Paleo- Inspired vs True Paleo
As much as I may sometimes come across as being dogmatic at times, I do recognize the significance approaching one’s path to becoming completely Paleo including some non Paleo foods, within a few parameters.
For instance, if you’re someone who prefers to take it in stages, I see nothing wrong with a model in which perhaps gluten is omitted the first week, but the rest of one’s diet remains the same. Then, perhaps in week two, diary is also omitted, and so on, until which point one has become completely Paleo and allows one full month at 100%.
The entire time, the focus would be getting toward a place where all meals, including breakfast and snacks, are comprised of 40-50% veggies and sometimes some fruit, and 50-60% equally divided between natural fats and wild proteins.
To me, this approach would fairly be called Paleo inspired, or Paleo based and I think it’s a fantastic way of going about changing the approach to what you eat and how you move.
What I’d really disagree with would be going from the Standard American Diet to making slight changes (using almond flour and coconut oil to make ‘Paleo’ pancakes on a daily basis, or eating ‘Paleo’ brownies every night for dessert) and then coining one’s approach as Paleo.
Really, that’s no different and no more healthy than the idea that eating gluten free breads, cookies and pastas on a daily basis is a healthy way to go.
Someone who’s on their journey to Paleo and has a lunch made up of wild salmon, arugula, avocado and a little quinoa (not Paleo, but used as an example of a ‘partly’ Paleo meal), or something like the meal pictured above, is in far different place than someone who eats a sandwich made of ‘Paleo bread, bacon, grass-fed cheese, lettuce and tomato’ with a ‘Paleo pumpkin muffin’ for dessert.
Take it in steps, be patient and make True Paleo the end goal and watch your health improve.
Alternatively, don’t; but please don’t go this route and announce that ‘Paleo didn’t work’ because your skin didn’t clear up, your migraine headaches didn’t go away and you didn’t lose any weight.
In that case, it wasn’t Paleo that didn’t work, it was ‘eating a gluten-free version of the SAD that didn’t work.
Big difference.
