Tag Archives: The Paleo Diet

Dr. Cordain,

I found your book, suggested to me by Dr. Valori Treloar (Dermatologist and co-author of The Clear Skin Diet), to help me with weight loss and lowering my insulin resistance (precursor to diabetes.) I have been following The Paleo Diet for about six months. It was suggested by Dr. Treloar during an appointment, to perhaps change some foods and eliminate others to improve my condition. I immediately purchased your book and found it to be extremely easy to read and to understand your suggestions on food choices and preparations. I was trying to become a vegetarian and introduced beans to replace meat dishes. Although tasty, I was very bloated and not losing pounds or inches. So, I followed your food lists, your recipes, your exercise suggestions and found myself feeling less bloated and more energetic. It is important to begin to feel better to then continue on an exercise routine. In my case, I ride the stationary bike because of knee issues and use the treadmill with caution.

The first couple of days eating the Paleo way, I Iost fluids and as well as my bloated feeling. This felt good. I have so many food choices, I never go hungry. I found vegetarian fed chicken and beef easily in the markets. My quarter cup of walnuts came in handy either on diced apple with cinnamon for breakfast as an alternative to egg white, veggie omelets or a couple of hard boiled eggs (Egglands Best, of course with extra omega-3.) Fruit is a favorite for me, so no problem having a serving with each meal or snack. Veggies are so easy to use in meal planning. I just make sure to buy lots of them at the market in winter and now at farm stands in summer here in the Northeast.

So now for the results: several doctors have confirmed my weight loss which has been gradual. About eighteen pounds in six months, (on Paleo Diet) but actually twenty-five in one year, struggling with the traditional food pyramid. Definitely the Paleo Diet is better for me dealing with the inflammation I had in my body, the fluid retention and lack of energy. I do not weigh myself daily, but I feel my clothes fitting better and actually some are too big for me. I began to see changes in my face becoming thinner, my neck thinner, my upper back thinner, my waist slimming and changes in my legs – less fluid around the knees and ankles.

One very interesting fact appeared about a month into eating the Paleo way. While exercising on my stationary bike, I had a burst of energy and stayed on it for a longer time. It felt good. I now split time on my stationary bike and the treadmill (no inclines because of my knee issues). I am able to walk longer distances outside as long as I avoid hills. It feels great to be able to enjoy being outdoors again. I also found doing tasks around my home taking less effort and my mental attitude is more positive. I am willing to take on a task and complete it. This motivates me to accomplish more during a daily routine. I work from home and my mental attitude is improved.

I will continue eating the Paleo way and suggest your book to others who find themselves unmotivated to lose weight. I enjoy the flexibility of this eating style and know when I eat foods not on the list, I feel bloated and sluggish. There are times when I do crave grains, but definitely I am in control and stay within Paleo guidelines most of the time. I do not deny myself from cravings and when not eating the Paleo way 100% each week, I find it very easy to get back on track. The slimmer me and good, healthy feeling I have, is the motivation to stay with this nutrition plan.

Thank you so much for making your book easy to understand and helpful with food lists. Your menu selections are helpful to get started and I now create my own dishes. By the way, my husband eats the Paleo way since I do the cooking most of the time. He lost ten pounds without extra exercise. We both feel much better eating the Paleo way.

Linda

Dr. Cordain,

I wanted to write to thank you for writing The Paleo Diet. Since I have been on the diet, I have attained a degree of leanness at age 43 that I have never achieved at any age. Whereas before I had to consciously regulate my food intake to maintain a reasonable weight, now I can eat pretty much as much as I want (I did find it important to limit my nut and dried fruit intake as the book indicated).

Thanks again for your fine book. It is not strong enough praise to say it has changed my life.

Tom

Dr. Cordain,

I was a poster child for the FDA food pyramid…the queen of whole grains. I have a strong family history on both sides of Type II diabetes so I have been very vigilant about diet and exercise. I was bewildered because the more I followed the whole grain, low fat diet, the fatter and fatter I got. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but treatment didn’t generate weight loss. I did have niggling reservations about whole grains; after all, that’s how we fattened our livestock on the farm I was raised on. I dismissed my reservations (because the experts told me to) and applied myself ever more diligently…and my weight crept up to 188 pounds.

As a 50-year-old female at 5’5, this is not so attractive. Worse, the weight was impacting my activities. I regularly participate in long distance hiking and biking (4 – 6 hours nonstop at least once a week). I have ridden metric centuries and routinely bike 40 miles in a weekend. I kayak, boogie board, horseback ride, ski, and snowshoe. I spent my 49th birthday snowshoeing at treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park. I SHOULD NOT BE FAT.

Every diet I tried gave me minimal results at best or introduced ways of eating or foods that I found to be unhealthy and unsustainable. But when I would cut calories too much, I would bonk and be unable to participate in my activities of choice. I was really suffering. I was grinding out hikes and gritting my teeth through bike rides. I began experiencing debilitating headaches, hip pain, and tingling in my feet. I was lethargic, depressed, puffy, and irritable. Anti-depressants came next and let me feeling groggy and drugged. And the headaches just got worse. I was in a downward spiral mentally and physically. I had tried a litany of vitamins and supplements and never felt measurably different no matter how many I took.

I came across the Paleo Diet when I was researching ways to deal with side effects of anti-depressants. I searched the term and clicked on the link to a new life. In my gut, I immediately recognized the logic of Paleo eating. I don’t know if this diet is right for everyone. What I do know is that is indisputably the right one for my body type.

I can only speculate that I was very insulin resistant and the initial shock of the Paleo Diet was a real challenge for me. While I was never hungry, for the first month, I struggled almost daily with cravings and feeling rather weak and puny at times. I was committed, however, and I continued with my activities level. I bought and read Paleo for Athletes and the guidance in there, particularly allowing sports drinks, helped me significantly during endurance activities. Then I had a breakthrough. I experienced, for the first time in my life, the “runner’s high.” Instead of feeling simply wrung out, hot, and sweaty after biking a steep trail, I felt jazzed. I was actually riding with the big boys! I now routinely get energized by exercise instead of worn out by it. My husband had no idea how much trudging I had been doing over the years. I’m amazed I stuck with it!

It’s been just three months eating the Paleo way. I am losing, on average, a pound a week and the weight loss pace is now picking up. I used to have to preload with Ibuprofen before big events to stave off soreness. I am now using no NSAIDS and experience little or no lasting soreness. Ski season just kicked off and I am skiing without stiffness or aches. I look and feel 10 years younger. I can breathe freely as my nasal allergies have magically disappeared. The few deviations I have made from the Paleo diet always have consequences enough to remind me that this is the way I have to eat if I want to have a healthy, full, active life. THANK YOU!

Christi

Dr. Cordain,

I’ve been on the Paleo Diet since May, and I’m down 30 lbs (most of it lost in the first two months) and have never been leaner in my life. I can’t stop talking about (it) when I’m with my friends and family when they ask how good I look. I’ve been evangelizing my Wall Street buddies every time we enjoy a steak house dinner. My acid reflux, IBS, allergies, attitude, and complexion have never been better, and I never go into food coma any more. I wish your book was around in the 80s when I was a teen.

Rudy T.

Dr. Cordain,

After almost two years, I was ready to give up when I read about your diet. It made so much sense! It was logical!

I strictly followed your diet, and in the first two weeks, I lost TEN pounds!!!! As your book recommended, I did not exercise during this time, and I felt rather light-headed at times, but I was never hungry. I imagine that it was quite a shock for my body to stop living on sugar. I started to feel energized as my body started to learn to live on protein without sugar, and over the course of the next three months, I lost another 15 lbs. and I’m now down to a normal weight of 125 lbs, and I’m 5’6″. Not only am I happy with how I look, I’m ecstatic about how I feel. I’m no longer tired in the afternoons, I have a new energy, and I’m no longer sick with every head cold that goes around.

I have relaxed in my eating habits a bit in the last few months, and I watch the scale carefully, so that if I start to gain weight, I can tighten the reins on my eating habits.

What you have given me, and countless others, is not a diet, but a knowledge of how our bodies function, and what we can do to lay down habits essential for good health for the rest of our lives.

Jennifer

Dr. Cordain,

Thank you more than words can ever say for doing this research and for making it public. Over the past 25 years, I have gained 100 lbs and have asked every single doctor that I had been to for help. No one had advice that worked, if they bothered to give any at all. I have been doing the Paleo Diet for 16 days now and have lost already 15 lbs, 1.5″ on my waist and 1.5″ on my hips. I have come to believe that I have had celiac disease since I was a small child and have been for years, and borderline, and now definitely, lactose intolerant. You have saved my life! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO very much,

Marian

Dr. Cordain,

I was stunned a year ago when my doctor mentioned that I should lose some weight. Compared with most Americans, I thought I rated on the thin side, except for a gut that refused to melt after I quit smoking, for the first time, about 15 years ago.

I probably wouldn’t have tried to lose weight, except that the idea of the Paleo-type dietary regimen seemed to make sense, gut or no.

For me, it wasn’t as though I had been a slouch physically. After quitting smoking the second time, about eight years ago, I started building a healthier lifestyle. I cut back on red meat, started limiting fast food, added more vegetables, legumes and lots more fish to my diet and started a moderate weight-lifting routine. With in-line skating, bicycling, canoeing, kayaking and lots of walking, I figured I already did enough cardio.

Then I read Loren Cordain’s book The Paleo Diet. Following it strictly on weekdays and more loosely on weekends, I cut back dramatically on grain and dairy products, and quit adding salt or sugar to anything. As with my religion, I simply tried to get it mostly right but forgave myself easily.

The hardest thing to give up was wheat grain. It never had dawned on me how often most of us eat wheat, especially refined grain such as pasta, pastries and white bread. I still allowed myself whole-wheat toast and jam on weekends.

My diet primarily became three heaping bowls of fresh vegetables daily, lots of fresh and frozen fruits, especially berries, plus sardines, salmon and low-sodium turkey. Sparkling water became my beverage of choice, but I also had plain water, coffee and unsweetened tea. Sugary soft drinks didn’t pass my lips. Wine and the occasional martini did.

Within two weeks I was down 9 pounds. Within six weeks I was down 15, to 150 pounds. Over the next couple of months I drifted even further down to 145 and plateaued there. At a height of 5 foot 7, that still –unbelievably – puts me on the high end of my ideal Body Mass Index, at 22.7, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nevertheless, my gut vanished, leaving me with a waistline I haven’t seen since college: 30 inches, down from 34 when I first went mostly Paleo four months ago. All obvious fat under the skin is gone.

My cholesterol after three months on the diet was a total of 153, with HDL at 60 and LDL at 76. By most measures, that’s fantastic. My highest reading in total cholesterol was about 220 right before I quit smoking the second time.

Now my energy level seems boundless. My weight-lifting goals in repetitions are much easier to reach than before. Even running, which I never really cared for, is fun.

Maintaining the diet has become easier, once I figured I could find all the vegetables and fruits I want on nearly any salad bar. Trips to the grocery store still tend to feel like an alien experience, but I’ve learned to ignore all my previous loves, especially Lucky Charms.

In fact, now I burn excess calories simply by rolling my eyes at all the processed foods that are offered to us as sustenance.

Oh, yeah, I’ve also gotten a little preachy.

Ross Werland
Chicago Tribune staff reporter

I had the pleasure of speaking with Torrey Kim, reporter of the debuted magazine Go Gluten Free Magazine, from sports and specialty publishing mogul Beckett Media on the healthful benefits of The Paleo Diet.

The magazine is dedicated to providing Paleo dieters and individuals with Celiac Disease or a gluten intolerance an array of gluten-free recipes and articles for adopting a healthier lifestyle and is available in print and hits newsstand today.

Go Paleo!

The popular Paleo Diet can help you live a healthy gluten-free lifestyle with a host of other benefits.

The philosophy behind the Paleo Diet (or “Caveman Diet”) couldn’t be simpler. In addition to being an effective weight-loss plan, it boosts what’s really important: your health. All it takes to begin is learning how to eat as our Stone Age ancestors did.

What makes a Paleo Diet appealing is that it focuses on the way foods were consumed during the Paleolithic period, says Dr. Loren Cordain, founder of the Paleo Movement and the author of the bestselling books The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Diet Cookbook and The Paleo Answer. “The Paleolithic period refers to the time frame our ancestors first began to make stone tools (approximately 3.5 million years ago) until the very first human societies in the Middle East adopted agriculture (about 10,000 years ago),” Cordain says. “During this time frame, the archaeological evidence shows that our hunter-gatherer ancestors rarely or never consumed cereal grains.”

The main reason that grains were not on the menu was physiological, Cordain says. “Unless grass seeds are first ground (to break down their cell walls) and then cooked to gelatinize their starch, they are inedible and unavailable for nutritional assimilation.”

Learn how to think outside the box and plan accordingly for the optimal Paleo lifestyle. Subscribe to read the rest…

Cordially,

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., Professor

Ring in the season with this great autumn harvest salad! Waldorf Salad is a favorite in the Cordain Kitchen. This spruced up recipe with fresh, organic, and locally grown veggies, fruits, berries, and nuts is a healthful Paleo dish you’re sure to keep on the menu.

Ingredients

Serves 3 -4

1 Bag organic mixed salad greens
2 Salad green organic onions, sliced
2 Organic red apples, chopped

2 Organic green apples, chopped
1 Cup dried cranberries
1 cup walnut halves

Directions

1. Chop red and green apples into bite-sized pieces

2. Slice green organic onions

3. Toss organic mixed salad greens with apples and onions

4. Stir in dried cranberries and walnuts

5. Dress with balsamic vinegar and olive oil

6. Bon Apetite!

Live Well, Live Longer.
The Paleo Team

There are numerous geographic locations worldwide with growing numbers of of centenarians.

Environmental factors including diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, occupation, psychological factors including positive outlook, meaningful life roles, close family ties, spiritual perspective and hereditary factors all work synergistically to promote a long, healthy lifespan. It would be difficult or impossible to quantify the precise role each of these elements may play in maximizing human longevity.

Nevertheless, consumption of compounds called polyphenols found in many plants, particularly a compound called resveratrol has been shown to extend the lifespan of certain short lived experimental animals. Resveratrol is a polyphenol found in grape skins (among many other plants and plant parts) and functions to protect the plant or grape from environmental damage like insect predation, fungi, and UV radiation from sunlight.

The Cannonau grape from Sardinia is the local name for a grape known worldwide as the Grenache grape. Cannonau grape skins are known to produce high concentrations of resveratrol, perhaps because of the high UV exposure they experience in Sardinia.¹The grapes also contain flavanols and procyanidins, which together with polyphenols – powerful antioxidants with cardiovascular benefits, according to an article, as written, by the prominent heart surgeon and Professor at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Wine from Cannonau grapes in Sardinia is made in the traditional sense where the grape skins remain for 8-10 days with the juice to produce a higher resveratrol content. Resveratrol stimulates compounds in cells called sirtuins which are known to extend lifespan in experimental animals under caloric restriction.

In conducting research for his book, Blue Zones, Dan Buettner in conjunction with National Geographic, determined that Cannonau wine does in fact play a role in the longevity of the Sardinian population, with an unusually high percentage of centenarians. Dr. Oz credited this to a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables, meat and cheese from grass – fed animals, physically active jobs and red wines, made from the little – known, indigenous grape called Cannonau.

It is possible that a high resveratrol intake from red wine made with Cannonau grapes may in part contribute to increased longevity, however, no controlled human or primate experiments have ever been conducted to substantiate this hypothesis. In all of my books, I have always permitted people to drink a glass of wine with dinner every so often, as it is part of the 85:15 rule which permits occasional “cheating”. The key here is moderation.

I’m often asked what my position is on commercial wines, like Holland Marsala Cooking Wine. Marsala contains a substantial amount of salt. Two tablespoons (30 ml) of this cooking wine contains 190 mg of sodium which translates to 483 mg of salt. The typical western diet contains about 10 grams of salt, whereas hunter-gatherer diets may contain less than 1.0 gram of salt. As you might have already guessed, Marsala Cooking Wine is very “un-Paleo” because of it’s high salt content.

Moreover, it contains two preservatives, potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite. Sulfites are sulfur based compounds that may occur naturally or are added to a food as a preservative. Sulfites can cause allergies. The FDA estimates that of 100 people one is sensitive to sulfites and their use on fresh fruits and vegetables was banned in 1986. Sulfite containing ingredients in processed foods include: sulfur dioxide, potassium bisulfite, potassium metabisulfite, sodium bisulfite, sodium metabisulfite, sodium sulfite.

Most commercial wines contain added sulfites to extend their shelf life, just read the label. The exception to this rule are organic wines which are made without sulfites. There are many other organic wineries that produce sulfite-free wines like Frey Vineyards from Mendocino, CA who produce a variety of sulfite-free wines that are both Paleo and are reasonably priced.

When you take the guesswork out, you can put your mind to rest. Read the labels and keep it in moderation.

Cordially,

Loren Cordain, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus

References

1. Sanna G, Ledda S, Manca G, Franco MA. Characterization of the content of antioxidant substances in the wines of Sardinia. J Commodity Sci Technol Quality 2008;47 (I-IV), 5-25.

LOREN CORDAIN, PH.D.

Tag Archives: The Paleo Diet

Go Paleo!

Ingredients

Directions

References

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