The dash diet paleo primal fad-min

The DASH Diet

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One of the things I liked so much when I started researching about Paleo, was the ease and simplicity. The books basically tell you to eat a simple diet, of the natural foods we've evolved to eat. I found there really was nothing confusing or contentious. As well as reading the Paleo and Evolutionary health books – I read everything else I could find on nutrition. There is a book for every fad diet imaginable, with completely conflicting and confusing advice. Some of the diets just seem downright complicated to follow and devoid of any logic.

One of the best selling diet books in Australia at the moment is about the “DASH Diet”, so I couldn't resist taking a look. I've noticed the newer fad diets seem to be more closely resembling Paleo, so I always hold out hope that books like this will be about Paleo, but with a different name.

DASH stands for “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension” and is aimed at those suffering from High Blood Pressure, though it also has a significant focus on weight loss. I had high hopes when I picked up the book – but it quickly became apparent that the book is based on the flawed food pyramid. The plan recommends a diet high in fruit, low-fat dairy and whole grains. It also advises avoiding processed food and limiting (not eliminating) sugar.

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While the DASH diet is based on studies, these studies only compared three different nutritional plans. Unfortunately they don’t give the specific meal plans for each of the diets in the study, just the macro nutrient profiles – and some of the micro nutrient profiles. From this it’s apparent the DASH diet had 10% less fat than the other diets (taken entirely as Saturated fat), with the 10% added onto the protein and carbohydrate consumed. Without knowing exactly what they ate, this is rather meaningless. Cheap, commercial chocolate is high in saturated fat – as is butter – they clearly aren't equal, yet this study doesn't allow us to differentiate.

The book is full of un-Paleo recommendations such as only eating whole-grain bread, avoiding coconut oil, trimming all visible fat off meat and only eating low-fat dairy.

I'm sure someone coming from a highly processed SAD diet would (initially) see benefits on a DASH diet – but only because they had cut out processed foods, sugars and therefore reduced their carbohydrate intake. It saddens me that unwell people follow this diet in good faith – when it isn't based on good science – and certainly doesn't seem optimal.

What do you make of the DASH diet and the other fad diets out there?

The dash diet paleo primal fad-min

Whole 30 paleo network-min

Time for a New Whole 30

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With the month of May rapidly approaching, I feel it’s the ideal time for another “Whole 30”.

What is a Whole 30?

The Whole30 is another word for “strict Paleo” for a month. This is a popular approach recommended across the Paleosphere as a way to initially get into Paleo, to identify any food intolerances you may have, or just as a means to refocus. A Whole30 means eating lots of good quality meat, eggs, vegetables a little fruit, nuts and seeds. Grains, legumes, dairy and alcohol have no place on the Whole30!

Why am I Doing Another Whole 30?

Whilst I have been following Paleo for a couple of years now, I’ve found I’ve recently got a bit lazy with my nutrition and have been having lots of the same meals over and over. Whilst there’s nothing specifically wrong with this, it’s not the most interesting approach, and probably isn’t meeting all of my micronutrient requirements. I’ve also been having dried fruit more often than I should (why did I have to discover medjool dates?)

I’ve been keen to try an auto-immune protocol for a while, so incorporating this into my Whole30 will work well. I often forget to my supplements, especially Vitamin D, so for this month I'm going to be religious about it – good timing on the Vitamin D as we’re seeing a lot less sun, as we approach winter here in Australia.

With an auto-immune protocol I will also be omitting Nightshades (tomatoes, capsicum and peppers – since I don’t have potatoes they won’t be a new omission for me) and nuts and seeds. Some people skip eggs too on an autoimmune protocol, but I think that’s a step too far for me. I don’t have any particular health issues I’m looking to clear up since Paleo took care of my Asthma, but I have suspicious I'd fare a lot better without Nightshades. All will become clear!

How to do a Whole30

The Whole30 is so easy to do, but it does require some organisation. If it’s your introduction into Paleo, it’s a good idea to clean out your cupboards and fridge before you start – get rid of anything that reminiscent from a SAD diet and make sure you have all of the herbs, spices and ingredients on hand for the coming month. There’s a fantastic step by step guide in the Whole30 ebook explaining how to go about this for success.

I use the Whole30 as a culinary challenge – I use it as an excuse to try lots of difference recipes. In fact, the last Whole30 was such an enjoyable experience last time as we ate a different meal every single day – something I’m very far from at the moment!

My Whole30 approach is to spend some time on Sundays working out what’s happening during the coming week. When I know what I'm doing each day, I flick through my Paleo Cookbooks and assign a meal to each day. I then go out and buy all of the ingredients I’ll need for that week (taking a lot of care to ensure everything will be as fresh as possible on the day I have planned to eat it!) and prep anything I can in advance. This time I’m going to quadruple everything I cook, to stock the freezer up with lots of different lunch options to take into work.

Strict Paleo Whole 30 Days

I'm going to track my Whole30 using Cronometer, so I can get a good assessment of where my macro and micro nutrient ratios sit over the month. This month should give me some good tools (and recipes!) to tweak my diet after the Whole30.

Fortunately my house mate is also very keen to do another Whole30 – sharing the shopping, cooking and culinary inspiration certainly makes it a lot easier!

Have you done a Whole30 yet? How did you find it? Care to join me for a Whole30 May?

Living in a SAD Beige World colours of paleo

Living in a SAD Beige World

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Whenever I watch the Biggest Loser and they show the former diet of the contestants, I'm always struck by the colours of the food. Almost everything they ate is beige, brown and anaemic yellow in colour, broken up with the black of the cokes they drank (usually diet, clearly that worked) and a few fluorescent coloured sweets and cakes.

Burger buns, bread, pizza, chips, fries, crisps, popcorn, pastries, cakes, biscuits, sugary milky coffee – it’s all virtually the same colour. It seems utterly depressing eating beige foods the entire time; it must start turn your World, well, beige after a while.

Paleo Primal v SAD Colours

Contrast that with a healthy Paleo or Primal diet where virtually every colour seems to be represented.  Certain colours are actually attributed to certain properties – for example the vibrant orange foods like Carrots and Capsicum provide Beta Carotene and dark green vegetables are rich in Vitamin K. It’s not just pretty, eating lots of different colours really is essential for a good nutrient intake.

How colourful is your diet? Could you live in a beige world?

Weston A Price Foundation Conference New Zealand Australia Events Sally Fallon-min

Weston A Price v The Paleo Diet

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I went across to Auckland, New Zealand at the weekend to hear Sally Fallon-Morell, of the Weston A. Price Foundation, speak.

As with the Melbourne Sugar lectures, the audience was full of people new to the concept that the government approved low-fat diet is not the right approach. It is great to see so many people interested in making changes to their diet and I find it encouraging how many people were in attendance.

I meet up with Julianne Taylor at the talk – and I also meet and spoke Paleo with Rodney Hide. There’s nothing like being able to have real-life conversations on your favourite topic, is there? After the talk Rodney introduced me to Sally, which having had her book Nourishing Traditions for such a long time, was a real privilege.

WAPF-Paleo-Weston A Price Sally Fallon-min

Whilst there are some important differences between the Paleo style diet that I follow and the WAPF diet, I think it’s more useful to focus on the similarities, of which there are many. Whilst I believe a Paleo style diet is the optimal nutrition plan, if anyone were to convert from a SAD diet to a WAPF plan, I think they would see tremendous health benefits. If they then went one small step further to a Paleo or Primal diet, I think they’d see even more health benefits.

There are a number of principles that are the essence of the nutrition recommended by the WAPF.

FIRST PRINCIPLE: No refined or denatured foods

So much SAD food is refined or modified in some way;  sugar, flour, industrial seed oils, HFCS and so many more. If people did just one thing differently, completely removing these products from their diet would surely be the most beneficial. On this point Paleo/ Primal and WAPF are in complete agreement.

SECOND PRINCIPLE: Every diet contained animal products

As with Paleo, the WAPF believe that a healthy diet needs to include animal products and an optimal diet can’t exclusively contain plant food. Organ meats were mentioned a lot in the talk as an important source of many nutrients.

THIRD PRINCIPLE: Nutrient Density

The primitive diets studies by Weston Price were far richer in nutrients than much of the food available today. Mineral content in soil is depleted so many produce just don’t have the same nutrient density. This is where selecting good quality food comes in. Organic, home grown and grass-fed all promote far better nutrient density than the same items produced from intensive farming. Again, this is completely in line with Paleo.

FOURTH PRINCIPLE: All cultures cooked some or most of their food; but always ate some of their animal foods raw.

Weston Price noted that whilst primitive cultures did cook animal products, they also all ate some raw. This came down to raw dairy, which, whilst I agree it is absolutely better than pasteurised dairy, I find a big grey area. The talk focused on comparing processed dairy to raw dairy – where clearly raw dairy is the winner. Excluding dairy wasn't discussed, which is the approach taken by a lot of the Paleo community, myself included.  My areas of concern with dairy are around the insulin response and the growth hormone IGF-1, which weren't mentioned at all during the talk. I’d like to come to a more definitive view point on dairy, so had hoped to hear compelling reasons why dairy should be included. As it stands, until I find more conclusive evidence, I'm still of the view that dairy is best excluded.

FIFTH PRINCIPLE: High Levels of Enzymes and Beneficial Bacteria

This focuses on foods that provide enzymes to promote good digestion & metabolic health. Whilst raw dairy is noted as a good source, the super-foods here seems to be lacto-fermented foods such as Sauerkraut. The take-away point for me here is on fermented foods – something I need to make a conscious effort to include in my diet far more.

SIXTH PRINCIPLE: Seeds, grains, legumes & nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened

This principle starts off in line with Paleo, observing how components such as anti-nutrients, phytates and lectins in grains are not desirable. Where Paleo excludes grains and legumes altogether, WAPF promotes preparing these foods to minimize the damage. As with the dairy issue, I didn't hear any compelling reasons why it is better to have grains in this form, than not at all. This is the main point on which Paleo/ Primal varies to the WAPF – whilst I’m certain people transitioning from a SAD diet to a WAPF would see significant improvements by preparing grains and legumes – I think their health would be far more optimal foregoing the grains and legumes altogether.

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SEVENTH PRINCIPLE: Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% of calories, but only about 4 of calories come from polyunsaturated fatty acids.

This is a key point on which Paleo and WAPF are in agreement. I would probably promote this as the key point, since it concerns the importance of saturated fat and the dangers of the industrial seed oils.

EIGHTH PRINCIPLE: Nearly Equal Amounts of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fatty Acids

This is also essentially in line with Paleo, stressing the importance of maintaining a good Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio. This comes down to making the right choices in choosing quality meat and avoiding seed oils.

NINTH PRINCIPLE: All diets contained some salt

I think this point is hard to accept for people transitioning from Conventional Wisdom, where we are told how dangerous salt it. Once the processed food is removed the natural levels of salt remaining are often very low, so supplementing with a good mineral salt is very beneficial.

TENTH PRINCIPLE: All traditional cultures made use of bones, usually as bone broth

Another point I need to work on, bone broths are such a great source of nutrients, easy and cheap to make and very satisfying.

ELEVENTH PRINCIPLE: Traditional cultures made provisions for future generations

This principle was very interesting and concerns issues such as optimal spacing of children, nutrition of pregnant and nursing women and teaching nutrition to the younger generations. This seems to be all too often ignored or not considered in modern society.

Paleo vs Weston A Price?

I learnt a lot from this talk and it was a great reminder that I need to make sure I make provisions to include more organ meat, fermented foods and bone broth in my diet. I plan to make sure I include these regularly.

Whilst I completely agree that prepared grains are far superior to their refined counterparts – and that raw dairy is far superior to pasteurised, I didn't hear anything to make me consider changing my anti-grains, legumes and dairy stance.

What do you think about the Weston A Price principles? Do you agree with their stance on dairy and grains?

Butter guilt trip paleo diet-min

Butter Guilt Trip

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Here in Australia a commercial that I find particularly irritating, is for a brand of Margarine, MeadowLea.  Their advert is centred on concerned mothers promising to switch from butter to margarine.  If the product was pixelated out and the words replaced, you could easily think the mothers were pledging to give up hard drugs for the sake of their families – such is butter vilified in the advert.

The MeadowLea website explains how Saturated Fats are bad fats which increase cholesterol in the blood and should be limited.  They list fatty meats, butter, chicken skin, cream, full cream milk, cheese, coconut oil and palm oil in the danger category.  (I wonder how much longer until the lipid hypothesis is finally laid to rest?)

The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated categories – which they say can be included in “everyday healthy eating”, include margarine spreads, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil and cottonseed oil.  So basically they pretty much recommend the complete reverse to Paleo, as you’d expect from a company making money from selling margarine.

Think of the Children!

Their new campaign is to encourage Australian families to improve their diet by swapping butter for (their brand of) margarine – and once enough people make the pledge* they will plant seed gardens in children’s hospitals in Australia.

From a corporate perspective, it’s actually a pretty smart campaign.  They know mothers tend to procure the families groceries and therefore control the family diet.  They also know mothers are concerned about their families’ health.  Tying the campaign in with children’s hospital almost puts an extra pressure on mothers; it almost feels as though if families don’t stop eating butter, they won’t be helping out children’s hospitals – how selfish.  I also think tying the campaign in with hospitals will make people subconsciously associate their choice of butter or margarine, with ill health – particularly the ill health of children.  “Swap butter for margarine and we’ll build an animal rescue centre” just wouldn't have the same emotional pull, would it?

Imagine the outcry if a cigarette company promised to build hospital wards, if enough people converted their families from non-smokers to smokers?  Surely there is enough information in the public domain now, for substantial objection to the health claims of a margarine manufacturer?  Yet they are allowed to guilt-trip mothers into making ill-informed decisions into the nutrition of their families.

Butter guilt trip paleo diet-min

 Mainly Natural Sources

In case you wondered, the ingredients for MeadlowLea are:

Vegetable Oils 65% (containing 52% Canola & Sunflower Oil), water, salt, <1% (emulsifiers (soy lecithin, 471), preservative (202), food acid (lactic)), milk solids, maltodextrin, natural colour (beta-carotene), vitamins A & D, flavour.

I'm very curious as to what the mysterious 13% of vegetable oils is, that isn't listed?  Their site and labelling seem very coy on this.  But hey, “99% of the ingredients in MeadowLea are from natural sources” – so it must be good!  Using that logic, it must be positively healthy to add Petroleum to lunch, given that it’s a natural product from natural sources.

The typical ingredients in butter:

Cream, water.

People only seem to eat margarine because they buy into the health claims – I'm yet to hear of anyone who actually prefers the taste.  Once the mainstream come to accept they've been mislead on fats, I can’t see how companies making products like margarine will be able to survive.  Campaigns like this are perhaps an inevitable part of the companies’ frantic journey through the unwinding of the lipid hypothesis.

Have you seen the advert yet?  Did you feel similarly irritated by it?

*If you happen to look at their website and see the number of people who have made the promise, reduce the number by one.  I accidently clicked the promise button – and they don’t have a button for un-promise’s.  As much as I don’t like breaking promises, this is one I will take pride in breaking – starting with lots of animal fat for dinner.
24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet-min

24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet

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Are you making any of these Paleo Diet Mistakes?

1. Increase Fruit Intake

When starting any “healthy eating” regime, so many people seem to make mistakes, like replace the junk food with endless fruit salads, fruit smoothies and snacks of whole fruit. Just because it’s natural, it doesn’t mean it’s a good choice. Fruit is very high in fructose, something that should be minimised to prevent inflammation, insulin response and ultimately conversion into fat storage.

2. Failing to Make Time to Get Organised

If you’re organised, eating healthily doesn’t have to take much time, but prior planning is essential. Being organised and having the ingredients you need at hand, meals planned and contingency plans in place for tricky situations (such as social events) is essential for success. If you find yourself hungry at a party you knew you were going to, you haven’t set yourself up to make the right food choices. I've just finished my first book, the Paleo Breakfast Recipe Book – the aim of this book is to make delicious Paleo Breakfast's possible and easy with a bit of organisation. I'd love to hear what you think of it!

24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet-min

 

3. Expect to Lose 20kg/ Gain an Athletic Body Composition in 7 Days

I read about a lot of people who are disappointed that they’ve been following a Paleo eating plan for a week and have not lost any weight/ changed their body composition yet. This isn’t “a diet” for short term cosmetic benefits – it’s a lifestyle you can follow for the rest of your life, leading to long-term health benefits. If you’re looking for a diet to get into your bikini in 4-days time (before returning to your previous way of eating and exercising), you’ve come to the wrong place!

4. Try to do Junk Food Paleo

It’s not realistic to expect to replace a junk food diet with paleo equivalents. Whilst you might be able to find packages food that are broadly Paleo these are no substitute for properly prepared foods – with good quality ingredients. There is a place for packaged “Paleo” foods, such as when on the road – but these times should make the exception, rather than the rule.

5. Keep Old SAD Foods in the Pantry

There might be hundreds of dollars worth of pasta, packet meals and bread-making ingredients in the pantry. It might seem wasteful to throw it away – but to really commit to a better way of eating, there is no place for this in your kitchen. Donate it or throw it away, but don’t “use it up” first, or hang on to it “just in case”. Commit. Get rid. Restock.

6. Overdoing Nuts

Nuts are Paleo, but they are calories too, lots of them. It’s all too easy to snack on a few too many nuts. Some nuts also don’t have favourable Omega 3/ Omega 6 ratios – another reason to go easy and limit the nuts to no more than a very small handful each day.

7. Being Scared of Fat

It’s probably not surprising, but after years of being told about the evils of fat, many people are scared of it. Despite reading and understanding the Paleo concepts, when it comes to eating, some people are still wary – and may cut the fat off meat, or cook in as little coconut oil as possible. I think it just takes time and reinforcement – make sure your diet contains adequate fat.

8. Ignoring Portion Control

Calories do matter. I read so many comments where people have been strictly Paleo, but are not losing (or are even putting on) weight. It’s not a correct assumption that you can eat whatever you like – certainly not when you are overweight.

9. Become Fixated with a Certain “Brand” of Paleo

There are lots of different ways of eating, within the Paleo spectrum. Some people may do very low carb for instance, and others may follow an auto-immune protocol. If it isn’t working, move on and try something new. To stick to a set prescription, which clearly isn’t working for you, makes no sense. Experiment. Find what works.

10. Let one Slip Ruin the Day/ Week/ Month

Sometimes things do go wrong. You ate something that wasn’t Paleo, by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of using this as an excuse to eat more SAD food, it is the perfect opportunity to start fresh and move on. There is nothing wrong with occasionally having non-Paleo food, providing it isn’t allowed to ruin the rest of your efforts.

11. It’s a Science not a Renactment

You hear people who start to question everything through Paleo lenses. Computers and modern medicine weren’t around in the Paleolithic era – so we shouldn’t use them? This may be true, but we have the benefit of modern science and research to combine with Paleo, to get the best possible results – it would be foolish not to take advantage.

12. Don’t Sleep Properly

Sleep is such an important part of a healthy lifestyle. I’d argue it’s actually the most important factor. Without sleep, you might be eating a perfect Paleo diet and have a great fitness regime, but you won’t be in the best possible health. Without adequate sleep your body mechanisms won’t function efficiently, you won’t recover properly from exercise – and you won’t deal with stress as well. Working out why you aren’t sleeping properly and taking steps to resolve it will work with your Paleo lifestyle to bring your health forward in leaps and bounds.

13. Trying to Make Things Fit

You know your morning skinny latte or daily glass of wine isn’t in the spirit of Paleo, but you try to make it fit (all those antioxidants must be Paleo, right?). If you have to justify it, you probably shouldn’t have it – at least not so often.

14. Avoid the Sun

There seem to be more studies every week showing us just how crucial Vitamin D is – yet so many people still avoid the sun and cover themselves in sunscreen at the mere mention of the word “sun”. Even in Australia, at the right time of day, for the right duration sun exposure is a good thing.

Paleo-Outdoors-Sunshine mistakes 680-min

15. Refuse to Cook

Not cooking seriously limits eating choices and will makes it so much harder to eat well. Cooking doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming – it can actually be relaxing, fast and very rewarding.

16. Turn a Blind Eye to Social Occasions and Restaurants

It’s all too easy to let a few poor choices slip in when eating out socially – but these can really add up. With steps such as finding out the food options in advance and not going out hungry, you can make good choices and minimise the damage. If it’s too hard to eat differently to everyone else, perhaps arranging social events that aren’t food based – or offering to cook for friends will be a better alternative.

17. Obsessing on a Weekly Cheat

Paleo should not be boring or restrictive – if it is, you need to introduce more variety and try new recipes. When a planned weekly cheat becomes the focus of your week, it’s time to address what isn’t working and fix it. With a varied Paleo diet thoughts of SAD food should be very few and far between.

18. Don’t Move

Fitness is an important part of a Paleo lifestyle. Whilst nutrition is a huge part, the importance of being active and lifting heavy things once in a while should not be ignored. Paleo doesn’t begin & end with food  tweet this quote

19. Don’t Take Measurements

When you feel well, it’s hard to remember how you felt before. If you have blood tests and take a note of your measurements and how you feel every few months, it will be obvious how well Paleo is working for you and what you can improve on.

20. Listen to Conventional Wisdom

Following Conventional Wisdom often isn’t very compatible with a Paleo diet and could get very confusing. Once you decide to stick to Paleo, it’s helpful to filter out many of the health stories in mainstream media, or just read them for entertainment value.

21. Fail to Read and Research

Those who stick to a healthy lifestyle seem to be those who understand the impact it has on their health. The more you read and research, the more you can tweek your lifestyle and improve your health. Following a lifestyle based on someone else’s example, without an understanding of the principles, will be very hard to stick to and follow properly.

22. Don’t Tell Others

In any change, it’s really important to have support. Family and friends will (hopefully) accommodate your nutritional wishes and may even follow your example. If you’re finding it difficult, having a support network is invaluable. Finding others following Paleo is great way of building a support network of people going through the same as you.

23. Not Persevering

Changing diet can be hard. Carb flu is a distinct possibility when moving from a SAD diet, to a Paleo diet. It might feel all too easy to give up at this point – when in reality a bit of perseverance will see this stage end and everything will get easier. Sticking with it, however hard it feels, however many mistakes you make, will be so worthwhile.

24. Hanging onto an Old Favourite

Diet Coke immediately springs to mind as something people often struggle to give up. Products like this seem extremely addictive, but certainly aren’t working with your Paleo nutrition towards your health goals. Whether it’s changing routine, finding an alternative – or going cold turkey, it’s time to let go.

What mistakes would you add to the list?

Paleo Doughnuts donuts recipe sugar gluten free-min

Paleo Doughnuts

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Why pick the fake version when you can have Peach Doughnuts instead?

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PINK DOUGHNUTS INGREDIENTS: Donut: Enriched Unbleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron as Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamin Mononitrate, Enzyme, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Palm Oil, Water, Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Whey (a milk derivative), Skim Milk, Yeast, Contains less than 2% of the following: Salt, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda), Defatted Soy Flour, Wheat Starch, Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Cellulose Gum, Soy Lecithin, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative), Enzyme, Colored with (Turmeric and Annatto Extracts, Beta Carotene), Eggs; Strawberry Icing: Sugar, Water, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Contains 2% or less of: Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Corn Starch, Salt, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Sodium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Citric Acid, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Agar, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Natural and Artificial Flavor, Red 40.

PEACH DOUGHNUTS INGREDIENTS: Peach

I know which one I'd rather!

Paleo Doughnuts donuts recipe sugar gluten free-min

12 Ways to Eat Paleo on a Budget primal diet ideas suggestions-min

12 Ways to Eat Paleo on a Budget

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It seems to be a common belief that eating a Paleo diet is expensive.  It definitely can be costly, but there are many ways you can eat good quality Paleo foods, without spending a fortune.  There’s also the consideration of your future healthcare costs – I like to see my Paleo nutrition as an investment in my lifelong health (not to mention the cost of sick days I've not required). So, doing Paleo on a Budget?

These are a few ways I've found to keep it Paleo – and economical.

1. Buy less popular cuts of meat.

The popular cuts are expensive because everyone wants them.  White meats like chicken breast and tender meat (from the parts of the animal that do little work) such as loin and fillet are the most expensive, as they can be cooked quickly with good results.

Whilst a lot of the cheaper cuts could be tough (if you cooked them in the same way as the expensive meats), when you change how you cook you can make the meat amazingly tender and juicy.  Slow cooking is a great way to cook these types of cuts, without making them tough and dry.  It almost seems a waste to make casseroles and stews without using mutton, shoulder, brisket, chuck, blade, skirt or topside steak!  Most of the animals we eat can (and should) be eaten nose to tail – even the bones are great to make bone broths and stocks with.

Chicken Necks paleo on a budget-min

Chicken necks – a cheap option

My butcher doesn't display the less popular cuts, but can always provide me with inexpensive cuts like forequarter chops, pork hock, beef and pork cheeks and organ meats like liver and heart.  I've not yet been brave enough, but brains, onglet (from inside a cows ribcage), pigs trotters and tripe are also used in recipes and have great nutritional profiles!  I get bones for next to nothing from my butcher.  I've also found kangaroo to be a really cheap meat here in Australia.

2.       Move away from the supermarket/ grocery store

Whilst it’s definitely quicker and easier to get everything you need from under one roof, it is rarely the cheapest option.  They are less likely to have the cheaper, more unusual cuts of meat and non-uniform vegetables – and you’re not likely to have much idea where to produce came from.  Where they may sell some items at very cheap, competitive prices – often the price reflects the quality.  Look to butchers, greengrocers, farms, health food stores, online stores and farmers markets.

3.       Research

Don’t just buy from the first place you find, ask around and find out about other local sources.  Prices vary significantly between shops/ farms/ online stores – find out which source is best for which item.  I was surprised to find a few things are actually cheaper to have shipped from America, instead of buying locally – even with the shipping fees.

4.       Buy in bulk

Big-ticket items such as coconut oil vary wildly in price, and often have sales and discounts for buying in bulk.  Look out for offers and stock up when there is a chance.  Another great saving can be had by buying large quantities of meat – such as half a cow.  If you have a freezer this will keep for a long time and you’ll have a great variety in different cuts.  You can join together with friends to save even more by sharing the meat; perhaps you can even come to an arrangement where your friends store some for you (if you don’t have a big enough freezer).  There’s also a time saving to be had as grocery trips won’t need to be so frequent with a fully stocked freezer.

5.       Buy at the end of the day

Farmers markets and stores often reduce prices significantly just before they close for the day.  If you delay your shopping you can often save a lot of money with some great bargains; just make sure you freeze or use the produce straight away before it passes its best.

6.       Buy direct

Cut out the middle man and buy directly from the farm!  There may be a CSA scheme near you, a farmers market, or a farm shop.  Not only can this be cheaper, but you’ll know exactly where your food comes from and will have a lot more confidence in the quality.

7.       Eat seasonally

If you want to eat strawberries in the middle of winter – you have to pay for it!  Keep an eye on what is in season and adjust your menus accordingly.  Not only is eating in season cheaper, the produce is likely to be local and there are many biological arguments to support only eating food that is in season.

8.       Plan your week

So much food is thrown away – a huge waste of money.  I now spend time at the weekend working out what I’m doing for the week ahead and planning what I will eat each day.  I then buy just the food I need for those meals (or plan to defrost meat from the freezer).  This has significantly reduced waste and saves a lot of time too.

9.       Be flexible

If you’d planned beef, but lamb is on special – be flexible and take advantage of the offer.  Not only will you save a lot of money, but you might also discover a great new dish you’d never have tried otherwise!

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10.   Make more

When I cook, I always make more than I need for one meal.  I then either eat it again for dinner the next night (or even breakfast), or freeze it ready for an instant home cooked meal in the future.

11.   Stop buying lunches and coffees

I don’t know how expensive lunches are where you live, but here in Sydney buying lunch is about $10 a day – and despite making a Paleo-friendly choice, I'm always dubious about the quality of the ingredients.  I now make lots of lunches at the weekend and bring these into work each day.  I've probably saved enough to buy a grass-fed cow since I've been doing this, as each lunch costs under $2 to make – and has far superior ingredients.

Fortunately I don’t like coffee – but I'm amazed how much people seem to spend on this each and every day, it seems like such an extravagance when they could easily make their own – or dare I suggest drink water instead (spot the non-coffee drinker)

12.   Stop eating out

Eating out is so expensive and is so often such a compromise on nutrition – particularly when you have to please non-Paleo friends.  I've recently been having friends over for dinner – and going to their houses for dinner.  I find this so much more enjoyable.  You get to showcase your cooking, make food that is Paleo, from great ingredients – and perhaps even demonstrate to your friends exactly what Paleo is.  Once you rotate with a few different friends you’re likely to have saved a lot of money – and probably had far more enjoyable evenings!

Do you find Paleo expensive?  What tips have you found to reduce the cost?

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Paleo Babies v SAD Babies

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I went to a first birthday party at the weekend, which was, as you might imagine, crowded with babies, toddlers and small children.  It was actually quite hard to work out which baby went with which grown-up – I’m sure lots of the other guests were probably thinking some belonged to me too!

I've not been around children much since I found Paleo, but knew the whole junk food thing was likely to be an issue with small children.  However, what I saw, was very different to what I was expecting.  And sadly, not in a good way.

I expected to see babies picking food up from the floor and putting it in their mouth.  I expected to see toddlers demanding brightly coloured and attractively presented party food.  I expected to see some children being given junk food and some children being given real food.

What I saw was far more upsetting.

The infants were interested in gaining possession of the squeaky giraffe.  Opening the door.  Closing the door.  Opening the door.  Closing the door.  Sliding on the wooden floor.  My car keys.  Trying to reach the toy at the very bottom of the toy box.  They were not interested in the party food.  A few of the babies were interested in the shiny colourful chip packets, but not the contents.

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The parents however, continually gave the small children chips and biscuits and sweets.  The children didn't ask – the parents just gave.  The parents genuinely seemed to think they were being kind, giving the children something nice at a party.  When given this food the children stopped their exploring, ate the food – clearly enjoying it (it’s designed to taste good after all) – and either resumed their playing, or indicated they wanted more.  Hardly surprising once they’d been given that first taste.

What I was most shocked about was seeing parents giving party “food” to other people’s small children.  In fact, this seemed to happen before they gave the food to their own child.  It seemed to be done as an act of good manners, much like opening the door for someone instead of going through it yourself, first.  I didn't once see a parent ask another parent if it would be ok to offer the toddler some (soy!) chips.  I didn't see any parents looking concerned that someone else was giving their child party “food” either.

I would have loved to have seen the blood sugar levels of these babies throughout the party.  Lots of the babies started to get tired and irritable towards the end of the party, which seemed expected and normal by the parents.  I can’t help wondering how much of this was “normal” and how much was impacted by the huge (especially relative to their small size) sugar rush they’d been fed.  Do strict Paleo-fed babies get over-tired as regularly, I wonder?

One mother decided her baby was teething and needed to chew on a breadstick to help, offering breadsticks to any other babies who might have the same complaint.  I'm quite sure our ancestors got through cutting teeth without the need for bread; wouldn't bones be something more effective to chew on in this situation?  Surely giving a teething baby bread, just creates other problems?

I realise when you have children you can’t control what other parents do.  But I thought you’d be in complete control of what your own child ate.  Are you supposed to make a speech at the start of a party, expressly forbidding any well-meaning friends from feeding your child?  Should you hand out cards to everyone with these rules?  Does someone sell baby-grows with the slogan “Don't Feed Me!  I'm Paleo”?

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I imagine it’s could be hard to explain to other parents why you don’t want your child to eat grains, sugars, dairy and processed foods.  Particularly when talking to parent who feeds their child a CW “healthy” diet of organic whole grains and low fat foods.  I’d hate to be perceived to be criticising other parents – though I guess this is exactly what I am doing in this post!  Perhaps I would take the cowardly way out and pretend my child had severe allergies to gluten and dairy.  People often seem to be a lot more sympathetic about allergies than they are about choosing to omit certain “food” groups.

I think my main issue is that at such a young age children are completely dependent on their parents for their nutritional requirements.  It’s also, I’d imagine, the most crucial stage in their development.  I just wish more parents would understand that their baby has no requirement for grains or processed foods.  They've never had them before – they don’t know what they taste like – they certainly don’t crave chips!  Once a child is old enough to think logically for themselves I think a degree of responsibility can pass over to them for their nutrition.  But this certainly doesn't happen before they can run – or even walk!

I can’t remember if it was Sarah Fragoso or Chrissy Gower speaking at the Ancestral Health Symposium last year about their children and eating Paleo.  One of the was describing how her child had been strictly Paleo since birth and the lady at the check-out had commented on her surprise that the child was not asking for candy.  She replied that her child didn't know what it was, having never had it before.  This really got me thinking, if you don’t know what something is, you won’t miss it – or need it.  I think there is an argument to let older children try SAD food, but when the child is so young they can’t even speak or walk, I absolutely think these foods should be strictly absent from their diet.

Anyway, I don’t have children.  What would I know?  Perhaps when I do I’ll realise how completely impractical and ridiculous my nutrition ideas are and start buying bulk packs of bread sticks and cereal with pictures of cartoon characters on the box.  I kind of doubt it though.

I’d love to hear your comments on this.  If you have small children, how do you deal with other parents?  Is it common for other well meaning adults to feed your child?

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Seaweed

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I love looking around my local Asian supermarket.  I found a whole section of seaweed and seaweed related products (though the products seem to contain lots of ingredients that are far removed from Paleo).  Seaweed is something I've never had at home before – and certainly haven’t cooked with – and I'm curious to try.

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Seaweed is supposed to be a great source of iodine that is otherwise hard to obtain through diet, but which plays a crucial role in the thyroid.  It contains lots of different health promoting minerals.

I've been looking into what I can do with different types of Seaweed.  Apparently dulse granules can be sprinkled on many foods and nori can be used to make paleo wraps!  Kelp is supposed to be good as a snack on its own.

Next time I venture near the Asian grocery store, I'm definitely going to buy some!

Have you incorporated Seaweed into your diet?  What is a good type and dish to start experimenting with?  I’d be very interested to hear your seaweed comments, below!

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