On this episode of The Paleo View, Stacy and Sarah discuss the purpose of the Paleo template, and how the “gray area” ingredients and food take away from the healing and long-term health that this lifestyle promotes.
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The Paleo View (TPV), Episode 178, Missing the Point
- Intro (0:00)
- News and Views (0:56)
- Stacy’s back treatment was extremely successful and she is more mobile than she has been since summer
- It was an inflammation issue
- After a third treatment all discomfort should be gone
- Stacy is still waiting to return to lifting, and will likely instead start yoga to work on mobility and strengthening her body
- And then possibly incorporate personal training once a week to ease into things
- Sarah has been doing personal training since her kids went back to school and is seeing so many benefits from having someone who can both pace her and help her get strong, while not taking away from her health
- Not reaching burnout and having consistency with her training has been phenomenal and paying off
- Unfortunately after Stacy’s back felt better, she got hit with food poisoning and an infection
- Sarah killing the PR’s at the gym lately
- How Sarah’s diet and lifestyle factors have allowed for these PR’s to happen
- And she has been doing all these things to manage her health so that she can write her next book
- How phenomenal Sarah is feeling right now both mentally and physically, and how grateful she feels for reaching this point
- Making the smart choice over the fun choice
- This week’s show topic comes from a place of wanting everyone to be healthy, and wanting the best for everybody
- A reminder, Paleo is a personal approach diet and lifestyle that needs to be self-customized to meet your needs
- The kind of recipes that are readily availability to those new to Paleo, due to the popularity of these recreations that would have initially fallen in the 20% bracket when Paleo was still a fairly new diet
- The pressures of being a recipe developer in the Paleo community
- There are better approaches and not so health approaches to Paleo recipes, and we are getting quite the variety in the movement these days
- Throughout Stacy’s years following a Paleo approach, she has made many choices where she has went with the fun option, as opposed to the one that has supported her health, and she learned quite a bit from these moments and how they impact her goals
- Making choices to feel your best as opposed to hoping on the snowball
- In light of the new year and new goals, this week’s show will allow us all to take a step back and remember what the point of Paleo is
- How do we identify if a food is Paleo or not?
- How the ‘what did hunter-gathers eat?’ argument mucks up the water for the discussion on what is the healthiest approach to life now
- Evaluating whether or not a food is a health promoting food and why this is the ideal guiding point in our discussion
- While this approach still has gray areas to it, you can better understand how food will effect the body
- Stacy’s point on the need for rules and guiding points, and how confusing it can be when these aren’t present
- Sarah’s explanation for Paleo as a template that requires self experimentation to see what works best for you, which includes defining balance and sustainability that works for you
- What makes your body thrive, versus what does your body tolerate
- Finding that place in the middle where you can feel content with your choices
- Paleo is not something you do to achieve a short-term goal, Paleo choices are about long-term health to have a high quality life for as long as you can
- Stacy’s back treatment was extremely successful and she is more mobile than she has been since summer
- How Sarah and Stacy Define Paleo (32:24)
- Sarah likes to emphasize that there is no macronutrient prescription within Paleo
- Its a whole foods diet, not a high fat or low carb diet
- Paleo hones in on the most essential building blocks that our cells need, the raw materials that are needed for all the chemical reactions in every cell
- The word Paleo isn’t used in Sarah’s household – they instead think of their lifestyle as nutrient dense, anti-inflammatory, and one that promotes optimal gut health and hormone regulation
- Both a limitation and growth factor for this movement is the label, while it makes this approach searchable, it carries a stigma
- Stacy’s mention of the new show ‘My Diet is Better Than Yours‘
- Sarah likes to emphasize that there is no macronutrient prescription within Paleo
- The Ingredients (41:11)
- Why Matt and Stacy structured Real Life Paleo around the transitional foods
- Getting to the healing, nutrient-dense foods in phase 3
- The recreation foods (ice cream, brownies, cookies, etc.) are so much more popular that the superfoods are not what we see on social media
- Old school Paleo baked good ingredients will never be a nutrient competitor for meat and vegetables
- Baked goods containing these ingredients are very energy dense for the amount of nutrients in them
- There are so many people that come to Paleo to lose weight or find health, so promoting this idea of “clean, healthy Paleo treats” can be misleading and gets away from the point
- These foods are great for transitioning away from conventional foods or for special occasions and celebrations, but should not be mistaken for a routine food to include
- Using these foods as crutches as opposed to occasional treats
- Sarah doesn’t feel that we need to give up treats or indulgent foods, but we each need to individually look at what is the right balance of treat foods verses health promoting foods
- People want a definition for moderation, but there isn’t a one size fits all – that is part of the beauty of the Paleo lifestyle, that we move away from living by numbers and tracking
- When you choose foods within a Paleo framework, most people will naturally end up in a healthful caloric range for their bodies
- Changing your palette to not crave these “healthful treats” is key to managing cravings and finding a healthy balance with indulgences and treats
- It is missing the point to consistently have foods that are void of nutrients and do not promote health
- It is difficult for Stacy to get in the nutrients she needs to consume within the caloric range that is appropriate for her if she is eating really energy dense foods that are either nut based or cassava flour based, or even adding bananas to things
- Both Stacy and Sarah use these nutrient dense ingredients, but they each have to make themselves aware of where the balance falls for them, their health, and their goals
- Stacy hopes that people are mindful of what their goals are and what the point of this all is
- Ingredients that are a treat, but don’t send Sarah “running for the hills”
- Cassava flour
- Tapioca flour
- Arrowroot starch
- Any ground nut and/or seed meal
- Ground root or starch
- Coconut flour
- Rice flour (falls on Stacy’s list, but not Sarah’s)
- Honey
- Maple syrup
- Cane sugar
- Tapioca syrup
- Date sugar
- Black strap molasses
- The reintroduction foods that you play with to test how you respond to their incorporation into your lifestyle
- High quality dairy
- Rice
- Potatoes
- Alcohol
- The scientifically supported, not Paleo items
- Any non-nutritive sweetener
- Emulsifiers (you can find more information on these ingredients on Sarah’s site here)
- Guar gum
- Carrageenan
- Xanthan gum
- Lecithin
- Psyllium husk
- Looking at an ingredient and thinking about what it is replacing and whether or not it is doing us any good
- Why Matt and Stacy structured Real Life Paleo around the transitional foods
- Why We Wanted to Talk about this Topic (1:11:51)
- Awareness of food choices is so phonemically important in order to be able to understand how food interacts with our bodies
- This is the time of year where so many new people come to Paleo to achieve their health goals, but when people come to Paleo and don’t feel good because they are overdoing it on these questionable ingredients, we are missing the opportunity to help these people
- Being intentional with your food choices
- If we want the Paleo movement to continue to grow, we want to help people find health, and so we need to improve the awareness about where these lines are
- That doesn’t mean never crossing these lines, but instead understanding how these ingredients work for you
- We are not hoping to throw anyone under the bus or to guilt anyone out of their favorite treats, but to instead encourage awareness and intention with food choices so that we can continue to make this a movement about achieving health
- Sarah is going to be in Phoenix the Saturday after this show airs and in Las Vegas on Sunday, get the details here on those events, and check out the information on additional signings at the end of the month in Houston and Austin as well
- Thanks everyone for listening!
- Outro (1:17:54)
AIP Seaweed Salad