Question of the Week: Paleo Backpacking


This week’s “Paleo Question of the Week” was e-mailed to me privately by Kirk, and I thought I should post it here:

I am taking my brother into the Tetons in August, and he recently began the paleo diet. Knowing that you like to enjoy the outdoors, I am wondering if you have some good recommendations for any particular brands or specific meals for him so that he isn’t trying to live on jerky for five days. I have seen some dehydrated packs that are gluten free, but I’m guessing that this is something you have had to research. I would really appreciate any insight you might have on this, and I thank you for your time.

We want to hear your answer in the comments! You’re also welcome to post a comment or question on any other paleo-related topic.

If you’d like to submit a question for an upcoming …

Three New E-mail Lists: PaleoCooks, PaleoFitness, PaleoParents

I’m delighted to announce the launch of three new Modern Paleo E-mail Lists: PaleoCooks, PaleoFitness, and PaleoParents. These new lists are just gathering subscriptions this week. They’ll open for discussion on Monday, September 19th.

  • PaleoCooks: PaleoCooks is an informal private mailing list for people who eat a broadly paleo diet to discuss paleo-friendly cookery. Its basic purpose is to facilitate communication about cooking and eating paleo — such as favorite recipes, better and worse ingredients, good suppliers, useful techniques, and more. Its broader purpose is to help paleo-eaters eat more a healthy, varied, and delicious diet. PaleoCooks is managed by Julie Campbell of the crankin’ kitchen. For more information and to subscribe, click here.
  • PaleoFitness: PaleoFitness is an informal private mailing list for people who eat a broadly a broadly paleo diet to discuss paleo-friendly fitness. Its basic purpose is to facilitate communication about fitness from a paleo

Modern Paleo: Jesus Versus Paleo Eating

Some weeks ago, Monica Hughes pointed me some Christians discussing the proper response to paleo-diet advocate Mark Sisson’s Definitive Guide to Grains. Here’s the best, from “Barlow”:

As a Christian, I have further trouble with this kind of advice. Think of the eucharist. How are we to know what kind of bread to use in the eucharist if we do not become skilled at baking bread, bake better and better bread, pass on the art of baking bread, etc? Are Christians only supposed to think that the world was set up so that grain will only be grown for the eucharist, and bread only be baked for the eucharist? That all the loaves of bread to be baked should be tasted, notes should be made about what worked or didn’t, and then the loaves cast away? It makes no sense. The eucharistic meal is a real meal. It shouldn’t be

Modern Paleo: Healthy BMI from a Paleo Point of View

A recent Canadian study has found certain BMI ranges to be more or less correlated with mortality, and quite counter-intuitively the study found that being overweight to mildly obese is the least risky – even somewhat less risky than having a normal BMI.

Here is a summary of the findings: (“Normal weighted” individuals at a BMI of 18.5 to 25 were assigned a risk score of 1.00.)
  • Underweight, BMI less than 18.5; relative risk (RR) = 1.73, a significantly increased risk of death
  • Overweight, BMI 25-30; RR = 0.83, a significantly decreased risk of death
  • Obesity class I, BMI 30-35; RR = 0.95, neutral
  • Obesity class II+ , BMI over 35; RR = 1.36, an increased risk of death
Since BMI doesn’t distinguish between fat- and muscle mass, theoretically some athletic people in this study may have been mischaracterized as obese, but I think that it is safe to

Question of the Week: Staying Paleo


This week’s “Paleo Question of the Week” is:

Have you had problems staying paleo? If not, why not? If so, what’s your weakness, and what have you done to overcome it?

We want to hear your answer in the comments! You’re also welcome to post a comment or question on any other paleo-related topic.

If you’d like to submit a question for an upcoming question of the week, please e-mail me.

 

Modern Paleo

Two Paleo Cookbooks: Paleo Comfort Foods and Make it Paleo

Recently, I was sent free review copies of two new paleo cookbooks: Paleo Comfort Foods and Make it Paleo. I’ve had a chance to peruse and make a few recipes from the former, but I’ve only just perused the latter. So it’s too early to give my final opinion, but I wanted to at least offer my preliminary thoughts on these cookbooks.

Both books are stunningly beautiful, with full-page photos that make you want to make and eat every dish, RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT. That’s non-trivial! I don’t like a cookbook without pictures, as “ooooh, that looks yummy” is a huge part of my motivation to try a recipe.

Also, I like the design of both cookbooks. The recipes consume one page at most, with the ingredient list separated from the instructions. So you can easily assemble your ingredients, and you don’t need to flip pages in cooking. The …

Paleo: It’s What’s For Dinner

I’ve been trying for some time to think about how to talk about our diet and the way I prefer that all of us eat. For some reason, it’s been a difficult post to try to organize in my mind, so I think I’m just going to write this out in brain-dump fashion and hope for the best!

By the way, the working title for this post was “There and Back Again: A Paleo Tale.” Because as you’ll see, this whole change in the way of thinking about eating has taken a looooooong time, with many stops and starts. Fortunately, there weren’t any trolls.

The purpose of this post is not to analyze the benefits of the paleo/primal/evolutionary diet, and I am by no means an expert and can’t quote you many health statistics. For information about that kind of stuff, and to read about it if you’re trying to …

Happy Birthday, Modern Paleo!

On this day one year ago, I launched Modern Paleo.

Thanks to the help of a great slew of Objectivist paleo bloggers from OEvolve, and particularly the blog editor Christian Wernstedt, I’m really proud of this first year of blogging.

I’m also delighted with the growth of the PaleoBloggers e-mail list and its associated blog carnival, The Paleo Rodeo. We have 126 members on the list, and more join each week.

I’ve got some exciting plans for Modern Paleo’s second year, so stay tuned!

 

Modern Paleo

Announcement: PaleoFX

This PaleoFX conference looks really interesting! Alas, I have other plans for this weekend — namely SnowCon 2012 — but this looks like a great rival to the Ancestral Health Symposium. (Hooray for competition!)

Here’s the announcement:

PaleoFX Partners is proud to announce the inaugural PaleoFX Symposium in Austin, TX, March 14-17.

The symposium theme is “Theory to Practice.” Speakers include Sarah Fragoso, Jack Kruse, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, and many, many others — it will be virtually a “who’s who” gathering of the Paleo, Primal, and Physical Culture worlds. The content will be vital and cutting-edge. In addition to fitness and healthcare professionals, nutritionists, and research scientists, there will be top strength and conditioning and natural movement coaches giving hands-on demonstrations. The symposium is intended for laypersons, practitioners, researchers, and everyone in between. Tickets are now on sale. Stay tuned for announcements on ticket giveaways. For full details, visit