My personal health gains began when I learned about and implemented a Paleo-ish diet.
Paleo is a funny word, with a lot of connotations attached to it. A Paleo diet has been misunderstood by people to be a carnivorous diet, even though the bulk of the Paleo diet is vegetables.
It has been ‘de-bunked’ as an approach that is somehow unachievable – because we no longer have access to the food that our paleolithic ancestors ate. But, that’s not the point of this approach.
Paleo is sometimes seen as a re-enactment even. I suppose there are people who’d rather go back in time and live as our ancestors did, but we’ve got some pretty sweet advances these days… that have extended our lives significantly.
The media routinely puts Paleo through the mill for some reason. Maybe it’s just fun for them to do. It generally stirs up some excitement – and that makes good press.
But let’s sift through the BS, shall we?
There is nothing inherently dangerous about a Paleo approach – except that if everyone did it our grain-based economy would crash.
There is a lot that is inherently dangerous about our current industrialized food system, which supports our economy just fine.
Paleo has become a movement of sorts. A real food movement in my estimation. A real food movement with the added bonus of factoring in lifestyle. It’s about eating, moving, sleeping, and connecting in a way that is inline with our human-ness.
Here’s what I learned from MY Paleo-ish approach. I learned that our modern industrial food system is not designed to deliver fresh food to the masses. That most of the products in the grocery store are made with preservatives to make them shelf stable, artificial ingredients, to make them taste better to you, and refined seed oil (cottonseed, soy, corn, canola…) that is most likely oxidized.
I’ve learned that a lot of conventional produce is full of pesticides (see the Environmental Working Group for info on the safest conventional produce).
I’ve learned that GMO crops that are sprayed with Round Up ready herbicides incorporate those herbicides into the cellular structure of the plant.
Ergo, you consume preservatives, artificial ingredients, herbicides, pesticides, and oxidized fats… disguised as food. And a lot of people consume a lot of these things.
I’ve also learned that the 90% of your cells that aren’t human (your microbiome) probably don’t play nice with preservatives, artificial ingredients, pesticides, herbicides… we are crappy hosts.
I’ve learned (first hand) that you can make yourself sensitive to certain foods. This is interesting. If you remove something from your diet long enough, and then reintroduce it, you’re likely to notice it. Sometimes you’ll notice it in a big way.
I’ve learned a lot more about my body, I’ve learned to respect it more… and that’s been life changing.
I’ve learned to look at our modern world through an evolutionary lens and to try some different things, unconventional things.
Mostly, I’ve learned that we all have a choice to make when it comes to what we eat, how we move, how much we sleep, and how often we take a break and enjoy the company of others. We can step back and view the human population from a broader perspective and learn a thing or two about the giant social experiment that we’ve got going on right now. We can compare and contrast the human population at many different points in time, and speculate about how different foods and environmental conditions shaped them – and then try different things on for size.
While I credit the Paleo movement for shifting my perspective, I am not dogmatic about this… I’m always a skeptic… that’s the scientist in me.
I don’t follow anyone’s prescription for life – except my own.
If you’re interested in learning more about this Paleo movement and then personalizing this approach to fit you… I’ve created a 90-card deck of tarot cards called Teach Me How-To Paleo. It’s full of resources that’ll help you get out of your own way, so your body can do what it’s supposed to do.
Let me know if you check it out!
