Modern Paleo Diet

As a follow-up to my post on paleo-friendly snacks, I wanted to mention the new AMRAP Refuel bars.

I received two free samples a while back. They’re a dense and chewy bar with a nutty flavor. They don’t have any aftertaste. They’re perfectly paleo.

Another Paleo-Friendly Snack

I prefer to eat my own homemade snacks whenever possible, but I do rely on such pre-made snacks when I’m in a terrible rush. I keep a few on hand in my car and truck for whenever I find myself unexpectedly stuck somewhere, exhausted and hungry. (It’s just not helpful for my recovery from adrenal insufficiency for me to grit my teeth and endure that.)

The AMRAP bars are a bit pricey, but they’re substantial. For some, they’d be a good option. You can read about and order them here.

Modern Paleo…

I’ve been eating a Paleo-style diet for close to a year now. Before, I ate large quantities of bread, rice, pasta, and sugary foods, at just about every meal. Now I eat beef, pork, chicken, fish, veggies, and eggs. I’m not always 100% strict Paleo. For example, I still use some dairy products such as cheese or heavy cream, although I’ve stopped drinking milk recently. On rare occasion I eat some rice, if it comes with the fish or beef I order at a restaurant, but I absolutely avoid pasta or bread. As a result, there have been several benefits I’ve enjoyed:

1) I used to lie in bed for an hour or two, wide awake, before falling asleep. I was that way for as long as I could remember and I just thought it was normal for me. Now I fall asleep within 10 minutes. The carbohydrates made my …

Here are some more informal FormSpring Questions and Answers on random paleo-related topics:

I understand and accept the premise of the paleo/primal way. I have, however, heard of people losing weight on low fat diets. How can this be explained?

To lose weight, you have to create a calorie deficit, so that the body has to draw on its own reserves to function. For some people — the not-yet-metabolically-deranged, perhaps — that’s possible to do on a low-fat diet.

Two points are worth noting, however:

(1) Studies have found that low-fat diets draw largely on muscle, whereas low-carb diets draw largely on fat stores. Losing muscle is not a healthy kind of weight loss.

(2) Most people will be hungry and grumpy on a low-fat diet. That’s not true of a low-carb diet.

Dr. Eades has done some great blogging on “metabolic advantage” lately. I’d recommend reading that.

Follow up …

The fallacy of rewriting reality, as identified by Ayn Rand, is the fallacy of formulating a theory or idea divorced from reality and then continuing to maintain it after observing that it contradicts actual facts or else claiming that reality itself is somehow in the wrong. This has given rise to infamous sayings such as “It’s good in theory but bad in practice,” and so on, where a person will maintain a set of ideas even as they’re concretely proven to be false or damaging. In regards to living a Paleo lifestyle I’ve noticed that some people commit this error when juxtaposing my lifestyle to its effects, and some have even bizarrely changed their evaluations and interpretations of my health after noticing a benefit and then learning how I obtained it.

For instance, after learning of Mr. Nikoley’s no soap and no shampoo experiment I tried it for myself and …

Reposted from my blog, Rational Jenn.

As lots of you know, I’ve been eating paleo/primal/real food for many years now, to the overall benefit of my health, and I am committed to continuing this good eating plan forever and ever.

But, that doesn’t mean I eat 100% paleo 100% of the time! If you see me consuming something that is definitely not paleo, here are some reasons why that might be:

1. I’m traveling.

I find it difficult to eat 100% paleo when traveling, for various reasons. So I make travel-related compromises. I will sometimes eat fast food like french fries (made in god-knows-what-kind-of-oil). Generally though, I opt for a salad of some kind, but will usually forget to ask them to leave the cheese off. I won’t use unknown salad dressings, so I often end up eating fast food chicken and dry lettuce. Meh. I usually have good snacks …

[From Ari Armstrong’s blog:] Largely due to the influence of Diana Hsieh, who recently started the Modern Paleo blog, and the book Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, my wife and I have switched to a largely “paleo” type of diet. The results, as indicated by our recent blood work, are positive.

Basically the diet means that we have cut out most grains, sugars, and vegetable fats. Largely the diet consists of trading off carbs for healthier fats. We’re not as strict in our diet as some are; I still eat an occasional slice of sprouted bread or a bowl of beans. However, most days I don’t eat any grains, and my intake of processed sugar is low. I have a soda or glass of juice maybe once a month. I buy chocolate of between 60 and 100 percent purity (which contains much less or no sugar).

I just …

Recently, I received free samples of “That’s It” fruit bars. They’re just dried fruit — no sugar, no preservatives, no nothing, except two kinds of fruit per bar. They’re really quite delicious, and they make a good on-the-go snack. If anything, they’re a bit too easy to eat. (I’m not anti-fruit, but I try to limit my fruit intake, particularly dried fruit.) If you can’t find these bars in your local store, you can buy online.

Modern Paleo…

Another article has come out attempting to discredit the Paleo diet, this time in The Atlantic. If you can get all the way through it without your blood pressure and cortisol rising, you’re have more patience than I do.

Let’s address some of the shoddy scholarship.

Life Expectancy

The author credits agriculture for increases in lifespan. Is this true? I became very interested in the issue of lifespan over a year ago and set out to look at US longevity figures myself (US National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics Reports, Births: Fina Data for 2004).

Here are some life expectancy figures to chew on.

paleolithic: 30
1900: 47.3
1915: 54.5
1940: 62.9
2002: 77.3

Infant mortality has dropped like a stone. Between 1915 and 2002, 6 of the 22.8 years of gain in life expectancy are due to reduction in infant mortality alone. Undoubtedly, …