Is this recipe Paleo/Primal friendly? Oats?

Christie0428

Hello,

I guess my real question is are oats primal/paleo friendly? I think probably not, but I am not sure. I am easing in to this way of eating and this month I am avoiding wheat and refined sugar in all forms. I am eating oatmeal for breakfast, but I was wondering if moving forward it was ok?

Please be nice, I am new to this...

Granola Bars
Makes 18

¼ c. ground flax seed meal
½ c. Egg beaters
1 t. vanilla
½ c. dried cranberries
½ c. dried apricots
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
¼ t. salt
¾ c. chopped or sliced almonds
1/3 c. maple syrup or honey
3 t. cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice)
10 pieces crystallized ginger
4 c. old fashioned oats

Chop cranberries, apricots and ginger coarsely. Toss with flax, oats, almonds, cinnamon and salt. In smaller bowl, whisk egg beaters, applesauce, salt, vanilla, and maple syrup. Mix both sets of ingredients together well. Pour into 13x9” pan sprayed with pam. Spread evenly and press down with back of measuring cup. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cut into 18 pieces and freeze in Ziploc bag.

Nyjae

Short answer? No, not really. They are a grain. Long answer is here:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-oats-healthy/#axzz2HQI3lPQ0

Also, the egg beaters can be replaced by actual egg. Paleo and primal are about eating whole, unprocessed foods and egg beaters are pretty much a poster-product of processed food.

If you're looking for some breakfast ideas that are more than just 'eggs & bacon', check here:

http://paleomg.com/category/breakfast/

CRody44

Oats are grains, so no.

Here are some websites where you can read up on Paleo/Primal so you can make an informed decision.

http://www.archevore.com/
http://eatingacademy.com/
http://everydaypaleo.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
http://thepaleodiet.com/
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/
http://nomnompaleo.com/


If you want some serious information:

Loren Cordain “The Paleo Diet”
Robb Wolf “The Paleo Solution”
Mark Sisson “The Primal Blueprint”
Mark Sisson “The Primal Blueprint 21 day Total Body Transformation”
Gary Taubes “Good Calories, Bad Calories”
Gary Taubes “Why We Get Fat”

Christie0428

Thank you all. Also, I copied this from an old WW recipe... I would definitely NOT use egg beaters, I just forgot to change that.

jennaworksout

no, oats are not paleo

ajwolters

Simple answer to any "is it paleo" question: "Never eat anything that you cannot get naked, armed with only a sharp stick." Ray Audette, author of Neanderthin

If you have to cook it or process it in any way to make it edible, NO.

LittleTrollCupcake

Simple answer to any "is it paleo" question: "Never eat anything that you cannot get naked, armed with only a sharp stick." Ray Audette, author of Neanderthin

If you have to cook it or process it in any way to make it edible, NO.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. lol

ajwolters

Imagine yourself 90,000 years ago in the wilderness with NOTHING. You have no access to any technology at all - no weapons, no tools. No way to make a fire. You can break off a sharp stick to dig up roots and maybe kill small game if you're lucky. There are no fields of waving grain. If you found some growing wild, the energy it would take to pick the grain, grind it between stones, remove the hulls, etc would cost you more energy than you'd gain by eating it and still leave you no way to bake it. There is no sugar or yeast.

All the cattle are wild. Even if you could catch one to milk it, what would you put the milk in? No buckets.

Cashews are toxic in their raw state, as are potatoes, and these probably don't even grow where you live.

We pretty much have to cook our meat these days, and we do cook veggies out of preference, but back in the paleolithic, they could and did eat everything raw. That was our diet for a million years of evolution. Agriculture (grains and dairy) only came into our diet 10,000 years ago, along with arthritis, diabetes, and other health problems stemming from agricultural products.

MikeFlyMike

get naked, armed with only a sharp stick

Funny how there an be an entire sentence and my brain only processes this part.

IAmABetterMe

get naked, armed with only a sharp stick

Funny how there an be an entire sentence and my brain only processes this part.

Baaa Haaa Mike Too Funny the way we read these forums... I was thinking...A Sharp stick... how do you sharpen it if you don't have any clothes?

AnneC77

Bump

LittleTrollCupcake

Imagine yourself 90,000 years ago in the wilderness with NOTHING. You have no access to any technology at all - no weapons, no tools. No way to make a fire. You can break off a sharp stick to dig up roots and maybe kill small game if you're lucky. There are no fields of waving grain. If you found some growing wild, the energy it would take to pick the grain, grind it between stones, remove the hulls, etc would cost you more energy than you'd gain by eating it and still leave you no way to bake it. There is no sugar or yeast.

All the cattle are wild. Even if you could catch one to milk it, what would you put the milk in? No buckets.

Cashews are toxic in their raw state, as are potatoes, and these probably don't even grow where you live.

We pretty much have to cook our meat these days, and we do cook veggies out of preference, but back in the paleolithic, they could and did eat everything raw. That was our diet for a million years of evolution. Agriculture (grains and dairy) only came into our diet 10,000 years ago, along with arthritis, diabetes, and other health problems stemming from agricultural products.

But this just doesn't make any sense from a paleo stand point. Potatoes are just fine to eat, as are coconuts. Processed is okay too - coconut millk, coconut oil, coconut flour, olive oil, etc. Not to mention that supplements are actually needed and acceptable as well.

SweetxCatastrophe

Simple answer to any "is it paleo" question: "Never eat anything that you cannot get naked, armed with only a sharp stick." Ray Audette, author of Neanderthin

If you have to cook it or process it in any way to make it edible, NO.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. lol

Sure it does. Potatoes, while they weren't likely consumed (from what I've read anyways), don't taste good raw but CAN be consumed as such. Coconuts are the same, as are olives (really gross raw -- I have a tree and tasted one..ick). Sure we have coconut milk and oil and all other coconut products, and olive oil -- but these are all PRODUCTS of a whole food we can eat in its raw state. You can't just walk into an oat field and start munching away. Animals (livestock) can eat oats hull and all, human stomachs on the other hand can't breakdown the hull for digestion.

LittleTrollCupcake

Simple answer to any "is it paleo" question: "Never eat anything that you cannot get naked, armed with only a sharp stick." Ray Audette, author of Neanderthin

If you have to cook it or process it in any way to make it edible, NO.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. lol

Sure it does. Potatoes, while they weren't likely consumed (from what I've read anyways), don't taste good raw but CAN be consumed as such. Coconuts are the same, as are olives (really gross raw -- I have a tree and tasted one..ick). Sure we have coconut milk and oil and all other coconut products, and olive oil -- but these are all PRODUCTS of a whole food we can eat in its raw state. You can't just walk into an oat field and start munching away. Animals (livestock) can eat oats hull and all, human stomachs on the other hand can't breakdown the hull for digestion.

But you can't just say that because everything can be consumed raw, including oats. It doesn't make it paleo... beans, corn, milk, etc. You can't get milk from a cow because you didn't have a bucket? That sounds like the worst made up excuse and not even true.

But also, those products I mentioned earlier are processed. They are products, but they are processed. A lot of people would be led in the wrong direction if they actually believed eating paleo was as previously described.

SweetxCatastrophe

Go eat a whole oat in the husk and tell me how it tastes and if you end up pooping it out whole (the answer is yes) :laugh: If someone doesn't want to drink milk because they wouldn't have had a bucket, why do you care? The level of paleo someone adheres to is a personal choice. If OP is cool with eating oats, she can, but they aren't paleo.

IAmABetterMe

There are different schools of thought on the potato....


During the Paleolithic era, humans were hunter-gatherers. They would hunt animals for the protein and gather wild fruits and vegetables. Potatoes and other starchy vegetables, however, require cooking and preparation to eat because they are inedible in the raw state. While potatoes provide energy, they also contain toxins and could make people sick when eaten raw.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/196152-potatoes-the-paleo-diet/#ixzz2HhbGeeUs

So I think it comes down to.... Do you want to add starch - not during weight loss... or are you a die hard... then ditch them... if not then I say I would eat them

LittleTrollCupcake

Go eat a whole oat in the husk and tell me how it tastes and if you end up pooping it out whole (the answer is yes) :laugh: If someone doesn't want to drink milk because they wouldn't have had a bucket, why do you care? The level of paleo someone adheres to is a personal choice. If OP is cool with eating oats, she can, but they aren't paleo.

I'm just saying, you aren't going to eat potatoes raw, nor are you going to eat a cow raw. To say just because you CAN doesn't make it paleo. To say if you have to cook food or process it to eat it, doesn't make something unpaleo. Very, very misleading.

This is why paleo gets a bad rap by the way. Everybody thinks we are just idiots trying to emulate cavemen for the fun of it. It's about health, not emulating anything.

Oats are frowned on by the paleo community because they cause high spikes in blood glucose levels. They also contain lots of phytic acid and mess with some people's digestion.

SweetxCatastrophe

I've eaten beef raw many, many times.

And I'm not saying because you CAN eat something raw, that means its paleo. I think you need to re-read what I said. A caveman wasn't going to be jumping on backs of cows to milk them, he wasn't going to be digging up potatoes to eat them, and he wouldn't be eating random grasses (which is what an oat is) from fields. The modern oat has close to no resemblance to the oats of the paleolithic era. A good GUIDELINE, which is what I'm sure ajwolters was aiming at, is:

If I encounter a vegetable in the wild, can I eat it raw.

LittleTrollCupcake

I've eaten beef raw many, many times.

And I'm not saying because you CAN eat something raw, that means its paleo. I think you need to re-read what I said. A caveman wasn't going to be jumping on backs of cows to milk them, he wasn't going to be digging up potatoes to eat them, and he wouldn't be eating random grasses (which is what an oat is) from fields. The modern oat has close to no resemblance to the oats of the paleolithic era. A good GUIDELINE, which is what I'm sure ajwolters was aiming at, is:

If I encounter a vegetable in the wild, can I eat it raw.

A caveman could steal a calf and tame it and raise it for milk or meat. He could also make a fire and cook the meat over it. He could dig up potatoes and boil them with his water and fire.

SweetxCatastrophe

Can and DID are two different things. This thread has been hijacked enough. To answer OP's original question again, no oats are not paleo. End of story.

monkeydharma

To add to the answer: while oats are a grain, and thus not paleo...if you are going to eat a grain, you could do worse. When you look at the nutritional problems with different grains, you get (from better to worse):

Rice>oats>wheat>corn

Of course, we're talking about whole grains - once you process them, all bets are off. Rice means brown rice. Oats means groats (whole grain) or failing that, steel-cut (or Irish style) oats. If you are eating 'old fashioned', rolled or instant oats, then you are not receiving anything that is remotely healthy.