How Many Steps?

With all the confusion that comes with the growing popularity, and subsequent permutations of Paleo, it’s important to find ways to determine what is, and is not, a healthy option for a True Paleo regime.

One easy way to make this determination is to count the number of steps it took for the item to go from it’s original form to your plate.

A bed of leafy greens? A crisp, fresh apple?  A rare, grass-fed steak?  A handful of raw walnuts?

Perfectly Paleo.

An energy bar with a long list of ingredients?  A gluten-free, dairy-free version of an ice-cream brownie sundae?   A wrap made from dehydrated coconuts and guar gum?

Hmmm… not so much.

This certainly isn’t to say that if you have the time to prepare an elaborate gourmet meal that really is true to Paleo that it would be any less so, as the point is, it’s all about the processing.

Taking ingredients, even if they might originally have been Paleo, and dehydrating them, treating them with gums to stabilize, emulsify and preserve them and then packaging them up, ready to sit on the shelf for a long period of time misses the principle of what Paleo is all about, in particular if this type of provision has become one of the mainstays of your diet.

Keep it simple by sticking to basics and you’ll not only clear up a lot of the confusion, you’ll clear your mind and body to boot!

After all, we really are what we eat!