There are misconceptions and unproven facts about what’s healthy or not that circulate in the paleo diet community and that lead people to mistakes, confusion or frustration when it comes to eating the healthiest diet possible.
The quasi-omnipresence of some of those myths and misconceptions has become so strong that some bloggers now feel bad about being associated with the paleo diet community and...
It’s common knowledge in the paleo diet circles that sugar, especially the sugar fructose, should be limited and that it can cause a multitude of problems like those categorized under the metabolic syndrome umbrella term. Unlike other major unhealthy foods and non-foods (eg.: grains, soy, vegetable oils), sugar is also in foods that are natural and healthy like fruits and vegetables. This can make it...
Nuts and seeds are a very popular snack among Paleo eaters and some people end up consuming quite a few of them. After all, they’re an easy and handy snack to bring to work or on hikes and most of them are loaded with nutrients. We know however that the fact that most nuts and seeds were available to our ancestors is not enough in itself to justify a frequent consumption. We need to look further into...
While most people in the Paleo diet circles agree on the basic premises, some questions are oftentimes the subject of much debate. The question about the optimal amount and ratio of protein, carbohydrate and fat that we should consume is one of them.
I think that many authors fall short in their recommendations and make mistakes that lead people to have wrong ideas about an optimal nutrition.
Trying to...
Accurately mimicking our ancestors is impossible and unnecessary and some authors in the paleo / primal / whole food blogosphere have raised concerns about using the term Paleo to describe the concept as some people are led to believe that we should try to accurately mimic our ancestor’s diet. This can lead to mistakes, unnecessary dogma or an unhealthy patronizing attitude. A lot of people now...
Those who’ve jumped on board of the Paleo diet lifestyle often know very well just how wrong are the current popular ideas against saturated fat and cholesterol consumption. Some probably wonder though as to how and why something that seems so obvious can be ignored by the major governing bodies and the medical establishment. Such propagation of bogus science can only happen in the presence of strong...
The products of the coconut, especially coconut oil, are often greatly enjoyed by Paleo diet folks and often end up being the main source of calories for many people starting on a paleo diet. After all, most will find it easier to simply buy a big jar of coconut oil than source grass-fed tallow that they then have to render themselves. Some will also shy away from butter fat because of the negative...
Warning: This article is long and dry, but should prove very useful for people suffering from hard to treat gut flora problems, bowel diseases or autoimmune diseases that started with a gut flora disruption.
The goal of this article is to tackle gut and gut flora problems and what to do about it. Granted, following a Paleo diet will often provide great relief and maybe even cure whatever ailment you’re...
Some will argue that butter is not Paleo and was not consumed by our ancestors of the Paleolithic. While there is truth to that, when consuming pure butter fat with the proteins and sugars removed by making clarified butter (ghee), we obtain a highly saturated fat that’s not much different from other sources of healthy animal saturated fat. An argument can also be made for the fact that butter has...
Now that you know that cholesterol in food (dietary cholesterol) is not a bad thing, you might be interested to learn about the benefits of eating egg yolks versus egg whites. In fact, other than for some extra proteins, egg whites are pretty much useless and can even cause problems for some people with digestive conditions or autoimmune diseases and you’ll see why later.
Our society’s bias...
This article is written so you can properly understand why eating a high saturated fat diet won’t make you fat and why counting calories and trying to burn more calories than you consume is a recipe for disaster. Elevated stress, fatigue, frustration and ultimately weight gain are the results of medium to long term calorie-restriction and/or excess cardio training.
You’ll see why a calorie...
Most vegetarians will argue with you that most mammals eat a vegetarian diet and fare fairly well. They will tell you that gorillas can lift 10 times their weight on a diet composed almost entirely of plants while even the strongest among us can only lift 3 times their weight. What they haven’t figured out though is that the gorilla’s anatomy is much different than ours and also that gorillas,...
It is my understanding that, over time, the truth always prevails. Like when we finally learned and accepted that the earth was round, one day it will be common knowledge that saturated fats are good while grains, vegetables oil and excess carbohydrates are bad. Only the future though will tell us how much time, sweat and uphill battle it will take for the main institutions to accept these...
This is yet another subject where everybody has an opinion that’s slightly different. If you come with the conventional wisdom mindset, you probably think that a good multivitamin is a good insurance no matter how healthy you already are or how well you eat.
I think the picture is a bit more complex than that. First of all, most multivitamins are very poorly absorbed and literally becomes money that...
This article is geared towards people who want to try out the Paleo diet and who just want to quickly know what they should and shouldn’t do.
No background science here or lengthy explanations, only 15 easy rules to follow to kick start your Paleo journey. It’s up to you to decide to what extent you want to follow those rules, but if you follow them 100% you can be assured that you are eating...
It goes without saying that diet is far from the only thing that drastically changed in our modern times in contrast to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Although diet is the major variable when it comes to health, there certainly is room left for other lifestyle factors to be tweaked in favor of better, simple and healthier ways.
Wearing shoes is one such thing that seems so natural and second nature, but...
Eating the best food for your health doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, you’ll understand after this article why I think the better you go for your health, the cheaper it gets.
The good news is that with some commitment and preparation, your food bill can be lower than your average food bill on a regular western diet. This article is written with a poor college student in mind...
It can be therapeutic to just sit down, relax and watch a good movie or documentary. It’s even more interesting though when it’s about a subject that touches us as close as our health and the present food industry.
I’ll present here a quick review and commentary of the documentaries that ring true to us, Paleo eaters, while not necessarily bringing about the exact paleo principles.
We...
If you follow what the government and food industry tells you like a broken record, you probably still believe that soy at least as some health benefits and that it’s a good idea to consume at least some. After all, what could be bad about the innocent soy milk or tasteless tofu?
Everything is wrong about it and we’ve been fed a bunch of lies. You have to consider the fact that all that you...
Having multiple cavities, crooked teeth or having to rely on dentists to remove teeth that take up too much space is not the natural state of being.
How could this be? Are we the only species on earth that needs specialists to keep our teeth in order? How did we do it before dentists, we suffered endlessly perhaps. I don’t think so!
After all, mammals in nature seem to have no problems with their...
As you probably know, we’ve been eating grains, refined or whole, only since the beginning of agriculture some 10 000 years ago. The problem is that our genes where formed about 2 million years ago and haven’t changed much since then, nor did our digestive systems. Eating structurally and chemically different foods is therefore more often than not asking for problems. Grains are miles away...
Like saturated fat, carbohydrates and grains, most of us get it all wrong when it gets to cholesterol.
We’re told to limit our consumption of butter, lard, red meat and eggs, or worse, to go on statins to reduce our blood cholesterol levels, but yet, our ancestors seem to have thrived on those foods without the predicted heart problems.
Seeing the opportunity, the pharmacology industry did a really...
If you subscribe to today’s conventional wisdom, you probably think that being healthy and fit requires a lifelong dedication to strenuous exercise, calorie counting and restrictions.
This couldn’t be further from the truth and if you try to lose weight battling against your body’s mechanisms and genetics I wish you good luck on your life of hardship and deception.
People tell me all...
When it comes to dairy and the Paleo diet, some debates pop-up and dairy definitely is in a grey zone.
In the strict Paleo sense, dairy of any form was not consumed in the paleolithic era, other than human milk in infancy of course. It just wasn’t very practical to milk wild game.
The mere fact that something wasn’t consumed during the paleolithic era doesn’t make it bad, but...
Autoimmune diseases and digestive related problems (Chron’s disease, Celiac disease, Ulcerative Colitis, IBD, IBS, Lupus, Rheumatoid arthritis, Interstitial cystitis, Multiple Sclerosis,…) can be very dehabilitating and can take on your whole life. I think that eating a Paleo diet has the potential to cure a good part of those conditions that are quite new to us. However, for those dealing with...
Here is a list of some of the changes frequently seen on a Paleo diet. Of course, they are a bunch of other ones and this is why I invite you to post yours at the end of this post.
Note that unlike regular fad diets that are usually built with only one advantage in mind, weight loss usually, the Paleo diet is a whole lifestyle that mimics the perfect gene expression for our bodies so it’s no...
I’m not going to sugar coat this article and I might sound somewhat rude, but I think someone has to step up and tell the truth about some “Gurus” in the world of nutrition. This is my way of helping people not making the same mistakes I made that led me to huge health problems. I will also demonstrate good reasons why people should always be critical of those so called gurus and thus...
It is my understanding that most vegetarians or vegans do it mainly for the environment or because they don’t like the idea of killing or mistreating animals.
Those principles are very noble, but I’ll explain why they often don’t make any sense if you think about the bigger picture. I wish I had this kind of information before jumping on a raw food diet of only fruits, vegetables and nuts...
You’ve probably heard about the importance of having good amounts of Vitamin D, but you might be wondering why there is so much talk around this particular vitamin, especially in the Paleo diet circles.
One of the reasons Paleo eaters put so much importance on Vitamin D is because it’s one of the only vitamins you could still be deficient on a balanced Paleo diet.
The reason behind that is not...
This article discusses a simple way to replace your commercial toothpaste with a cheap and natural alternative made simply out of coconut oil and baking soda. For a lengthier discussion on keeping healthy teeth, consult the article about the dietary approach to prevent and heal tooth decay.
Humans and their teeth problems
Do you ever wonder why us, humans, have so much problems with our teeth? We have...
