Even before we had a baby I was interested in how ancestral nutrition influences fertility and fetal and child development.
It struck me as crazy that, in accordance with conventional “nutrition” advice and mainstream marketing, babies are often fed things like rice cereal, cheerios and little cookie biscuit things as their first foods. (It says “for baby” on the package so isn’t it good??)
And then we wonder why toddlers (and then kids and teens) are grumpy, tired, have dark circles under their eyes and behavior issues, just to mention a few…
So when our daughter Isla was around 4 months I started researching what we should feed her when she starts solid foods. This was especially of interest because I’d never really made enough breastmilk for her, and we had been relying on donor milk to help her grow.
I didn’t want to give her conventional formula considering I wouldn’t eat most of those ingredients myself. Luckily I found out about the Weston A. Price Foundation baby formula, which is designed to provide similar nutrition to breastmilk but with whole foods. We make the formula with high-quality milk that we get from a farm nearby.
The WAPF formula and pumped breastmilk make up the majority of her diet, and then I wanted to make sure we were introducing the right foods for her. I had heard of people feeding babies things like avocado, banana and sweet potato.
Although WAPF recommends root vegetables such as sweet potato, carrot and beet as first foods, other research indicates that root vegetables and leafy greens are higher in nitrates, which should be avoided until 6 months and should make up a smaller part of baby’s diet to start.
Best First Foods for a Primal Baby
soft-cooked egg yolk (from free-range eggs, with a pinch of real salt)
avocado
broth
pureed meat and liver
butternut or acorn squash with butter
banana
Foods That Should Wait Until Later (ie After 1-Year)
cooked leafy green vegetables
raw salad vegetables
citrus fruit
whole egg
grains
nuts and seeds
Should you do baby-led weaning?
I assumed baby-led weaning would be our approach, as it seemed to be what most crunchy parents do. Then I read this article by Sally Fallon from Weston A. Price and changed my approach a bit.
In a nutshell she says that the foods most people prepare for baby to eat by themselves are not actually the foods that baby needs most (ie little sticks of soft vegetables, most of which don’t actually end up in baby’s mouth anyway).
Since the most important nutrients for a baby to get from 4-6 months are iron and zinc, we need to ensure they actually consume some of these important foods.
I get the idea behind baby-led weaning, and definitely do want Isla to feel exploratory and independent in the way she interacts with food, but I also agree with the WAPF commentary linked above.
I learned that:
Food before One is NOT just for fun
As a result we do a mix of spoon-feeding (without ever forcing or even encouraging her to eat more than she’s interested in – I find it’s VERY obvious when she wants more, she opens her mouth and slaps her hands up and down) and also letting her explore food on her own.
Although at this point, she nearly 6 months and doesn’t actually put food in her mouth at all. I think it’s very important to do at least some spoon-feeding to ensure she’s getting that iron.
I believe with this approach we are setting her up to enjoy whole foods and have a nourished body for life.
Fact: a person can never be happy without cake in their life. Few people would disagree, and those few would, whether they recognize it or not, be quite unhappy.
So as I found myself edging towards the 1 month mark of a 3 month autoimmune protocol (AIP), I discovered my life lacked substance. For 30 days, I had gone without cake, and the time had come to rectify the situation.
The problem was, the Paleo autoimmune protocol is one of the strictest, perhaps the strictest, diets on the planet. For those of you unfamiliar with it’s dictates, AIP means cutting out any foods which might be potential allergens. That means all nightshades (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, etc), nuts, seeds, dairy, grains (of course!), eggs, chocolate, and probably plenty of other food staples that have just now slipped my mind.
The AIP, while undoubtedly effective in identifying problem foods, doesn’t leave a person with a whole lot of foods that they can eat. This meant that I had been subsisting on a diet of meat and vege for as far back as my troubled mind could remember, and it was starting to get a bit old.
You see, I love meat and (to a lesser degree) vegetables as much as the next person. Probably more than the next person, if I’m honest. But there’s only so many times a man can have meat and vegetables for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert without starting to get a bit grumpy.
And so I found myself wondering whether there was a way to piece together what few ingredients I could eat to form some semblance of a cake.
Luckily, there was. Funnily enough, it’s called the Paleo AIP Spiced Apple Cake.
Easy Recipe: Paleo AIP Spiced Apple Cake
Before we begin, a disclaimer: every time I make this cake, it varies considerably. A little more apple, a little less banana, a little more coconut oil, a little less raisins….but every time it’s come out utterly delicious. I’d even substitute desiccated coconut instead of coconut butter if I didn’t have any to hand (just whizz it in the blender and it comes out a similar consistency to coconut butter).
So don’t be afraid to deviate a little from the recipe – that’s what I did, and everything worked out just dandy!
1/2 cup rice flour (technically not necessarily AIP, so can substitute same amount arrowroot flour)
1/2 cup raisins (optional, but delicious!)
2 tbsp coconut milk (ONLY if you add in the optional raisins)
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
Instructions
Throw a banana and a cored, roughly chopped apple (don’t bother peeling) into a blender with around a tablespoon of water to make it easier for the blades to do their thang. Blend on high until a smooth paste has formed. If your blender is having trouble, force the apple bits down towards the blades (when it’s off, of course!) and add in a little more water.
Set the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (180 celsius), and melt your coconut oil in the warming oven if it’s below room temperature (and therefore hard!). If you coconut butter is also hard, put it in the oven for a minute or two to soften it as well.
Line a 9×13 inch baking pan with baking paper (aka parchment paper in other parts of the world!).
Mix the wet ingredients (coconut oil, banana and apple paste, lemon juice, vanilla, honey/maple syrup, and coconut butter) together in a bowl until combined.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients (the flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and clove) and mix to ensure consistent. Then add to the wet ingredients and stir until everything is perfectly amalgamated. At this point, if you’re feeling a bit racy, add in 1/2 cup of raisins and see whether the consistency of the batter is still wet but sticky. If it seems a bit dry, add in a tablespoon or two of coconut milk. If it’s still too wet, add in some desiccated coconut or rice flour. Play around with it until it looks right to you – it should be thick enough to hold its shape for a while, but wet enough that you could (technically) pour the batter into the cake tin if you stood there for like ten minutes. You get my drift, right?
Next, spread the mixture into the pan. If you’re having guests over and want the cake to look fancy schmancy, slice another apple in half, core it, then slice thin strips of apple and place them lightly on top of the batter to create a rustic apple pie-type effect. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to complete the aesthetic ensemble.
Cook for around 25 minutes. When it gets close to the 25 minute mark, start checking to see whether it looks cooked. Really depends how moist you like your cake – I like it to be still ever so slightly gooey inside, so I take it out just before it gets to the point where it springs back when you press your finger into the top. It should be golden around the edges and smell ah-may-zing!
Lift the cake out of the pan using the baking paper, and place on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes. The longer you wait, the easier it’ll be to cut and less likely to crumble.
Cut a healthy slab, pour over a little coconut yoghurt and (if you’ve got a serious sweet tooth) a bit more honey, and enjoy! Liivi isn’t on the AIP but she still eats this cake and swears it’s better than any of the Paleo cakes she’s made lately – she just slathers on a slab of grass-fed butter instead of the yoghurt! I’m only slightly jealous.
Have you tried the recipe? How’d it go? Got any variations you’d like to suggest? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Let’s cut to the chase: you want six-pack abs, a toned yet shapely butt, and arms that don’t have jiggly bits underneath. You want to get rid of those stubborn kankles, ease the constant chafing between your thighs, and not have sore knees, hips, and back ALL the time. Heck, you might just want to fit back into that old pair of jeans you allow to lurk at the bottom of your drawers, in the hope that one day, one day, they’ll slip back on like a glove. Well, the answer is simpler than you think.
Workouts don’t need to be complicated, drawn out, unenjoyable affairs. They don’t even need to be that frequent, to get the results you want. I’ve spent the last 10 years perfecting the ultimate paleo workout routine, from what protein to consume to which exercises to perform, and it’ll have you transitioning from flab to fab in no time (guys – feel free to replace the decidedly feminine “fab” with something manly like “jab”, if it makes you more comfortable).
So without further ado, here’s quite possibly the best workout routine you’ll ever lay your eyes on.
Your pre-workout routine
First, know that your body won’t respond well to strenuous exercise if it’s tired or still recovering from a previous workout. Ensure that you haven’t done an intensive weight-bearing workout in at least the past 2 days, preferably 3. Also ensure you got enough sleep last night, as your body is already stressed in this case and you don’t want to introduce any more stress into your life with a hard workout.
Step 1: prepare a protein source
For me, this is almost always a protein shake. While many people have been led to believe that whey protein isn’t that great for your health, it’s hands-down the best protein source for workouts if you get hold of the good stuff. That means whey from grass-fed cows, that has no additives or artificial flavors, and is preferably organic. This protein powder ticks all those boxes, and it’s been my go-to protein powder for the past 4 years. If you’re completely against whey protein (just FYI, often people with dairy allergies respond well to whey protein isolate, which shouldn’t contain lactose or casein), then you can always try an organic pea protein powder. Or even just a big hunk of meat, preferably the size of your palm. Your choice! Aim for around 30 grams of protein.
Drink half the protein shake 10 minutes before the workout, and half after the workout. This allows your muscles to synthesize the protein while you work out, which means faster muscle gains and quicker muscle recovery.
Step 2: warm up
Here, we just want to get your blood flowing and your muscles limber, so you don’t do any damage during the workout. This means 2 minutes of jumping around, shaking, dancing, or doing star jumps like nobody’s watching. I hope for your sake that no-one’s watching, as you’re going to look like a complete nutcase.
Your optimum paleo workout
After you’ve knocked back half your protein smoothie (10 mins before exercising) and warmed up a little, it’s time to get down and dirty. A couple of important points to keep in mind:
Use whatever equipment you have available. I regularly work out using a 10 liter container of mineral water, as it’s a good weight for many exercises and has a handle – kind of like a rudimentary kettlebell. Nothing beats an actual kettlebell, however – I’ve found that a good starting kettlebell for ladies is 6 kg or 8 kg, and 10 kg or 12 kg for men.
Perform the reps (reps = repetitions) to failure, unless otherwise stated. This means doing as many reps as you can of a given exercise until you literally can’t do any more. This will shock your muscles as much as possible (a good thing), which means faster fat burn and greater muscle mass development. No half-arsed attempts, people!
Ensure your form is spot on! If you have to practice an exercise at a lighter weight initially, so be it – you need to do the exercise how its supposed to be done, or risk injury.
Take a 1 minute rest between each exercise – use this time to have a sip of water and write down how many reps you did! You’ll need to keep increasing these reps with each new workout, in order to grow muscle mass.
Workout #1 (day 1)
10 glute activators (essentially just hip thrusts which you can do on the ground or on a bench that help to activate your glutes, which are often dormant going into a workout)
kettlebell bicep curls (remember to keep your arms in by your sides, and you can just do one arm at a time if you only have one kettlebell)
wide-grip pull-ups – the guy in that video cracks me up, but he’s right about how to do it! (use anything around the house or gym for this – could be a lateral tree branch, a pergola, a doorframe, or a chin-up bar. If you don’t have any of these, just skip this one)
After your exercises, take a couple of minutes to shake it off and loosen up if you feel a bit tight. I find just going for a very quick jog around the yard helps with this. Now its time to drink the rest of your protein shake and rehydrate. Drink lots of water during and after the workout – dehydration is not your friend!
Workout 1 shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes, and workout 2 shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes. Studies show that shorter, more intense workouts are more effective for weight loss and muscle gain than long workouts. Give yourself plenty of time to recover between workouts (I always space them at least 3 days apart, interspersed with days of mild to moderate cardio like walking, running, cycling and kayaking).
I always have my phone with me during workouts – I use it to note down how many reps I do per exercise for each workout, so that I can ensure I’m always increasing reps over time. I also use it as a timer for the side planks. You should also consider getting yourself a good exercise mat or yoga mat, to make your experience a whole lot more enjoyable. And crank those snazzy tunes! Nothing like a good workout playlist to get the blood pumping. I’m digging Spotify’s “Motivation Mix” right now.
That’s it! Easy, right? Try this routine for a month, and see how you look and feel. We’d love to hear if it kicked those kankles and busted that butt!
Last week, I discussed the merits of oil pulling, and whether there was any scientific evidence to back up all the claims floating around on the net. It turns out that there was, and as a result I’m halfway through a two week oil pulling regime. Hurrah! But something that all the studies agreed on was that oil pulling alone wasn’t enough for optimum oral health – for that we need the humble toothbrush…
Why conventional toothpaste is harming your health
Have you ever paid any attention to those Colgate (or any other big-name toothpaste brand) ads? You’ll notice they always have snappy signoffs like “the toothpaste that dentists use!”. Well, while your average conventional dentist might know his or her way around a tooth filling or cavity, they’re not always up to speed on the latest and greatest when it comes to everyday oral hygiene.
And it turns out that the “toothpaste that dentists use” isn’t something that you want to be using! There’s all that triclosan, all those synthetic chemicals and additives, and of course fluoride (hint: it’s not as healthy as you think!). As one recent study concluded:
“A proportion of ingredients (28.9% [n = 13]) were found to be both unnecessary to improving the oral health of children and solely used to increase their appeal. Of this list of unnecessary ingredients, 69.2% (n = 9) were shown to have contamination risks associated with chronic consumption, including enamel demineralization.”
Let me just get this straight: almost a third of ingredients in toothpaste are completely unnecessary, and some of them can even damage your teeth?? That probably explains why 98% of the population suffer from oral health problems. Thanks a lot, toothpaste.
Make your own DIY paleo toothpaste
As ever, the solution is to take matters into your own hands. With the exception of the wonderful folks over at OraWellness, you can’t really even trust the supposedly “healthy/alternative” toothpaste brands. They always manage to slip something nasty in there, regardless of best intentions.
And as I was scouring the net for a solution, I came across a tooth remineralizing recipe from WellnessMama. The below recipe is a slight adaptation on hers, and it’s just as effective – I can personally attest to that! We use it morning and night, and it’s working wonders for our pearly whites.
DIY recipe: remineralizing “toothpaste”
The word “toothpaste” has quotation marks around it because it’s more of a powder, if I’m completely honest. But don’t let that put you off – the powder is just as easy to use as conventional toothpaste. If you don’t have all the ingredients, don’t stress too much – the main thing is that you use bentonite clay and baking soda. Bentonite clay is a swelling clay that attracts and binds to toxins in the mouth (or anywhere for that matter), making it an excellent choice for detoxifying the mouth and giving your teeth and gums a helping hand. Baking soda (which you’ll incidentally find in conventional toothpaste – quite possibly the only good ingredient!) contains essential minerals, whitens teeth, and is alkalizing.
Track down a wide-mouth mason jar or medium-sized glass jar of any kind. Make sure it has a lid, as you’ll be using this stuff for at least a few weeks!
Next, carefully spoon/sprinkle all of the ingredients into the jar. Using a teaspoon, mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are blended equally.
To use, either dip your toothbrush into a little coconut oil or simply dampen with water, then dip your brush into the powder mix. Use the bass brushing technique to get rid of all that plaque without damaging your gums, and rinse with cool to warm water.
To store your remineralizing tooth powder, simply put the lid on! It’ll last for months, as there’s no ingredient that will spoil. Plus there’s no risk of mold, on account of all the antimicrobial agents present in your powder.
And if you can’t be bothered making your own, there’s always the OraWellness HealThyMouth Blend. It’s your call!
Have you tried a natural oral care routine? Has it helped to reverse cavities, kick bad breath…that kind of thing? We’d love to hear your stories!
It’s all very well sticking strictly to your Paleo or Primal diet, but there are times when you just want things to be how they used to. Glutenous sandwiches piled high with questionable deli meats and delicious vegetable oil-based mayo. Pizza, stacked with cheese and faux-meat to your heart’s content. A fresh glass of diabetes-inducing coca-cola, clinking merrily with cubes of ice and beading invitingly in the late afternoon sun.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought for a moment there. Sure, these things were delicious at the time, but the days (perhaps weeks) of post-dietary meltdown recovery really wasn’t worth it.
Luckily, this isn’t a black or white scenario. You can still revisit those gluttonous times of old while maintaining your impressive clean-eating record. We’ve already churned out heaps of recipes that have done just that, including Primal pancakes, Paleo banana-choc-chia cakelets, gluten-free Oreo cookie sandwiches, and a whole lot more. But there’s something super important missing from that list: chicken wings!
Just because you’ve gone Paleo, Primal or ancestral doesn’t mean you don’t watch the Superbowl every year. It doesn’t mean you pass on the opportunity to sit out on the patio with your mates and have a few “cold ones”. It doesn’t mean you’ve moved on from game nights or movie nights with your friends or loved ones. And what do all these things have in common? Why, they all go swimmingly with a big bowl of crispy, zesty, saucy chicken wings.
So, without further ado, here’s an awesome Paleo- and Primal-friendly wing recipe that will have you thinking you’d died and gone to heaven. Chicken wing heaven, that is.
Paleo recipe: BBQ chicken wings
What would a wing platter be without the quintessential BBQ sauce smothering those meaty chunks of glory? Personally, barbecue wings are my favorite, so I was more than happy to give this recipe a shot! If you don’t have all the ingredients available in your kitchen, feel free to mix and match – getting creative is half the fun!
1. BBQ Rub ingredients and instructions
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp rosemary (dried or fresh and finely diced)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until evenly distributed. This will form your chicken rub in step three!
In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil over low-medium heat. Add in the diced onion, and cook until the onion has turned transparent or soft, around 5 minutes or so.
Add the minced or diced garlic to the saucepan, cook for a minute, then throw in the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and allow to simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Once the sauce has reduced down to your desired thickness, remove from heat and set aside.
3. BBQ chicken wing ingredients and instructions
Finally, it’s time to create your culinary masterpiece!
18 free-range/pastured chicken wings
BBQ rub (step 1)
BBQ sauce (step 2)
Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C. While the oven warms up, put some baking paper down on a couple of cookie sheets. Next, apply the BBQ rub to all the wings as evenly as possible. Don’t stress too much if thing’s are a bit uneven though – you’re going to smother them in BBQ sauce, after all!
Place the wings in the oven and leave for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn all the wings onto their opposite side, and cook for another 10 minutes.
Remove the wings from the oven again. Coat each wing liberally with the BBQ sauce you made in step two. A silicon brush makes applying the sauce easier, but you can always just use a spoon or anything handy. Once all the wings are coated, place them back in the oven for 3 minutes.
One last time, remove the wings from the oven, turn them all onto their opposite side, and return to the oven for 3 minutes. Keep an eye on the wings – if it looks like they’re starting to blacken or burn, whip them out of there ASAP! You can also leave them in for longer if you like your wings a bit crispier or charred. I’m not judging.
If you can resist, allow the wings to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a platter. If you’ve got any BBQ sauce left, put it in a small bowl for dipping. In lieu of blue cheese, which often has some of the nastiest ingredients imaginable, why not opt for some grass-fed sour cream? It tastes just as good, in my opinion, and soothes the mouth when things get a little on the spicy side. Also feel free to throw in a few celery sticks for good measure. Enjoy!
Tell us how your wings turned out! Did you make any slight adjustments, or did those BBQ wings taste dang near perfect? We’d also love to hear what your own favorite Paleo wing recipes are!
It’s a question I’ve been asked time and again since becoming something of a health authority: is fruit paleo? An excellent question, and one which I usually don’t have enough hours in the day to answer in sufficient detail. This, in case you’re wondering, is not one of those times.
Can you eat fruit on a Paleo diet?
The short answer is: yes! While many “hardcore” Paleo punters wouldn’t be caught dead beside a bowl of fruit, it’s totally unreasonable, and in many cases unhealthy, to completely remove fruit from your life. Phew! Am I right?
But that affirmative isn’t your one-way ticket to a daily fruit binge. We know that our Paleolithic ancestors certainly ate fruit – the berries or drupes that they came across in the wild would have provided valuable nutrients and minerals to fill in the nutritional gaps of their predominantly protein-based diets. But what we also know is that those fruits were not the same as those we find on our supermarket shelves today.
If you’ve ever walked through a forest glade and noticed a patch of wild strawberries growing in the sunshine, you’ll know what I mean. Wild strawberries have almost no resemblance to their monstrous cultivated counterparts, and this is due to thousands of years of genetic selection. Some time after the agricultural revolution, around 10,000 years ago, humans began to alter those “wild” fruit species that our Paleolithic forebears foraged. People realized that by only selecting and growing those fruit variants that were larger, sweeter, or more edible, they could develop a whole new “species” of superfruit. This selective style of cultivation continued throughout the millennia, to give us the fruits we are sold today. Yes, even the organic, non-GMO fruit!
In many cases, this was an essential part of allowing humans to eat and enjoy a certain kind of fruit in the first place. For example, the uncultivated, wild version of bananas are actually virtually inedible. Their seed to flesh ratio is so high that it’s almost not worth bothering to eat them, but every now and then a sterile banana is produced that doesn’t have any seeds. It was those sterile bananas that people loved to eat, and they therefore started taking cuttings of the sterile plants and reproducing banana trees without all the seeds. Because they’re all sterile, the only way these trees can be reproduced is by vegetative propagation – taking part of the original tree to create an exact genetic copy of it.
I happen to love bananas, so I’m not going to begrudge those enterprising farmers for playing around with nature. But what these genetic selections means is that cultivated fruit is completely different to the wild fruit our ancestors ate. It’s generally sweeter (so far higher in fructose), less nutritionally dense…and there’s a whole lot more available today than there was 10,000+ years ago!
With this in mind, for the Paleo eater, fruit should become less of a “health food” and more of a nutritious treat. That orange juice with breakfast or fruit smoothie for lunch, by the way, is not what the doctor ordered.
Not all fruits were created equal, however, so if you’re going to get your daily dose of fruit, which is best for your health?
Which fruit is best to eat on a Paleo diet?
There’s a few ways you can approach the healthiest fruit:
how much sugar does it contain?
how nutritious is it?
how much chemical residue does it contain?
Ideally, you’d only eat those fruits that are low in sugar, high in beneficial nutrients, and low in pesticides and herbicides. Often it’s hard to tick all three boxes, but here’s a short overview to get you heading in the right direction.
Sugar content of popular fruit
Generally speaking, your berries and sour citrus fruits have the lowest fructose content, while things like apples, grapes and mangoes have the most. Probably no great surprise – fruit that makes your face pucker up is generally low in sugar!
Avocado (yup, it’s a fruit!): 1 g sugar/cup
Lime: 1 g sugar/medium
Lemon: 2 g sugar/medium
Raspberries: 5 g sugar/cup
Kiwi: 6 g sugar/medium
Strawberries: 7 g sugar/cup
Grapefruit: 9 g sugar/medium
Watermelon: 9 g sugar/cup
Orange: 13 g sugar/medium
Banana: 14 g sugar/medium
Blueberries: 15 g sugar/cup
Dates: 16 g sugar/medium
Apple: 19 g sugar/medium
Mango: 23 g sugar/cup
Grapes: 23 g sugar/cup
Raisins: 86 g sugar/cup
This is just to give you an idea of which fruits are better than others on the fructose scale. On any given day, you’re better off sticking to berries like raspberries, strawberries, cranberries and blackberries, citrus fruit, and maybe the odd kiwi, plum, or watermelon. Fructose is highly inflammatory, and can contribute to conditions like fatty liver disease and diabetes. Generally the less fructose you consume per day, the better.
How nutritious is your fruit?
This is probably the most difficult aspect of prioritizing your fruit. Different fruits contain different ratios of various nutrients, making direct comparison rather difficult. If you’re suffering from cramps or headaches, you could be lacking in potassium, meaning from a nutrient standpoint a potassium-rich banana might be a good choice. If you’re worried about cancer, however, dark-colored fruits like blueberries or strawberries might be a better choice as they have more antioxidants. It really comes down to what your body is lacking. For fruit-specific nutritional content, you might want to check out this database.
Otherwise, a very committed researcher from William Paterson University ranked 47 fruits and vegetables based on 17 different nutrients considered critical for fighting heart disease and cancer. You can check out their handy ranking system in this article. You’ll notice that there’s far more vegetables on the list than fruit. That’s not a coincidence. I’ve stressed time and again that vegetables should form the backbone of produce in your diet, as they’re generally more nutritionally dense and lower in sugar than most fruit.
Those fruit that did make the nutritional cut are tomato (yep, also a fruit!), lemon, strawberry, orange, lime, grapefruit and blackberry. I’d also be inclined to add avocado to that list – it’s certainly a nutritional powerhouse.
All these fruits also happen to have relatively low sugar content. How convenient!
Is your fruit doused in chemicals?
I’ve written about this very topic in my guide to shopping for fruit and vegetables. Based on comprehensive data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists tell you which produce is best to buy based on potential for chemical residue, and which is worst. Based on their findings, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, kiwi, honeydew melon, grapefruit and cantaloupe have the lowest risk of chemical pesticide, herbicide or insecticide residue. Unfortunately, lots of your favorite fruits didn’t make the cut, including strawberries, cherries, apples, nectarines, peaches, grapes and tomatoes.
You’ll notice that those fruits which made the Clean 15 all have thick skins which you don’t typically eat. Those that were included in the Dirty Dozen have thin skins that blemish easily and are almost always consumed (except for the oddballs who don’t like apple skin!). With this in mind, I have three recommendations: firstly, always buy organic when you can, as this sidesteps any risk of chemical residue. Secondly, if you can’t buy organic, go for those fruits with the thicker (inedible) skins. And finally, if you must eat your non-organic strawberries and other Dirty Dozen fruit, be sure to give them a good soak first.
Recipe: Paleo fruit salad
Personally, I take great pleasure in eating fruit. It adds a whole lot more flavor and color to my day, so I’m not willing to completely throw in the fructose towel! And when you take into consideration the above factors, there’s no reason why you should give up fruit either.
To rekindle your love of fruit, here’s a great recipe for a Paleo fruit salad I’ve honed over the years. Its filled with fruits that have lower fructose content and higher nutritional value, so it’s not only a tasty treat, but a healthy one too! Just be sure to limit your fruit intake to around 2 servings (a couple of handfuls) per day.
Ingredients:
3 plums, cut into wedges
1 peach, cut into wedges (organic or soaked is best)
1 orange, cut or pulled apart into segments
1/2 cup strawberries, chopped in half (organic or soaked is best)
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 banana, sliced
3 limes, squeezed
1 sprig mint, finely diced
Instructions:
Using a lemon squeezer or your own trusty hands, squeeze the juice from your 3 limes into a small bowl. Remove the mint leaves from the stem, and dice the leaves relatively finely. Add to the bowl of lime juice, and allow to sit for at least 2 hours so that the mint infuses the lime juice.
Next, cut your plums, peach and oranges into wedges, adding to a large serving bowl. Chop up your banana and throw it in, along with your halved strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Peel the orange and add in the segments – if it’s a particularly big orange, you can cut each segment in half to ensure it doesn’t “steal the show”.
When you’re ready to serve, drizzle your lime and mint dressing over the salad, give it a gentle toss to ensure all the fruit is covered and well-mixed, and sprinkle over a garnish of mint leaves if you have any left over. The lime and mint dressing provides a refreshing counterpoint to the sweetness of the other fruits, and has the added benefit of helping to preserve your fruit salad for longer.
Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know whether you’ve tried the recipe, or if you have your own Paleo-tastic fruit salad to share with the world!
Up until now, we’ve largely focused on using paleo, primal and ancestral teachings to clean up our diet and lifestyle. Admittedly, these are two of the 3 key pillars of true health and happiness…but what about the third? That third pillar, in case you’re wondering, is exercise, and it’s arguably the biggest element of health that people are most confused over.
Throw your conventional view of exercise out the window
Think of exercise, and your mind turns into an infomercial. State-of-the-art treadmills, high-tech ellipticals, snazzy rowers, bouncy things, multi-purpose things, ab-tightening devices and, if you’re getting a bit racy, perhaps a rack of ultra-polished dumbbells. It’s ok – my mind conjures up much the same images as well, despite the fact that I’ve completely retrained how I approach exercise. That being said, what you need to do before we progress is metaphorically (and perhaps literally, if there’s no-one directly below) throw that cheesy infomercial-style gym equipment out the window.
This equipment is designed to provide a “quick fix” in your quest for a better body. But really all it’s doing is introducing convenience into the mix: with the exception of dumbells, you don’t have to think about the exercise you’re doing. Just jump on the treadmill, tap a few buttons, and you’re free to think about all of life’s other troubles. I still do a double take when I see someone hop onto the stationary bike, pick up a magazine, and just cruise for half an hour. Those same people invariably wonder why they’re not losing weight, when they’re hardly even getting their heart rate up!
Next, stop pounding the pavement and wondering why you’ve got injuries coming out your ears and the weight refuses to budge. Repetitive movements like this put the body under extreme stress, due to repeated impact with hard surfaces and physically jarring the bones and ligaments of your legs and feet. And when the body is under stress, it holds on to all the fat it can – thinking that there are hard times ahead. Do you really want to look like a long-distance runner, anyway? They’re all stringy and unhealthy looking…typically because they are unhealthy!
Finally, stop finding excuses to NOT exercise! You literally don’t need anything to get a good workout – just a few square feet of empty floor space. Abandoning this reliance on fancy gym equipment or even a nice spot to go running will ensure you don’t ever miss a workout opportunity.
High intensity training for weight loss
High intensity interval training, or HIIT, is all the rage in the alternative fitness circles these days. And it’s with good reason – HIIT offers vast quantities of calorie destruction with just a fraction of the time (and money) investment compared to the average gym or cardio workout. It’s now a well-accepted fact that our bodies respond better to short, focused periods of exercise. A 10 to 15 minute HIIT workout does that – elevating your heart rate, jump-starting your aerobic system, and fatiguing your muscles in a concentrated time slot, which minimizes the amount of stress you’re putting your body under. Remember, less stress means more weight loss, and achieving higher intensity means more calories burned faster. It’s a win-win, really.
In my opinion, if you’re looking to kick that jiggly belly or Beyonce butt fat quickly, ditching the elliptical or long runs and adopting HIIT 2 to 3 times a week is the far better option. If you’re searching for inspiration, a good starting point is to get your hands on a proven workout program. Dr Josh Axe’s “Burstfit” program provides super-intense workouts that’ll get you sweating and probably swearing a bit as well. But it’s not for the faint of heart. Otherwise, if you’re not looking to make quite as much of an investment, this DVD series comes well reviewed and for a fraction of the price.
Heavy lifting and bodyweight for muscle gain
If you’re looking to simply stay toned and slim, a few high intensity workouts per week is probably sufficient. But if you’re looking to bulk up, develop those biceps, broaden those shoulders or chisel those abs, you’re going to have to introduce something else into your life: heavy lifting.
Lifting heavy weights, otherwise known as resistance training, is an excellent way to shock your muscles, which signals to your brain that you need an increase in muscle mass in that region in order to prevent muscle damage. The heavier the weight, the greater the mass added – in theory, anyway. But this doesn’t mean that you should jump in the deep end and start doing 80-pound dumbbell bench presses when all you’ve been doing before is 10 lb bicep curls. Start by performing a 8-10 rep set of the exercise with a given weight. If you perform that set too easily with the weight, increase the weight until it becomes difficult. If you only manage to do 7 reps with that weight, use the next lightest weight. And so on.
Next, focus on key areas for your resistance training. Don’t be fooled by those buffoons who stand in the gym doing bicep curls for what seems like hours – if they’re looking like the Hulk, it’s probably because of all the nasty protein shakes and freaky supplements they’ve been taking. You don’t want to be that guy or gal – they might look good, but they’re not healthy!
Key areas are those that work out a full range of muscles at one time – these include squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, kettlebell swings, and maybe the odd bench press. Compound exercises with heavy weights are better than specific movements with lighter weights.
Finally, keep it short and simple. As explained above, spending too long on a workout can stress the body and curtail your results. 20 minutes max of resistance training, only 2 to 3 times per week, and ideally only 3-5 exercises per workout. It’s quality that we’re looking for, not quantity.
Getting creative with workouts is key
Two of the biggest reasons why many people fail to stick to their exercise goals are:
They get bored of their workout routine
They use lack of access to “equipment” or the gym as an excuse not to exercise
Regarding the first point, it’s super important to mix things up on a regular basis. Changing up your workout at least every 2 months, if not more regularly, will ensure your brain doesn’t get bored and, more importantly, your body doesn’t get bored of the same repetitive movements. Performing the same series of exercises week after week can cause your body to plateau, meaning your muscles become accustomed to the movements and stop growing and/or burning fat. Besides, you want to look forward to your workouts, right? Not dread them. And if you find you can let your mind wander during a workout, you need to change it up, fast.
Regarding the second reason people fail to reach their exercise goals – this is where it can get super fun! When I travel or find myself in a new place, I take great pleasure in hunting around for things that I can use to formulate a workout. People seem to think that you need to have designated exercise equipment in order to exercise. Wrong!!! So wrong. If anything, that equipment makes it too easy to perform exercises, and the whole point is to challenge your body, not take shortcuts.
Even at home, I prefer to use unconventional tools and items to pizazz up my workouts and challenge my muscles and coordination in different ways. At the moment, I’m using a 10 liter container of filtered water as a dumbbell/kettlebell replacement (10 liters = 10 kg, which is a good weight for many exercises – just make sure it has a handle!), and a yoga mat. That’s it. And between the two of them, I can do a huge range of exercises.
Here’s a few other things that you can use when you’re away from home or the gym to get a good workout:
Strong lateral branches on trees, for chin-ups, wide-grip pull-ups, leg raises (abs), or simply hanging
round, heavy rocks (these are great for things like weighted squats, swings, lunges, and deadlifts – just make sure you have your shoes on!)
open fields or parks, for sprints and bodyweight exercises
sledge hammers/log splitters – these two provide some of the best workouts on the planet. Provided you have something solid to hit (like a tyre for the sledgehammer or a log – duh! – for the axe), they work a wide range of muscles throughout your body. Ten minutes with these bad boys and you’ll be hurting! Be very mindful of your form, though, and of your own safety.
The point is, get creative – the world is your oyster when it comes to exercise! If nothing else, investing in a kettlebell is a very wise thing to do, as there’s such a wide array of exercises you can do with them and they’re easy to transport. For men, I’d recommend starting with a 20 lb kettlebell, and for women, 15 lb or less should be effective initially.
Diet can make or break a weight-loss regime
Ok, so you’ve integrated all of the above considerations into your workout routine and you’re still not getting results. What the heck is going on? If you’re not losing weight or putting on muscle as desired, look to your diet.
With regards to weight loss, probably the number one dietary roadblock is carbohydrates. Whether they come in simple sugar form, or complex form, an overload of carbs can provide excess energy that you’ll struggle to burn off, even with those high intensity workouts. Here’s a few weight-loss pointers regarding carbs:
cut your fruit intake back to one or two servings a day. Sure, they’re nutritious, but they also contain a heap of fructose that elevates your blood sugar and is easily converted into fat in your body. If you must partake in some fruity goodness, stick to low sugar-fruits like raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, lemons and the occasional orange.
abolish all processed foods – these invariably contain a truckload of sugar. That includes “gluten-free” products as well.
stick to complex carbs like sweet potato, squash, and green plantains. Don’t go overboard on these either!
Streamlining your diet for maximum muscle gain
Next, if you’re like me and struggle to put on muscle mass, you need more protein!! I can’t stress this enough. There seems to be some notion amongst many people that it’s easy to get too much protein in a given diet – newsflash: it’s not easy at all! You have to eat a LOT of protein to even come close to exceeding your daily maximum, and the truth is that most people aren’t getting enough.
According to Tim Ferriss in The 4 Hour Body (an excellent read, by the way!), you should aim for 1.25 grams of protein per pound of lean bodyweight, which means you subtract your bodyfat first. I’m 167 pounds and, last time I checked, I had a bodyfat of 14 %, so I aim to eat 143 grams of protein per day. It’s not easy, but it makes a real difference to building muscle mass. Chris Kresser largely agrees with Ferriss, and in some respects advocated even more protein. For more information on the subject, check out this article.
Ultimately, everyone can benefit from more protein in their lives. And I find one of the best ways to increase protein intake is to add in a high-quality protein powder. We’ve talked before about how awesome this grass-fed, organic whey protein powder is, but if you can’t stomach dairy then Chris Kresser recommends this hydrolyzed beef protein – arguably the best source of protein on the planet.
Top tips for success
Scrolled through all of the above but still confused? Here’s my recommendations in a nutshell.
Weight loss:
replace low-intensity cardio workouts with high intensity (HIIT) workouts, 2-3 times/week
mix up your exercise routine at least every 2 months, and get creative!
tone down on the carbs, especially simple sugars.
continue to eat a paleo-style diet
Muscle-gain:
lift heavy stuff! Ensure you factor in 2 to 3 resistance training workouts each week. Limit workouts to 3-5 exercises (e.g. squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press) and less than 20 minutes in duration.
ensure at least 2 rest days between workouts to allow muscle recovery.
get lots of protein. Lots. Consider introducing a high quality protein into your diet.
stick to a paleo-style diet, but considering introducing grass-fed, organic milk for extra protein and fat.
Good luck on your quest to a better body, and let us know how you get on!
As health-savvy humans, we have the ability to take our digestive wellness into our own hands. We can consciously think about what we eat, knowing the choices we make will affect not only our digestion, but our overall health. Unfortunately, your dog is not so lucky. As utterly loyal and trusting companions, they’ll eat almost any food you give them, whether it’s good for them or not.
I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve met who are in tip-top shape themselves, but who own dogs that appear to have serious health issues. While those people might have made a commitment to stay away from the doctor by eating well and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, they don’t think twice about taking their pet into the vet whenever their beloved pooch falls ill.
The fact is, you are responsible for ensuring that your dog receives the best possible food you can get your hands on. Combined with a suitable exercise routine and plenty of TLC, cleaning up their diet will ensure they can achieve optimum health, and you’ll ultimately save big on vet bills and worries. Not a bad tradeoff, when you think about it!
Your dog’s ancestors hold the key
Today’s everyday pooch has had about as much time as we humans to adapt to the typical “modern” diet. For most people (and most dogs), that means lots of grains, lots processed foods, and all manner of additives, coloring agents, and synthetic who-knows what. And like us, all of these ingredients are doing them far more harm than good.
Most canine experts now believe that humans began to domesticate dogs around 30,000 years ago. Around the same time that the agricultural revolution was taking place, as it happens. From this point on, the diet of your dog’s ancestors began to slowly but surely change, as those dogs began to eat whatever was available in and around human settlements. Dogs are opportunistic foragers, after all – they’ll eat almost anything, especially if they’re hungry.
The problem is, the digestive systems of domesticated dogs haven’t been able to evolve at the same rate that their diets have changed. Evolution just doesn’t work that quickly, unfortunately! If it did, gluten wouldn’t be an issue for our gut (which would make an estimated 18 million gluten-sensitive Americans very happy), and we could chow down on sugary treats without any ill-effects. The point is, the digestive system of your dog is still designed to process the foods it’s ancestors ate in the wild, rather than the humanized diet he or she receives today.
How to simulate a wild diet for your dog
Obviously, short of removing your dog’s collar, giving it a slap on the rump and watching it grudgingly trot into the mountains, it’d be rather difficult to exactly simulate the diet that your dog’s ancestors ate. There’s plenty of other factors to consider as well, such as different lineages, cross-breeding, and slight digestive adaptations that are bound to have occurred over 30 millennia or so. With that in mind, you need to work with the tools you’ve got, and as usual paleo is definitely best.
Before we dive in, I’d still advise discussing any planned major dietary changes with your vet. They’ll at least be able to tell you whether any of the foods you plan to give your dog are recognized as unsafe for their digestive systems. Best to play it safe, people!
After doing a whole heap of research and examining the eating habits and responses of my own family’s border collie, I was able to get a good idea of what a modern version of that ancestral wild dog diet might look like. Here’s some of the foods that make up the staples of our pup’s paleo diet:
raw meat (beef, lamb, venison, chicken…basically whatever. Grass fed/pastured and organic is best. This should comprise the bulk of your dog’s diet)
bone broth (usually around 1/4 to 1/2 cup per day, to maintain healthy bones, joints and skin)
raw, uncooked bones (beef, lamb and venison bones are best, as they provide a lot more chewing capacity and don’t run the risk of breaking off into sharp pieces like chicken bones tend to do)
organ meats (liver, kidney, heart, brain, etc. Similar to us humans, eating organ meats once or twice a week can make a big difference to your dog’s health)
eggs (only occasionally, however. Dogs are foragers, and there’s no doubt that they would have wolfed down the occasional egg when it fell out of a tree. Again, make sure the egg is at least free range, if not organic)
certain vegetables and fruit (this one is a little controversial, and experts continue to argue about whether dogs should eat vegetables or not. We occasionally give our pooch the ends of carrots, the odd blueberry, and the odd apple core (seeds removed!). She loves vegetables and fruit, and has never had any digestive issues from eating them)
probiotics (this is purely optional, but it may make a big difference to your pooch’s digestive health – especially if they’ve ever been put on antibiotics)
Keep in mind that the digestive system of your dog is designed to thrive on meat, organs and bones – basically everything they could tear off an animal they hunted down or carrion they came across in the wild. They would, however, have supplemented this primarily meat-based diet with other things, which is where your vegetables, fruit and eggs come in. Once again, put anything wacky past your vet before you give it to your furry friend!
Another thing to remember is that your dog’s stomach might get a little bit upset if you suddenly switch it from a lifetime of processed kibble to just raw food. Start slowly, introducing raw meat into his or her diet a few times a week, then daily, then make the full transition when you think they’re ready. Don’t rush, unless you want to have your carpet ruined!
For more information on this, I’ve examined the issue in further detail on our sister blog, Healthy Paleo Pets. Check out the post here!
When in doubt, observe
While we may not be able to ever really know EXACTLY what it was that your dog’s ancestors ate in the wild, we have a fairly good idea. And for any grey areas, there is always the power of observation! I make a point of closely monitoring my dog when she’s sniffing around outside, how she acts in the kitchen when I’m preparing food for myself, and how she reacts to the food I give her. If she runs outside with violent diarrhea after eating something, it’s obviously not good for her to eat. And if she actively seeks a certain type of food out, and makes considerable effort to eat it, that food should probably make an appearance on her weekly food rotation.
A couple of examples:
we took our dog around to a friend’s place a couple of weeks ago, and she was off like a rocket in the back yard. I followed her over and she’d found a large walnut tree. She then proceeded to sniff out walnuts that had fallen on the ground, artfully crack the shells and eat the walnut flesh inside. Clearly, this was a desirable food for her, and she didn’t seem to react badly to eating them.
my parents have something of a rabbit infestation on their property. Our dog occasionally manages to catch a rabbit (or find a dead one) and wastes no time in chewing it to smithereens. The only parts she seems to leave are the legs and the ears….she even eats the guts! This to give you an idea of just how much of an animal your dog’s digestive system is designed to eat. Each different part (organ, muscle, bone, skin, etc) would provide different vitamins and nutrients essential to the dog’s health.
Keep a notepad handy, and start watching your dog’s every move when it comes to food. He or she won’t get creeped out, I promise.
Foods your dog should stay away from
Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list…once again, if you’re unsure of anything, run it past your vet!
Here’s a list of some of the more common foods that your dog shouldn’t eat. The thing to remember is that their digestive system is very different to ours, so what is safe for us to eat may not be safe for them.
chocolate (everyone knows that one!)
caffeine
onions
garlic
avocado (I’m on the fence about this one. Some experts say dogs should stay away from avocados altogether, and others say the flesh might be fine for them to eat. For more on the matter, check out this article.)
macadamia nuts
milk and dairy products
xylitol
grapes and anything containing grapes (including raisins!)
salt (apparently they get all the sodium they need from raw meat etc)
yeast
Do your research, and know the limitations of your dog’s stomach. It just might save you a costly emergency visit to the vet.
Making your own dog food at home
There’s two ways you can go about ensuring your dog gets the best nutrition: thoroughly researching each manufacturer to determine whether their products cuts the mustard, or making it yourself. For buying dog food, we’ve compiled a selection of paleo-friendly dog foods and treats here. For making your own, it’s up to you what you put in their food – just make sure it is primarily meat-based.
You can also throw a whole lot of ingredients in a blender, then pour the mixture into molds and freeze for later use. Doing it this way, you can prepare as much as a whole month of meals for your dog, and just take them out of the freezer the night before. Here’s a few of the things you could consider throwing in the mix, ordered from most to least:
raw meat – try to get a mix of at least one red meat (i.e. beef) and one white (i.e. chicken). Don’t be afraid to buy the cheapest, weirdest cuts of meat at the supermarket or butcher – they’re often healthier than the typical steak, breast and ground meat you get for yourself anyway!
organ meats – again, raw. A little goes a long way here, and try to put a range of different organs in, as each contains different levels of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
bone broth
raw eggs
Each time you feed your dog, observe how they react – and if necessary, change up the ingredients to better suit their digestion. Good luck!
Do you have a super-healthy dog food recipe that you’d like to share? Are there any foods your dog has eaten that didn’t go down so smooth? Comment away, we’d love to hear from you!
