considering paleo, can I get your input?

FredDoyle

Fibre is a most neglected part of the western diet despite the fact that it has many benefits including cholesterol reduction. If you are going to go paleo, I would suggest ensuring that your fibre intake be slowly increased as you slowly remove the non-paleo portions of your diet until you hit the recommended 35 grams per day of fibre. The joy of fibre is that it often has nutrients associated with it. The hassle is that it almost always has carbs associated with it.

This to me is important. I think that soluble fibre in food stuffs may be the one thing that has changed in recent history in the way in which people eat. That and getting further away from the ocean. Salt was iodized for people living inland who ate less seafood to prevent goitre and other afflictions.
It's a bit of a chore for me to get get a lot of fibre while wanting that bowl of frozen vanilla yoghurt with caramel sauce and chocolate. No worries, I manage.

squirrelzzrule22

Good tips about fiber! I've been getting a good amount from chia seed pudding (chia plus unsweetened almond milk. Sometimes I add pure pumpkin puree for flavor and sweetness.) I toss in berries and its a good breakfast. I also take a multi vitamin that includes about 3 grams. It is definitely something I will have to pay attention to because previously I got the vast majority of my fiber from bread and cereal. I will definitely look out to not crap my pants though haha good tip!!

Mr_Knight

The paleo diet has history on its side in that it is the diet on which our species survived for tens of thousands of years and logic (at first) suggests that this is the diet to which we are most suited.

Our paleo ancestors ate grains and borderline-rancid meats/fats. What people call "paleo" today has very little in common with our ancestral diet.

leilag82

Good luck!! Little tip - because paleo seems to be such a trigger word for people, I tend to say 'eating clean', 'eating no processed foods' or 'minimising my sugar/starchy carb intake' which is almost always met with a positive response. People have such strong emotional reactions to all things food!

I would say again that initially it's worth really minimising sugar from ALL sources (honey, maple syrup, agave, fruit etc. etc.) for a good while to let your body re-aclimatise.... BUT if it works for you to gradually phase things out, that's great too!

This is SOOooooo true.

After a failed attempt at paleo last year (did it for 4 months) - I'm planning in starting again next grocery shop! I only have positive things to say... I also suffer from PCOS, and although I did not lose any weight (due to not counting calories and eating ridiculous amounts of nuts and fruit... which I now know I will AVOID this time) it had amazing results on my health, my mood, my skin, my energy levels...

tennisdude2004

The paleo diet has history on its side in that it is the diet on which our species survived for tens of thousands of years and logic (at first) suggests that this is the diet to which we are most suited.

Our paleo ancestors ate grains and borderline-rancid meats/fats. What people call "paleo" today has very little in common with our ancestral diet.

Our ancestors ate anything and everything that walked, crawled, flew and stood still. I don't think the diet is actually really designed to mimic the ancestral diet in it's entirety - if so you would need a different version of paleo for each country!

YourKnight

I tend to say 'eating clean', 'eating no processed foods' or 'minimizing my sugar/starchy carb intake' which is almost always met with a positive response. People have such strong emotional reactions to all things food!

I like your suggestion that rather than calling dietary choices a name like "Paleo" that many seem to find issue with, saying your cutting out processed foods and eating cleaner... focusing on more veggies, fish and lean protein may be better received.

Most people understand that packaged, junk foods, and fast food aren't good for us. Curious, how would you sell the "no-grain" thing in a palatable (pardon my word choice) fashion given people love of bread, etc?

Navtendon

Question though- you mention low carb RATHER than paleo, but my impression from what I've read is that paleo is fairly low carb. I was thinking of it as low carb with particular attention paid to whole foods/organic/grassfed etc.

There are 800 billion different versions of "paleo" diets out there, so it depends on which fadmeister you're reading at the time. Our paleo ancestors didn't eat pastured meat but did eat grains and loads of carbs, so really, you can eat pretty much anything you want and still be "paleo".

They also likely had crap loads of salt intake from ingesting brackish water, but that's probably not pertinent at this point.

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Wow, this post sucked.

Here is something more helpful. Forget all these specific "versions" of the paleo diet and focus on the following general principles of paleo/primal which are common sense and are all that really matter:

Eat real food. Eat plants as they come out of the ground. Eat animals that eat plants as they come out of the ground. keep glycemic index low (modern "farmed" fruit is a bit overabundant and sugar loaded compared to original wild fruit).

If that sounds like a hollywood "fad" diet to you, nobody can help you.