Any Primal/Paleo Eaters here?

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I eat meat & high quality fat and lots of it. I do not consume grains or any kind, no overly starchy veggies, no sugar, no dairy. Grains are highly inflammatory and for me, the cause of years of IBS from childhood on. Since beginning this type of diet, I've shed the unwanted pounds, my skin has become not only clear but radiant, I've become far more healthy than I've ever been in my life. I tried vegan, did the whole grain thing, etc. Bran makes me feel literally high! I ate tons of fiber like everyone says to and yet I suffered for years from bouts of constipation and the opposite on and off but primal eating has completely changed my life. The IBS is completely gone! I avoid msg, soy, canola, and anything processed. My body looks amazing compared to a couple of years ago and I feel great. I also eat a lot of coconut oil- 3-4 tbsp per day at least. (Oh and my periods became regular for the first time ever!)

Has anyone else tried primal/paleo and what kind of results have you had?

I did it for a short period of time. The weight dropped quickly. Once work dies down and I am less stressed, I intend to go back in earnest.

How long did it take for you to get big changes?



lol what?

Last edited by snapcap on 18 Jan 2012, 5:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I have gone on the Fat Flush diet which is exactly the same foods as you said. It is an amazingly healthy diet for me and of all possible diets it changes my body (and brain) the most. Grains and sugar do me wrong.

This diet appeals to me. I consider myself mostly a carnivore (sharp teeth and all, I've cut my tongue on them) but I've yet to try it for more than a day or so.

Our ancestors did not eat a "balanced diet", they ate what they could catch or find, so you might have meat for a few days, then berries for a week, apples for another week if the season is right, the remains of a carcass for a few more days, then a week with nothing.

But a hamburger without cheese and a bun? WTF?!

I felt better within a few days and results continue the longer I go on this diet. It's hard at first- I grew up eating burgers with a bun, sandwiches, etc. Bread has always been something I really enjoy. And yes, bran makes me feel weird. I always liked it but I have found through research that grains aren't really as healthy as we've been told. Fasting is also very useful and a great thing to implement if you can. Our primal ancestors fasted between meals. The Eskimos eat nothing but whale, seal, and fish (along with lots of blubber from the whales and seals) and heart disease, cancer, etc. are non-existent in the Eskimos today that continue on that same diet. (Though I prefer chicken & beef.) It's difficult to order a hamburger and throw away the tasty bun, but I do it because I feel better than ever.

Go to www.marksdailyapple.com- it's run by a guy named Mark Sisson. You don't have to buy anything, not even one of his books, if you don't want to or can't. His website has tons of information on it. This guy is 57 years old and looks great and apparently feels great, too. There's a "start here" thing on the homepage. That would be an appropriate place to start.

I just wanted to share and tell you: it works. I've never felt better in my life. And my bloodwork at the doctor proves it. Everything has improved. My life is so much better because of this diet. And, it's not that expensive. I try to buy meat in bulk and cheaper cuts with lots of fat. Not buying processed foods saves a lot of money, too. I love it!

Like shrox said our ancestors ate what they could. I think it's fair to say that that sort of diet is not something to idealise. I'm sure that in part their poor diet led to shorter life span!

Sure maybe a "paleo" diet is good but what it has to do with our ancestors i do not know! Marketing gimmick!

I eat a paleo/primal diet also most of the time for health reasons. My gut health improved markedly and heart health too! Every once in awhile I'll chomp down on some cheese, which I guess places me more in the low carb camp, but that doesn't happen all that often. And doesn't seem to cause me to much trouble.

I like Mark's primal sight for information.

From time to time I also check out Dr. Eenfeldt's place on the latest low carb/paleo health news.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/new

I've tried a very similar diet for about a year. I have Crohn's disease and had a really bad stenosis for a while. When the inflammation flared up, the inflammed part of my intestine was nearly closed and food could barely pass through, so I mostly lived off chicken soup and protein drinks.

Then I read that Crohn's is caused by intestinal candida (yeast) overgrowth, and candida feeds off carbs and sugar. The site recommended a high-protein diet without much carbs or sugar, and since I was already weaned off carbs I gave it a try as soon as I was able to eat solid food again.

I did have fewer Crohn's episodes than before, but the diet didn't cure me. And I felt pretty crappy most of the time, because it was too one-sided for me. I have to avoid anything that is high in fiber since fiber irritates the intestinal tissue that is damaged from the frequent inflammation. So I can't eat most vegetables and fruit. Also no nuts, mushrooms or salads, which are very hard to digest for me.

That left me with meat, fish, eggs, lactose-free dairy products (not part of the paleo diet, I know), fruit juice without added sugar (can't drink much of it or my over-acidic stomach acts up), and occasionally some skinless cucumbers and tomatoes (although tomato seeds don't sit well with me either). Not very balanced

I eventually switched back to a normal diet. Normal for my standards anyway I still eat a lot of meat and fish and avoid most processed foods, but I also eat white bread, small amounts of potatoes and pasta, and a little halva after my main meal. Halva is pretty much the only dessert that I can eat since I'm lactose-intolerant and allergic to soy, including soy lecitithin. I feel mentally better than I did on my low-to-no carb diet, and my Crohn's is about the same. I won't make any dietary experiments anymore unless my IBD forces me to go back to soup and protein drinks.

Um, cheese doesn't contain any carbs. It consists of protein and fat, just like milk.

I know that cheese is not part of the paleo diet, but there is no reason why it shouldn't be imho. While our paleolithic ancestors didn't eat dairy products, the composition of cheese fits the dietary bill.

Did primal for a while. Then Mark's approach. Still get his email newsletter. Don't do it now because I'm a slacker. But have started exercising and am looking at diet again. Hate wheat, it makes me bloat. I figure Mark's got the best approach. It's not AS strict as hard core paleo, but it still makes good sense. All the different diets have their nuts. Saw a post from a paleo person on another site who said he ONLY eats meat. Not good IMHO.

For me, I think the best way is to restructure the so-called food pyramid. The greatest attention should go to vegetables. Then meat (red, white, fish). Then fruit. Nuts, eggs, seeds. Oils. I avoid glutenous grains. A little dairy in a cup of tea.

The point of a paleo diet is not to literally re-create what our ancestors ate. This is impossible since many of the animals and plants no longer exist or have been bred unrecognizably far from what they were 10,000 years ago. It would also be undesirable because, as you point out, the diet would necessarily rely heavily on a few types of food as were immediately available. Most people doing a paleo diet, myself included, have a diet that would have been geographically impossible in the past because it features foods that are grown or killed thousands of miles apart.

But all that doesn't matter. The point of a paleo diet is not to literally live like them, but rather to get away from the modern things that are wrecking our health and eat foods that we evolved to handle. It doesn't matter that no actual paleolithic human could have oysters one day and bison burgers the next. That was geographically impossible. However, a modern human's digestive system can handle both foods quite well since our digestive systems are identical to both the ancient oyster eater and the ancient bison eater. And that's the point. Paleo eating is all about sticking to what our digestive systems have evolved to handle.

If the hamburger came from a cow that spent its' life eating grass instead of antibiotics and corn (or if it came from a bison! My grocery store sells that now), then there is nothing WTF about it. We are evolved to eat it.

I think it is unlikely that the paleolithic were eating large amounts of meat. If you look at the Hadza in Tanzania, they average only one kill every thirty days per hunter. It is more likely that the paleolithic relied heavily on underground storage organs (USOs). It was USOs, not meat, that provided the energy for increased brain size.

My cholesterol is way to high for that diet.

Cholesterol is not what's unhealthy or damaging. It's the inflammation caused by grain that makes cholesterol into a bad thing. If your insides (veins, arteries, GI system) aren't inflamed, then cholesterol is used by your body and what's no needed is excreted. My cholesterol falls in normal limits, my triglycerides are always in range (triglycerides are exogenous, really about what you've eaten recently), LDL is generally "calculated" and not measured anyway. Also my HDL (good cholesterol) is very high (high 60's to low 70's) which is good.

If people are concerned about heart health, C-reactive protein is the best and most specific marker for inflammation in the body. There is also a Cardio C-reactive protein which is even more specific. Inflammatory markers are a better measure of health and heart health in general than cholesterol.