People who know me know that I love to bake, I enjoy all kinds of sweets, and have a difficult time resisting all those delicious things that are bad for your waistline and energy levels.
Sugar, processed foods, processed carbohydrates, and excessive amounts of baked goods are the culprit.
Who the what now? Sugar is the culprit? What about fat?
It was once believed that " you were what you ate", and if you ate low fat foods, and cut fat out of your diet, that you would not be fat. That way of thinking is still prevalent, but scientists and dietitians are realizing that statements like those are flawed and simply false.
When the "low fat/ fat free" revolution occurred in the early 1980s, many products popped up on the market as miracle product :" Good for you...
AND FAT FREE!", and us as North Americans (other continents too, but not like here) gobbled it up, and in return our waistlines did not shrink; they expanded! We are fatter than ever, but why?
Probably because we waged war on the wrong food.
Refined sugars, starchy carbohydrates, processed foods, and junk foods that spike insulin levels and cause insulin resistance are the foods that ultimately made , and kept us fat.
Sugar (and by that I mean the refined "bad" kind) is the only "food" that you can 100% eliminate from your diet without any adverse effects.
The modern day diet is full of foods and and food products that did not even exist 100 years ago when our grandparents and great grandparents went to the store to pick up supplies. They also did not even have the same amounts of food available to them: restaurant were not open 24 hours, you could not buy a hamburger or cheesecake at The
Dep (short for "
Dépanneur" or "convenience store" for anyone living outside of Quebec), and soda was a big time treat reserved for a special occasion, not a staple to be consumed at breakfast, lunch, supper, and every snack in between.
Were human beings even designed to eat that crap?
Let's turn back the clocks even further. Humans have being evolving for the past
2 000 000 years, and agriculture has been around for about 10 000 years. Agriculture changed the way humans ate and lived. Until the Neolithic period humans were hunters gatherers and subsisted only on plants and animals they could hunt, and that were readily available on the land, they were nomadic and went where their food supply went. This period is considered the Paleolithic period.
Once people figured out how to grow food and grains, domesticated some animals, they settled and began farming. Food was easier to come by. Grains could be stored and used later on in the season, and that by processing those grains you could make breads and other foodstuffs....the rest is history.
Despite all these advances in agriculture, scientists have shown that Paleolithic man and modern man are genetically the same, and although we have adapted to our environment and we walk a little taller, our bodies have the same nutritional requirements they did 2 000 000 years ago, so it would make sense to keep eating what your body needs and wants, and toss out the rest.
So what did Paleolithic man eat anyway?
Anything he could run after and catch, pluck off a tree or bush and did not make him sick (probably quite a bit of trial and error there...)
Animal Protein ( if it moved and was slower than him, he ate it)
Eggs
Vegetables and Fruits
Tree nuts like walnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. ( peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own are not considered nuts)
Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, rose hips, elderberry etc.
What he did not eat (because it was not around yet):
Grains or grain products
Beans, peas and legumes.
Potatoes
Dairy products
Sugar (I wonder if he tried honey? If anyone knows please send me a post!)
Alcohol (debatable... fermented/rotten fruit was around, and I'm sure there were some incidents, but not to "frosh week" proportions)
The quality of the food is also important. Paleolithic man ate free ranging meat, pesticides did not exist all fruits and veggies were organic, and the only sugars around were the natural sugars in fruits and berries. If you were to follow the Paleolithic diet today, you would have to take care to select quality organic free ranging meats, poultry, and wild fish free of antibiotics and hormones; organic local produce, and of course you'd also have to give up all processed foods.
If you went through your kitchen pantry and refrigerator right now you would probably have to toss most what they contain out. and start from scratch, but I bet if you were able to stick to such a way of eating, or adhere to it as closely as possible, you would notice some changes.
For a few months before leaving on my Austrian trip, I had made a few changes in my diet and felt great!
I cut out bread and grains (including rice, pasta, oatmeal...), All baked goods (all the yummy stuff like cookies and cakes), refines sugars, candy and chocolate (except for one treat a week), limited my soy consumption (it's a bean!), cut out dairy (a no brainer ..I'm lactose intolerant anyway), and peanut butter (had almond butter instead), and tried to be as consistent as possible.
The result: in 4 weeks I was about 10lbs lighter and felt amazing. My training was doing well, my recovery time lessened, and once I got over the "OMG I WANT SUGAR AND CHOCOLATE" feeling, it got easier to ignore the cookie isle at the super market.
Being back from holiday and having returned to some semblance in routine, I am thinking whether I should give this Paleo diet a whack, and see what happens...
the thing is it's hard to adhere to something like this when other people in your household are not willing try it with you.
Will I embark on a Paleo Diet Challenge? Maybe. Will it be as strict? Not sure... I really like green beans and soy, they are full of nutrients, and are "vegetably", so I may make some adjustments IF I decide to do this.
For the moment, I'll wait until the 2 gingerbread lemon cupcakes that are in the fridge get eaten, the leftover piece of chocolate birthday cake disappears, and the plain yogurt and breakfast cereals are gone before going full on. Right now I'll focus on not eating the previously mentioned yummies, staying away from sweets and bread-like things, and try an eliminate the one (OK twice) weekly cheat meal(s).
