monkeydharma Member

I'd say the main culprit is soy - unless you are using whole organic soybeans (edamame), it's all GMO or fractionated (which eliminates nearly all of soy's health benefits). Dairy would be next - but how it affects you depends on how lactose-intolerant you are. Of course, it also depends on how much of each you are…

No need. A quick googling, and a recipe appears! Now you can make a jar and keep on your spice shelf for when you need it....and avoid that Lipton crap. http://paintmepaleo.weebly.com/paleo-onion-soup-mix.html

That's pretty much my point. I eat fruits and sweet vegetables like tomatoes and carrots - but I do not drink fruit or vegetable juice. Extracting the juice concentrates the sugars and turns a moderate glycemic load into a high one. Drinking a glass of apple juice is the equivalent of eating four or five apples. I know…

Too bad, punkin. If you are adding sweeteners to the things you ingest - you're doing it wrong. You shouldn't be eating sugar unless there's a plant wrapped around it.

'Free range' is not a legally defined term. Many farms use it if the chickens have a pen outside of their coop where they can walk around. It may be (and usually is) dirt, with no vegetation or insects, so that the term 'free range' is nutritionally null. Chickens with access to a yard with grass, weeds and other…

I buy both my pork and beef from neighboring farmers. They raise them according to my feed specs, then have them butchered for me. I pay them for both the raising and butchering. The last pig I got was $4.50/lb; the last quarter-beeve was $6.50/lb. When they have them butchered, the custom butcher should be calling you for…

As far as recipes go, it depends on the role the sweetener plays. A lot of times, it's just there because the author has a sweet tooth, so I just eliminate the ingredient. Other recipes in which the ingredient is integral (such as baking, glazing, etc.) I just throw out the recipe. Since my take on hunter/gatherer diets is…

Not like it black!?!?!??!! HERETIC!!!!!!!!! :)

Pretty much all the primal/paleo gurus say to count TOTAL carbs, not net carbs. Also, soluble fiber is preferable to insoluble fiber. Current recommendation by Mark Sisson is 50-100g TOTAL carbs is the proper range for weight loss, 100-150 for weight maintenance. Under 50g total for those wanting to do a ketogenic diet;…

Well, you can either stick it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, or throw it in a pan with a bit of butter or other oil. Depends on what pans I dirtied during the meal or how I cooked the salmon in the first place.

Organic Valley makes a butter that is labelled 'Pasture Butter' (I'm from California). Kerry Gold doesn't say it, but it comes from a country that doesn't feedlot their cattle, so it IS pastured - it may not be organic, since the field grasses may contain pesticides or fertilizers, but it IS pastured. Butter from France is…

If you can find organic tempeh, then it can be OK. If it isn't organic then it is made with genetically modified soy and therefore a no-no. Adding rice to it may be OK from a vegetarian standpoint, but not from a paleo/primal one.

If I have the opportunity to fry it crisp, then yes - but usually it is just sticking to the pan and is gummy. I have found, however, that my cats love it just fine and stop bugging me for pieces of the good stuff. ;)

How about learning to like coconut? A hunter/gatherer lifestyle is about eating what presents itself, animal- and plant-wise. When one is always close to going hungry, one doesn't worry too much whether they like it or not. When I started this, I had a slew of plant and animal dislikes. I've actually learned to enjoy most…

The omega3/omega6 resides in the fat. This is why we say if you buy grain-fed, buy the leanest cuts you can, trim excess fat and cook it in a good oil, such as coconut oil. A good oil, by definition is one that has a good 3:6 ratio.

+1

^^^^this. While we all have our taste preferences, there's no getting around the fact that our nutritional needs are best served by a hunter/gatherer diet (like paleo/primal), and that means 'eating what comes along'. I also had many veggies I avoided before I started this lifestyle - now (even if they still aren't my…

This may not be the answer you want, but for me: my appetite hasn't decreased at all. What HAS changed however, is the length of time that can go by before it wakes up and starts demanding a meal. See, eating a grain-centric, high-glucose diet will have your body craving refills every few hours. Switching to a…

The problem there is that KC is a sweet BBQ sauce (goes with KC-style 'Q). Any paleo/primal recipe that tries to reproduce the flavor is going to have too many sweeteners in it to be considered such by most of the community. You can google 'paleo BBQ sauce recipe' or 'primal BBQ sauce recipe' and find dozens to work from -…

Rant on! :) It does shock the system - the glucose/insulin merry-go-round is a hard ride to get off of. It takes 2-3 weeks of strict observance to retrain the body (and many people get what we call the 'carb flu') but once the body switches from being a 'burn sugar first' machine to a 'burn fat first' one, the desires…

I guess it depends on what you are trying to do with the carbs. The Atkins crowd came up with the concept of net carbs so that their 'no carb' approach would seem more successful. Since fiber carbs are not digestible - and thus have no appreciable calories - they could be ignored/eliminated. In primal/paleo, however, the…

I just googled 'paleo flow chart'. I'm sure one of the web sites have a version you can either print out or buy.

While quinoa is technically a seed, not a grain, it has virtually the same nutritional make-up as any other grain. Anyone who is dieting using a primal/paleo approach generally avoids it. People on maintenance can choose for themselves.

Most beers are made from barley (a grain), but there are a few like Hefeweizen that are made with wheat. Talking about 'healthy' forms of liquor is pointless, since alcohol is a poison, but since beer is a low-proof drink made from a grain mash, it falls on the low end of tolerable booze. WIne is at the top (made from…

- Basic rule around this house is: no sweeteners unless they are surrounded by a plant. So, berries yes - agave, no. - Keep in mind that agave may be low-glycemic index in terms of other sweeteners, but it is not low-GI compared to other types of food. The insulin response may be stretched out a bit (supposedly making it…

To summarize: - rice is a grain, so no to a strict paleo/primal diet. But it is the least damaging of the grains (rice>oats>wheat>corn) so if you just HAD to have a cheat meal using grains, you're better off with sushi rather than pasta. - a sweet potato is a sweet potahto (or I yam what I yam), no matter the color.…

I don't worry about going over or under on fat or protein. The only macro you need to worry about is carbs and sugars. Set that to an appropriate setting (according to Mark Sisson, 50-100g if you are dieting, under 50g if you are shooting for ketogenesis), and make sure the carbs are coming from plants - not grains,…

Indeed. It's the breading and bad oils like canola, corn, etc. that's the problem. I saute (frying with less oil) virtually everything, varying the oil for the recipe.I use coconut oil, butter, bacon fat, olive oil or macadamia oil depending on the food.

...don't forget guacamole.....

If you want another old fart's advice - I sent you a request. I don't normally review other's diaries (I'll answer questions), I'll make an effort to in your case. :) I'll tell you where I'm coming from: I'm not specifically 'primal' or 'paleo', but a generic follower of the hunter/gatherer way of nutrition. I follow the…