so so i just started doing this paleo diet thing - feels like it should be bullshit. is it?

So what do you paleo people eat for breakfast? No fiber cereal or oatmeal?

a live salmon

OP: Mostly bullshit. There's no question that eating less processed food is healthier, and if you're going to eat meat that grass-fed beef is healthier (its higher in n−3 fatty acids). But, overall, a low carb animal protein based diet will kill you.

The argument in Loren Cordain's books (which started the paleo fad over a decade ago) was a lot of hand-waving and few studies. Our paleo ancestors weren't subsisting on a diet of persistance hunting run down antelope. Hunter gatherers get around 60% of their calories from plants, with the exception of the Eskimos, who died young, with lotsa of gout and osteoporosis from eating too much protein. And there's ample evidence that our common ancestor with the common chimp and bonobo got 80% of their calories from plants, the average human has 3 times the number of amylase (starch digesting) gene as chimps (even the Eskimos), so we've likely been cooking tubers and seeds over the campfire for as long as we've controlled fire (400k, maybe 700k years BP). So a evolutionary argument for a mostly animal protein paleo diet would rest on any adaptations we picked up in the window after bipedalism and before fire - a pretty short window considering how long our primate ancestors were eating leaves a fruit.

the thing is, everything will eventually kill you

paleo endorses eat plants and carbs just fyi, you might be thinking of atkins

So what do you paleo people eat for breakfast? No fiber cereal or oatmeal?

― curmudgeon, Monday, September 24, 2012 10:25 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eggs and kale usually, maybe a lil smoked salmon

leafy green (spinach, yam leaves, whatever, steamed) + leftover block of protein (whatever i ate for dinner or pwo meal) . first meal is always mainly protein + fat + leafy green. and the last meal of the day is always prepped with breakfast in mind.

if im really pressed its boiled egg * 3 + block of frozen spinach splashed with olive oil after microwaving

so i am a week in now, and pretty sold on this deal. lost 1.5 pounds, but more importantly the location of that weight seems to be shifting out of ye old beer belly and into like muscles and stuff in a pretty notable way? way more energy, sleeping better, not feeling like i am going to die after i work out, drinking a shit ton more water. and most of the recipes have been awesome (crustless swirled quiche less so) - in particular a laab esan variant made with ground turkey that made me realize that up until now i have been living a lie thx to not having chinese 5 spice in my house.

one quick question - this thing keeps hassling me to replace my soy sauce with coconut aminos, which sounds terrible to me. is it a thing? does it suck?

are you using a specific cookbook or piecing together stuff based on a cornucopia of sources

a specific cookbook that pretty much rules, ks brother who is one of those terrifyingly healthy dudes (hes a physical trainer) tried a bunch of them and recommended it. lemme find a link

one of the things i like abt it is that it has a bunch of 30 day meal plans, and you can go to the website and download complete weekly shopping lists, which is urgent and key for a slack asshole like me that needs to be told what to do wrt feeding myself.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Paleo-Customized-Whole-Foods-Lifestyle/dp/1936608758/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348764484&sr=8-1&keywords=practical+paleo

oh that's pretty awesome, right now we keep having this issue where instead of planning meals we will buy "staples" which then means we end up with a freezer full of catfish for three months

jj can i ask what your workout is?

beercan curls

ha i was gonna say we can have a tedious gym talk over some complex sugar and alcohol beverages sometime

beercan curls a component of course

nothing crazy, long dog walking (which is an upper body workout as well because 110 pounds of dog + a world full of terrible things to smell is an adventure) and the dusty elliptical machine upstairs. prob going to return to doing kettlebell stuff with ks brother after the first month of this, but i dont want to kill myself that way quite yet.

"the HENRY workout"

to be clear, i think my positive results are going to be a little more extreme than most thx to the fact that prior to this i basically ate complete fucking garbage 24/7.

hooray for my weird metabolism, by all rights i should weigh like 300 pounds at this point.

also there are moments of super weird cravings, i was walking through trader joes and there was a little carrot juice sample counter and i was suddenly ravenously interested in drinking like a carton of the stuff, despite not giving two shits abt carrot juice in the preceding 30+ years of my life on this planet.

well carrot juice is the best of all juices so I think that just means your body is readjusting to normal

no way, grapefruit or go home

^ knows what hes talking abt

breakfast = big smoothie: fruit, oils, honey, coconut milk or avocado, eggs.

my absolute hatred of all things avocado that are not named guacamole has been kind of a slight stumbling point wrt this paleo thing actually. "need a snack? why not have half an avocado?" why not fuck you buddy.

they (and eggs) are something I came around to.

so i get the hatred.

avocado with soy sauce is superb.

avocados are fucking delightful

one of the things i like abt it is that it has a bunch of 30 day meal plans, and you can go to the website and download complete weekly shopping lists, which is urgent and key for a slack asshole like me that needs to be told what to do wrt feeding myself.

this is u&k and might get me to purchase said book. like djp, I just sorta buy "stuff" and end up having to chuck things or not having the right ingredients or w/e

btw I wrote that post from the twenty four hour McDonald's that is located INSIDE the hospital

The thing about carrot juice is you don't have to drink a huge glass, a lot of health nut people just have a little cup of it. Then you have your vitamin situation taken care of for the day! If you hate it, it goes down easy...but it isn't that bad!

meanwhile I ate a gigantic fake Asian soup with DUMPLINGS! and bulgogi in it for lunch: 375 calories (allegedly)

oh I also ordered that book because yay shopping lists

the meal planning is a lot of work still. I don't have much time after work and the gym everyday so spending some time on sunday prepping stuff for the week is a must.

that's fine, I spend a good chunk of the weekend watching TV anyway (when I'm not in a rehearsal)

can i ask you guys something? do you already do most of the meal planning/grocery shopping in your household?

Once I get on the recovery path from my current pathology, I need a healthy diet that works for a single person who hates/is ignorant of cooking.

(i was just wondering because i basically do all of the above in my own household as well as prepare all of the meals with the exception of convenience foods like cereal, etc. i'm a total kitchen control freak and a shopping list would actually make my life way more difficult.)

my girl and i very much share the responsibilities so that helps xxp

our paleo ancestors had a life expectancy of roughly 20 years. has that been brought up on this thread yet?

it's about 70/30 her/me right now in terms of shopping; as I stated before, meal planning goes as far as "I can make meals out of these 20 things" aside from maybe one night every other week where my wife actually plans a meal rather than one of us looking in the freezer/refrigerator and saying "hmm what can we build from these components... oh fuck it *orders Indian/Chinese/Thai*"

hm
i think there are systems issues that can help (or hinder) one's adoption of a new diet so i was just wondering; i also don't think that "equality" necessarily = splitting responsibility for cooking/shopping duties down the middle. that can be fun for some people and just totally inefficient for others. also not trying to make any statements about division of household labor. i was just curious about how you all were currently handling the food prep responsibilities.

I need a healthy diet that works for a single person who hates/is ignorant of cooking.

This is me. Salad/steamed veggies plus some meat is easy.

I need a healthy diet that works for a single person who hates/is ignorant of cooking.

i think it depends on your activity level

Yeah, which will be determined by the aftermath of my treatment to some degree.

Guess I will get a steamer and a rice cooker?

our paleo ancestors had a life expectancy of roughly 20 years. has that been brought up on this thread yet?

― the late great, Thursday, September 27, 2012 3:53 PM (15 minutes ago)

nutrition probably factored very low as a cause of that

Morbs, is there an update on yr health that you have shared somewhere?? Wondering if new docs have made themselves at home w some solutions yet.