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Borderline paleo food
Eating a strict paleo diet is simple; meat, veggies, eggs, nuts, seeds and a little fruit. Right? What about all those borderline foods? Are they paleo, or not?
Dairy
Dairy is a huge grey area for a lot of people following a paleo diet. Strictly speaking, a paleo diet omits all dairy, since it contains lactose and casin, which a lot of people can’t tolerate and other components, such as IGF-1 which may be harmful. Of course, dairy encompasses a huge wealth of foods, some better than others. Fermented dairy, such as kefir and traditional yoghurt, is going to be a lot better than highly processed dairy, such as skim milk. The key is to try it for yourself and find out what works for you.
Fruit
Yes, the fruit we’re encouraged to eat every day is a food I would consider borderline paleo. Fruit, being carbohydrate, is packed full of sugar. Yes, it contains vitmains and is natural – but the sugar can’t be ignored. Of course, not all fruit is equal, and whilst I’d avoid high sugar fruit like apples and melons, berries are great as they are far lower in sugar.
Safe starches
There’s been a lot of talk lately about safe starches. A safe starch is a carbohydrate that is low in anti-nutrients, such as phytates, for example sweet potatoes, plantain, yucca, tapioca, white potatoes and white rice. To slow down the glucose release, and lessen the insulin response from the carbs, they are best eaten with fat and protein. Why are these borderline? Clearly rice is a grain – and white potatoes are a nightshade. Whilst paleo is not, by definition, low carb, many people do take a low carb approach and should therefore take a considered approach with safe starches.
Non-paleo “Vegetables”
Corn on the cob and green beans might sit nicely on the plate masquerading as vegetables, but they’re not. Sweetcorn is a grain and the green beans legumes; both food groups which are excluded on a paleo diet.
Paleo sweeteners
Whilst honey and stevia might seem like far more natural options than table sugar, the fact is, in your blood stream they’re all the same. Whilst some sweeteners may more natural than others, they’re best off avoided.
Paleo baked goods
The more popular paleo becomes, the more popular paleo breads, paleo cookies and paleo cakes become. They might be made with almond meal and coconut flour, and use dates as a natural sweetener – but take care with these. They often still have a lot of sugar and are best kept as an occasional treat.
Pseudo grains
We know how bad gluten is – wheat is a grain strictly avoided on paleo. There are a lot of other pseudo grains that don’t contain gluten, that are become popular, especially amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa. Whilst a lot better than conventional grains, it’s worth bearing in mind that gluten-free and paleo aren’t the same thing!
Manufactured meat
So we know meat is paleo, but it becomes a lot more borderline when we look at things like bacon, sausages, hamburgers and cured meats. If you’ve not made them yourself, you need to know how they’ve been made, as many processes will use sugar, soy and chemicals that most definitely aren’t paleo
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Is bacon really so bad?
Whenever I even mention the b word I get called out. Yep, apparently bacon is highly processed and must be avoided at all costs.
But is it really bad?
Almost everything we eat is processed in one way or another. We buy our meat cut, or maybe ground. We buy our meat dried or frozen. When I think of processed meat, I think of meat that has been ground up, combined with chemicals and other dubious ingredients and given a completely new form and shape (think “chicken” nuggets and hot dogs). Bacon is not processed like this.
Why is bacon so different?
Bacon has been around for a long time, from the days we needed to preserve our meat to enable us to keep it for longer without it going bad. I don’t think the fact it’s preserved is the issue – the issue is how it’s preserved – and there are a lot of differences here.
Traditionally, bacon would have been preserved using salt, but since we’ve all got so worried about the wrong things being unhealthy, we now avoid sodium like the plague – so many modern techniques use ingredients that are a long way from natural, to preserve the meat.
If you’ve looked at the ingredients on packs on bacon, you’ll have seen huge differences. Looking at my local store, they offer bacon with contents between 83% and 95% pork – clearly the lower pork content bacon is to be given a wide berth.
But what about the other ingredients in packages bacon? Here are the ingredients I found, in various quantities:
- Water,
- Salt,
- Dextrose (Corn), Dextrose (Maize),
- Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (Maize)
- Sucrose, Sugar (yes – they add SUGAR to bacon!)
- Mineral Salts (450, 451, 452),
- Antioxidant (316),
- Sodium Nitrite (250).
- Food Acid (325)
But did you know you can get bacon uncured, without any of this? If you have a butcher like mine, you’ll be able to get pasture raised uncured bacon, without any of these additional ingredients.
What about nitrates?
Nitrates are a big talking point when it comes to bacon. Well, even unprocessed bacon contains nitrates naturally, and believe it or not celery is high in nitrates – and we don’t see warnings on sticks of celery. For more information on why dietary nitrates aren’t a bad thing – check out these studies: Inorganic Nitrate Suplementation Lowers Blood Pressure in Humans: Role for Nitrite-Derived NO Hypertension, 2010, 56, 274-271 and Dietary Inorganic Nitrate Improves Mitochondrial Efficiency in Humans.Cell Metabolism, 2011, 13, 149-159.
As for the sodium, when you eat a natural paleo diet – it’s often actually a good thing to get more sodium into your diet.
And the fat content?
Of course, a huge argument against bacon is the saturated fat content. Yes, bacon is a lot higher in fat than turkey. But I don’t need to tell you why eating fat is not a problem, do I?
What do you think about bacon? Do you eat it often? Where do you get yours?
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