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Paleo - anyone do it?

I did it, in the past, before the T2D diagnosis. Primal, actually, and quite low carb at that. Taught me to eat real food, instead of factory-produced frankensubstances. Lost a good amount of weight on it, even. However, the 80:20 principle kept becoming 50:50 or worse, I stopped losing weight, got frustrated and abandoned the idea for a long while (whilst putting back on all the weight and more).

Nowadays, I describe my way of eating as LCHF, but I again eat real food, fresh veggies, organic meat, no grains or sugar (hardly any beans either, occasional bit of hummus). I've recently tried IF again, and it's much, much easier to do when deeply in ketosis, at least for me.

tl:dr: Paleo and LCHF can overlap a lot.
 
I'm similar to @Larissima - I think of LCHF and Primal as interchangable names for the same diet. It's more or less Paleo + some dairy as I don't seem to have issues with it. Mostly processed food free. Been following it for 3.5 years now and feel much better for doing so.

The website for Primal is Mark's Daily Apple which is a great resource, as is the Primal Blueprint book by Mark Sisson.
 
Paleo can be high carb low fat. It's about eating real food and avoiding grains, sugar, industrial seed oils, and factory processed food. LCHF usually involves a similar approach since factory processed foods usually contain loads of sugar and often flour.
 
Pretty hard to be really 'high carb low fat' on Paleo though eh? With no grains, potatoes, rice, and legumes, and the half plate protein source. But I know what you mean @NoCrbs4Me. I started out as a 'Paleobetic' a few months after diagnosis, so was eating moderate carbs without really understanding that was the story. It took me way too long to understand what low carbing meant and how powerful it is as a pathway to health, but I am just pleased to be there now.

I found the Original Human Diet thing a great way to re-discover wholefood, and approach regaining health through good nutrition, and exercise. It also got me used to reading scientific explanations for nutrition and body stuff - great prep for the more heavy duty stuff I would have to wade through later in order to try and get better with T2D. (I know! It would have been much better if I came straight to the forum and low-carbing! But 20/20 hindsight is a fine thing.)

Robb Wolf's book 'The Paleo Solution' is very entertaining and informative, and was where I first learnt that there was no essential carbohydrate, which is liberating for a diabetic who has lost their good health. Doing a 'Paleo30' was my first entre to experimenting with myself, and it was as dramatic as promised by the Paleo folk, and way better than what 'Diabetes NZ' was suggesting as good nutrition for diabetics. Better still - the cook books are gorgeous and the food divine! And a great way to basically learn how to prepare and cook wholefood. Especially when you are weaning yourself off added sugar and sweeteners, processed food, potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, and really hard for me to remember now - to wean myself off milk. The Paleo community, much like the LCHF one, is very supportive and active online.

There's a great chapter in 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to... Eating Paleo' by Neely Quinn and Jason Glaspey on the Benefits of Eating Paleo, where they introduced me to the concepts and the tagline 'Lose Weight, Gain Muscle, Fight Diabetes', which was very meaningful to me in my first year post diagnosis-shock. They are very strong on the power of protein, which suits me very well, as I respond well to lots of protein, I believe. (Like NoCarbs must do.) And I learnt to cook a greater variety of vegetables in yummy ways. I learnt to cook with coconut oil - which has been a godsend for me and my gallstone I believe. It taught me how to use herbs and spices, and vinegars. And the importance of Omega-3, and eating nuts.

Even though I reintroduced cheese and cream into my way of eating, I way favour Paleo cookbooks over LCHF ones. And I like the respect for the body beautiful, although the paleo jocks (both male and female) can get a little tiresome sometimes (OK, more than sometimes) - then the LCHFers, who aren't so reverential, can be very refreshing.
 
I now eat Paleo after stumbling on it whilst looking for recipes and realised I was almost eating the diet without knowing. I was already low carbing and since starting it have realised that my IBS diagnosis is actually lactose intolerance. All symptoms stopped with the dairy which I was partly avoiding anyway. Giving up grains was not a problem as it spiked me and would much rather get my carbs from veg. I have found some amazing new foods and instead of hanging in what I can't / shouldn't eat have been enjoying all the new foods.

People seem to get hung up on the 'caveman' part of this diet when it's almost like just stepping back to your granparents diet before processed food (minus the grains of course :)). I would love to see a low carb paleo recipe thread on here as paleo is not necessarily low carb and low carb recipes use a lot of cheese!
 
Thanks all!

So here is my thinking, I do low carb on and off with very little support (apart from this forum) Having well and truly fallen off the bandwagon when diagnosed with a chest condition (can be affected by dairy?) I have realised i need to get back in gear. Not only that but a good friend has said she's really interested in doing Paleo as well and we live reasonably close so could share cooking/ingredients etc.

I've found a gluten free/paleo cookbook for starters for come Jan 28th (payday post Christmas!) thats the plan.

Anyone else want to Join?

Its ok @CarbsRok I'm coming to you before that LOL!!
 
I'm joined a paleo uk group on Facebook which helps as the ingredients shown on the US sites aren't always available here.
 
My favourite is 'Practical Paleo' by Diane Sanfilippo, but I've never gotten a paleo cookbook out of the library I didn't cook from, and love.

Sharing ingredients? I don't really understand that, I have to say. Bags of coconut flour and almond flour do not last long in my cupboards, ditto arrowroot (which is the paleo cornflour substitute), but I really like to bake. I had big problems getting a hold of decent amounts of arrowroot in Sweden, but no problems in NZ. And American ingredients? Usually something very local, on both sides of the world - just with a different name :). Like linseeds, instead of flaxseeds. That kind of thing.
 
And I learnt to shop at farmer's markets - paleo and the whole-foods emphasis, and paying attention to how the animals are fed, and lack of insecticides for veg and fruit etc.

Free-farmed pigs is also an important thing to me. I pay the extra, but I'm old enough to remember pig farms before the industrialisation of pig farming came in - the latter which horrified me. And I have looked into the eyes of a few pigs in my day. There's an intelligent being looking back, I have no doubt. I love to eat them - I just like to know they had a decent enough life when alive, and we treated them with some respect before they went to the chopper.

I really like that Paleo principles lend us to considering the production of our food, even more than one might otherwise, perhaps.
 
Generally if you buy in bulk things are cheaper/easier to get hold of. Like i wanted Hock but could only buy 12 so we can share them now etc
 
I have been LC Paleo for some time. I used to eat low carb breads and cheese and have given them up over 5 years ago energy, digestion, weight and health all improved. One thing I did need to change after diabetes was lower protein but all carbs were veggies before so that worked well. I love my avocados too! One thing I do notice is if I am in a situation that I have to eat some processed food like salad dressing I don't like it. I would rather eat a dry salad but I now carry EVOO with me. It's funny how our taste buds change.
 
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