I know that it's just because I'm slow that reality doesn't hit me very fast...
One fundamental paleo-learning is that carbs are basically identical. A Bagel is as good as a slice of Chocolate Cake. IF you're going to eat a sugar/grain thing, don't pretend it's healthy because it's dry toast or sandwich bread, but rather recognize that you're eating junk food. The stable state for that, of course, is that if you are going to eat crap, make it count -- I have no weakness at this point for bread, pasta, or rice. OTOH, chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate bars all tempt me strongly and sometimes effectively.
There is room for debate on fruits, though.
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As someone who checks her blood sugar regularly. All carbs are not identical in delivery and effect. One should also look at ingestion of carbs from a macro-nutrient POV. Is it empty calories? Or does it have redeeming value. That's where fruit comes in. Carbs with redeeming value.
Star,
Indeed on the delivery-effect, etc. Perhaps I ought to have said "the 2-day-out effects" are identical.
What is the paleo view on fruits? They're all pretty high-sugar yet are natural and contain nutrients. Also, what are your practical findings - do they throw you off the paleo groove?
My experience is that a little bit doesn't affect me. Other folks claim that "modern fruit is candy bars on trees".
My paleo spin is basically: eat stuff that was available 20K years ago.
Other folks, and particularly the principles Perfidy (and others on my diet list) is following say: High-fat, moderate protein, low carb, and fruits are carbs.
I started losing weight after 5 weeks of a stable diet, and then 3 changes in my routine:
1. Dropped fruit consumption substantially.
2. Went from 5% bread intake to 0% bread intake.
3. Started High Intensity Training (superslow) workouts on a weekly basis.
My guess: HIT + low carb wins the weight loss war.
I think it was Heinlein or someone like that who had, as one of his "Rules for life" that you should *never waste calories*
The actual meaning of this rule completely inverts depending on whether you are in a calorie rich environment (ie. the modern world) or a calorie poor environment.
For us, it means *never eat junk*. Never eat cheap potatoes, boring pasta, bread, bowls of rice, anything from McDonalds etc. Why waste that allocation of daily calories on rubbish if you can have something you'll really enjoy instead?
Extending this to paleo thinking, *never waste carbs*.
On the question of fruit, the paleo critique is that most modern fruit have been genetically engineered over the centuries (via breeding) to have much more sugar and far less fibre than what was available 10 000 years ago. Especially 10 000 years ago in northern Europe, where my ancestors came from.
Do you really want to live the rest of your life on only what will qualify as a paleo diet? I think that is an important question. Otherwise, you may lose weight, but unless the diet is satisfying enough to stick with, you'll just gain it back when you revert to old habits.
Freedom,
After 2 months on the diet...Paleo is tastier than the non-paleo version. Bread/Carbs are not ONLY low-nutritional value, but they're also low taste. Lettuce tacos are tastier than tortilla tacos, because the bread isn't muting the taste. Indian food without rice or bread is stronger taste than indian food with rice.
Unfortunately, high taste, high nutrition food (meat, fruit, veggies, nuts, coconut milk ) is also somewhat more expensive than the lower-taste, lower nutrition foods (bread, rice, pasta). Truly, the only issue on taste is sugar.
Easy, tastier Substitutions that work 95% of the time:
Fine-chopped cauliflower for rice
Scrambled eggs or spaghetti squash for pasta
Romaine lettuce for bread.
I, natural carb addict, am MUCH happier on a paleo-, but eat as much as you want diet than on a calorie restricted diet.
Mmmm, never heard of spagetti squash.
Another useful substitution: Sliced and stirfried cabbage forms long flexible strips that work as a nice pasta.
And sichuan style watercress (sauteed lightly in butter) also works as a rice substitute, especially with the fiery dishes it's served with.
drpat,
Cabbage rocks.
My wife discovered shredded (raw) cabbage with spicy garlic fish oil recently...and will eat it with almost anything. And I'm a recent convert to Kimchi...and Sauerkraut is a superfood.
Indeed, this evening for dinner, we had pork loin in a mushroom-onion sauce over sliced (uncooked) cabbage
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