I've been on a quest for years to be the healthiest I can be, to keep my family healthy & to teach my kids what healthy living is... Holy cow I didn't realise how hard that actually was!
For years I went on the assumption that whole grains was the base of your diet, low or no fat foods, some veggies & fruits..yeah you know the food pyramid. In the last 3 years I've made my own food pyramid, mostly veggies, some fruits, dairy, a few whole grains (like cereal for breakfast), some meat. Well here I am 3 years later & I'm still struggling with my health & in Nov 3013, I found out I have a gluten intolerance. Well.... that was an eye opener. So, I set out on a mission for wellness.
That lead me to my first bit of research: what does gluten do to your body? Holy inflammation & holed intestines Batman! I had felt unwell for years, bloating, gas, nausea, etc, I always thought it was stress. Turns out I was stressed because my body was stressed, it was a vicious cycle. I wasn't getting all the nutrients, was getting sick all the time, you get the picture. Turns out that grains & gluten stop or severely limit the absorption of vitamins & minerals. So I cut out a lot of my dairy, went gluten free. I've felt loads better, the extra weight is very slowly coming off, my joints don't hurt anymore, I thought I found the cure! However, I still don't feel like I'm at my very best, I ask will I ever be, there's got to be something I'm missing? That's the question I've been asking myself for months.
Begin the next research project, keeping in mind our diet the last 7 years has been home cooked meals, fresh foods & some organic. My next research took me to soy & what that does to the body. Soy is a phytoestrogen, meaning it mimics estrogen in the body. Yikes! That's throwing my body & my family's bodies out of its natural cycles. We were literally out of whack! So out went foods made with soy. Keeping soy sauce around for hubby because he's Japanese & he grew up on it. However, my European self did not. Okay so now I'm feeling a little bit better, my kids are feeling better. I'm on the right track. Sigh, but sitting here right now, I know deep down I'm still not 100%. What next?
Well I went vegetarian for awhile, nope still felt like crap. Well, then came Veganism, okay feeling a little bit better, however I was taking supplements & omegas. Well, okay but I don't want to be dependent on that. Back to mostly vegetarian with some grass fed, vegetarian fed, organic meats, & of course gluten free grains, okay much better but still not perfect. Yikes, what a battle!
That brought me to the Palaeolithic diet, it's what our Homo Erectus, Neanderthal, Homo Sapiens ate for thousands of years. It's what our many, many times grandparents ate before agriculture, before the industrial revolution. So I asked, "how can a hundreds of thousands of year old diet be wrong?" I don't know the answers, I've only read research, watch documentaries, spoke to my doctor & listened to stories of my friends eating Paleo. Well, I have to say my friends look great, they look healthy. Well, must be something to it. So after a well educated discussion with my husband on the matter; speaking to my children (who by the way are older kids, not little kids) on the matter, we have decided as a family to try eating a Paleolithic diet.
Starting March 1st- May 1st, we are going to eat strictly Paleo. At the end of those 2 months we are going to evaluate how we all feel, to see if we do indeed look & feel healthier. I know we are almost there since taking out gluten, GMOs, soy & wheat, but we still have room for improvement.
I'll keep you updated on how eating Caveman style goes for us.
Remember eat to live, don't live to eat; get up & move your body!
Be well!
