Robert's Paleo Transformation

Robert before his transformation."About a year and a half ago, I was driving somewhere and counting my blessings.  The only thing I could think of that might be a welcome improvement in life was to lose a few pounds.  I had no idea that a transformation of this kind was even possible."

See the results of Robert's transformation here: 

I Had No Idea That A Transformation Of This Kind Was Even Possible

John Durant on the Typical Hunter-Gatherer Diet

"The typical hunter-gatherer diet was very diverse. Over the course of a year a diet might have included hundreds of wild plant species and dozens of wild mammals, fish, reptiles, and insects. Almost the entire animal would be eaten or put to use, including bones, organs, and marrow. Roots and tubers were an important food source. The wild predecessors to grains - like wheat, corn, or rice - were negligible until late in the Paleolithic, though some wild grasses were consumed (we ended up domesticating them after all). Some foods were eaten raw, but a variety of cooking techniques were used. Because of the wide variety of food available and the tribe's migrations, famine was rare to nonexistent."

The Paleo Manifesto

Success Story: No more bloating and brain fog

In the first few months as a vegetarian, I started to develop major digestion problems (mostly pain and bloating). I let this go on, along with my diet that consisted of mostly fruit and whole grains, second to eggs and veggies, for around one year…

After thinking about it for months (and reading The Paleo Solution) ... (I) began to follow the Paleo diet.… The changes I have noticed in my health, performance and body are incredible. The digestion problems I had been suffering with for over a year (and after half a dozen visits to the ER, my doctor, and a gastrointestinal specialist) were completely gone. My energy levels are consistent throughout the day, and the brain fog is gone!

RobbWolf.com

Paleo Magazine: Oct/Nov issue at newsstands

The latest issue of Paleo Magazine is now available in newsstands and contains articles on the recent Ancestral Health Symposium held at Harvard Law School, irritable bowel syndrome and its treatment, MovNat with Paleo fitness in the playground and plenty of Paleo recipes. In a Q&A section with Paleo dietitian Amy Kubal, MS, RD, LN you'll find the following nugget on bacon:

Bacon - it's the stuff dreams are made of; it makes everything better. There is quite a controversy surrounding the 'fatty strips of goodness' we call bacon. The one thing that everyone agrees though, is that it's delicious. But all bacon is not created equal and quality does matter if bacon is more than an occasional visitor in your diet. "Regular" store bought bacon is questionable for several reasons. Many brands of traditional bacon contain additives like sugar, honey, nitrates/nitrites, and/or other ingredients. Additionally, if Oscar Mayer, Hormel, Tyson, or Store Brand X labels are on the package, it is likely that the pork is a product of a factory farms and has been pumped full of antibiotics, fed a less than optima diet and has endured awful living conditions. It is important to note that what the animal ate before being butchered has a major effect on the nutritional value and fatty acid composition of the finished product. Also, bacon is fatty and antibiotic/pesticide residues are stored in fat, which make the "regular" stuff even more worrisome. Organic, pastured bacon is well worth the extra dollars, especially if you are consuming it on a regular basis. Quality DOES matter.

Learn more at Paleo Magazine

Success Stories: How Sarah became The Paleo Mom

Sarah before. Image: The Paleo MomI continued to gain weight after that.  I was now a postdoctoral fellow in a very high-profile research lab in Toronto, Ontario, doing ground-breaking medical research and working 80-100 hour weeks.  I stopped weighing myself after 260 pounds and always assumed that I gained 10-15 more pounds after that based on the fact that I went up an entire clothing size (or was it two?).  However, when I look at this picture, taken the summer of 2004, I think I may have been underestimating how heavy I was at my biggest. Until now, I’ve always said that I was 265-270 pounds at my biggest.  But now, I think I was pushing 300 pounds.  I was wearing plus-size 26 clothes.  I was miserable.  I dyed my hair crazy colors to compensate for low self-esteem.

Read Sarah's story at The Paleo Mom

The Paleolithic Diet: A New Look at Our Oldest Diet (Part I)

Some attribute the increase in obesity, an underlying factor in many of the modern diseases, to a lack of will power, a puzzling argument that fails to explain the increasing body mass over the past three decades. Others blame easy availability of food and lack of exercise: we take in too many calories and don’t burn enough. The simplistic solution proposed: eat less and exercise more. While our sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity, the real culprit is low-quality fuel. We chose, and are surrounded by, low quality foods. Physical anthropologist Gary J. Sawyer puts it simply:

"We do not know how to eat properly. We feed ourselves, but we fail to give ourselves proper nutrition."

The magazine artist chose the above illustration. I would have added more protein. Still, a nice illustration.

Read the rest of my article at Living Well

Success Stories: How Tara became Primal Girl

Tara before. Image: Primal GirlI saw dozens of doctors – German ones, Canadian ones, American and Dutch. Some told me I was suffering from allergies. Others made me keep a food journal and count calories. Some gave me acne medication. I was poked, prodded and bled. The one conclusion that all of the doctors shared was that I was overreacting, hysterical and wasting their time. According to them, I was just fat and lazy – and probably a hypochondriac.

I was miserable. 

Read Tara's story at Primal Girl

Tara after. Image: Primal Girl

Patient's fatal heart attack turns doctor to Paleo diet

As I drove home I could not get one thing out of my mind.  This gentleman had been to my office to see me just the week before, and I was very encouraging to him about how things were going.  He was in his early 60’s, and suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and obstructive sleep apnea.  The thing is, they were all VERY WELL CONTROLLED! His blood pressure was perfect, his diabetes numbers mirrored that of a non-diabetic patient, and his cholesterol was well below the goals set by multiple cardiovascular studies.  In addition, his cardiologist had convinced him that his meat based diet was the culprit of his seemingly uncontrollable heart disease, and he had adapted a strict vegan diet for well over a year.  In many parts of the country that’s not too hard to believe, but to a Cajun from the land of boudin and pork cracklins, this was quite the feat! So, I asked myself…how could this skinny, well controlled hypertensive, diabetic, vegan Cajun gentleman in his early 60’s have just died from his fourth heart attack?  Something was wrong!

PaleolithicMD

Paleo Loaf-less MEAT LOAF (A no grains meat loaf!)

By Suzanne

I was drawn to the October 2012 Cook's Illustrated article by Celeste Rogers entitled "Meatier Meatloaf" as it sounded like a Paleo lover's dream come true. Rogers (2012) states "Meatloaf packed with bland starchy fillers hardly deserves its name" (p. 6). I agree; however, after eagerly reading the ingredient list I found myself disappointed to see the following ingredients included: soy sauce, white sandwich bread- although only 1/2 slice, dijon mustard, and a ketchup glaze with brown sugar. I decided not to be deterred from preparing an essential American comfort food for my family modified to meet a Paleo diet.

After studying the recipe I turned to two cookbooks in my library frequently referred to for advice when cooking and baking; The Catalan Country Kitchen (1993), by Miramar Torres and Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) by Child, Bertholle, and Beck. Surprisingly, Child et al. has a recipe for a meat loaf prepared with ground veal. Child's recipe uses onion, mushroom, and tomato paste- for me essentially an endorsement of the Cook's Illustrated recipe "Meatier Meatloaf" using the same ingredients as a base. I decided to re-work the Cook's Illustrated recipe using the influence of Child combined with Paleo ingredients and serve it to my family for approval.

The recipe underwent multiple revisions and incited serious emotional dialogue between family members alike as I undertook the recreation of this loaf-less MEAT LOAF. Rogers' (2012) article notes the history of meat loaf dates back to Roman times; however, it became a greater aspect of American cooking during the 1930s Great Depression when combining meat with grains allowed cooks to feed more with less.

Ingredient list:

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion (organic) chopped
8 ounces mushrooms- sliced- your choice of type
1/4 cup vegetable broth
3 tsp. tomato paste
2 cloves garlic minced
2 eggs
1/4 cup walnuts coarsely chopped
1 tsp. French organic thyme
1 tsp. herbs de Provence
1 pound grass feed hamburger meat
1 pound ground lamb
Celtic salt to preference
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
bacon strips to cover loaf

Instructions:

Sautée onions in olive oil on low heat until transparent, approximately 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and 1/4 cup broth and continue cooking on low heat until the broth is absorbed. Add tomato paste and stir until the mix is coated with tomato. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a small bowl, combine garlic, thyme, eggs, walnuts, and herbs de Provence. Mix well and set aside, allowing the mixture to rest for 10 minutes. In a separate large bowl, place the meat and add salt and pepper. Combine all ingredients with meat in large bowl and mix well with hands. Shape meat loaf on a prepared pan (it will feel moist and mushy) and cover with bacon slices. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven for 60-75 minutes. The recipe yields 6 adult servings. YUM.

Simple Paleo: Roasted Chicken

By Suzanne

I was drawn to the October 2012 issue of Cook's Illustrated containing the article "The Whole Chicken Story" by Lisa McManus. This enlightening expose´ on chicken quality, manufacturing techniques, and statistics gives one food for thought. Over 8 billion chickens are produced for US consumption annually; however, producers use various techniques to bring their product to market that may include the use of antibiotics, poor quality feed to bulk the chicks, and less than humane processing techniques. McManus recommends a chicken labeled USDA organic and if possible processed using air chilling. If your chicken label has an ingredient list including more than "chicken" you may not be completely satisfied with the end product and consuming higher levels of sodium if the chicken is brined or injected.

Following is a simple recipe that I prepare weekly for my family. I serve this whole roasted chicken as a main course for dinner or stored in the refrigerator and chilled for protein snacks. Enjoy!

Roasted Chicken

1 3-4 pounds USDA organic chicken (I have not found an air chilled chicken)
1 TBSP favorite dry rub ( I use Mt. Evan's Butcher's Rub from my local spice store- Savory Spice in Denver, Colorado)

Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Place breast side up in roasting pan and rub skin with dry rub. Fill the bottom of the roasting with water. Cook in 350 degree oven covered for 1-1 1/4 hours or until meat thermometer registers 190 degrees measured at the chicken's breast. Remove from oven, cover with lid or foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

I use a Cuisinart Programmable Multi-Cooker for my roasted chickens and the birds come out tender and moist with the meat falling from the bones.

Anthropologist Herman Pontzer on Paleolithic energetics

In a recent post, I commented on the multi-institutional research study, published in the July 25 of Plos ONE, that challenges conventional wisdom on the role of an active lifestyle in preventing obesity. Anthropologist and the lead author Herman Pontzer discuss the study in The New York Times article Debunking the Hunter-Gatherer Workout:

The World Health Organization, in discussing the root causes of obesity, has cited a “decrease in physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation and increasing urbanization.”

This is a nice theory. But is it true? To find out, my colleagues and I recently measured daily energy expenditure among the Hadza people of Tanzania, one of the few remaining populations of traditional hunter-gatherers. Would the Hadza, whose basic way of life is so similar to that of our distant ancestors, expend more energy than we do?

The short answer: no. The study, while adding some subtle complexity to the role of physical activity, strongly points to the nutritionaly deficient Western diet as the primary cause of the obesity epidemic:

All of this means that if we want to end obesity, we need to focus on our diet and reduce the number of calories we eat, particularly the sugars our primate brains have evolved to love. We’re getting fat because we eat too much, not because we’re sedentary. 

I would add: we eat too much of the wrong things. It is much harder to overeat when the diet consists of lean meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries, and contains, minimal, if any, grains, refined sugars, or dairy. While physical activity is important to great health, its major role is improving cardiovascular, neurological, and musculoskeletal health rather than reducing weight.

Physical activity is very important for maintaining physical and mental health, but we aren’t going to Jazzercise our way out of the obesity epidemic. 

Related Posts

• Do hunter-gatherers really burn more calories per day?

Brent's primal success story

I no longer use my C-PAP machine, and I feel like a teenager again. All of my health issues are gone! I feel like I have a new lease on life. I look forward to every morning and cherish every day. Because honestly, when I was at my worst I didn’t know how many days I had left. We now have a second child, and I am able to play with them as much as I want, roll on the floor with them, and just be there for them. I truly have a life I never thought possible. I went from feeling like I was dying every minute of every day, to living the life I have always dreamed! It is truly a gift that I cherish every day.

Mark's Daily Apple