WHAT EXACTLY IS THE PALEO DIET?

The Paleo diet, in a nutshell, is meant to remove modern foods with little nutritional value that are eaten in today’s standard diet and simply go back to eating whole foods in order to create better health. The word Paleo actually stems from the word Paleolithic, and it is used to convey the idea of adopting a diet similar to what our ancestors ate before the agricultural revolution and before genetically modified foods and Pop-Tarts were staples in our everyday diets.

So do you actually have to eat like a caveman? I think Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo said it best: “The caveman’s just a mascot. For me, Paleo’s not about historical reenactment. It’s a framework for improving health through real food.” I couldn’t agree more. In today’s world it would be almost impossible to eat a true Paleo diet. You would have to live in the woods, hunt all your own food for every meal, and sleep in a cave. Could it be done? Sure. Would you want to? Probably not. I think the Paleo diet gets a bad rap in some nutrition circles because of this. I’m not sure why people want to be so literal about it.

So what did cavemen eat? From what I’ve read, they basically ate whatever they could eat, whenever they could get it. Grain didn’t exist yet, refined sugar didn’t exist yet, and modern agriculture didn’t exist yet, so this leads people today to believe our forebears basically ate meat that they hunted; fish that they caught; vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds that they picked off bushes or trees; and honey when they were lucky enough to find it, which was also obtained at great sacrifice. Ouch.

Today we can walk into any store, pretty much any time of the day, and get whatever we want to eat, whenever we want it, hungry or not. We have gotten so lazy that we can’t be bothered to park our cars and walk into a restaurant to get food; we just drive through. This has led to massive health epidemics, especially here in America, where we have probably the worst diets on the planet. I recently read an article about how to not look American while visiting other countries. One of the things on the list was eating while walking. The United States is the only country in which eating and walking at the same time is considered totally normal. In other countries, people sit down together at meals and take time to enjoy their food. This really stuck out to me and made me realize how oblivious we are about eating.

People argue all the time that cavemen lived to be only about thirty years old. This is accurate, but by the same token, their lifespan was likely so short because in addition to hunting every meal, they were also part of the food chain. They had no access to medical care or solid shelter, and absolutely none of the modern conveniences we enjoy today. When we fall and break a bone, we can go get it fixed. A broken limb meant life or death for our ancestors. In fact, tons of research shows how healthy cavemen actually were despite all that, presumably because they ate a simple diet, slept when the sun went down, rose when it came up, ate when they could, and exercised quite a bit. Today we are pretty much the antithesis of that scenario. We eat like crap, plop in front of the TV or our computers for hours, tinkering with our smartphones, and only exercise in the month of January for our New Year’s resolutions. We go to bed way too late, wake up way too early, and have lots of health issues because we live like this. I’m totally guilty of these things too, but we are lucky enough to live in an age when we can change our lifestyle and make healthy choices.

So what exactly are the Paleo diet guidelines?

MEAT

Any meat is fair game. Get it? See what I did there? I punned. Ostrich, alligator, snake, you name it. Not that adventurous? You can stick to the basics: beef, chicken, pork, and lamb. Not all meat is created equal, though. Just like shoes. You know a quality pair of shoes from a pair you picked up on sale for $10. A good general rule to remember is, “You are what you eat, eats.” So if you’re eating an animal that’s been fed GMO grains, well, guess what you’re eating, too? Grass-fed, pasture-raised meat is preferred. Cows and livestock naturally eat off the land. This means lots of rich green grass on pastures. Feeding animals grains is a practice that was invented because grains are an inexpensive form of food that makes the animals fatter. I think the key point here is that feeding livestock grains fattens them up. What makes us think that eating a diet made up almost entirely of grains wouldn’t do the same to us? The animals are also given hormones to make them grow faster and antibiotics so they can survive the crowded and unsanitary conditions in which they are raised. Just like us, animals store toxins in their fat, so when we eat animals, we are essentially eating the toxins found in their fat as well. When an animal eats what was originally intended, the meat contains less toxins along with some really healthy nutrients, like omega-3s and conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs).

FISH

The same goes for fish. These days fish are farmed and raised in terrible conditions, just like livestock. Opt for wild-caught sources instead. That means the fish were caught in the open sea or in streams and until then lived in the wild eating their natural food sources.

EGGS

Eggs are one of the healthiest foods on the planet. They are full of protein and tons of vitamins and minerals. They can also be a great way to get your omega-3s. Eggs are similar to meat in that they are classified in several different ways according to how the hens are kept and what they’re fed, which offers varying amounts of health benefits. Usually in a store you will find conventional, cage-free, free-range, and sometimes pasture-raised eggs. I usually think of eggs in terms of good, better, and best, good being cage-free, better being free-range, and best being pasture-raised. Pasture-raised eggs can sometimes be found in stores but more often at a local farmers’ market. These eggs come from hens that are raised in their natural environment, are free to come and go as they please, and eat a natural diet. They are similar to grass-fed beef in the fact that they have the most nutritional value. Choose these eggs when you can; their shells come in a rainbow of colors, and they have the most orange yolks you’ve ever seen.

VEGETABLES

Vegetables are awesome because there are literally hundreds of them, in all different shapes, colors, and sizes. I think you could probably go your whole life and not be able to eat every vegetable out there. Before Paleo the thought of vegetables made me shudder. Now I look forward to the produce aisle because it’s so colorful and flavorful! Vegetables are among the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.

In my opinion, all vegetables are fair game, even white potatoes, which are technically a vegetable, even though they are considered more of a starch. Depending on what your goals are, you may or may not want to include potatoes in your diet. Sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index and more fiber than white potatoes, so they are more widely accepted in the Paleo community. Potatoes are a great source of carbohydrates if you find that you need to incorporate more carbs into your diet to accommodate heavy exercise loads or aren’t getting enough carbs elsewhere in your Paleo diet. I personally think that potatoes are an “in moderation” food. I wouldn’t eat them every day, but I wouldn’t exclude them from my diet completely.

Also, while we are in the vegetable gray area, peas are technically a legume, not a vegetable. Is the world going to end if you eat peas? No. Try not to get so strict that you make yourself miserable.

FRUIT

Fruit is another nutrient-dense food source of vitamins, fiber, and carbohydrates. Since the Paleo diet is naturally less carbohydrate-dense than a standard diet, and because grains are omitted, some people tend to feel that they can’t get enough carbs and therefore don’t have a lot of energy to fuel them through workouts and such. Fruit is a great natural carb source to give you energy. Again, though, depending on your goals, you may not want to go fruit crazy. After all, fructose may be a natural sugar, but it’s still sugar. If you’re trying to lose weight or aren’t very active, you may want to approach fruit in moderation. Play around with a template and see what works for you. You can also try eating fruits that are lower in natural sugar, like berries and green apples. Fruits like grapes and mangoes tend to be the highest in sugar.

Also, you may want to stay away from dried fruit. Dried fruit has had all the water extracted, which makes the sugar more concentrated. I personally love dried fruit and can’t be trusted around it. It might as well be a bag of chocolate chips. But dried fruit is a great and portable source of fuel for long hikes and endurance activities. I also use it in recipes because it adds a ton of flavor.

NUTS

Nuts are amazing. They are full of protein as well as healthy fats to keep you satiated and give you sustainable energy. Some of the healthiest nuts out there are almonds, macadamia nuts, and pistachios. Nuts can be tricky to portion, though, since you can grab handfuls at a time. I recommend using an espresso cup to portion out your nuts; that way you aren’t sitting there counting them out obsessively, but you are eating a reasonable amount.

SEEDS

Flax, chia, sunflower, pumpkin (pepitas)—what’s your favorite? Seeds are full of all kinds of healthy goodies, from omega-3 fatty acids to protein and fiber. You can make chia seed pudding or add flax to your smoothies. You can pretend that it’s Halloween in the middle of winter and roast pumpkin seeds in your oven. Like nuts, seeds add texture to baked goods for that little extra something.

HEALTHY FATS AND OILS

Fat is my favorite. Of all the foods, just give me the fat. Fat is flavor. Fat is also an essential nutrient. Unfortunately, it was demonized in a well-meaning anti-fat campaign that got underway in the 1970s and had become fully entrenched in the American food psyche by the 1990s. The Fat Scare of the ’90s led to low-fat food products in every grocery store aisle and left behind a nation full of unhealthy, sugar-addicted, and sick people. Fat is responsible for providing satiety, telling our bodies that we are full, giving us long-lasting energy, and helping the body absorb vitamins. Be sure to eat fat from high-quality food sources, like avocados, nuts, olive oil, and coconut oil, and use organic pasture-raised animal fats like lard and tallow for cooking. Fat is your friend!

GRASS-FED BUTTER OR GHEE

The benefits of grass-fed butter are astonishing. It packs so much great nutrition in such a small package. Grass-fed butter is full of healthy omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs), and vitamins A, D, E, and K, and it also has anti-inflammatory properties. Lactose intolerant? Try ghee, also known as clarified butter. It has gone through a heating process to remove all the milk solids. What you’re left with is literally liquid gold. Most people with dairy intolerances have no problem eating ghee since the milk solids have been removed. Ghee also has a super-high smoke point, so it is a great fat for cooking; again, just make sure that it comes from organic grass-fed sources to get the most bang for your nutrition buck.

SPICES

Spices equal flavor. When I was a kid in history class learning about Christopher Columbus and how he was commissioned by the queen to bring back spices from the New World, I remember thinking, “Spices? Who the hell wants spices?!” Now I understand just how valuable spices are. Spices give food life; they can take a dish from simple to spectacular. Tons of spices out there have amazing health benefits, too, like cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, and turmeric.

AVOID ME

DAIRY

Dairy is another one of those foods that typically is not eaten on a Paleo diet. The reason stems from the fact that a huge portion of the population has some sort of lactose or casein intolerance (casein is a protein found in dairy), and from the belief that it is not natural to consume dairy products. The theory goes like this: We, like most animals, drink milk as babies to help us grow and develop our digestive systems, but once we’re grown, we no longer need it.

I think dairy can definitely be incorporated into a healthy Paleo diet, depending on your goals and how well you tolerate dairy. Dairy is a great source of protein and fat, and if it’s grass-fed, you are reaping all those amazing benefits as well. I recommend eating only high-fat grass-fed sources because they are the most nutritious. Remember, fat helps deliver vitamins to your body. If you are drinking fat-free milk, you aren’t getting the vitamins. People who eat Paleo but include high-quality dairy in their diets are usually referred to as “Primal.” I have no idea why; I just work here.

GLUTEN

Gluten is a protein found in grains. It’s basically what gives bread and baked goods their texture and binds them together. The gluten in today’s diet is completely different from the gluten our grandparents ate. Over the years grains have been modified through GMOs and pesticides, and because of that our bodies are becoming more and more intolerant of them. Many people have been diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune condition that causes the body to attack itself when gluten is eaten. Some people have an actual food allergy when they eat gluten, where they break out in hives or start vomiting after ingesting gluten. Then there is a population of people who have gluten sensitivities or intolerances. Symptoms can range from intestinal bloating, stomach cramping, headaches, and irritability to brain fog and fatigue.

GRAINS

As a general rule, grains are not eaten on a standard Paleo diet. However, some grains, like rice, are making their way back into some iterations of the Paleo diet. Rice is naturally gluten-free and is an excellent source of carbohydrates. If you have a heavy training load, whether for endurance sports or for high-intensity activities like CrossFit, rice can be a valuable addition to your diet. If you aren’t under a heavy training load, then you can probably find other acceptable sources of carbs. Some people who are sensitive to gluten find that grains like rice and corn give them a similar reaction. Today, grains like corn are almost all genetically modified. If you do choose to eat grains, be sure to buy ones from trusted GMO-free sources.

SOY AND LEGUMES

Soybeans are part of the legume family, or bean family, as we more commonly know it. Most of today’s soy, like corn, is genetically modified and treated with pesticides. Soy also contains large amounts of isoflavones, which can interfere with hormone function. But wait, Asian cultures eat tons of soy and are known to be among the healthiest cultures on the planet, so what gives? They mostly use soy sauce and miso, both of which are fermented, as condiments only. Soy is not the basis of an entire meal, three times a day, like it can be for us. Soy is probably the number-one food additive (along with sugar) in the standard American diet.

Legumes are not eaten in conjunction with a Paleo diet because they contain phytates, which sound fancy, but all you need to know is that they prevent minerals from being absorbed into the body. (It should be noted that soaking legumes in warm water overnight can reduce the phytic acid and help the absorption of minerals.) Legumes are also really hard for the body to digest because they block digestive enzymes and contain lectins. Lectins are basically a built-in predator defense system for the plant that our bodies find difficult to break down. That’s what causes you to get gassy after you eat beans. Stay classy, not gassy!

REFINED VEGETABLE OILS

Due to the Fat Scare of the 1990s, “foods” like Crisco are used to replace lard, margarine to replace butter, and refined vegetable oils to replace healthy cooking fats. I want to scream at us in the ’90s, while shaking our shoulders vigorously and shouting, “What is wrong with you?!” What essentially happened was that we took away all the fat (basically the nutritional value of the food), added sugar to make it taste good, smacked a label on it that said “fat-free,” and sold the world a sugar-and-carbohydrate Molotov cocktail.

So what’s wrong with Crisco, margarine, and refined vegetable oils? Well, in the case of Crisco and margarine, the manufacturers took out the real animal fat and replaced it with partially hydrogenated oils. These oils are loaded with trans-fatty acids, which are the worst of all the fats out there. Trans fats not only raise your LDL, or bad, cholesterol levels, but also lower your HDL, or good, cholesterol levels. No bueno. Our bodies are designed to break down animal proteins and fats, but definitely not the partially hydrogenated ones created in a lab. As for refined vegetable oils, the most common one is canola oil. What is a canola? There isn’t a vegetable called canola, is there? Canola oil comes from a seed called rapeseed, which undergoes an extensive and unnatural process to create the oil. Not only that, but most refined vegetable oils also contain GMOs and a very unhealthy ratio of omega-6 fatty acids. Vegetable oils are also known to cause inflammation and lead to heart disease.

REFINED SUGAR AND ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

Oh, sugar, you little devil, you. How we love to hate you. We all know by now—or at least I hope we do—that refined sugar is bad for you. It has no nutritional value; it’s full of empty calories. I like to call them fun calories. Just kidding. Not really. “Refined sugar” typically means highly processed sugar in the form of table sugar, cane sugar, cane juice, or brown sugar (which is just white sugar colored with molasses). The natural or unrefined forms of sugar are honey, because it’s made by bees; maple syrup, because it comes from trees; date sugar, which is made from dried and ground dates; maple sugar, which is just a condensed granulated form of maple syrup; and coconut sugar, which is made from the sap of the coconut tree. Though not heavily used in Paleo baking, molasses has a place in this list because it has some nutritional value, unlike refined cane sugar, which is derived from the same plant. (Molasses is made by boiling the juice squeezed from the sugar cane plant that is left over after the sugar crystals, or refined sugar, have been extracted.) Regardless, sugar is sugar. I think the unrefined, natural sugars are just the lesser of two evils. Again, sugar should always be eaten in moderation, even natural, unrefined sugars. All the sweet treats in this book use natural, unrefined sugars whenever possible.

Artificial sweeteners are just that: artificial. Most are made in a lab and can cause severe stomach distress, including bloating, gas, belly rumbling, and diarrhea. Also, new findings are showing that artificial sugar actually increases your cravings for real sugar. When you eat artificial sweeteners, your body gets the signal that something sweet is coming down the hatch, so it sends out the troops to break it down. And when nothing actually comes, it starts to crave something sweet so the troops can have something to do. See how science-y I get? (Yes, science-y is too a word.) Examples of artificial sweeteners include Splenda, NutraSweet, Equal, xylitol, and sorbitol. Some folks have turned to stevia as a natural sweetener to use in place of sugar. I dislike the taste of stevia, so I don’t include it in any of my recipes, but if you like it, go for it.

PROCESSED FOODS

By today’s standards, almost all food is processed; it’s just a matter of degree. If someone in Florida picks an orange off a tree and then washes it, puts it in a box, and ships it to California, that fruit, organic or not, has undergone a process. Even if you picked the fruit from the tree yourself and ate it right there, technically it still underwent the process of being picked. Let’s not split hairs. What we really mean by “processed food” is food that has undergone a process to strip nutrients and add preservatives and artificial anything to increase flavor, nutritional value, or shelf life, and then is packaged in a box or bag and put on a shelf. Basically, if you can’t pronounce or define an ingredient on the package, don’t eat it. Simple.

OTHER COMPONENTS OF A PALEO DIET

I recommend that anyone who is interested in a Paleo diet or lifestyle should embark first on a thirty-day elimination plan. Follow the Paleo guidelines strictly for thirty days and then incorporate the omitted foods back into your diet one at a time and see how you feel. That way you will have a better template for which foods you react positively or negatively to, and then you can base your normal everyday eating around that template.

Other factors to take into consideration that are just as important as food are sleep and exercise.

In a perfect world, there would be no alarm clocks. We would fall asleep when we were tired and wake up when we were rested. Since we live hectic lives, this isn’t always achievable. There are some tips that you can incorporate to help you, though. Cover your bedroom windows with blackout curtains and remove all electric sources of light in your bedroom, like those from alarm clocks, modems, and cable boxes. Winding down with a real book instead of an electronic device will help you fall asleep. When we watch TV or tinker with our electronic devices right before bed, the blue light that they omit tells our brains to stay awake and active. You can also purchase blue light blocker glasses, which help block the blue light if you can’t detach yourself from technology. Guilty as charged.

Whether you run, walk, bike, do yoga, CrossFit, Orange Theory, or Turbo Kickbox, get active! Our bodies were meant to be active and work best when they are active. A body in motion stays in motion—so keep moving! Whatever you do for exercise, be sure to find something that you enjoy. If you do, you will be that much more inclined to stick with it. Exercise is known to help relieve stress and improve mood and sleep.

Invest in a stand-up desk for home and work, or ask your workplace services team to order one for you. Sitting is the new smoking. Make sure to get up from your desk and walk around often.

Clean eating can be life-changing. It can also be challenging. If a thirty-day challenge isn’t for you, don’t fret. Start slow. Remove one thing from your diet at a time and see how you feel. Commit to trying out one new exercise activity, or download an exercise app. Give yourself an extra thirty minutes before bed to wind down. Meditate, pray, or do aromatherapy—whatever helps you relax and de-stress. Just find what works for you. You may get it right the first month, or it may take you a year of tweaking to get it just right. Above all, remember that no one is perfect. No one. You have to find what works best for you in your life. There are so many resources out there. I hope that this book becomes one of those resources for you in times of dessert crisis. Yes, needing chocolate can be considered a crisis. Trust me.

Written by Vanessa Barajas in "Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind", Victoria Belt Publishing, Las Vegas, USA, 2015. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.