Paleo diet?

[FionaGFG]

You've probably seen a lot in the media and on blogs about the wonders of the caveman Paleo diet. Many people advocate the meat, fish and veg diet as being the healthiest there is. And luckily for coeliacs it contains no gluten. We recently had a city break in Copenhagen and lucked upon a paleo foodie stall that did great GF food. We ate there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As we all know how risky cross contamination is elsewhere. We all felt healthier and full of energy and in fact have now decided to ditch our gluten free bread completely. Six weeks on we have no more bloating or constipation or joint pains and have lost weight. Clue- check the calorie content of your normal GF bread per slice! It's incredible. And also loaded with cellulose and additives and preservatives which are hard to digest. So if you still continue to have bloating and odd digestion on a GF diet check how much processed food you're eating. Of course if you do ditch GF processed food which is often supplemented with fibre and vitamins make sure you ensure you get plenty of B12, folic acid, vitamin D and calcium via other foods or via good GF supplements.

Have any of you gone Paleo and felt better for it?

[Penel]

Thanks for posting Fiona. Having no worries about becoming ill when away from home must have been a wonderful feeling.

I'm with you on giving up the processed gf foods. Haven't had any ready made bread for years and as I don't do to well with yeast, haven't made my own bread very often.

I like the Paleo ideas on food but can't do the full ketogenic version. I'm ok with low lactose levels, but finding raw dairy products Is not easy where I live. One of the other drawbacks with attempting to eat in this way is the cost, but I think it's worth it.

[Karen77 in reply to Penel]

You can make it as costly or as cheap as you'd like. I think there's even a blog called paleo on a shoestring. There are also different tenets of paleo, such as Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson and Paul Jaminet, and autoimmune paleo for those with autoimmune disease, which is really just a comprehensive elimination diet to identify your autoimmune triggers.

Raw dairy is better than organic dairy, is better than regular dairy. If you can't afford or source raw, go for organic, if that's also out of your budget, skip dairy. Same with meat - look for pasture raised, or organic, or limit the amount of non-organic, non-pasture raised beef you consume - and pay attention to sales. Best of luck!

[SilverDreamMachine]

Thanks Fiona.

I eat a fair amount of home made bread using prescription flours and am getting increasingly more worried about the health aspects. I may not be eating gluten, but the ingredients could be just as harmful had I chosen a slice of hovis.

I wonder if there has been any research into the effects of consuming prescription flour?

Thanks again and glad you had a stress free food 'holiday'.

Peter

[MTCee]

Cutting out all processed foods and grains is undoubtedly what gives the paleo diet it's benefits. I agree it's far better to follow a naturally gf diet than to eat the highly processed gf foods that are increasingly available. I make paleo bread to eat with my evening meals. It's very versatile and a great replacement for grains or starchy vegetables. It's also very easy to make. I follow a mostly paleo diet myself but include legumes. I feel very healthy on this kind of diet so it's worth the effort.

[Hidden]

Hi Fiona, we wondered where you'd been and you've been galavanting in Copenhagen so nice one, the paleo cafe sounds really good and a very good option for a coeliac.

My opinion of a full on paleo diet is that it is unnecessarily restricted, because our paleo fore fathers/mothers had no option, where as we have many options. I also wonder why the paleo diet avoids fructose as fructose is in fruit and honey and these have been eaten for many years and are natural foods. (I'm not talking about modern high fructose sugar)

Now as for the replacement foods that are gluten free they are as you rightly say very processed and contain many additives and are not nutritious.

Peter (SDM) makes a very valid point about prescription flour and codex wheat is about the taste rather than nutrition because of the process of rendering wheat gluten free the remaining starch is devoid of nutrition and some manufacturers advertise it as an inert filler. The prescription flour/bread is fortified but...

To me the real problem is that 'we' the consumer have lost touch with what we are really eating and we kid ourselves that fast foods are essential to our life styles and to make this point I can make myself gluten free fish and chips quicker than walking around the corner to my local chippie, queuing and walking home again. As how long does it take to make a batter? less than a minute and the chips are prepared before the chip pan has heated up. And this is because we have slick advertising of fast foods and have forgotten basic culinary skills. Now if i had to go out into the North sea and catch the cod myself then it would be a different story LOL.

So I reckon as coeliac we ought to look at the best bits of many diets and have as varied and balanced diet as possible using fresh natural gluten free foods.

At the end of the day we are what we eat full stop.

[freelancer]

I found the various paleo websites and books really helpful for food and recipe ideas when I first went gluten free four years or so ago, but I've never really been fully paleo – I still eat legumes and a lot of rice. I've never really got on with commercial GF bread or biscuits – a lot of which don't seem to be particularly GF when you look at the ingredients – so either go without or make my own sweets etc.

I was sad to see that the paleo restaurant in London closed, though I never made it there. They seemed to set up as a glossy high-end restaurant, when they might have been better starting out small and trendy...

[Jessiepup]

I am on GAPS diet which is a gut healing diet. I am on it because I still had many problems following being GF seven years ago. 8 months on the diet which is grain,preservative,sugar free I have never felt better. It's similar to paleo in the fact that you heat food in its natural form and lots of natural fats are included.

It has healed my gut and I have been infection free for the first time in my adult life and I don't take any supplimiments because my diet it neutrient rich. (My iron levels have raised for the first time in years, which didn't happen on tablets )

[Karen77]

I definitely feel better following a paleo diet. Recently got some GF bread to make it easier on guests who are used to having toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. I find it more like candy than proper food and confess that I could eat a whole loaf of warm gf bread with butter! I definitely feel worse for it though. Glad you enjoyed your paleo experience!