Paleo and Me

When I first learned about the Paleo Diet several years ago, I was really excited about the revelations it had to offer. But the truth is even several years later I am not eating 100% according to the Paleo Diet. I first stated by learning about the dangers of gluten in the my diet, and stated experimenting with going gluten-free. The biggest noticeable difference for me was that my acid reflux went away. I had fairly severe bouts with acid reflux at night, and had started taking Prilosec AC to control it. But I started reading about the long-term problems with Prilosec, and really wanted to stop taking it. Around this same time I started my experiment with being gluten-free, and was delighted to notice that the acidity went away on it's own! But I find myself struggling to comply completely with the Paleo Diet.

The places where I find myself most challenged by the Paleo approach are:

1. Giving up dairy completely. I still find myself eating cheese from time-to-time, and I still eat yogurt. Also, I find ice cream hard to resist (although I've started experimenting with making my own dairy-free ice cream made with natural sweeteners.)

2. I'm still eating certain gluten-free grains, especially rice and quinoa. Being very enamored with Asian cuisine, rice is a hard one for me to give up completely.

3. And lastly, I still eat certain legumes – most notably Indian dals (lentils.) Dal and kichari (a Ayurvedic dish traditionally made with moong dal and basmati rice) have been comfort foods for me for quite some time now.

So, are these foods really doing me harm? I don't know. One thing I have remained hard-fast about is the complete avoidance of all gluten. There are a few things I've noticed to watch out for. Commercial products marketed as “gluten-free” are often not healthy choices. I occasionally would eat “gluten-free pizza” (made primarily with rice flour), but I discovered it caused my acid reflux to return! Was it just because it's texture resembled bread? Or was there secretly gluten contained in it? I really can't say, but I'm avoiding it now. Products marketed as “gluten-free” may contain highly refined rice flour, or flour made with other gluten-free grains. While I do still eat rice (both white rice and brown rice), I try to only use better quality sources of rice (organic whenever possible.) I also occasionally use various Asian rice-based noodle products (“rice vermicelli,” Pad Thai noodles) and have become concerned about these as well.

In ending this blog, i want to state that I've decided to renew my dedication to living a Paleo lifestyle, and I plan to seriously reduce all of the non-Paleo foods I've mentioned above from my diet. I have also started working with Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, which builds on the Paleo diet, but is a little more lenient about allowing the use of dairy and soy products. I really do believe that the Paleo/Primal approacht has a lot to offer towards restoring and maintaining a state of good health. The focus on eliminating gluten, and seriously reducing the consumption of carbs and sugar I feel can only be of benefit for most people. Moving towards only consuming natural, whole foods and avoiding low-quality, highly processed foods, is also a vitally important step.