New dietary restriction

RichardLeroyWorkman
RichardLeroyWorkman Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
My doctor has recently put my on Paleo for health reasons due to a muscle disease. Any positive recommendations would be appreciated.

Replies

  • ckdprevent
    ckdprevent Posts: 105 Member
    Authority Nutrition website has a lot of paleo diets on their site.
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
    It never hurts to get a second opinion from another Doctor.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    What are you looking for?

    Disclosure: I'm skeptical about paleo as a solution to health problems and would be curious about your doctor's reasoning. I think grains that contain gluten are an issue for celiacs, of course, that others might have issues with some grains, that many people are better off avoiding dairy, and it's possible that some are better off avoiding all legumes, although I'm not aware of a condition that would require that, and I think it's rare that anyone would need to avoid all three. I think the rationale for the diet (we aren't adapted to eat these foods) has been debunked.

    That said, you can have a healthy and enjoyable diet doing paleo and many people may find they improve their diet by focusing on the foods permitted and some lifestyle things.

    What I like about paleo (but think one can do without doing paleo):

    Focus on eating lots of vegetables and (in some versons) fruit and nuts and seeds.
    Focus on sourcing meat from less industrial producers and eating the whole animal -- IMO you aren't doing it right if you are mainly eating steak and chicken breast, but should be including organ meats and so on.
    Focus on cooking from whole foods and experimenting with new plants and eating seasonally when possible (right now is not the time if you are in much of North America or Europe, though).

    What I don't like: needlessly restrictive, legumes and whole grains are, for most, a positive addition to the diet, dairy and legumes are non meat sources of protein and without them you will be more reliant on meat, for those who can consume it yogurt can be good for the gut. Most significant, I don't like that it replaces a real understanding of nutrition with some silly rules (grains and legumes bad, avoid them). And even the focus on whole foods is minimized as more and more there are "paleo" products sold.

    This aside, I would say that until recently (when I started eating much less meat and eggs) most of my meals were paleo compliant just because that's how I ate, and you don't need special paleo recipes -- make salmon, broccoli, sweet potatoes or pork chop and apples and brussels sprouts and winter squash or roasted chicken with potatoes and cauliflower plus some roasted root veg (carrots, turnips, parsnips), 2 egg vegetable omelet, salad with lots of vegetables, some seeds, and some chicken on it, with an olive oil and vinegar dressing, so on. There are some good paleo recipe sites around for ideas, but I wouldn't limit myself to that, as these examples are supposed to demonstrate.
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