[WormwoodDoll]

Are any of you ladies on a "real food" or a diet consisting of non-processed foods? If so...Can you please share your meal plan, any recipes, or tips for someone trying to get into the non-processed groove!

[oceangirl0104]

Check out the Whole Foods forum (under the Food section). It has a lot of great info!

[Passionista]

You might wanna check out the "Whole Foods" section here.

I eat a natural, whole, plant based diet. I do eat some foods that aren't 100% unprocessed (tofu and soy milk for example) but they are not the bulk of my diet.

Here's an example of a day's food:

Quinoa with onions, shallots, leeks, kale, carrots, cayenne, lemon juice, pepper and salt

Steamed broccoli with white beans, lemon juice, flax oil, nutritional yeast, pepper, garlic and umeboshi vinegar

Carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and hummus

Smoothie of mango, strawberries, peach, orange juice, soy milk, pineapple and ground flax

Salad of mixed baby greens, sunflower seeds, olives, carrots, celery, cucumber, quinoa, avocado, tomato and a homemade dressing

Black beans, brown rice, lots of salsa, guacamole and lettuce

[SilverLife]

Wormwood, mine is this, Dr. Kurt Harris' recommendations:


PaNu - A modified paleolithic diet that can improve your health by duplicating the evolutionary metabolic milieu.

How do you do it?

Here is a 12- step list of what to do. Go as far down the list as you can in whatever time frame you can manage. The further along the list you stop, the healthier you will be. There is no counting, measuring, or weighing. You are not required to purchase anything specific from me or anyone else. There are no special supplements, drugs or testing required.*

1. Eliminate sugar (including fruit juices and sports drinks) and all foods that contain flour.

2. Start eating proper fats - Use healthy animal fats or coconut fat to substitute fat calories for carbohydrate calories that formerly came from sugar and flour. Drink whole cream or coconut milk.

3. Eliminate gluten grains. Limit grains like corn and rice, which are nutritionally poor.

4. Eliminate grain and seed derived oils (cooking oils) Cook with Ghee, butter, animal fats, or coconut oil.

5. Favor ruminants like beef, lamb and bison for your meat. Eat eggs and some fish.

6. Make sure you are Vitamin D replete. Get daily midday sun or consider supplementation.

7. 2 meals a day is best. Don't graze like a herbivore.

8. Adjust your 6s and 3s. Pastured (grass fed) dairy and grass fed beef or bison has a more optimal 6:3 ratio, more vitamins and CLA. A teaspoon or two of Carlson's fish oil (1-2 g DHA/EPA) daily is good compensatory supplementation if you eat grain-fed beef or no fish.

9. Proper exercise - emphasizing resistance and interval training over long aerobic sessions.

10. Most modern fruit is just a candy bar from a tree. Go easy on bags of sugar like apples. Stick with berries and avoid watermelon which is pure fructose. Eat in moderation.

11. Eliminate legumes

12. Eliminate all remaining dairy including cheese- (now you are "Orthodox paleolithic")



No counting, measuring or weighing is required, nor is it encouraged.

The plan is about what not to eat more than what you should eat.

For what I eat (not what you should eat, just what I eat) see this.

Did you notice that there is no step that says what your macronutrient ratios should be?

Good, because there isn't (and never has been) one.

See How to lose weight if you are obese or have metabolic syndrome or diabetes. Otherwise, the ratios are not specified. PaNu practitioners typically range from 5-35% carbohydrate, from 10-30% protein and from 50 to 80% fat (mostly from animals) but wider ranges are entirely possible if you are not dieting and you are meticulous about the quality of your animal food sources.

PaNu tends to be lower carbohydrate than the standard american diet (SAD) because you can only eat so much, and eating animals gives you lots of fat. But it is not really a "low carb" diet as you do not count anything, you just avoid certain foods that happen to be largely carbohydrate. Most PaNu eaters only know macronutrient metrics in retrospect, as they don't target numbers just like wild paleolithic humans didn't target numbers.

If you are not fat and you like to eat potatoes, EAT THEM. I don't, but that doesn't mean you can't.

If you can do step 1, that is about 50% of the benefit and alone a huge improvement on the standard american diet (SAD) By about step 6 you are at about 75% , by step 9 about 80% and at 10 you are at 99% for most people. These are just estimates, of course.

Here is the kernel of the theory:

Insulin is a phylogenetically old hormone. It is a biological messenger that in excess, is metabolically saying the following to your tissue and organs: "Go ahead and store energy, mature, reproduce and die." Hyperinsulinism in humans is linked to diabetes, alzheimer dementia, metabolic syndrome, obesity, coronary disease and epithelial cancers.

Hyperinsulinism is related to metabolic derangements that are likely caused by the neolithic agents of disease:

The three main neolithic agents are Fructose, Wheat and excess Linoleic Acid (n-6 PUFA)

During most of our evolutionary past, animal products, including organs and bone marrow of mammals, fish, and invertebrates (insects) were the preferred foods, supplemented by edible plants (not grains) until the dawn of agriculture. Fruit was seasonal and not yet bred for maximum sweetness. Food was eaten less frequently, on average had lower n-6, fructose, and carbohydrate content than the typical american diet , and was likely characterized by occasional involuntary periods of intermittent fasting. Grains were absent or trivial sources of nutrition.

Humans are omnivores on the carnivorous end of the spectrum. Not canids, but closer to canids than chimpanzees.

Like most animals that are not birds or rodents, we are not adapted to eating grass seeds, to which we have been significantly exposed for only about 10,000 years. They contain molecules that are specifically designed to discourage consumption, as well as other problematic chemicals.

The diet is not about eating exactly what "cavemen" ate, or killing your own food. It is solely about more closely duplicating what I believe are the key elements of the internal hormonal metabolic milieu that we evolved under from especially less than 1 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago. This is likely to be achieved not by eating specific things, but more by not eating specific things.

Is there a way to live in a world of abundant food while avoiding the risk of metabolic syndrome and associated diseases of civilization and the immune dysfunction associated with eating grass seeds that cannot even be eaten without mechanical processing ?

Yes, you can work your way down this list.

Check the website occasionally for more details - I will elaborate as time allows - or you can post questions in the comment section of the blog.



* This is not medical advice. I am confident this is the healthiest way to eat based on currently available science. However, if you have any serious medical condition that requires treatment and in particular if you take medication for diabetes, thyroid disorders or autoimmune diseases, make dietary changes only in consultation with your physician. Your medications may need to be adjusted, as you may well need less of them!

I eat three meals per day, and still eat dairy, and measure & weigh, but otherwise follow this whole list. It has helped me tremendously. Many of the health complaints which I thought were due to getting older, or were inherited have completely cleared up. I really enjoy this way of eating. For me, it is almost miraculous.

It may not be what someone else would be interested in. Thought I'd post it, just in case it might be of use.

Wishing you all the best!

[pinkflower]

I've just started out in the last month or so. I eat anything that the Earth made and try to get it as non processed as possible. I checked out a few books from the library likeSuperfoods RX 14 Foods that will Save your LIfe (Steven Pratt). He has recipes and food ideas, but most importantly, tells you why you should be eating these foods. It has motivated me incredibly and makes me look at what I eat and why I'm eating it. I pick my foods for why they will help my health instead of what I craved or what was easiest.

Even though I'm not 100% off processed foods yet, I feel so much better. My energy is through the roof, my skin is glowing, and it just feels great. If I do eat processed food, I notice immediately that I feel sicker and shortly after I eat it, I start craving sweets and more junk. I simply don't crave that junk when I'm eating whole foods. I never ever thought I'd be able to say that! I used to NEED chocolate almost daily! I'm also amazed at how much food I can eat and still struggle to get in enough calories! I'm always full

[WormwoodDoll]

Thank you ladies!!

[CyndiM]

South Beach also emphasizes a good carb, good fats whole foods diet.

[siwangzhiya]

you're Right, food is a life performance, it lives in life, and it deeply, it is a life choice, for it is the diet surface

[precieuseamande]

I've been going the unprocessed route too, and my most very favoritest (lol) thing is homemade pasta sauce over spaghetti squash. The sauce couldn't be easier: tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and a dab of olive oil left to simmer about an hour.

Every day I have also been making a big spinach smoothie (trust me you don't taste the spinach hardly at all) with about 2 c. raw spinach, a banana, about two other pieces of whatever fruit I have on hand, the juice of a lemon, and just enough water to make it blend. When I first read about this I thought it was strange, but it is delicious and makes two very generous drinks. You can make it anyway you want, it's just some type of green, lemon juice, and enough fruit to get the flavor you want. Super healthy and a treat!

For breakfast I have the same thing almost every day: steel cut oats with either raw honey or pure maple syrup, and a bit of cinnamon (I read cinnamon is great for regulating your blood sugar).

I have also become the queen of soups. Soups are the easiest way for me to eat a lot of veggies, I know they have more nutrients raw, but I like most of my veggies cooked. When you find a good soup base you like, just throw whatever veggies tickle your fancy into it. And when you make a big pot of soup, you have enough to last for quiet a few meals.

I live next to Lousiana, so I love red beans and rice. I make a big pot of beans (had to adjust to turkey sausage, it's not bad!) and a pot of brown rice and that last a long time too.

I'd recommend eatingwell.com to you. There are a lot of great recipes on there, some have processed food, but they are usually pretty easy to modify into whole food.