Paleo people - I have some Qs for you.

[JimmyCorkhill]

I have read Gary Taubes 'The Diet Delusion' and spent many an hour reading the success stories on 'Mark's Daily Apple' site. I really like the sound of this way of eating and did give it a sort of go before I got pregnant. I'm currently doing Slimming World because I know it works for me but I am eating loads of carbs and eek sweeteners. I want to become primal once I am happy with my weight because I want to get away from the diet = weight loss idea and move to a diet = energy way of life.

So, my questions are:

1. If processed carbs/sugars are responsible for weight gain, how come some people can happily eat this way and stay slim? (Not talking about exercise addicts/people who track their food)

2. In 'The Diet Delusion' it basically said to stop eating processed foods but on here and other sites I see people counting their carb intake. Is this just a hangover from doing diets? I want to stop all this counting malarkey and just eat.

3. Does anyone eat this way successfully in Britain with a young family?

Thank you

I may just have bought myself a giant white Toblerone but in my defence I have decided that d-day is going to be Sunday 10th November for the start of my 21 day challenge!! That means I can get parties etc out of the way, and be ready to give it 100%. So I'm allowing myself some treats now in anticipation of 3 weeks of misery

What have you decided Jimmy?

By the way, my initial 'challenge' will consist of : No grains, no sugar (!!), no processed food, and no alcohol. I will be allowing fruit and some starchy veg to begin with, as otherwise I'll never cope. I'll see how I go with that, but would then hopefully aim to reduce starches and limit fruit.

Hmmm although maybe it's best to eliminate all fruit and starches at the beginning, to kick the habit...think I'd better finish the book and see what Mark tells me to do

@ 'better finish the book'!!

Hope you enjoyed your white Toblerone - I'm all for the 'last hurrahs'!

Okay, my thought process:

I have paid for Slimming World up till the end of the year, although that actually doesn't mean I can't do this, or some version of this.

We are poor. So on the one hand I think of how much we will save on junk, on the other I worry about being able to afford good (ish) meat.

I am knackered (non sleeping baby). A massive reason to do this but I'm worried about having to create my meals from scratch.

I don't know how to deal with eating at other people's houses. Do you just let that meal go, or do you undo all your hard work if that happens?

Jimmy, there is no doubt about it, a nice bit of meat is more expensive than a processed, carb "enriched" meal, but there are ways to keep the cost down.

Buy a (large, 6ltr) slow cooker, you can batch cook cheaper cuts of meat in them, and they are much cheaper to run than an ordinary oven. Ignore the instructions that come with them that say everything needs covered in water- add only a very small amount or none at all!

Things like hock, or stewing steak, or brisket are good in the slow cooker.

Frozen New Zealand lamb joints, portions and mince are really good value too.

Eggs are also a good, cheap source of protein and fat.

Thanks Raw. I hadn't even heard of some of those joints before

I don't know what's stopping me really. I totally believe the science behind this way of eating.

Jimmy, I'm watching your thread, as I'd like to get away from dieting and counting anything. I'm trying Paleo, because I react to gluten and I think dairy. I've tried low carb, but found it very restrictive. I could do with losing half a stone, but more than anything want to stop worrying about what I eat and just eat when I'm hungry.

I'm going to read my Gary Taubes 'The Diet Delusion' book again (eek - it's massive and full of hard words!) to remind me of the science.

I'm also very drawn to this site 100 Days of Real Food as it seems to be a less intensive move from eating crap to eating no processed food.

Well I'm all set to start tomorrow, although I have been making some gradual changes recently too. I've been rereading my copy of The Perfect Health Diet, which is basically paleo but with a bit more fruit and allows rice and potatoes. That's what I'll be aiming for - no grains, so sugar, no processed crap. Wish me luck...!!

Good luck!

Good luck
Keep us posted!

Struggling! Was doing really well, had eggs for breakfast then tuna mayo salad for lunch, but then stupidly had a slice of birthday cake, then went out to some fireworks where I had some treacle toffee then a glass of wine offered by the host - I'm clearly officially crap!!

Oh no, it's early days. You're bound to make slip ups until you get used to it. Have you stuck it out or given up?

This is how people in the UK ate, even people on low incomes before processed foods came along. Herrings were a staple for many. So were kippers and other fish, onions, liver etc etc. This was how people ate before most people got fat. Sadly they probably did quite a bit of skipping meals/intermittent fasting when money rang out before Friday too.

On this
"So, my questions are:

1. If processed carbs/sugars are responsible for weight gain, how come some people can happily eat this way and stay slim? (Not talking about exercise addicts/people who track their food)"

Whatever you eat if you eat fewer calories than you expend you don't put on weight. There are plenty of Parisians living on cigarettes, coffee and chocolate. It doesn't make you happy or healthy but some keep their weight down in those ways. Not good for them but they do.

"2) In 'The Diet Delusion' it basically said to stop eating processed foods but on here and other sites I see people counting their carb intake. Is this just a hangover from doing diets? I want to stop all this counting malarkey and just eat."

I don't count anything. I just eat normal foods or what I regard as normal (i.e not processed foods).

"3) Does anyone eat this way successfully in Britain with a young family?"
Yes, it is how most families ate until 50 y ears ago. In WWII people grew their food and bred rabbits for meat and no sugar was to be had. It is how man has eaten for millions of years. As for the cost issue many people eat much more than they should . If you don't eat out and avoid coffee bars and other places that burn through your money, it's not that expensive. Plenty of people if they are lucky enough to get an allotment grow their own veg and you can pick up veg quite cheaply. We eat a lot of raw swede for example. A roast chicken can last quite a few meals. Toddlers and babies eat what they are given so those with a young family find it easiest of anyone to have the family eat like this. It is teenagers used to junk food who are harder to change.
If you drink only tap water as I do you save a lot of money too. No tea or coffee or alcohol. Again after world war II plenty of families had only tea as coffee was too expensive and no one ever had wine as it cost too much. We forget how much we now have that is taken for granted which never used to be regarded as essential.

this is really interesting, my friend does paleo and swears by it

i am thinking of trying it but am 19 weeks pregnant atm so will wait till after babys born.

Seeyou, why delay? There is even MORE reason to eat some form of paleo/low carb now you are pregnant! Ditching the high carb processed stuff now and eating really well will be a great start for your baby, and breast milk from mothers on a grain free low carb diet has been shown to be nutritionally superior (because almost by default if you cut out grains and lower carbs, your diet will have more fats, protein and vitamins). I have been pregnant (at age 42!) and bf while eating this way.

The way we (society) eat today is neither healthy or natural - so don't be afraid to make changes now if you want to!

I should be on commission for mark Sissons, , once again I'm recommending his free blog "Marks Daily Apple" as a good, sensible and well written source if information - I'm pretty sure if you look on the blogs archive section he has written a number of articles about pregnancy, bf and child weaning (his articles usually link to scientific papers on each subject too).

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

thanks rawcoconut

do you have any links?

Hi not specifically paleo but this obstetrician reccomends excluding wheat and sugar. I used the book a bit in pregnancy it is a bit airy fairy but shows that you could adopt some aspects of paleo during pregnancy, possibly with benefits www.gentlebirthmethod.com/birth/body-physical-preparation2/nutritional-guidelines/

www.marksdailyapple.com/5-primal-superfoods-for-fertility-and-pregnancy/#axzz2lPQRV6YU

Not sure if this will live link from my phone, but the archive on his website is searchable, if you search "pregnancy" "breast feeding" or whatever else you are interested in, you'll find lots of good info. The above article is really good.

,I suck at tech! I really must get one of my DC to show me how to link from iPhone...

Here it is

Thanks Saragossa2010, so true about portion size and wine hides glass behind laptop.

I'm very sold on paleo / primal but struggle with dieting behaviour as an overhang of years of diets!

I really recommend Well Fed and Well Fed 2 - paleo recipes that are lovely. Much nicer and more doable than Mark Sisson's cookbooks. Also Well Fed has a great batch cooking method which actually works.

I am transitioning to paleo slowly - as breastfeeding and don't want to do anything drastic. I aim to do a Whole 30 at some point. The Whole 30 approach is strict but that suits me more at first when battling cravings. I tend to bend the 80 / 20 rule too far!

Good luck!

Jimmy I haven't completely given up, but then again I haven't been overly successful either! I just can't shake off the sugar cravings - I do ok(ish) during the week, but then Friday night arrives and I feel I deserve a treat so the wine, chocolate and snacks come out! I know that I really need to give it a proper go in order to get over the cravings and kick the sugar properly...but it's easier said than done in my case. How do other people manage it??

If you want to get rid of sugar cravings there are various ways and it will take a few days:-

1. Don't have those foods in the house
2. Force yourself to have 3 healthy meals a day and have your sugar snacks after meals (radiantrecovery website has tips on this) then later ditch the after meal sugars. Try not to have snacks.
3. Get to bed early
4. Perhaps try chronimum tablets and glutamine powder in water which supposedly stops sugar cravings although I am not a great fan of unnatural powders.

Once you are off sugar you can stay off as it's just a habit.

other sites worth looks at are paleohacks and also reddit keto - put those terms into google and they will come up (and mark's daily apple as mentioned above).

In coming off sugar don't try to reduce calories or fast. Start with 3 regular healthy meals with lots of good animal fat. Fat is actually the key for those who want to lose weight and eat well too - animal fat stops you snacking on other things. It's a magic formula. It is quite hard to get very fatty bacon and meat these days as all the shops market their low fat products and cut it off.

What sargasso said - eat fat, reduce sugar cravings.

Also, you may (initially at least) need to cut carbs very low, to level your blood sugar and allow your metabolism to get off the carb-insulin spike-blood sugar crash-craving-carb... Roundabout.

If you are eating enough fat/calories and still having intense cravings, try cutting carbs to 20g or less total carbs for 5days to a week. And be warned, you are likely to get "carb flu", a few days of withdrawal symptoms, but at the end of that, you should not be craving sweet carby foods. You can then increase veg and fruit carbs a bit, to find your tolerance (how much you can eat before it starts to affect your blood sugar in such a way that it sets off the craving cycle). Unless you are very active, that is likely to be under 100g total carbs a day - for weight loss I'd suggest a target of around 70g a day or less.

There is no need to count carbs once you get going, but initially it's a good idea to learn what a portion of say, 5g or 10g carb of different foods looks like.