If It’s Good Enough For Gronk, It’s Good Enough For Me

I’ve been asked several times recently “So why Paleo?” First off, I think I need to answer the question of what is Paleo. Basically it is following the eating habits of our ancient human ancestors, eating only what they would have had access to waaaaay back then. Mostly meats, veggies, seeds, and nuts. A little fruit is thrown in at times.

Grains, believe it or not, are a relatively new creation and weren’t always eaten the way they were nowadays. For the most part, I don’t eat grain-based foods like cereal, bread, oatmeal, beans, and things like that. I do indulge occasionally since I said I don’t eat them. I didn’t say I don’t like them.

How did I get started? The Kid was born with food allergies. It used to be a whole boatload of stuff that she couldn’t eat, now it’s just dairy. As a result, I have to read every food label on anything she will be eating. The result was scary when I saw the chemicals we gobble down on a daily basis. Did you know those buttery biscuits you eat have no butter in them?

Once I started realizing everything that we as humans eat, I started to get worried and began researching. Many many diets talk about eating whole foods and eliminating processed foods. Clean Eating is a term that is often used. The fewer the ingredients on the label the better, and make sure you can pronounce everything with ease. Mono-tri-sodi-what?

This idea made complete sense. I also read up on food intolerances and some of the major offenders are wheat, legumes and dairy. (There are tons more, of course.) I googled and found information on the Paleo Diet. It talked about eliminating foods that we aren’t designed to eat. Foods that cause insulin sensitivity and inflammation which leads to all kinds of diseases including obesity.

Paleo isn’t specifically designed as low carb, but it is much lower in carbs than many other ways of eating out there. In fact, it’s the opposite of many recommendations. Low carb, higher fat. I decided it was well worth it to me to reduce things like pasta and oatmeal if I could eat steak and burgers.

There is a ton of research and medical information out there from the creator of the Paleo Diet. You can google so I won’t bore you here with it, and honestly I don’t understand a lot of the medical paper jargon. After I got started, I found another site from Robb Wolf that lays the information out in normal intelligence terms without all the medical stats. He’s got some FAQs, shopping lists, and a quick start guide.

I try to follow the Paleo way of eating 80 – 90% of the time because you really can’t go wrong with eating foods in their original growing, mooing, or oinking forms. Foods that haven’t been processed into oblivion or preserved beyond taste. Most of the recipes on my site follow the Paleo guidelines but there are some yummies on there that don’t.

Another great reference is Mark’s Daily Apple based on the Primal Blueprint. This diet is very similar to Paleo but includes dairy and some other foods. The principles are the same in both – whole foods as close to what you would find in nature as possible. It’s hard to argue with that.

Happy reading!