fight against sugar ;)

Re Calcium and dairy.

I do eat some cream butter and some cheese, no milk tho'.

There are lots of points to consider when choosing to eat dairy or not. Firstly, after you remove it from your diet completely, for a couple of months, how do you feel if you eat it? It is actually normal to be lactose intolerant to some extent, milk is for babies, it is not for adults!
Some people can drink quite a lot of milk with no digestive upset, others only small amounts. Cream, cheese and butter may be ok for most people, but the whole calcium thing is bollocks- nobody needs to eat dairy foods "for the calcium". Actually high dairy diets in adults are associated with losing bone density!

Veg, leaves and meat all have calcium, meat, fish, eggs, seeds, nuts have magnesium, vit D and other things needed for building strong bone - calcium is almost never the limiting factor in bone building.

Otoh, eating grains (which have a high phytic acid content), strips minerals out of the diet (the phytic acid needs to be processed by the liver to get it out of the body as it is toxic), and in particular magnesium - the body will even break down existing bone to help process the phytic acid, leading to thinner weaker bones. This effect is seen in societies with the highest consumption of grain foods... White rice although it is a grain, is less of a problem, interestingly in societies which traditionally eat white rice that have recently moved to a diet based on wheat and other grains, bone strength drops, osteoporosis increases, teeth are weaker.

Interesting stuff, given the official dietary advice obsession with eating 50-60% "healthy whole grains" and lots of (fat free) dairy.

If you ditch grains, that's good news for your bones and teeth!

If you drink milk- be aware that its strange stuff- it has a big effect on blood sugar, much more than you'd think from looking at the carb content. Also, it is full of growth hormones( natural ones in the UK but injected artificial ones in many other countries), these hormones may cause cancers. Possibly a lot of these issues are due to pasteurisation and especially the UHT process which may make milk a lot less healthy- but good luck trying to find real raw milk to buy- I would be tempted to use some if I could find any locally.
But... It is infant food, and we don't NEED to eat dairy at all.

What do people use to reward children if not sugar? I am a smart lady, well qualified etc, but I just struggled so so much with parenting that I fell into very bad habits. Plus my son likely has ASD and praise is pretty meaningless to him, really...so I have had to incentivise with things that actually motivate. And sugar is one.
Thankfully plastic tat does not motivate him. . Money does, though..hmmmm

They use golden time in school, don't they... and we have 'special time' at home where the kids get one-to-one time and get to run the show for a defined period. Hmmm...ideas....

Building- the spectrum thing does make a difference, they tend not to be motivated by quite the same things as most young people. My dc3 (Aspergers), is a teen now, and has only become interested in money in quite recently, and a few pence for chores and homework is working well. Also motivated by computer time, trips to cinema, comic books.

Food- well its kind of difficult because I think it should be a pleasure and a reward or treat sometimes but we usual offer the dc who deserves a reward a "special dinner" (the older 2 will choose curry every time, dc3 is steak, steak steak!). We would finish a celebration meal with dark chocolate or another lower carb treat. It's more of a family event iykwim.

I have bought some Lindt 90% chocolate today because it was on offer - 2 bars for £3.

30g of 85% chocolate slid down far too easily last night. On a sort of plus side I felt quite sick after and knew I had overdone it. Before I would have still been craving the rest of the bar after 30g!!

I tend not to reward my dcs much - they get spontaneous treats but it's deliberately not consistent - I don't want them to only do stuff because of an external motivation I want them to feel the satisfaction of internal motivation - of pride in a job well done and have that be enough. When they do something - spontaneous effort for no reward or incentive or expectation I'm more inclined to reward....they get extra pocket money, extra time with me or dh, extra screen time and sometimes they get a sugary treat. I don't reward them for doing their chores - they are expected to contribute to the household. I don't give them food to cheer them up either but we celebrate events with food - we are a very food orientated family - eating and drinking are at the core of our lives - we want food to be a pleasure - for us it's not just fuel!

nappy wait 'til you have the 99% stuff(imported), the Lindt's one is pure heaven! I draw the line at the 100% raw nibs!

I totally get the internal/external rewards thing - dc3 tho, is different, in a way it's been about using external motivations to just kick start the whole idea of "why should I do stuff?". He doesn't really GET the social cooperation thing yet but a few pence motivates him well- eventually he'll just do it because he should, I hope!

Oh yes favio, Lindt 99% is lovely. Been trying a raw 100% choc called pacari, finding it hard to get round the bitterness and yet I keep going back to it for a tiny nibble! It takes about 30min to nibble a single square!

Exotic fruits can be a treat. Just imagine the inner lure and beauty of a dragon fruit! Papa-yah! Mowgly ate prickly pears...Ds kept collecting Lilac's flowers whilst waiting for his guitar lesson, yesterday.

I had a long conversation today with my aunt (74yrs by birth; mental age: mid twenties;body is starting to say ouch!) about the way we used to eat. Her fondest memories are potatoes cooked in lard (goose lard for special occasions) and deep fried borage leaves! I love learning from my 'elders'!

Exactly, RawC! Am I worthy of my name?!

Whoops and I got your name wrong!

No problem! the real one is harder!

Just realised . My name 'worthiness' comment was about not really liking 100% raw nibs, not a slight mis-spelling of my name.