The new Paleo/Primal thread - please reintroduce yourself, newcomers welcome!

[misscph1973]

Wow, we got to 1000 messages!

Welcome back from the previous thread and welcome to all new!

I have been Paleo since September last year, I started as an ex-vegetarian/vegan, I wanted to give up gluten and I had been doing 5:2/IF, which lead me to Paleo/primal. I am 40, I have 2 kids age 8 and 6. I have no major health issues, but I would like it to stay that way. I have bad skin, which has improved since starting Paleo and my dandruff has disappeared. I have gained some weight since starting Paleo, but I was not overweight before, although I would like to get back on my pre Paleo weight - I just love Paleo mayonnaise too much ;) I still practice IF and I lift weights 2-3 times per week. My family is also Paleo.

I have just come back from a camping weekend where I was not strict Paleo as I was camping with other families and I just didn't want to spend my entire weekend telling my kids "no, you cant have it". I do think that Paleo camping is entirely possible, think tinned fish, nuts, sausages, eggs etc.

Yes, big history of disordered eating. I find on days when I exercise I might eat 2200 but that's ok
(My base metabolic rate is about 1800 anyway)

Thank you Giraffeeatspineapple.
I am v pleased with the weight loss, since its been over a long time (2+) years with many ups and downs I sometimes forget how far I have come!

Rawcoconutmacaroon - good tip with the fat- I often forget to add fat to my lunch and maybe thus would help my intense late afternoon cravings (normally coinciding with kids coming home!)

Just wondering on a paleo/primal front, has anyone changed skin care/cleaning products as part of the lifestyle- just curious but maybe the wrong thread for this?!

:)

I have started getting "green people" organic shampoo, moisture lotion, suncream (off amazon as shops are rubbish here). The shampoo is very expensive (about £9), but lasts ages as only about 5ml needed even for longish hair. It has made a HUGE difference to my scalp... Not dry, itchy, spotty now and hair seems thicker. Not sure if that is because of what's in this product, or because it's not full of nasty stuff like "normal" shampoo, but I'm a convert to their product now...

Is everyone watching horizon this eve with the two dishy twin doctors - fat vs sugar. From what i read in the daily mail its going to be dissapointing but there might be some new bits of research included? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h

Goodasitgets how are you doing with it all? I found doing strict paleo meant I didn't need to calorie count but hard to maintain. Think its good monitoring things on mfp I think I need to start that again. Not sure if I will count carbs or cals though . Prob carbs actually.

kate keeping it off is half the battle so even more well done

Skincare - I am not great at skincare tbh. Go from one extreme to the other. I also like Green peoples stuff, their deo, fake tan and suncreams. I also really like daniel galvin junior organic shampoo the lavender dry hair one. Thing is I like it because my hair stays clean longer with it so not sure how good it is for actual dry hair. keep meaning to try oil cleansing method - lots of people on here do it i think.

Oooo, l will be watching that now I know it's on, sounds interesting...

I'm doing ok. Cheat meal was tonight, I have one meal a week where I eat what I want (keeps me on track)
Eating disorder is much improving

That's really good news goodasitgets!

So I was a little surprised by the programme, sugar in itself is ok?

But the slimmer doctor went on the sugar diet, their bodies and insulin responses might already have been affected by their diets in the years leading up to the extreme diet?

Was shouting at the TV quite a lot! Where do I start... Both diets were too extreme. They didn't give numbers for the cholesterol tests, noticeably they didn't say how much visceral fat the carb diet guy gained (because he MUST have gained visceral fat on that), no proper insight into the metabolism of sugar (especially fructose) in the body and it's effect on the metabolism... The increased insulin production on the sugar diet was NOT a good thing, it is effectively the first step to metabolic disease and diabetes (his body in the short term can cope with the huge sugar load by massively increasing insulin production but over time insulin resistance will develop). The insulin clears the sugar out of the blood and into the liver (no liver enzyme tests were done, not that I saw but they would have showed his liver was under stress and going "fatty"... Fatty liver caused but excess fructose).
Extreme ketogenic diets are known to lower insulin sensitivity in the short term because you are producing very little insulin... If you then have a huge dose of sugar, your blood sugar will of course spike higher than the person who is producing high amounts of insulin... Their metabolism has adapted to the two diets and the conclusion drawn was incomplete (and therefore giving the impression that low carb intake is bad for blood sugar control!).
Otoh, bike test for fat verses sugar, while accurate was also misleading ... It takes a lot longer to metabolise fat into blood sugar, than it does to get a glucose/fructose solution into the bloodstream. If they had fed the "fat" twin butter 20 min before the other one had the sugar gel, the result would not have been the same.

Disappointing, the "shocking" or "surprising" result was that fat/sugar combos are more palatable than either very high sugar or very high fat foods... Not new news, or in any way surprising!!!

Oh well...

And sugar docs skin was awful by the end!

Thank you Raw! That all makes so much sense. It was flawed scientifically as an experiment and there were some vague statements where I suspect the fat diet might have fared better even if only slightly better. I kind of knew the sugar fat combo thing but is was good to have it spelt out.

Oh yes! Much easier to eat a bag of doughnuts than the same calories in loaf of bread or a pile of steak...

The point I took away from the programme was the no brainer "processed food is bad for you". Even the 'high fat chap' was eating junk!!! Cheese burger, turkey roll, ham, processed cheese...
I would have preferred to see both diets to as natural as possible and of course some more rigour ;-)

Re skin/hair.
Tightlycurly.com has an A-Z list of ingredients in shampoos and conditioners rated as good or bad.

Akomaskincare has a huge range of natural products.

Yes Favadi, both diets were far too extreme, so the carb doc was getting virtually no protein or natural fats for an entire month, and fat doc was getting virtually no fibre or carb (ok you don't actually need ANY carbs in the diet as you can make your own but of course berries, veggies are full of nutrients important for health.

"Eat real food" is what I hope people take away from the program but I suspect a lot of people will think "ah, so sugar doesn't damage your metabolism, fat does", based on the misrepresentation (or lack of understanding) about what the glucose tolerance test at the end of the diet actually meant.

Actually thats true people will prob now think sugar is ok without fat and start mainlining sherbert dibdabs and coca cola well done bbc ;)

We might have been a bit harsh on the Beeb. ..
I'm sure it is only looking after our interest: can you imagine how much it would cost the nation to redesign and reprint all the food pyramids? !!

Sigh! On another thread (in general chat, how to lower blood sugar naturally), Someone was making exactly that point in response to numerous posters saying "eat fewer carbs" was a comment saying but the horizon thing showed that low carb actually made your blood sugar go up.

hi all, can I join? I started cutting carbs in April 2012 after baby no 2 and I've bought loads of wonderful paleo cook books in the last 6 months and I have rediscovered a joy in cooking that I had back in my teens (before adopting the frankly disgusting low fat bollocks being touted in the mid 80s.) So after 25 years of tasteless food I am back in love with food and cooking and eating and loving it! It would be good to share recipes and tips - I was veggie for 16 years then mainly veggie for another 10 because I didn't know how to cook meat but now I am on a journey of discovery. Latest wonderful meals include - devilled kidneys (yum!) and marrow (NOT the vegetable!).

I am 43 with 2 dc aged 2 and 5, dp cares for them and I am starting a new job this morning!! I'm a bit nervous but excited.

one thing I would love to achieve is for my children to eat more like me and dp but atm they eat school meals (cheap carbs) and love cereal, sausage rolls and pasta and sweets. Any tips on switching over gradually gratefully received. How did you do it?

ps John Briffa did a really good analysis of the beeb travesty prog on fat v sugar here

Hello Mary! Good luck with the new job, and thanks for the Briffa link, off to look at that now !

Interesting article Mary, well worth the reading.

Kids and low carb or Paleo... Paleo is low carb by comparison to the very high carb diet that's pushed at us (ie about 60% of our diet "should" be carb if you include the recommendation for fruit and veg (which are carbs of course), breads, cereals, pasta etc), but it needed be particularly low carb if you are slim/very active/young and growing.

I just try to feed the kids (we have 4 from 3yo to teen) the same as us adults but with more carbs (white rice, or more sweet potato or baby white potato). More fruit than us adults too. And chocolate (shock horror), in moderation - I'd rather they choose a bar of (dark) chocolate than a muffin or similar grain based snack, as teens the older ones do have free choices outside the home.

Mostly what we eat would be described as "normal"... Roast chicken and veg, meatloaf and salad, homemade soup, and so on. But served with lower carb veg and/or salad leaves instead of pasta, chips etc, gravy is the meat juices reduced down and cream added (very rich, only a spoonful needed). I make low(er) carb grain free brownies or muffins about once a week.

When DC4 starts school, he'll be getting packed lunch or coming home for lunch. I'm not saying he never has gluten or grains or a glass of fizzy drink, but it's not part of his everyday diet and we want it to stay that way!

Oh wow mary lots going on for you! Hope new job is off to a good start.
Which paelo books have you found most useful?

Personally I find cutting gluten fairly easy now but dairy hard which is a surprise to me. I tried and failed to switch my family to gluten free last summer but I am hoping to improve their diet this year by stealth and work on adding good stuff in...fingers crossed. I was worried about my skinny 8 year old son last year but he has really improved with the amount of dinner he will eat recently and will eat a bit more meat now and loves nuts and veg - still skinny but looks healthy. I have a 6 yo and 3 yo aswell and my 3 yo in particular def needs steering towards eating more wholesome meat and veg. gah.

Hello Mary,
I found involving my children in preparing, cooking and growing food was the easiest way to get them to eat like us. I've always cooked from scratch even before turning paleo. Watching the children eat and been proud of they've made grown it's lovely.

Dd continues to cook from scratch but not entirely paleo due to being on a student's budget.

Ds never gets tired of making (and then eating!) bacon and sausages. This weekend we have even attempted to make cured ham...I will post recipe if it works.

Today we made beef sausages (recipe can be used for burgers):

Ingredients

500g Beef (minced)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 of nutmeg grated
3 medium dry bay leaves (crushed)
1 large garlic clove (grated)
1/2 medium onion (grated)
2 1/2 tbs of wine

Preparation

Mix all together in a bowl; put the mixture in the sausage stuffing machine...it will yield 14-16 thin (20-24mm), ~10 medium (28-30mm) sausages in just a few minutes.

My sausage stuffing machine is a manual one that cost only £20, so easy to clean, easy to use, easy to store!

Ps I am now really confident in making bacon at home: has anyone else here carried on?

Favadi that sounds lovely cooking and growing food with your children :) sausage machine sounds fab!

Made a nice green smoothie for lunch - 2 frozen spinach cubes, 1 stick celery, handful of kale, half an iceberg lettuce, small pear, handful of grapes, teaspoon ginger, small teaspoon spirulina. It was really refreshing but I somehow ended up eating 6 squares of chocolate at 4.00 .

Making venison meatballs now, not sure how well they will go down.