What is eating a Paleo Diet ?

Eating Paleo is a dietary lifestyle of consuming real food with a focus on quality for optimal nutrition. It’s all about fueling our bodies with foods that promote good health and wellness and avoiding highly processed chemical and preservative containing manufactured foods, with their damaging and toxic effects on our bodies. The type of food we eat on a daily basis has a profound effect on not only our digestive integrity but also our present and future health and physical well being. We are exactly what we eat; a poor diet that is high in sugar and processed food in conjunction with a lack of physical activity can have serious ramifications not only on our current health but may manifest serious life threatening long term disease and illness.

Sugar addiction is without a doubt the number one vehicle to chronic poor health. Big food companies have known for years that they can increase the consumption of their products by adding large quantities of sugar and salt. Food chemists from these companies understand that eating refined foods causes cravings that lead people to want to eat more processed foods. The bottom line for most food companies is measured in dollars and cents, not in the health of their customers. Clinical research has shown that if people eat real food in balance they have less hunger and more dietary control.  Real food to the rescue!!!!
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Bad food masquerading as “health food "

Agave nectar, just the name itself sounds super healthy and as natural as honey or even

maple syrup. Do not be fooled by clever marketing and advertising. Agave is very far removed from a healthy alternative sweetener to sugar. It is neither natural nor “wholesome’.

Agave nectar is a highly processed product similar to high fructose corn syrup.  The deception with Agave is that when people consume HFC contained in other food and soda they’re really under no illusion that it’s a healthy product.

Agave nectar is essentially an enzyme hydrolyzed bi-product manufactured from a waste material of the tequila industry. Its claim to “wholesomeness” is it’s a “ low glycemic sweetener” That does almost sound like a very good quality, something that doesn’t cause an immediate insulin response from a spike in blood sugar. Surely this is a good thing? Unfortunately, this is due to the fact the body does not quite recognize it’s fructose component as a sugar, although the liver is quick to recognize it as a toxin. The breakdown of fructose in the liver is a known cause of fatty liver disease (a non –alcoholic liver ailment similar to cirrhosis) it also causes a rise in tri-glycerides and the accumulation of belly fat which is known to increase your overall risk of cardiovascular disease.

It’s unfortunate that imported foods into the U.S are seldom government tested or regulated. The FDA tried to have manufacturers market it as hydrolyzed inulin syrup but there’s been no enforcement

It does claim to be much sweeter than sugar and consequently you would use less. Well, I’d hope so as agave nectar contains significantly more calories and carbs than an equivalent amount of sugar.

 They claim it was consumed by ancient civilizations over 5,000 years ago, (it says so on the label) well that could be true, but certainly not in this form. These ancient people certainly pre-dated genetically modified enzymes and the ability to perform chemical hydrolysis.

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The following is a super easy recipe, It tastes really good spread with a little almond butter.

                                                                    Paleo Bread

Ingredients
2 cups almond flour                                           Directions : 1. Preheat oven to 300
1 1/2 cups coconut flour                                                         2. Combine all dry
3/4 teasp baking soda                                                                 ingredients.
1/4 teasp salt                                                                           3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, then
1 tbsp honey                                                                                add honey & apple cider vinegar.
3/4 teasp apple cider vinegar                                                  4. Add banana & milk
1/2 cup                                                                                    5. Combine ingredients & pour batter
1 banana, mashed                                                                        into a well greased pan.

                                                                                                 6. Bake 45mins until skewer comes out
                                                                                                     clean.

                                                            

                                                   

Almost six months ago, I challenged myself that for a 30 day period I would clean up my diet by eliminating foods that did not come from natural or sustainable sources; well I was hoping to achieve this at least on an 80% level. Traveling as I do every month it would be problematic if I didn’t give myself at least a little wiggle room. I still want to eat in restaurants with family and friends and not be a total food freak. Certainly, when I’m home I have much more control of what we eat on a daily basis, how it's prepared and where it came from.

Trying to figure out the optimal healthy diet I began avidly reading and also started listening to health and fitness podcasts. I’ve read and listened to doctors, scientists, nutritionists, dietitians, educators, researchers and specialists in so many fields. And the consensus of opinion seems to be, that what we've been led to believe to be true in the realm of conventional wisdom in relation to diet, health and exercise is very far removed from the truth. The more I read the more intriguing that becomes.

Our primal ancestors lived a hunter gatherer existence, which was certainly survival of the fittest, unlike our civilization today they were not plagued by the diseases that have become commonplace in our society. 2 out of 3 people in the U.S are overweight 1/3 are obese. Chronic inflammatory conditions affect ½ the U.S population. Diabetes, cancer, heart disease, auto-immune disorders are killing people at ever increasing rates and modern medicine seems no closer to reducing these dire statistics.

What can we learn to from our ancestors?   Well, they sure didn’t eat a diet of highly processed carbohydrates and refined sugar or avoided eating saturated animal fats; and they weren’t looking for low-fat options to trim huge over expanded waistlines.

The standard American diet (SAD) leaves a lot to be desired if your goal is to achieve health and wellness. It’s seriously devoid of good or even adequate nutrition , depleting our bodies of essential micro nutrients vital to our health and well being. Everything is bagged, boxed, packaged, bottled, canned, frozen, and laden with artificial ingredients, chemicals, coloring and preservatives that damage our bodies at a cellular level. There are so many reasons including socioeconomic, environmental and political why our food supply is the way it has become. It is beginning to change, although not as rapidly as it needs too. There will be no huge mass marketing campaign from the government or the mainstream media, there's no huge profits to be made in encouraging the population to consume real food. The good news is there are so many incredibly smart people out there, doing their very best each and every day to educate and inform and more and more people are starting to pay attention. 

                                              Eating a Paleo Diet

 

How it Works

Eliminate

 Processed food

 Wheat

 Grains

 Processed sugar

 Low-fat dairy

Processed industrial seed oils (canola, corn ,sunflower ,safflower, cottonseed ) 

Include

Quality meat from a pastured source

Pastured eggs

Organic full-fat dairy products

Vegetables

Wild fish

Nuts & seeds

Fruit

Nut oils, olive & unrefined coconut oil

I would really like to use this blog to talk about my own personal version and interpretation of Paleo style eating and the transformation I’m experiencing in my own health and wellness journey. My goal is to be the healthiest version of myself that I can be. There's no one size fits all diet and I only know what works for me. I'm hoping at least by doing this blog that I can encourage others to at least try this way of eating. Like I said previously I started with a 30 day challenge, here I am almost 6 months later feeling so much healthier, energized and stronger than I ever have.

 I would also like to highlight some of the best diet and health information I’m reading and listening to.

Hopefully I can also share some great recipes. It’s been so much fun cooking new dishes and also finding innovative ways to bake without regular flour.

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The following recipe is so simple to put together and totally no-bake. Make it in a shallow metal pan that is a little longer than you need, it makes it so much easier to cut and remove the bars. The only problem with this recipe is it requires self control, you can't stop eating it.

 

Grain-Free Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Granola Bar Recipe

You will need:

• 2.5 cups assorted nuts and seeds
• 1 cup dried fruit
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• splash of vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• generous sprinkle of cinnamon
• some more cinnamon

Roughly chop 1 cup of the nuts and seeds. Place in a bowl.
Use your food processor to pulse the other 1.5 cups of nuts and seeds into a finer “chop.” Add to the bowl.
Add your fruit.
Stir in the dried coconut.
In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine oil, honey, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Cook until the mixture bubbles, then pour over the fruit/nut mixture.
Stir to combine completely.
Press your mixture into a parchment-lined pan of some sort. Press HARD.
Cool 2-3 hours, then remove from the pan and cut into bars.