Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (5 page)

For optimal health, we should eat more like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In other words, we should get back to eating real, naturally occurring ingredients.

T
he “caveman” label makes this sound like a weird fad diet, but trust me: it isn't. Over the past
200
,
000
years, humans have biologically adapted best to whole foods: plants, meat, seafood—all of them packed with the nutrients our bodies evolved to thrive on.

A
griculture came on the scene a mere
10
,
000
years ago—a tiny fraction of our evolutionary history. There simply hasn't been enough time and evolutionary pressure for humans to completely adapt to eating modern foods like wheat, sugar, chemically processed vegetable and seed oils, and other “Neolithic” foods. It's not a coincidence that many modern diseases of civilization—including autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease, type
2
diabetes, and rampant obesity—have accompanied the global spread of industrialized food. That's why the Paleo approach emphasizes returning to a more ancestral approach to eating.

But here's the thing to keep in mind: we're not trying to precisely replicate cavemen diets. Yes, a few Paleo die-hards may approach their diets this way, but there isn't just one definitive, monolithic, one-size-fits-all “Paleo diet.” Some Paleo eaters choose to go super-low-carb, while others of us are happy to munch on a baked potato or a bowl of white rice every now and then. There are Paleo eaters who can't imagine life without dairy, and more orthodox folks who refuse to touch even a pat of butter with a ten-foot pole. The Paleo tent is big enough to fit a host of different approaches, but the core tenets of ancestral eating remain the same:

1. Prioritize whole, unprocessed, nutrient-rich, nourishing foods.
   Eat vegetables, grass-fed and pastured meats and eggs, wild-caught seafood, and some fruit, nuts, and seeds.
   
2. Avoid foods that are likely to be more harmful than healthful.
   Especially when regularly consumed, certain foods can trigger inflammation, cause digestive problems, or derail our natural metabolic processes, such as grains, legumes, sugar, and processed seed and vegetable oils.
   

Once a baseline of health is established, we can slowly reintroduce some of these foods (like dairy, white potatoes and rice—not processed junk foods) to see where each of us sits on the spectrum of food tolerance.

Transitioning to a Paleo lifestyle can seem like a daunting task, but remember: it's not about deprivation. Go Paleo, and you won't have to stress out about counting calories, balancing macronutrients, or starving yourself. Paleo isn't specifically intended to be a low-carb or weight-loss diet, but by eliminating processed foods, added sugar, and grains, and by consuming deliciously nourishing foods like vegetables, meat, and healthy fats, you can eat until you're full—and still improve your body composition and overall health. 

Processed foods are almost always made with cheap, unpronounceable, terrible-for-you additives like artificial dyes, trans fats (a.k.a. hydrogenated oils), chemical preservatives, and high-fructose corn syrup. Stay away.

I'm guessing you already know that foods with added sugar or artificial sweeteners aren't good for you, right?

Grains are cheap, but they're nutrient-poor relative to fruits and vegetables, and contain proteins like gluten that can cause gut permeability and inflammation. Some people are more intolerant to grains than others, but even if you don't have celiac disease, regular consumption of large amounts of grains can be harmful. For instance, oats may be gluten-free, but they contain a compound called avenin that can similarly compromise your body's digestive and immune systems. Boo.

Like grains, legumes—which include beans, peas, and even peanuts (which aren't nuts at all)—aren't your healthiest option. Sure, beans are plentiful and full of minerals, but their nutrients aren't readily bioavailable to our bodies due to the phytates in legumes. And while it's possible to make legumes less harmful by taking the time to soak, sprout, cook, and ferment them, there are many more nutrient-rich (and far less time-consuming) options available to you. Soy, in particular, should not be part of your regular diet; commercially available soy is typically genetically modified, and contains isoflavones that may disrupt normal endocrine function.

Vegetable and seed oils are processed with chemical solvents like hexane in order to remove offending odors and flavors—but that's not all. These oils are also high in omega-
6
polyunsaturated fatty acids, and highly susceptible to oxidation and rancidity. Yuck.

Face it: booze isn't great for your liver or your judgment.

Don't get me wrong: fruit is awesome. But don't eat it in place of vegetables, which are generally more rich in vitamins and nutrients (and lower in sugar). It's particularly easy to overconsume dried fruits, so don't spike your sugar levels by gorging on an entire bag of raisins.

In order to properly prepare nuts and seeds for human consumption, you have to soak, sprout, and dehydrate them, which is a lot of work for something that nature didn't intend for us to eat in large quantities. It's fine to use nuts and seeds to add texture and flavor to your dishes, but don't go nuts with nuts.

If you're trying to lose body fat, starches aren't your best bet. But if you're lean, active, and looking to replenish your muscle glycogen after a hard workout, eat some starchy foods like chestnuts, plantains, beets, taro, peeled white or sweet potatoes, or other tubers.

Full-fat dairy from pastured, grass-fed ruminants can be a fantastically nutrient-rich source of protein, calcium, conjugated linoleic acid, and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K
2
. However, in some people, dairy can also trigger a host of health issues, from histamine responses to acne. If you're worried you might have a sensitivity to dairy, try removing it from your diet for
30
days; then, slowly reintroduce it to see how it affects you.

By the way, with the exception of ghee (a traditional Indian preparation of clarified butter which removes any potentially problematic milk solids), the recipes in this book are all dairy-free. (But personally, I eat small amounts of high-quality dairy in the form of grass-fed butter, yogurt, and raw heavy cream in my coffee.)