Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Natural Life - Diet

I've been on a bit of a natural revolution of late. I'll do a series of posts about the changes I'm making in my diet, exercise, home and personal care.

...It started with a thought about dairy...

I'm a breastfeeding mum, and through the amazing fantastical Interweb have discovered many online communities (like Kellymom, Best for Babes, and the ABA) that share exciting information about the magical properties of breastmilk. I came to the realisation that babies are biologically designed to recieve breastmilk, and that when they do, they develop exactly as nature intended. I began to wonder about the foods that adult humans are biologically designed to eat....

This made me realise the absolute weirdness of consuming dairy products. Milk is what mammals make, with their mammary glands, to feed their mammal young. Why on earth is it seen as completely normal for adult humans to eat massive amounts of milk and milk products from another animal?
So I stopped. I used to be a huge fan of milk and cheese and yoghurt and sour cream, but I just can't bring myself to eat it anymore.

I also tried my hand at eating my idea of a hunter-gatherer diet. I didn't research this or think too deeply about it, I just limited myself mainly to meat, fruits, vegies, nuts, seeds and anything else that was unrefined or unprocessed. I didn't last long, my sweet tooth getting the better of me, but the idea stuck with me.
Then I discovered that someone had already had this idea, done real research into it, and called it The Paleo Diet, and The Paleo Solution. I was pretty excited and chuffed to have thought of the same idea as some pretty swanky scientists. I told the Lion King about my find, and then forgot about it, settling back into the modern version of "healthy" eating.

A little while later, the Lion King told me he had read about the Paleo lifestyle and was giving it a go. After a few chats about the pros of eating this way, and the occasional difficulties encountered, I decided I was going to jump back on board. This time around I read a bit about the actual diet of paleolithic humans, learned that a few of my ideas were wrong (like that wholegrains are great) and have armed myself with more online resources, like Everyday Paleo, The Civilised Caveman, and Cave Girl Eats. These have been invaluable in helping me stick to my guns (or club, if that is more appropriate), and while I'm not 100% Paleo, 100% of the time, I am pretty much entirely dairy and gluten free, and am working my way towards total cavemum status.



I'm excited and focused, and super proud to be treating my body the way I feel it deserves, not to mention I get to make the most scrumptious food and not worry at all about whether it's "naughty". My intake of fibre, protein and fat is up, sugar intake waaay down. I'm not concerned with weight loss, although it seems to be happening anyway, but most importantly, I feel fantastic!

How do you and your family eat? Are you thinking of making changes?

2 comments:

  1. you asked about tomato sauce on the paleo recipe site...

    i've never had to describe it before....soooo, it's a thick substance of probably pureed tomatoes (probably with other things) to make it thick. it's not as thick as tomato paste. like a heavy gravy... and it's not really catsup...type "tomato sauce can" in google images and you'll see what it looks like. hunt's and Heinz are 2 famous brands I can think of. Of course they make catsup, but they make other tomato products, too..like sauce, diced, stewed tomatoes, etc..

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  2. Thanks so much Jill! :) I think you're right, and it's pureed tomatoes (I hope so anyway because that's what I'm going to use)

    have you had a go at the recipe?

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