On Monday, I started my new series Quest for Nutrition. In that post, I discussed an nutrition experiment I was planning to run. In order to document the results of this test I’m running, I will be jumping ahead a bit in the series and discuss some different diet perspectives (this diet is not what I would consider to be mainstream). I started this diet on Monday, August 22, 2010. I plan to continue this test for four weeks, charting my progress and interesting details each week. I must say that for the most part, I have been eating this way for some time; however, I haven’t really achieved a solid, cohesive 4-weeks without some kind of break in the plan (e.g. my son’s birthday cake). In fairness to the experiment, changes in the way I feel may not be as drastic as they would have been had I just come off of a normal “American Diet”.

Before I explain what it is I’m going to do, let me explain how I got here. For the last few years I have been plagued with digestion problems. Frequently, I would end up with pain and bloating in my lower GI that I couldn’t explain. At first it seemed to coincide with my menstrual cycle, so I figured that was the problem; but as time went on both the pain and the frequency got worse and I began to think that it was a result of something I was eating.  IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) just seemed like everyone’s excuse for everything GI-related, so I continued searching for other possibilities. The problem was, I couldn’t pin down what it was that was causing the problem. There were days when I would eat something and be fine, and the next day I would eat the same things and be miserable all afternoon. It was until about a year ago that I began to think it had something to do with certain types of bread products.

After a solid year of trial and error, I concluded that I had a gluten allergy. For those of us who aren’t gluten experts, gluten is a component of wheat and is now used in thousands of other things as well. Due to our increased consumption of it, many people are now intolerant and/or allergic. As an experiment I took myself off gluten and my problems miraculously vanished. I think I probably could have figured this out a lot sooner, but I was not ready to accept that I would have to give up so many things that I love.

The last few months I’ve been living completely gluten-free and I have felt amazing. I don’t think I realized how bad it was until it stopped. I started buying cookbooks and trying to learn to bake gluten-free bread and other treats. I’ll tell you what, baking gluten-free is no small task. Many of the flour options are other grains such as rice or tapioca, and in my opinion, they suck. The bread is dry and just not the same. In fact, I disliked the gluten-free alternatives so much I decided I would rather go without.

During this transition from away wheat and bread products, I was doing tons of research  and I happened upon a particular diet that actually advocates a grain-free lifestyle (among other things). I was nearly grain-free, having been so disappointed by the wheat substitutes I had tried. What I read I found intriguing, especially since I had pondered some of the same things.

The diet is called The Paleo Diet. It first became well-known in the early-1970′s; however, the premise of it was researched and expanded on by Professor Loren Cordain at Colorado State University. It operates under the following principles:

• Man has only been eating grains for the last 10,000 years and our bodies have not yet genetically adapted to them.

• What man has lived on for many thousands of years longer was meat, fat from meat, fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds.

• While fruit and veggies come with a peel or skin that is edible in its raw form (and usually very good for us), grains are coated with an exterior that is actually toxic to us. Hence why grains must be processed and modified so much for us to eat them and hence, why they are considered “bad” on this diet.

• Given that we know carbs are not essential to our diet, and that too many of them send our insulin machines into overdrive, there’s no detrimental effect on our bodies to avoid grains.

• Man was not meant to consume dairy products past our toddler years. When we’re born,  lactase enzymes are present in the small intestine to enable us to consume our Mother’s Milk. As we get older  lactase disappears from our bodies and by the age of 4 or 5 we can no longer digest it property. More than 70% of the world’s population can’t digest dairy products.

• Sugar in refined form is also not something that we have eaten in large quantities until the agricultural revolution. Sugar causes all the same problems (obviously ) as large quantities of grains ,and therefore should not be eaten.

So, this is a lifestyle that attempts to mimic what we have spent most of human history eating (aka, what we are more evolved to eat). From my research, I have noticed that there are several different variations to this type of diet. Some are pretty hardcore (Professor Cordain’s plan being one of them), even forbidding yogurt and legume because they cannot be eaten in their raw form and therefore would not have been available to Paleolithic man. Other people follow a more “modernized” paleo plan which includes some of the healthier foods that we didn’t have back then. The primary things that never change, however, are no grains, no dairy, and no sugar.

Paleo diet pyramid thanks to: Mark's Daily Apple

To be realistic about this experiment,  I have questioned a few things relative to Cordain and others findings. First, if we truly haven’t evolved to the agricultural processing of today’s world, then why are so many of us perfectly fine eating so many carbs? Why should we ignore things like beans just because our ancestors lacked the ability to cook them? I am sure as I plug along I’ll have other questions as well. I aim to see if I can answer some of them along the way.

There is a multitude of sites online which follow and discuss this diet. In addition,  Cross Fit trainers all across the US follow this diet and recommend it to all who join. I’ve tried a lot of different diets, and have experienced the ways in which food effects my daily mood, energy level, and health. As I stated in a previous post, I was vegetarian (nearly vegan) for man years, so my experience with different diets is well-rounded. I have even tried Atkins, which is a no carb diet. The problem with some of these extremes, is that I could never come to terms with not eating fruit or many types of vegetables. EVER.  That just seems wrong. One attractive aspect to the Paleo diet is that it doesn’t tell me that I can’t have something healthy like fruit, and it doesn’t recommend I chow down on fried cheese and pork rinds instead. Rather, it is asking me to only eat the most unrefined and natural products I can. So while initially this concept seems extreme (no grains! no dairy! oh my!), the more I break it down the more reasonable it seems.

My experiment is going to fall somewhere closer to a “modern paleo” diet. I have definitely chosen to stay gluten, dairy and sugar free but I have also found a few places where I think I can bend the rules and still stay true to the diet. For instance, I drink coconut milk in my lattes, and I have found yogurt made from coconut (and yummy ice cream too).  Here’s a snapshot of what I’m eating every day.

• For breakfast I have a coconut milk latte and a gluten-free, dairy-free protein shake.

• I have a mid-morning snack (if I’m hungry) which includes a serving of raw almonds (not roasted!) and either a hard-boiled egg OR a piece of fruit.

• For lunch, I eat a full plate of dark leafy greens (this also ties into nutrient density, which we’ll discuss in another post), I have a sub sandwich wrapped in lettuce instead of bread (the sandwich typically has avocado instead of mayo and a couple different kind of meat and veggies). This is an example… while the salad is a permanent fixture at lunch my protein choice changes.

• If I’m hungry I have another snack mid-afternoon which is typically a serving of sunflower seeds and raw veggies.

• For dinner, I fill half of my plate with a vegetables (my favorites are broccoli, green beans, or asparagus), a chicken breast, lean steak, or other protein, and then another piece of fruit. I try for fruits low on the Glycemic Index, meaning they have less effect on the body’s insulin response; however, if I’m going to have something (tropical fruits as an example) with a lot of carbs/sugars then I make sure to eat it with a larger meal to slow down its effect on my blood sugar. One note here: green beans are a legume and so are not part of a strict paleo diet. This is one place I am breaking the rules.

• Notice that I’m still getting carbohydrates- plenty of them. I’m just getting them from natural, unprocessed foods (fruits and veggies mostly) that don’t wreak havoc on my blood sugar levels.

How does this fit into a macro-nutrient breakdown? Based on the menu above,  my breakdown is 40% protein, 40% fat, and 20% carbohydrates. Of course the diet itself doesn’t recommend that anyone worry about macro-nutrient break downs, or that you count calories. They also don’t appear to advocate any kind of eating cycle… simply to eat when you’re hungry. While this is different from today’s typical “eat every 3 hours, eat a huge breakfast even if you’re not hungry” strategy, it also seems pretty rational.

I will be posting every Monday on this experiment, detailing my experiences and any changes from the previous week. One thing to remember is that while I am writing about all of this nutrition information… about how to live your healthiest life, there also must be balance. I am sure there are many who read all of this stuff and think about quality vs. quantity. “Do I want to live a long life, or do I want to enjoy the time that I’m here?” It’s a legitimate question that we all have to ask ourselves. I fall somewhere in between, choosing to practice a healthy diet 85% of the time, and allowing myself that other 15% to treat myself on special occasions.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about this diet, here are some helpful links of places that I went to when I first started researching. Remember, as with any diet, there are people to scientifically back it up, and there are just as many to scientifically refute it. It is one of those things that you have to decide for yourself what you believe.  Happy reading.

• Professor Cordain’s Paleo Diet Blog- contains an email newsletter sign up where he provides a multitude of reference for each of his articles. This is a good site for the scientific buff who’s not bored with all the technical stuff. He also has a book available on Amazon.
• Mark’s Daily Apple is a great site with lots of good info. The Primal Blueprint 101 is a great post about how it works and where to start. It’s a little less technical and a little more reader-friendly.
• Of course, Wikepedia has a good reference paper on the subject as well.
• The Modern Paleo blog provides some additional perspectives on what to eat; it is a little less strict and allows for some additional foods that we know to be healthy. The idea is that the paleolithic people missed out on these foods, but that doesn’t mean we should.
• Here at Everyday Paleo you can follow a Mother of three who is living a Paleo lifestyle. This blog has some great info as well as some good recipes.

Update: you can see my thoughts after week 1, here. I also finished this experiment in week 2, but eventually I came full circle.

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