Once per week?

Twice?

Just how much is too much?   

Honestly, I’d have a very hard time giving a specific number for frequency; rather, I’d suggest approaching it as I address all Paleo foods:  with balance.

Similar to the idea that one would be better off having spinach one evening with dinner, broccoli the next and rapini the next instead of spinach all three nights in a row, it would be to one’s advantage to have grass fed beef one night, then perhaps some wild salmon the next and free range turkey on the third day.

The more balance and variety the better, not just for your body but for your taste buds!

When I asked her how and why that came to pass, she explained that he’d  been having some digestive issues and took it upon himself to learn more about how certain foods in his diet might be triggering some negative consequences.

How cool is that?

I asked her to share this pic so that I could use it to illustrate this very blog topic.

While I’m not a mom (of human children) myself, I’ve worked with enough moms and dads of teens to know that the going is not always exactly easy when it comes to getting kids to go Paleo some, let alone, all of the time.  

One piece of advice I’ll often suggest is to simply lead by example and let the kids follow, rather than an approach where the parent is is too in-your-face about it.  The latter approach seems to do quite well in not getting kids to hop aboard the Paleo bandwagon! 

Paleo can be done by people of all ages;  yes, it’s safe for anyone from the age of infancy to elderly adult.  We’re all human and are all meant to be eating the same thing (food) and to not eat the same things (items that are not food).

Don’t underestimate your childrens’ ability to learn about their own diet and nutrition and allow them to do their own research independently.  You might learn a thing or two in the process, too!

Grilled fish ‘tacos’ served in lettuce, with no cheese, sour cream, rice or beans.   They came automatically with tomato, shredded cabbage and avocado.

Of course, I double checked to make sure the fish hadn’t been marinated in anything with soy or gluten, and not only did the manager verbally assure me that it hadn’t, he produced a binder filled with nutritional info which supported what he’d told me.

Imagine the day when we can go into any restaurants from casual cafes to three star Michelin establishments and know that we can stay Paleo without making alterations to the menu!

Why not?

It’s not at all uncommon in many parts of the country to easily find a vegan option, or vegetarian, or gluten free…so let’s all keep making our voices heard until more and more places keep listening!

After recently having a close family member rushed to the E/R and then having to spend the following three days in ICU before ultimately being released with a clean bill of health, thankfully, it really brought to light the importance of having an advocate to speak on your behalf, regardless of whether you’re critical or not.

Of course, the idea of having an advocate spans the gamut from healthcare to insurance to patient rights, but I’m not addressing that.  I’m sure you can guess where this is going… straight to food.

Because I was with my family member from the get go, I was able to make a big fuss about ensuring all records indicated his allergy to gluten, soy and dairy.   This was one situation where I didn’t feel remotely concerned about not being Paleo preachy!

Much to my surprise, he did actually receive some relatively acceptable meals- baked chicken and steamed squash for one meal and a veggie  and egg white omelette for another.

However, if someone doesn’t think about it in advance, and of course, if someone’s potentially on the verge of the worst happening, the last thing on their family’s minds, rightly so, would be what they’re eating.

So, let’s take a little control here to do our best to prep for the worst.  Make sure everyone around you knows your diet, your foods, your nutrition and then, at the very least, you’re doing the best to hedge your bets that even in the hospital, you can stay Paleo.

Of course, it’s always nicer if a friend or family member can bring in some food from the ‘outside’ when it’s appropriate, but once again, being as Paleo-prepared as possible will serve to come in handy here, too.

Check out Healthy Living Magazine and  Dr. Hayes’  website for more!

We always share a friendly smile, but we’ve never really had a conversation.  

Until today.

Not sure why, but that’s not important.  In less than ten minutes I learned that she commutes to work in a grocery store near where I live with three other people who work in the same store…and they drive two hours each way to get there.  She has two kids at home and no husband.  She joked that she’s tired and doesn’t have a day off, yet she remained pleasant and good spirited.

So think about this.   I can’t stress enough the significance of considering what we have and what others don’t and then, think about  how we can do something to help.

Of course, I link this topic to food, as is my specialty.

This woman who’s working her tail off at a job which doesn’t likely pay much cannot, ironically, afford to buy her food for her own family at the very store where she’s employed.

Let’s face it- eating real, fresh food is, in fact, more expensive than eating at fast food joints.

To be clear, I am certainly not making an argument against everything I stand for and sending out a message that we should all begin to frequent MacDonald’s in order to save a penny, nor am I going back on my belief that it’s far more important to spend more now on quality food than to pay the price later via health care bills.

Paleo can work for everyone- students on a budget, people that are super busy… but what if the money is simply not there?

I wish this were a blog post where I were asking a rhetorical question that I could follow up with a quick and witty response, but it’s not.

Rather, it’s a shout out to my readers to ask you- what can we do?   Certainly, we can all make change on a small scale which is tremendous in and of itself, but there’s got to be more.   We can all do more.

Here’s my challenge and request to you- let’s get the ball rolling and pitch some ideas about what we can collectively do to get people eating more healthfully on a grand scale.

Email me and let’s get something started!

I was reading through your blog and saw some things that surprised me; you mention goat milk yogurt, rice cereal and greens powder.  I thought those things were not part of the Paleo diet.  Are they?  I’m confused.

Thanks,

Mitch, Portland

Oh, I am so glad to have this question as a blog post.

To set the record straight, those posts in question are from when I first started blogging, in 2007 at which point I had only been Paleo for two years, and was still learning the ropes.  Back then, I would still have a yogurt from time to time, as well as rice cereal before a long race, and even a green ‘vitamin’ powder, none of which were Paleo.

I left these posts up on purpose because I feel they are reflective of my own Paleo journey and thought perhaps they’d be useful to refer to as you readers continue along your own Paleo path.

For those who know my history, completely cutting out gluten from my diet in 2004 was the biggest single epiphany moment I’ve had with regard to my diet and nutrition and I say that because it was so dramatic so quickly.  I had a gluten free diet for another year before I found Paleo and even then, it took me a good two years to then isolate all the little hidden culprits and then avoid those as well.  

Vitamin powders, prescription medicines, the occasional product with rice or peanut… it all had to go.  I don’t miss any of those things and I go to great lengths to not eat them at any cost.  This is likely already quite evident to you if you read my post the other day about manually picking out  every last surprise corn kernel that ended up on a salad I ate the other day!

I noticed huge changes after going Paleo at first, and then, the healthier, fitter and leaner I became, the more I wanted to get as close to optimal health as  I could and that’s where becoming extremely diligent about getting as close to 100% Paleo as I could.

The closer I got, the better I felt, and the positive momentum grew and grew.

I hope this helps motivate anyone who is new to Paleo and struggling a little.

It’s worth it. It’s so very, very worth it.  Can’t say so enough.

Not only are many of us confused with regard to what we should or shouldn’t be eating, we are also very flummoxed about who and which sources of information are valid.  

Got a question about your diet?  It would be nice if you could just ask your physician.  Oh, but wait, in all likelihood, he or she would not have had much in the way of nutrition classes during medical school.   A good friend of mine confided that when he was studying medicine, he could recall a single lecture about nutrition.  That’s in  his entire schooling.  One lecture.   Apart from that, the single nutrition lecture was based, of course, upon those guidelines from the  food pyramid.

Concerned about potential side effects of a medicine that you or a loved one has been given a prescription for?   No need to worry; as long as it has the FDA Stamp of approval.  (Right).

See the trend?

Doctors, pharmacists, registered dietitians amongst many other health care professionals as a whole are simply not giving us accurate information, yet we view them as experts who, in the eyes of some, can do or say no wrong.

I’m not placing blame here, as it’s easy to see why one wouldn’t challenge what they themselves are taught during both their schooling as well as practical experience.

Add to that the mass infiltration in the media about what ‘foods’ to eat, what meds to take and numerous odd diet trends, some of which are dangerous and many of which simply are not effective.

To that end, then, we all have to be quite diligent at doing our own research and becoming experts on our own bodies and state of health.

If something doesn’t make sense, start asking questions and don’t stop until you’re satisfied that you’ve received a response that makes sense to you intuitively.  Don’t settle, and don’t put yourself at risk by not doing as much investigating as you can.   

I recently had a conversation with an elderly lady who told me she was having  a bit of difficulty walking after a recent hip surgery.  I asked what had happened to make surgery necessary, and what was actually done.  She didn’t know.  All she could tell me was that she’d fallen, gone to one doctor and been told that she needed surgery to ‘clean everything up’.   She  didn’t know what her diagnosis was and didn’t seek a second opinion.  She felt that the doctor, being a doctor, was the expert and that was enough.

Listen to your body, listen to your gut response and don’t settle for feeling anything less than optimal!

Oh, and go Paleo!

Apparently, long term use can lead to ‘rare but serious events such as femur fracture, esophageal cancer and crumbling of the jaw bone’.

The article goes on to discuss when these meds are prescribed and to whom, and so on.

Granted, osteopenia and osteoporosis are serious conditions indeed which are certainly not to be taken lightly.

So, here’s a novel approach:

How about preventing your bones from getting weak in the first place? 

Radical, I know.

Just think, though…if one eats a diet which is:

• naturally high in potassium and low in sodium,
• rich in a balanced supply of fresh vegetables, fruit, wild meats and fish and healthy fats (resulting in a net alkaline pH in the body)
• one that eschews acidic-forming food like dairy, refined grains and legumes

A diet such as, ahem, the Paleo diet, one could actually create a strong skeleton that wouldn’t put one in a position to be a potential candidate to take these drugs in the first place!

To be clear, for those who may be new to Paleo, yes, if you were to look at meat in and of itself, for example, you would see that yes, it could be considered an ‘acidic food’ but (and this is a big old but) the beautiful thing about Paleo is that it’s a balance of  natural proteins, fats and carbohydrate resulting in an overall net alkaline diet.  

Grains, dairy and legumes, by the way, are far more acid forming than meat.

Go Paleo, keep your bones strong and let the issue of whether or not you may someday need to even consider bone-building meds and their dangerous consequences become a non issue!

As I cut into the  plump, moist flesh which, honestly, didn’t even really require the use of my Santoku knife (I could’ve used a butter knife), a large piece of lovely, brown, crisp skin fell off.  

I served myself a wing and a a thigh, atop some wild mache, with avocado, blanched asparagus and blueberries and then… bling!

There was the a-ha moment.

Take skin, insert leaves, meat, avo and asparagus, roll up and eat.

Now there is a wrap that has Paleo written all over it.

Why would anyone want to spoil that meal with a big wad of gluten in the form of a pita, lavash or flour tortilla?  No thanks! I’ll take the skin.. and my stomach will thank me!