Questions about the diet

Andreaviolet89

A friend recently suggested primal when I told him about some diet struggles that I have been having. A lot of what I have read so far seems pretty legit, like obviously eating whole, quality foods is better for your body than eatting fast food or junk. There are a few things that I came across though that I had questions about. Some posts say that people will experience 'side effects'. What kind of side effects would they experience and why? Also, if you cut out most grains could you end up making yourself in a way gluten intollerant? If you are going to try to still eat pasta every now and then, like on a cheat day, what brand would you recommend?

SteamClutch

Welcome Andrea, I think the right answer to this is some people experience a kind of withdraw when the start Primal/paleo but it is usually short lived and happens around the end of the first week. When it comes to gluten and this causing an intolerant type reaction that is not at all likely, I have been basically grain free for 9 months with the exception of a vacation I took just last month and while at a Mexican restaurant the waiter gave me a sample fajita that was in a flour tortilla (I thought it was corn due to the lighting) and took a big ol bite out of it, no issues what-so-ever, but I am still not going to reintroduce wheat or gluten because I know the potential damage to my body based on where I came from (70 lbs heavier). The more you know about wheat the less you will want to eat it, if there is a safe wheat it would be Einkorn, which is ancient wheat but you will not find it in restaurants just at Whole Foods and on line.

carrieann8

I was already grain free when I started Paleo. So I didn't get the typical "low carb flu." that comes when you stop eating grains and take on a more low carb lifestyle.

If you go in hard with something like a Whole 30 or detox diet like some books recommend, there are also some "hangover" type symptoms or for me SUGAR withdrawl.

The following websites should help.

http://whole30.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/

http://www.eat-real-food-paleodietitian.com/paleo-diet-side-effects.html

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/low-carb-flu/#axzz38PP8hg65

butterbear1980

Paleo is not necessarily low carb, feel free to check out my diary for copious whole food carbs. Even if you do paleo with adequate carbs you can get die off symptoms. This is a result of the microflora of your gut changing. It can be eased with homemade bone broth and taking an Epsom salt bath.
Heres the deal with grains, notably wheat, let's say you've never noticed any issues with grains, you go paleo cut them out completely for a few months you are only eating whole foods then one night you are at a party and decide to eat some pasta. Some people will be fine, some will have cravings for weeks, some will get bloated and have an inflammatory response putting on an uncomfortable and temporary 4-8#. Some will get rash/headache etc. Impossible to know where you will fall there. But if you stick with this a while your desire for said pasta will completely disappear.

Dragonwolf

Paleo is not necessarily low carb, feel free to check out my diary for copious whole food carbs. Even if you do paleo with adequate carbs you can get die off symptoms. This is a result of the microflora of your gut changing. It can be eased with homemade bone broth and taking an Epsom salt bath.
Heres the deal with grains, notably wheat, let's say you've never noticed any issues with grains, you go paleo cut them out completely for a few months you are only eating whole foods then one night you are at a party and decide to eat some pasta. Some people will be fine, some will have cravings for weeks, some will get bloated and have an inflammatory response putting on an uncomfortable and temporary 4-8#. Some will get rash/headache etc. Impossible to know where you will fall there. But if you stick with this a while your desire for said pasta will completely disappear.

This. And a big note -- it's not necessarily because of "developing" an intolerance.

Doing an elimination type diet is kind of like going into rehab -- you stop consuming the item in question, and you start losing that "tolerance" that allows you to consume large amounts of it without feeling the effects. That doesn't mean it wasn't doing damage to you, it's just that your brain stopped sending (or responding to) the signals that said "hey, this probably isn't a good idea, let's not do this." So, if you go back to consuming it, it takes less to get that effect.

The same goes for wheat and whatnot -- if you've eaten it your whole life, you have gotten used to how you feel eating it, and your body has stopped with the signals that say "this is bad," if it was firing them (this does, in fact, happen -- pinched nerves will, for a time, send erratic pulses that feel like electricity or pain, eventually the brain cuts off all contact with the nerve in question, and the spot becomes numb). When you stop consuming the problem item, the body can start breaking down that defense, because it no longer needs it. Then, when you eat it again, you now have channels of communication that allow you to actually perceive the fact that your body doesn't like the given item.

Alternatively, your body didn't shut off the signals completely, but you learned to live with them. Migraines, cluster headaches, joint pain, fatigue, and several other things that doctors often deem "idiopathic" (aka - "we don't know WTF is going on or what's causing it"), are often caused/triggered by what we eat. After years of living with these things, we just get used to them and chalk them up to "getting older" or whatever. Then, suddenly, when you remove the problem food, things become better, and you realize what it's like to live without these issues and the medications to treat them. You've now seen the difference, and consuming the trigger food makes it the problem much more apparent.

butterbear1980

^^^^way to nail it DW! Awesome explanation!

SteamClutch

Dragonwolf said it better than I could, I heard it said once it is a windshield wiper effect, you may not notice dirt accumulating on your windshield but once you run your wipers you see clearly and you realize how bad the dirt was.

Akimajuktuq

^^^^way to nail it DW! Awesome explanation!

Ditto! I get really sick really easily from just a bit of bad food now but I never thought it's because this lifestyle is detrimental or causing me to get intolerant to more foods. Those foods were ALWAYS hurting me but I just didn't notice (joint pain, migraines, ulcers, GERD, chronic depression, and later morbid obesity, prediabetes, chronic pain etc). Sick was my "normal" for all of my life until 2 years ago. My short detours away from Primal/Paleo are short-lived because sick sucks.