Why I follow a Paleo-ish Diet...

In 2003 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Lichen Sclerosis. I was told there was no cure and that all they could do for me was treat the symptoms. The symptoms are pretty miserable, and as a result I became depressed and despondent when the medications they prescribed did not really do much to alleviate them. So, with absolutely nothing to lose, and an inquisitive nature, I began to do some research.

I learned that many autoimmune diseases respond well to a Paleolithic diet, that is, a diet which excludes grains, beans, dairy, and processed sugars. I began to follow the diet off and on for the next five years, with periods of extreme faithfulness to it interspersed with periods of doubt and bingeing. I was living in Europe at the time, and didn't want to be so strict with my diet that I was miserable and missed out on all the great food. I certainly could have done a better job of following the Paleo guidelines. But during those years I read a lot about food, nutrition, disease and autoimmune response.

I learned that many things might be contributing to my disease that were not obvious. The role of lectins for example may be a huge factor, and in our processed American diet lectins are everywhere. Almost all processed food has either soy or corn in it. Both of these are high in lectins. Even soybean oil has lectins in it, and it is hard to find a mayonnaise or salad dressing that is not made with soybean oil. Even following a (modified) Paleo diet, I was exposing myself to more lectins than I thought.

In 2008 I moved home to the US, with no job, no prospects, and significantly more pounds than when I left. After a year home, I piled on even more pounds, my disease became unmanageable, and over the holidays this year (2009) I had a huge flare-up, and discovered that I weighed more than ever.

Enough was enough. I re-dedicated myself to the Paleo lifestyle. I am full-blown low carb Paleo now (with small amounts of grass-fed-raw-when-possible-dairy, chocolate, & alcohol). I walk every day, I do yoga (instead of weightlifting), and I sprint occasionally to remind myself that I can outrun my fate.

As far as what we usually eat, it is very simple:

Meat/poultry/fish/seafood, vegetables, fruits, nuts and a little dairy.

Breakfast is eggs and vegetables (spinach, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, onion,) with a little bacon or sausage, and sometimes a little cheese. Sometimes my husband will just have fruit. Sometimes I will add a few berries to my meal. (I LOVE raspberries). I drink coffee with real cream at breakfast. We often skip breakfast entirely, although I always have my coffee...

We eat lots of leafy greens.

We eat around 4 ounces of meat, fish, poultry, or seafood each for lunch and for dinner.
A salad is our usual lunch with leftovers from the night before, and I usually make a salad to have with dinner as well. I put crumbled bleu cheese or goats milk cheese and fruit in my dinner salads and a few nuts regularly. I make my own salad dressings, although we got several bottles of yummy dressing /marinade as a gift for Christmas that we will use as well.
I have a glass of wine fairly regularly with dinner (several times a week) and a sometimes a small piece of dark organic chocolate for dessert. (Not very often, maybe once per week).
So there you have it. It is a Paleo-style diet. Less strict than some since it is one I must live with for the next YEAR! Therefore, not so restrictive that I think I cannot bear it.
I do not follow some of Loren Cordain's Paleo ideas for a variety of reasons. I do eat dairy--although ALWAYS organic, and whenever possible raw. I am not giving up my one cup of coffee with cream--at least not yet. I also disagree with Cordain's low-saturated fat approach to the diet. I eat grass fed beef, and free range chicken and pork, wild caught seafood and try not to eat overly processed oils. I do eat olive oil, and if I use mayonnaise I use light olive oil to make it. I prefer to follow general Paleo guidelines such as Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, or Art DeVany's Evolutionary Fitness, or the recommendations of Drs. Mary Dan and Michael Eades.
One final note:
I do not believe in following any nutritional plan so vehemently that you cannot accept a piece of cake at a social gathering once in a while. I avoid grains whenever possible because eating them wreaks havoc on my digestive system, and because I fundamentally believe that in the US, we eat far too many grain-based foods, sugars, and highly processed foods. In small amounts from time to time, I can tolerate them, and will continue to enjoy them as a rare treat, just as our ancestors would have enjoyed honey or wild rice.




Update 2010:

As of the 1st of November this year, I am going hard-core Paleo with an autoimmune slant. I am avoiding all nightshade vegetables, (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers). I am replacing the cream in my coffee with coconut milk, and limiting my coffee to 2 cups in the morning. I am drastically cutting down on the eggs I eat. Limiting them to about 4 a week. Eventually I plan to cut them out entirely as there is some evidence that they can make autoimmune symptoms worse. I am cutting out the wine and chocolate for now (they are not a regular part of my diet any more, although I will have a little wine and probably a martini around the holidays.) I have cut way down on my "open" meals, restricting them to once a week, and still basically eating Paleo--just a bit more fat than usual, and a little honey. Due to finances, we are eating conventionally raised meat, the leaner cuts, and organic vegetables as we can afford them. I use the Environmental Working Group's list of top ten best and worst veggies to determine what we need to buy organic and what we can buy conventional.

Update March 2011:

After several months of paleo/autoimmune, (with no real progress as far as my symptoms go) I am changing a few things: I am IF-ing most days about 19-20 hours, and focusing on one real "meal" per day. Financially this is very beneficial--also it gives me one meal to plan, which works better for figuring out O3-O6 ratios, which I think really seems to make a difference. I am not eating much chicken or pork--rather, (even though it costs a bit more) I am focusing on ruminants, beef, lamb, veal, bison, venison, etc. I am also supplementing with omega 3 eggs, and pasture-fed cheese, cream and sour cream. I eat whatever veggies are on sale and have always at least one green vegetable. So far my LS symptoms seem to be responding well to this. I am still avoiding tomatoes and peppers--although I do eat them occasionally. Stress make them worse, so I try to supplement with sardines and seafood as much as I can afford it. I drink red wine every day (about 5 ounces)

As I am also wanting to lose weight, I am eating lower carb (30-60 grams of carbs per day) and walking about seven miles 3+ times per week. Every couple of weeks, I eat non-paleo-ish fare. (at the most, once a week, usually something with sugar in it) what can I say, I'm weak... :)

Also several times per month usually for a couple of days in a row I eat more frequently than once per day. Like breakfast, snack and dinner. Or lunch and dinner. Or breakfast, lunch and snack...(you get the idea).

Update 2/2013:

I started seeing a Paleo-friendly doctor in August. She is a weight loss specialist, and has been working with me to figure out why I am having such a hard time losing weight. This is what we have learned so far:

1. I need at least 60 grams of protein per day and do better on about 115-125, but stop losing weight at around 180 grams.

2. I can eat up to about 25 grams of carbohydrate and continue to lose weight. At 25-50 grams I can maintain my weight. At 50+ I gain weight.

3. I do better with fewer calories. If I eat no less than 1200, but no more than 1600 I can lose weight. If I eat between 1600-2000 I can maintain, and if I eat more than 2000 I gain weight.

4. I do best with my fat around 50-60 percent of my diet.

5. I lose weight more consistently when I eat beef, duck and lamb than when I eat chicken, shrimp and pork.

6. I lose more weight when I only drink alcohol once or twice a week, and limit it to no more than two 4-5 ounce glasses of wine.

7. I lose more weight if I include natural probiotics in my carbohydrate count. (I have been eating 1/4 cup of sauerkraut or 4 ounces of kombucha several times a week since October.)

8. My strength increases more if I work out less. I have been able to increase my lifting weight over the last three weeks in pretty much every muscle group which I credit to working out fewer times. If I lift weights 3+ times per week, or more I end up feeling crappy and not doing well--probably because of the low carbohydrate levels I need in order to lose weight. I have adjusted pretty well to the walking without any detrimental effects. I can walk way faster now than when I started January 3rd.

9. Whey protein works for me. I have been relying on whey protein shakes for a good amount of my daily protein. The drinks I consume are for convenience only, and not part of the Paleo diet, but they are working for me, so I currently am keeping them--when I get closer to my weight goal, I will experiment with whole foods that offer the same protein/carb/fat levels. These whey protein shakes were suggested by my doctor as an easy way of upping my protein without raising my carb or fat levels. They are also chock full of vitamins and minerals, that are not present in extremely low fat/low carb natural protein sources. While it would certainly be possible to come up with a weighed and measured natural foods diet that might work, it would be time-consuming and I do not have that time right now. (update 10/2013--stopped using whey protein shakes except as a sort of "dessert" if I find I am hungry before bed.)

10. Intermittent fasting works really well for me. I do not eat breakfast, but do have a cup of coffee with pastured cream every morning before work. I have about 10 macadamia nuts which I take with my vitamins, followed by a whey-based protein drink around 2pm (or as early as 12pm if I get hungry). After my walk home, I have another whey-based protein drink (around 5pm). Dinner follows and is the bulk of my calories between 6-7pm. (update 2/2014 stopped IFing, trying to eat strict Keto diet with 3 regular meals and one snack.)

11. Drinking lots of water and consuming bone broth helps me stay full and feel good. (I also have not been sick since I started this plan in August).

I have lost 20 pounds since August 12th as of this morning. This is a loss of 0.83 pounds per week over the course of 173 days. I appear to lose about 1.5 pounds per week when nothing interferes with my schedule, like holidays, conferences, hormonal fluctuations...


So a quick rundown of things that I may not have mentioned previously or have changed, etc.

What I eat:

Whey protein shakes. (Not Paleo, but working for my needs at this time (2/2013)--if I start to struggle with my goals, I may take them out.) (update 10/2013--stopped using whey protein shakes except as a sort of "dessert" if I find I am hungry before bed.)

Dairy. Not everyone needs to cut dairy entirely out of their diet. Pastured cream and butter as well as some pastured cheeses may be fine. Raw is better than pasteurized. I currently only eat very low carb dairy, no yogurt, no milk.

Meat. Lots of it, all kinds, lean if I cannot get a pastured source--I am currently (2/2013) tending to focus more on red meats at the moment rather than chicken and pork.  I am eating between 115-140 grams of protein a day--about 30 grams is whey protein, the remainder is meat and eggs and a small amount of pastured cheese.

Vegetables. Lots of leafy greens and low-carb veggies. Not everyone needs to eat only low-carb vegetables, but if I want to lose fat, I need to limit my carbs to 20 grams or less. Everyone is different in what works for them. If you are overweight or metabolically resistant you may find that focusing on non-starchy carbs will be a better choice for you as well, and limiting your carbs may be necessary if you want to lose fat.

Probiotics. Lacto-fermented vegetables and kombucha. I eat/drink these weekly (not daily).

Bone broth. A great way to fill up the cracks with a relatively low calorie and nutritious food. I recommend making bone broth whenever you have bones to use, or if you are feeling tired and under the weather. I make it once or twice a month, and drink it whenever I feel like it.

Fat. Lots of it. Currently I am eating about 50% of my calories in fat. A more traditional hunter-gatherer range would be about 30-40, but I will keep doing what I am doing while it works. I eat pastured butter, coconut oil, use the fat from the animals I eat, and also purchase pastured duck fat to use when possible. I also use olive oil on salads and macadamia nut oil to cook with occasionally.

Nuts. Currently I am eating macadamia nuts as an afternoon snack. They are roasted and salted and extremely delicious. I am very picky about my nuts and do not eat very many (less than 1 ounce per day), but sometimes use a variety to cook with...one of my current favorite spice mixtures is dukkah.

Alcohol. Yes, please! I have 1 or 2 drinks per week but limit myself to dry wine and an occasional dry gin martini.

Avocado. A great source of fat, avocados are relatively high in carbs for me right now (I am not allowed to subtract out fiber) I have cut out avocado for now, although I do periodically sneak it in here and there.

Eggs. I eat eggs regularly, although with my current IF schedule I only consume them about 1 or 2 times a week.

Nightshade vegetables. I am currently avoiding these, although I do eat tomatoes occasionally (maybe once a week, or once every two weeks).

Organ meats. An important part of a balanced diet. I eat liver, kidney, tongue, heart and gizzard at least once a week from a variety of animals.

Sleep.  I almost always get at least 7 hours of sleep a night--usually 8, and on the weekends 10.  Because of my commute I get up at 5 am and leave for work at 6 am, so I need to be in bed by 9 pm each night.  Most nights I am really good about this, but on Mondays I do not get home until 10 pm, so I am often not in bed until 11 pm, so that is the hardest.  It would be better if I did not have to work that night.  On weekends I always sleep until 7:30 am or 8am,