Paleo and primal

[Daughteroughter]

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

[misscph1973]

Hi PinkCustard, welcome! Best of luck with going Paleo, I'm sure you will love it. I have not read Primal Body: Primal Mind, but I can recommend www.marksdailyapple.com and the Primal Blueprint, which I read when I just started.

I have tried Eversfield as well, tasty meat, especially their glutenfree sausages were fab, my DH was not impressed by their butchery, none of the steaks were in one piece ;) So we didn't reorder.

My best advice is to go slow, one thing at a time. First ditch pasta, then bread, one thing per month max. Or your family might freak out ;) Also there is no need to throw everything in your cupboard out, just eat the non-paleo things up and don't replace them.

[GiraffesEatPineapples]

Hi pinkcustard :) I am pretty new to this too, I have been amazed how quicly some of my cravings have dissapeared.

Misscph lol hope your dh isn't too cranky for long, its probably harder for you than him that he is giving up coffee!

[PinkCustard]

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I think taking it slowly is the key.

Apologies if it's been covered further up thread, but where can I buy coconut oil from?

[snoworneahva]

Welcome pinkcustard. I agree, taking it slowly helps you adapt to eating like this. It takes a while to get used to it but there are so many online recipes resources, you'll never be bored of the food.
Coconut oil an be bought from an Asian Grocer or a Health Food Shop or online - think the Asian shops are the cheapest though.

Made gingerbread muffins from the new cookbook from Health Bent, I added crystallised ginger - they got the thumbs up from ginger loving dd, I stayed away from them one bite and I may just finish off the whole batch.

[PinkCustard]

Thanks snow.

I'd really recommend that book I mentioned, it gives a very convincing explanation about the harm that our regular carb-heavy diet does to us.

I've looked at Mark's Daily Apple before but only for information on Intermittent Fasting, which I've been interested in for a while and am currently doing 16:8. This then lead me on to look further into the Primal lifestyle in more detail. So I'll go back and have another look at his website from this perspective.

Glad the Eversfield sausages are good as I've ordered those, along with gluten-free burgers, chicken fillets, mince, and even some venison (although will need to look up a recipe as I've never cooked it before!). Didn't order steak, so that's good.

Thanks for all the advice, am off to the shops later to get some basics in so I can ease myself in..!!

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Just to disagree for a moment with snow and miss , for a lot of people, gradual change wrt cutting down carbs may make things more difficult, particularly if you have any degree of impaired glucose tolerance (almost certain if you are overweight), as it prolongs normalisation of blood sugar/insulin response.
So if you are feeling like gradual change is not working for you, don't give up, change tactics! The "cold turkey" approach may be better. I really had to do it that way!

For gradual reduction of carbs, I'd recommend as a first step, for moving ALL gluten containing grains, foods, sauces, snacks (and that means a lot of label reading!), as there are particular problems with gluten and the lectins which are found in the same foods- they increase appetite and have addictive properties so are not great for those of us trying to curb appetite!

You have mentioned Marks daily apple, there is info about all these things on that blog, it's very good. Other interesting blogs include Robb wolf (paleo solution) blog, and dietdoctor (Swedish lchf blog).

Your family probably won't even notice if you initially ditch all the pasta/bread and feed them other carbs such as white rice, rice noodles, sweet potato, potato (skin removed, or baby new ones with skin on), as meals with those things will be "normal" to them anyway, most likely .

[Karbea]

Hello,

Can I join you guys? DH and I were paleo for about 6 weeks earlier in the year and felt amazing doing it, but we've really slipped and are now back eating rubbish, and I'm feeling rubbish!

I love the fact you guys are trying different things, I'm so up for doing that too!

I need to work out what to make for dinner and lunch any good suggestions?

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Coconut oil- as with olive oil or avacado oil, it best to have raw, cold pressed - made without heat or chemicals. For a long time I could only get raw cold pressed coconut oil from online grocery shop (but I live in rural Scotland), and the nearest Chinese supermarket stocks only processed coconut oil. Now however, Tesco in the nearest town stocks it in their speciality oil section, £6 for a fairly small jar tho!

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

What do you have in the fridge Karbea? Or are you going shopping?

[Xenia]

On timing I think one good method is to move to 3 meals a day and no snacks (i.e. normal eating) before making sure they are paleo. Once you have the hang of the 3 meals, then make them healthy/paleo

[Karbea]

Hi raw, yes I can go shopping, I've been sick the last couple of days so DH has been shopping, there's nothing worth eating in fridge or cupboards! Even the veg and salad he got was pre washed, Pre buttered/herbed etc.

[PinkCustard]

I've just ordered some organic, raw, cold pressed coconut oil from Amazon, and one of the reviews mentioned it's cheaper than Tesco's - it was £14.89 for 800g so not sure how that compares? Will see what's it like. I'll definitely have to use it now though after spending that much on it!

RCM thanks for your suggestion - I don't actually need to lose weight, but my diet is very reliant on sugar so I may be best with the cold turkey approach in order to stop cravings. I'll initially attempt no grains, sugar, alcohol and see how that goes. Will continue with fruit though.

Hello Karbea. What made you stop eating Paleo? Hopefully it'll be an easier transition for you as you've done it before.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Dinner/lunch idea

Stir fry chicken strips with a few bits bacon, mushroom and some asparagus (or another veg of your choice!) and a handful of what ever herbs you fancy. I often do this or a variation for lunch.

[snoworneahva]

Karbea what kind of food do you like? Have you had a look at some of the fantastic Paleo Food Blogs - I get loads of ideas from them. Tonight I'm having pork tenderloin marinaded in garlic and balsamic with roasted squash with sage and steamed Savoy cabbage, will do some Jersey Royals for the kids.

[misscph1973]

I just made a great lunch based on an idea for sausage meat hash here, can't remember who?

Minced beef, chopped onion, garlic, turmeric, bay leaves, left over roasted sweet potato/butternut squash all fried up and it was to die for! So simple, and endless variations possible of course.

DH is much better to day, thank God! He survived not having pan cakes with the rest of the family this morning (we always have paleo pancakes on a Wednesday morning) and he didn't even bitch about my coffee, he just drank his peppermint tea, poor thing. His caffeine headache is lessening and he feels calmer and on the way to adjusting. I have been supernice and "over serviced" him and I am sure that helped.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Arf at over servicing your dh! .

The original (slow cooker) jalapeño sausage hash is from Chrissy Gower paleo slow cooker cook book- we use endless variations of it too. The book is great for anyone thinking of getting a slow cooker, we have liked everything we've cooked from it so far.

[misscph1973]

Oh, yes, that's right, raw, now I remember, thanks!

As I mentioned earlier I am going camping with just the kids in the weekend, and they are so cute, they have without prompting come up with lots of ideas for food to bring that is Paleo ;) I am very proud of them although I do already fear the pull of various non-Paleo food that they will probably be offered by their friends (we are about 10 families going camping together). I am planning to take it easy and not spend the entire weekend obsessing over a few non-Paleo bites - they have no allergies, it's not going to harm them (much).

[Karbea]

I made this, it wasn't very nice.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

You are right- as with all things, you can only pint kids in the direction you want them to go, at some point they have to make the choice.
Out toddler, eats what he's given, the teens eat mostly gluten/grain free but the 16 yo does on occasion walk to the village to buy a baguette - 3miles! Funny though the last time he did it he had half of it and let the rest to go stale- I think he's realised it's not actually that great! Even the toddler will have the occasional wheat thing at other people's houses, that's fine I guess as long as its not a frequent thing.
I'm hoping very little grain food (certainly compared with SAD diet) will mean not developing autoimmune issues like me and other family members as often these things take years, decades to develop.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Karbea mmmm it does look a little sad! Me, I would have stuffed that filling into a spilt open chicken breast, along with a date, then closed it by wrapping a couple of rashers of streaky bacon round it, and shoved it in the oven for 20 mins- much tastier! .

[snoworneahva]

What was wrong with it Karbea? Was it a bit overpowering? There's lots of competing flavours - might have been better just dropping with the pesto or the bacon. I had meatloaf last night for the first time, it was so good.

[misscph1973]

I have been thinking a bit about some of the "no-nos" on Paleo, these in particular:

• Rape seed oil - I think that British cold pressed rapeseed oil must be okay - seems that the American canola oil is very different. For me the most important thing in Paleo was always to be grain free and use the right oils and fats like olive oil and butter. It makes sense to avoid margarine and blended vegetable oils.
  
  *Sweet corn - fresh corn on the cob must be good! The American fear of corn must be fear of corn products like corn syrup etc
  
  
• Green beans - fresh green beans should also be okay. The problem with beans is dried beans (as in kidney beans)
  
  Any thoughts?

[snoworneahva]

I thought green beans were ok because there is so little bean - most of what you eat is the pod. No idea about rape seed oil - I thought the unlined stuff was unstable and therefore could not be used for cooking, without breaking down into harmful compounds therefore it can only be used cold - I prefer the taste of extra virgin olive oil for salads etc.
On the sweetcorn thing I have no idea - we don't eat corn except when in season, and a few cobs a year aren't going to worry me.

Other thing is the obsession with "grass fed" cows - how common is it in the UK for cows to be fed a diet that isn't mainly grass - are they intensively farming cows in America? Isn't all uk organic life stock grass fed by requirement?

[GiraffesEatPineapples]

I am quite confused about which green beans etc are ok too - some things like sugar snap peas can be plucked from a bush and eaten raw so surely they must be ok. I agree about corn, app there are problems with corn allergies in america because so much processed corn is eaten but thats not the same as an occasional corn on the cob (I actually don't like sweetcorn cotc anyway though...) . Had frozen pollock , frozen grean beans and sweet potato with garlic cooked in butter mashed through - this was a convenience after dinner, I haven't planned dinner dinner, but yum.

Have a rash on my legs and sides of my feet, going to GP tomorrow but have cut out eggs and nuts for now just in case I have been overdoing them and its related.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Grass fed - in the uk, especially Scotland a Wales, many animals are grass fed for much of the year however feeding them grains and soya to "finish" them before slaughter even for a few weeks greatly reduces the omega 3 content of the meat, and increases the omega 6 (that's bad).

Rapeseed oil, even cold pressed is high omega6. That's one of the big problem with most commercial seed oils.

Immature bean pods which taste sweet are probably ok, older more bitter pods and beans are not (the bitter taste is the natural toxins the plant uses to protect its seeds). I will happily eat fine runner beans (tasty and sweet raw) but not the great big broad bean pods, which I find really quite bitter raw, and only a little less so when they are cooked.

Corn derivatives like high fructose corn syrup are very poor food choices yes, but I'd say the mature whole cob was too. The baby corn are probably fine unless you react to corn. I react to corn/maize in a similar way to wheat... But it takes a larger amount (a single small bite with wheat, a small portion size with corn/maize), so I stay away from even the baby corn.