paleo diet

It's more a loosely defined way of eating than a diet as such. Need not be expensive if you shop well and cook yourself.

Any diet that refocuses a persons commitment to eating better and taking charge of their health works whether it's paleo, Mediterranean, vegetarian, vegan etc works. Is it rational to completely remove food groups is a question only you can answer, personally I think it's a silly anecdote that tends to make any diet where this happens more believable and sellable.....sans medical issues of course.

Paleo is basically a collection of ideas about how to eat, which you could do in pieces if you wanted. Personally, I agree with (or find personally helpful) some of the ideas, like focusing on the source of your protein and vegetables and making them the center of your diet, eating seasonally when possible, cooking from whole foods, being picky about the source of your fats, etc. Other ideas, like cutting out legumes and dairy, I see no purpose to and think would make me less healthy. The principle idea, that grains are bad for humans, I think is wrong, but I also think cutting down on grains is a pretty easy and painless way to reduce calories without missing much. IMO grains are mostly a low cost source of calories and carbs specifically, which is what makes them a staple food and great if you are doing lots of cardio, but often easy to overeat in a society with an abundance of food.

As for whether it's difficult and expensive, I imagine if you leap into everything when what you are currently doing is quite different it could be. I'd be more inclined to see what ideas I agree with and try to incorporate them. For example, if you think you are eating too much prepackaged food that happens to be unhealthy I never get why people think the answer is to quit dairy, grains, and legumes. Why not just start with cooking more and eating more veggies?

I'm obviously not paleo, though, although I think it's a way of eating that works for some.

As Lemurcat says:

Paleo is basically a collection of ideas about how to eat, which you could do in pieces if you wanted. Personally, I agree with (or find personally helpful) some of the ideas, like focusing on the source of your protein and vegetables and making them the center of your diet, eating seasonally when possible, cooking from whole foods, being picky about the source of your fats, etc.

Then you decide if you want to follow all its rules (like legumes etc.) or read up on Primal, which has fewer rules.

It's a pretty HEALTHY way to eat, if you follow most of its principles. Think of it like religion or politics. You can be a catholic, but believe in certain things the catholic church does not approve of. There's a PALEO/PRIMAL group on here. Their intro has some great "stickies" with loads of educational info. Give them a look.

I found it to be difficult to maintain. It required you to almost everything from scratch even things like ketchup or mayo. It required too much meal prep and time for me to keep it up. I did drop weight on it though

I love it, I'm currently eating Whole30 which is really strict paleo. The pros are that I feel great when I eat that way, I have better moods, I sleep better, I have more energy, I lose weight steadily, and I find it easy to make food choices because basically it's 2 yes or no questions, "Am I hungry?" "Is it paleo?" That said, I love to cook, and the way I feel eating this way is worth it to me to set aside my Sunday afternoons to grocery shop, prep veg, and prep dinners for an entire week. It can be expensive... but basically I just diverted "eating out" costs to grocery costs.

If you find this helpful, I have a few tips/tricks I use:

1. I always make enough for dinner to eat for lunch the next day (cook once eat at least twice.)
2. I make at least 1 "toss it in the crockpot" meal a week. (Buy pre-cut every thing, and pour and plop items in a slow cooker.)
3. I eat eggs and fruit every morning, making "egg muffins" is a great breakfast on the go.
4. Roasted Veg (pre-cut on Sunday) and Grilled Meat (make my husband do that) is a fast/low effort week night meal.
5. Don't put your effort into "paleofying" food, put effort into making delicious meat and veg. Most paleo people reserve 10-20% of their meals for off paleo items, whether that's a cupcake, lasagna, a sandwich, or pancakes. So, if you eat 3 times a day 7 days a week you'd eat 1-3 non-paleo items a week.

I hope that helps! Like I said, I love it, it makes me feel my best. But try it and see if it works for you.

Hi, just found this board. I am new to paleo, having been put on it by my family medicine doctor to help me lose weight before knee replacements. I don't know yet whether I like it or not, and I'm not sure I buy into the tenets 100%. As far as the schizophrenia claim, Loren Cordain PhD, who is a key layer in the "paleo movement" is the person in the previously mentioned link. I did some research and found at least one bona fide clinical study investigating paleo eating and schizophrenia improvement. It won't be over until 2016, is only 20 people (the study is to see if spending money for a bigger study is warranted) but I did find the hypothesis intriguing. Here it is if anyone is interested.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01927276/RK=0