Gyro Salad

Menu Description: Fresh lettuce, onion, tomato, tzaziki, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, feta, lamb, and beef

Taste: 9
Nutrition: 8
Filling: 7
Price: $ ($6.18)
Overall Value: 8

I felt the portion size would be a little small for a normal time meal, but at 3am it was just what I needed. Also beware a friend tells me that they may put wheat in their lamb roast, but this is unconfirmed and I felt fine after eating there. You may want to double check if you are very gluten sensitive.

As it has said before, the diet consists of meat, fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and healthy fat. This being said however, there is an all too common misconception that as long as you are eating from that list, that you are following a correct paleo approach. Here are some of the biggest flaws and their dangers. Improving these things will gain you title of a true paleo eater, rather than just a low carber.

1. Eating Only Meat
Paleo is not an “all meat” program. I see this a lot in people who are either trying to follow a very low carb approach or those who are too lazy to chop up vegetables. Just because you are eating meat, does not mean you are eating paleo. This makes you more of an Atkins dieter.  If you are worried about carbohydrates content for weight loss you can stick with leafy greens such as kale, spinach, collard greens, chard, etc, but you still need to be eating your vegetables. Still eat good quality meat at every meal, just eat some greens with it!

The Issue: By skipping out on vegetables, you will likely be switching yourself from the body’s needed alkaline base to one that is acidic, putting you at high risk for osteoporosis. You also lose out on tons of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber that you would be getting from the vegetables.

2. Eating Low Quality Meat
Just like paleo isn’t an all meat program, it also holds strict standards to the types of meat you are eating, specifically how they were raised prior to consuming them. Our ancestors were not eating corn fed factory farmed animals and you shouldn’t be either.

The Issue: The nutritional content of grass-fed animals vs corn fed is completely different. The fat profile of grass-fed meat is almost identical to heart healthy fatty fish that we all know to be good for us. The omega 3 – 6 ratio is spot on where it should be. By eating cheap meat, you are throwing off your body’s adapted 2:1 ratio of omega 3′s to 6′s. In addition, corn fed animals have 4x less vitamin E, 4x less conjugated linoleic acid (a cancer fighting compound), and numerous other nutrients. You end up also taking in traces of antibiotics and growth hormones that were fed to the animal, which lead you down an unfriendly road. While some bad meat is better than none, if you are buying cheaper meat, and can’t afford to upgrade, it is essential to go as lean as possible (lean cut, fat trimmed & drained) and look at supplementing fish oil at every meal.

3. Eating Processed Meat
Another thing I see often is people who’s normal lunch is sliced deli meat from somewhere like Safeway. Beef jerky, sausages, and yes bacon come into this topic too.

The Issue: In addition to all of the issues listed in issue #2 above, processed deli meat is loaded with preservatives, added sugar, salt,  and other artificial ingredients. Beef jerky also typically has soy sauce in it, which means gluten! It is nothing like the meat that we evolved on, and definitely isn’t doing much for your health in a positive way. Sorry people, I hate to be that guy, but unless your bacon is made fresh from a quality butcher, it is not paleo.

4. Eating Misleading Meat
When dining out especially, browsing over the menu looking for acceptable options is tough. You may think you are safe with any meat choice but you are far from it. Meatloaf, meatballs, crabcakes, italian chicken dishes, beer battered / braised meats, more often than not have breadcrumbs or other sources of gluten. Teriyaki dishes typically will always have soy sauce, which contains wheat. A very common ingredient in thick gravy is flour.  It is really important to avoid these if you are not sure about the establishment. Also as a reminder, check when ordering if your salad has croutons!

5. Eating Lots and Lots of Fruit
While some fruit is good for you, especially fresh seasonal berries, eating fruit all day at meal times and at snacks is not paleo.

The Issue: Our modern day ways of producing fruit significantly increases the amount of sugar that is in it compared to fruit back in the pre-agricultural days. Fruit was also more of a treat in the past unlike how easily accessible it is now.  If you are eating lots of fruit and expecting to reach your weight loss goals, you can think again as it likely will not happen. Sugar is carbohydrate regardless of how natural the source is. Keep fruit as a treat or dessert for best results.

6. Eating too many Nuts & Seeds:
While yes, nuts and seeds are paleo, using them as a substitute to meat and vegetables is not. They should be eaten in moderation, working your way to as little as possible. I typically don’t eat nuts unless I’m hungry in a place without food, I keep some in my car. Nut flour, nut butter, paleo seed bread, and all the other inventions that have come out of nuts and seeds really are not too paleo.

The Issue: Most nuts and seeds are extremely high in omega 6′s. Lots of the more recent paleo research is also showing people achieve much better results when cutting out nuts and seeds. Some nuts and seeds also may have trace amounts of lectics, one of the danger’s grains and legumes have. Finally with a caloric content so dense, it can definitely stall weight loss.

7. Eating Paleo Bake Goods and Alternatives.
Paleo pancakes, paleo pizza, paleo pie, paleo cookies, you name a food you miss, someone’s made a paleo alternative. They are all tempting and delicious.

The Issue: In addition to the fact that you likely will over eat these, you probably also had to use a nut flour to make it possible, skyrocketing your omega 6 intake. If its a dessert you made, something made it sweet. You either put lots of fruit in it (sugar) or sweetened it with honey (more sugar) or agave (toxic sugar). While these foods make an awesome treat on a special occasion, having them as a staple is not a good idea, and again if you are trying to lose weight, you will for a while and then will likely plateau and stop. Think meat and vegetables at every single meal and then see where you have room for these.

Another thing to consider with all the fruit and sweeteners you may be consuming, these still have a glycemic response, it can still give you a major sugar crash, and can still make you develop diabetes while trying to follow a paleo diet!

Does this sound like you? If so, I’m glad you are reading!

While we are on the theme of Mexican food, here’s another one to look at. You might not want to eat there, but looking will do ok.  The food really isn’t very good, but they are open 24 hours so if you are out and hungry at 1am and don’t want to settle for a Dick’s burger and fries, you have another option here.

Another thing is that the food is cheap. Really cheap. So cheap that it scares me a little to think of the quality that they are probably serving. Well here we go. What I did was order a 4 side dishes rather than one of their entree items. 2 sides of beef, 1 chicken, and 1 guacamole. The whole thing ended up costing me about $6.50

Taste: 2
Nutrition: 7 (Based on the fact that it was just meat and avocado, if I knew the quality it would be lower scoring likely)
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: During normal day hours, 3
At 3am when I went, 8

In conclusion, I do not recommend this place unless you are either out late or slightly intoxicated.

I haven’t tried ordering off the menu before because they have an all you can eat buffet offering daily too, and for someone like me if I have the option to eat all I can, then I’m going for that! Buffets in general are often very promising for Paleo eaters since you can really choose what you want and it is easy to avoid the things that you don’t want. I had always dreamed of someday finding a paleo all you can eat buffet, and finally did.

So for 14 bucks during the dinner hour, and around 8 bucks at lunch time, you can feast upon all you can eat Mexican cuisine, which features lots and lots of meats, vegetables, and healthy fat. On the buffet line was 3 different beef entrees, 3 chicken, some pork, and even salmon. There were also cooked vegetables, salad, and guacamole on the line which kept me happy.

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 10
Price: $$
Overall Value: 10

I had no idea if my choices had hidden sugar, soy, dairy, or gluten in them, but other than the feeling of being extremely full from stuffing myself with 3 plates full of what is pictured, I felt pretty good afterwards.

1. Saturated fat: Cordain labeled all saturated fat as bad due to the possibility of raising your” bad” cholesterol (LDL). It is now known though that however much it may raise your “bad” cholesterol, it also raises your “good” cholesterol (HDL).  Additionally, the risk for heart disease and other illness isn’t based on the amount of a certain cholesterol, but is based on whether or not you are likely to oxidize it.

Risk factors for oxidizing cholesterol include lack of exercise, smoking / drug use, excessive alcohol, and eating a diet high in sugars and other blood sugar spiking foods. Basically, if you are following the primal lifestyle avoiding high glycemic foods, drugs, and getting exercise, saturated fat is not something that needs to be worried about. The only reason to avoid saturated fat on the paleo diet is if you are struggling to lose weight even with a very low carbohydrate diet. For those of you following a standard american diet with lots of grains, dairy, and sugar in it, saturated fat is not something you should be eating (along with the other 3 things too).

2. Fatty Meat: The issue with fatty meats was primarily for the same reasons listed above for saturated fat, so the same rules apply. If you are following the paleo lifestyle, then you can eat the fatty cuts of meat. This being said, I would ONLY recommend eating fatty cuts of meat if you are sure it is 100% grass-fed. If it is not entirely grass-fed, still go for the leanest cuts available since they will have a poor ration of omega 3 – 6 balance. If you have free ranged chickens, the skin doesn’t need to be tossed.

3. Eggs: Same issues as above, as long as you are following paleo lifestyle and buying cage free, free ranged, pastured raised, omega 3 enriched eggs, you don’t need to limit to 6 per week.

4. Canola oil: Cordain liked Canola oil due to its good ratio of omega 3′s to 6′s. Unfortunately, Canola oil is heavily processed and far from anything that was available in the Paleolithic era. Additionally, with all the heat unstable omega 3′s that are in there, cooking with it can be much more likely to damage it, creating cancer causing free radicals. With so many other options to cook with, there isn’t any place that canola is necessary.

5. Low heat oils: Extra virgin olive oil, nut oils, and flaxseed oil should never be exposed to much of any heat. Cordain initially said to cook with flaxseed oil however has retracted that statement.

For the good oils for different temperature ranges see here

6. Vinegar: is fine, as long as it is not malt vinegar, which is grain derived

7. Salt: salting food to taste is fine in controlled amounts (ie when cooking a steak). The issue with sodium is more from processed foods that you should be avoiding anyways. Try to go for sea salt containing all the electrolytes as well as iodine.

8. Fruit: It was written that you can have as much fruit as you want and still lose weight. Unfortunately for many this is not true. If you are stalled on the paleo diet, it is time to start cutting back on fruit in take. In the end, sugar is sugar.

9. Starchy Carbs: In addition to fruit, carrots, tomatoes, squash, and other starchy vegetables should be avoided.

10. Maintenance: If weight loss isn’t a concern, the yams,  sweet potato, fruit, carrots, squash, etc are fine (no regular potatoes though)

11. Cheat Meals: Cordain said that any cheat meal is fine up to 3 times per week. We now know that you must try to stay gluten free during these times. The best and worst cheat meals can be found here.

12. Artificial Sweeteners: Cordain had said the occasional diet soda is ok. While it is better than regular soda, aspartame and other sugar free sweeteners are bad news.

Are you following Cordain’s plan verbatim with stalled results? Try these changes and let me know how it goes.

“We are completely transfat free, our beans are made without lard or oil, our rice without chicken stock, all of our meats are grilled, and our salsas are all made from fresh tomatoes and chiles. We have many vegetarian and vegan options, even our chips are completely animal free.”

Well they’ve got some stuff right, being trans fat free and using fresh ingredients….but the other things? Not that I eat beans or rice anyways but I would be hardly concerned at all if there was animal fat in the base. Promoting vegan and vegetarian? Oh boy…don’t get me started.

However, if you look on the menu there is another option that I am totally excited for.

Seattle seems to be leading the board with the most interest, but we want to make it even bigger.

You are all invited to the official Seattle Paleo Meet-up party at 6:00pm at Golden Gardens.

More information and RSVP here:

http://www.meetup.com/PaleoDiet/10969/

On another note, it is time to get this blog back up and running. Expect more frequent posts from here on out.

Rule #1: Keep them rare.

Having one good meal of eating and then taking a break isn’t going to get you anywhere. Same goes for eating good one day and then going off. Try to keep them to once per week.

Rule#2: Don’t plan them.

People often like to say something in the lines of “I’ll go strict until Saturday and then have a treat then” or have their own reasoning behind planning in a treat meal. It is much better to avoid it and just let it happen when it comes up socially. What happens when you eat a treat Thursday night by yourself and then you get dinner invitations the following night? The once a week treat is now happening at least twice.

Rule#3: Avoid fake food

Even during a well earned treat meal, synthetic food should be avoided. The destructiveness of this is too high for it to be worth it. Eat real, good food. Especially avoid trans fat and high fructose corn syrup.

Rule #4: Avoid fast food

Don’t have your treats be at McDonald’s or Dairy Queen. Go for something that tastes better and doesn’t violate rule #3

Rule #5: Stay gluten free

The recovery time for eating gluten can be as much as 2 weeks. It really isn’t worth it at least to me anymore to put my body through that struggle.

Here’s a list of the best and worst treats you can have. When searching through the dessert menu at a restaurant try one of these before you go into the real bad areas.

Desserts:

Best:

-Dark chocolate
-Coconut milk ice cream
-Flourless chocolate truffle cake (often on menus)
-Chocolate mousse (often on menus)
-Chocolate covered strawberries
-Panna Cotta, Creme Brulee, Flan, Custard (often on menus)

Ok:

-Milk chocolate
-Dairy Ice cream (includes gelato, frozen custard, frozen yogurt)

Avoid:

-Cake
-Cookies
-Brownies

Non-sweets:

Best:
-Sweet potato fries

Ok:
-Gluten free grains (rice, corn, etc)
-Legumes
-French fries
-White potatoes
-Potato chips

-Corn / rice tortillas / chips

Avoid:
-Bread
-Pasta
-Wheat tortillas / chips
- Any gluten containing grain

Buffet line stocked full of meat, typically chicken, lamb, and goat with numerous raw or cooked vegetables for side dishes. Sure it may have some sugar or soy in the sauces, or it may not, but it is primarily high animal protein, high vegetables, and as long as you can resist the Naan bread is also grain free. Also no word on if the animals are free-ranged.

Bengal Tiger (Roosevelt)

Butter chicken, tandoori chicken, cucumber salad, regular salad, eggplant puree

Masala (Northgate)

Chicken curry on the bone, Tandoori chicken, salad, greek-like salad, raw broccoli, spinach puree

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 8
Filling: 10 (All you can eat!)
Price: $ (Typically $6.95)
Overall Value: 10

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar

I am still amazed at having this as an option for lunch, and there are so many Indian restaurants with this in Seattle that anywhere you go you aren’t far from your local Indian Lunch Buffet. If you have never tried them, the time is now!

Chipotle Mexican Grill is by far the highest quality fast food chain in the country. They are all about free-ranged and grass-fed meats and other than the 0.5 grams of trans fat found in their tortilla, taco shell, and corn chips (don’t eat these) they don’t use any artificial ingredients in their food. It is all customizable so it is quite easy to get a primal meal here:

Bed of lettuce, grilled vegetables, pico de gallo, choice of meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole

I usually do double meat and double vegetables.

Taste: 10
Nutrition: 10
Filling: 8
Price: $
Overall Value: 9

Ingredients not confirmed to be 100% free of soy, grains, artificial ingredients, and added sugar