What's your opinion on paleo?

I've eaten a predominately paleo diet for nearly four years and have never felt better. I didn't do it for weight loss or allergies, but more so because the primary foods I love center around veggies and proteins. Some unexpected benefits to me were my acid reflux cleared up and joint pain went away. My husbands blood pressure and cholesterol levels also had marked improvement. Now when I indulge in non paleo foods, I notice some of those problems return. We find it sustainable for our family and there's no shortage of cook books and websites to help transition to this way of eating. I think there's lots of misperceptions out there about it but like many things, you need to find what works for you. Maybe try for 30 days and see how you feel. There's also a paleo group on here that may be useful. Good luck!

Re: the paleo diet.
As a concept of why it's a good idea - aka, that people used to eat this way, long, long ago - it's just flat out wrong. In part, because it presumes that ancient man only ate some things. They wouldn't eat grains because it requires cultivation, they wouldn't eat foods that had higher levels of X substance because it can cause inflammation, pain, requires cooking, etc...

And that's ridiculous - people who are hungry eat anything that will not kill them. They eat the handful of grains from a patch by the riverbank, and beans if they don't make them too sick (and you learn to soak and discard water and ferment and all sorts of things that help make these foods edible - just look at olives - and are not cooking) - they eat anything that doesn't kill them. And it's also ridiculous because it presumes that there is some magical diet that works for every person, and if you look around the world, diets in different regions was drastically different, from nearly fully carnivorous to nearly vegan. There is no one perfect diet.


All that said - yeah, i think you should give it a try, to a certain extent.

Because what paleo DOES have, for you, is a diet without grains, and that is FREAKING hard to find good recipes for, I can tell you from experience (I have allergic reactions to gluten and grains as well). It has a lot of recipes using unprocessed foods, which cuts down on allergen cross-contamination risks. And for all the restrictions, it can absolutely be nutritionally complete, although you have to check your meal plans to make sure for yourself.

You won't be able to eat all the recipes, but paleo will provide you with a good base of grain free recipes that you can eat and build off of. And it can help you get ideas for, well, thinking in terms of how to cook without grains. That will be really invaluable for creating a base for recipes and cooking techniques you can build off of.

Re: paleo sustainability. Yes, it can be sustainable. And in my experience you have something that many people who try it and fail do not have: serious motivation. It's one thing to avoid grains or dairy and eat a certain diet when you know you could eat grains and dairy again any time you want. Temptation is very challenging.

It's a very different experience when you can't eat grains or dairy, period, and you are just trying to find good foods to eat. Paleo is much more sustainable then because it's one of the few sources of good grain free recipes, you know?

The one huge challenge for the diet is going to be a challenge for you now anyway: your grocery budget is either going double, triple, possibly even quadruple, or your time spent cooking is going to do the same. There is really not any other way to do this, if you want tasty food at all. You either spend lots of money of pre-made specialty foods, or you make everything from scratch, including condiments, most likely.

You are likely to have to go the scratch route, honestly, because a lot of paleo grain-free pre-made foods are going to include peanuts, or peanut contaminated nut products. Non-paleo pre-made foods are not going to be grain free.

If you are not a phenomenal cook, I would suggest something I've heard from many chefs: learn the ingredients, not the recipes. Or basically, learn about how an ingredient acts in heat, cold, grated or whole, roasted or boiled, what flavors it can have, and what it can do for a dish.

So if, say, you have some meat, you will not be looking for recipes, but thinking - what do I know of that gives a savory flavor, what thickens, what gives a nice scent. This is going to be SO important for the cooking, because truly, trying to cook with numerous food allergies is really a challenge, and there are few resources out there to help you out with more than an allergy or two at a time.

The paleo diet is good to help you have recipes until you have learned the ingredients, though.

Although re: one aspect of the paleo diet, that of avoiding potatoes and legumes. THIS part? While people throughout the ages have eaten whatever the heck they want, people with health issues? Sometimes can't tolerate things as well. There is a list of foods that have certain components that can theoretically cause inflammation in people: certain nuts, nightshade family (like potatoes), grains, legumes. People with auto immune disorders have sometimes reported that they feel better when they avoid some or all of these. Doctors hadn't really studied it much, but just recently they finally DID study wheat for this purpose, and found out that, in fact, wheat proteins DO cause more inflammation that can be problematic for folks with autoimmune disorders. Even if they don't do much for folks who are totally healthy.

Another study I just heard of (haven't tracked down yet) said folks with autoimmune disorders may lack an enzyme to digest proteins properly, so the proteins enter the bloodstream more, which again, could mean that foods that CAN cause more inflammation can be more problematic for them.

This doesn't mean this is how it works for you, but at the same time, if you are already having health issues, it might be that potatoes and legumes can affect you. i'd honestly just try things and see how you feel without them, and then maybe add some things back in that aren't from your allergy list, like potatoes or beans, you know?


And lastly, just some basic things that can be helpful when allergic to grains. :-)
FOOD:
- for things like meatloaf and hamburgers, finely grated yellow squash works well as a grain substitute instead of bread crumbs or rice, IF you don't seem something to soak up juices. The squash actually added moisture.
- coconut aminos are a possible soy sauce substitute. But mushroom ketchup (just a really rich type of mushroom sauce, not mushroom flavored ketchup) - homemade - is a UK condiment that has a lot of umami, too.
- Chickpeas, if you decide to try legumes, are used in some traditional grain free flatbreads, like socca (many recipes online).
- if you are allergic to grains, specifically, then it may help to know that buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa are not grains. They are actually seeds from other plants that are commonly used AS grains, so they are pseudo- grains. There could be some cross contamination issues trying to find safe sources, but they may be worth exploring if you want bready-type things.

PRODUCTS:
I would check out some corn allergy forums for finding safe corn-free products, and figuring out how to avoid the bad ones. Corn is currently added to a LOT of things you would not think to look for. It is, for example, dusted on many paper products to keep them from sticking together, like paper plates and cups, paper towels, toilet paper, menstrual pads. It can be dusted on the inside of vacuum sealed plastic packaging for food to keep the food from sticking (like some cheese blocks have this done). Corn is used as a delivery vehicle for most vitamins and is also a common filler, so anything vitamin fortified typically has corn, most medication has corn in it, most vitamins have corn in them. It is in all iodized salt, contaminates xanthan gum, is used in ripening sprays for fresh tomatoes, the list goes on and on.

This is going to be one you'll need to do some real research to avoid, basically. :-(


Good luck, hon!