The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages (6 page)
Authors: Loren Cordain
BOOK: The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages
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Both olive oil and avocado oil are high (73.9 and 70.6 percent, respectively) in blood cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fatty acids, but have less than positive omega 6 to omega 3 ratios of 11.7 and 13.5. Therefore, excessive consumption of both of these oils, without enough long-chain omega 3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), will derail an otherwise healthy diet.
I recommend that you get 1.0 to 2.0 grams of EPA and DHA per day from either fish or fish oil capsules. Because avocado oil and macadamia oil are difficult to find and are expensive, this leaves olive oil as the staple for cooking, salad dressings, and marinades. If you can afford it, you should always choose extra virgin olive oil, as this grade of olive oil is produced by physical means, without chemical treatment and contains the highest concentration of polyphenolic compounds, which protect you from cancer, heart disease, and inflammation.
When you sauté, fry, or cook, I can recommend only olive oil. Most other vegetable oils decompose rapidly at high cooking temperatures and produce toxic, cancer-causing by-products. Sautéing means to cook quickly over moderately high heat in a small amount of fat. Stir-frying, in contrast, means to cook small uniform pieces of food by tossing them over high heat in a small amount of oil (never in butter). Two important points about sautéing foods: the olive oil in the pan must be very hot before you add the food to it, and the pan must not be crowded, or else the food will simmer rather than sauté.
We obviously no longer live in a Stone Age world; consequently, it is impossible to eat only the Stone Age foods that were available to our ancestors. However, a number of modern foods that you may enjoy have little or no detrimental effect on your health, particularly if they are consumed in moderation. Some people are surprised to discover that alcohol is in this category. There is no evidence that our Stone Age ancestors drank any form of alcoholic beverage. But it’s abundantly clear in our own day that the abuse of alcohol—in addition to causing a host of severe behavioral and social problems—can impair your health, damage the liver, and increase your risk of developing many cancers.
If you currently drink in moderation or enjoy an occasional beer or glass of wine, there’s no need to forgo this pleasure on the Paleo Diet
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In fact, many scientific studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption significantly reduces the risk of death from heart disease and other illnesses. Wine, in particular, when consumed in moderation, has been shown to have many favorable health effects. A glass of wine before or during dinner may help to improve your insulin sensitivity and reduce your hunger. Wine is also an appetizing ingredient that adds taste to many meat and vegetable dishes. Those with an autoimmune disease should avoid alcoholic beverages entirely, however, because alcohol increases intestinal permeability, an initial change that is known to precede the development of autoimmune diseases.
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In fact, many scientific studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption significantly reduces the risk of death from heart disease and other illnesses. Wine, in particular, when consumed in moderation, has been shown to have many favorable health effects. A glass of wine before or during dinner may help to improve your insulin sensitivity and reduce your hunger. Wine is also an appetizing ingredient that adds taste to many meat and vegetable dishes. Those with an autoimmune disease should avoid alcoholic beverages entirely, however, because alcohol increases intestinal permeability, an initial change that is known to precede the development of autoimmune diseases.
Here is a list of non-Paleo foods of which you may partake, but make sure you don’t overdo them.
OILS• Olive, avocado, walnut, or flaxseed oil (use in moderation—4 tablespoons or less a day when weight loss is of primary importance)
BEVERAGES• Diet sodas (These often contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine, which may be harmful; you’re better off drinking bottled and mineral waters.)• Coffee• Tea• Wine (two 4-ounce glasses). Don’t buy “cooking wine,” which is loaded with salt.• Beer (one 12-ounce serving)• Hard liquor (4 ounces)
“STONE AGE” SWEETS• Dried fruits (no more than 2 ounces a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight)• Nuts mixed with dried and fresh fruit (no more than 4 ounces of nuts and 2 ounces of dried fruit a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight)
We’ve spent a considerable amount of time dealing with why the foods in the following list should not be part of your new Paleo menu. Keep in mind the 85-15 rule as you gradually purge these non-Paleo foods from your diet.
DAIRY FOODS• All processed foods made with any dairy products• Butter• Cheese• Cream• Dairy spreads• Frozen yogurt• Ice cream• Ice milk• Whole milk• Skim milk, low-fat milk• Nonfat dairy creamer• Powdered milk• Yogurt
CEREAL GRAINS• Barley (barley soup, barley bread, and all processed foods made with barley)• Corn (corn on the cob, corn tortillas, corn chips, cornstarch, corn syrup)• Millet• Oats (steel-cut oats, rolled oats, and all processed foods made with oats)• Rice (brown rice, white rice, ramen, rice noodles, basmati rice, rice cakes, rice flour, and all processed foods made with rice)• Rye (rye bread, rye crackers, and all processed foods made with rye)• Sorghum• Wheat (bread, rolls, muffins, noodles, crackers, cookies, cake, doughnuts, pancakes, waffles, pasta, spaghetti, lasagna, wheat tortillas, pizza, pita bread, flat bread, and all processed foods made with wheat or wheat flour)• Wild rice
CEREAL-GRAINLIKE SEEDS• Amaranth• Buckwheat• Quinoa
LEGUMES• All beans (adzuki beans, black beans, broad beans, fava beans, field beans, garbanzo beans, horse beans, kidney beans, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red beans, string beans, white beans)• Black-eyed peas• Chickpeas• Lentils• Peas• Miso• Peanut butter• Peanuts (peanuts are a legume and not a nut)• Snow peas• Soybeans and all soybean products, including tofu
STARCHY TUBERS• Potatoes and all potato products
SALT-CONTAINING FOODS• Almost all commercial salad dressings and condiments• Bacon• Cheeses• Deli meats• Frankfurters• Ham• Salami• Hot dogs• Ketchup• Olives• Pickled foods• Pork rinds• Salted nuts• Salted spices• Virtually all canned meats and fish• Sausages• Processed meats• Smoked, dried, and salted fish and meat
FATTY MEATS• All fatty cuts of fresh meats• Fatty pork chops• Fatty pork roasts• Pork ribs• Bacon• Pork sausage• Beef ribs• Fatty leg of lamb• Fatty lamb roasts• Lamb chops• Chicken and turkey legs• Chicken and turkey thighs and wings• Fatty beef roasts• T-bone steaks• Fatty cuts of beef• Fatty ground beef
SOFT DRINKS AND FRUIT JUICES• All sugary soft drinks• Canned, bottled, and freshly squeezed juices and fruit drinks
SWEETS• Candy• Sugars• Honey
Why are we talking about autoimmune diseases in a cookbook? It’s very simple. You, and every other cook in the world, have a huge influence upon the health and well-being of everyone you prepare meals for, including your family and yourself. The kitchen and the cook can be the centerpiece of joyful lives filled with vigor, longevity, and freedom from disease. By choosing healthy, delicious, “real” foods, you have the power to impact the destiny of your family’s health and your own, including freedom from cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases.
You may not know it, but after cardiovascular disease and cancer, autoimmune diseases are the most common class of illnesses in the United States, afflicting between 14.7 to 23.5 million people, or 5 to 8 percent of the population. Commonly recognized autoimmune diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, develop when the body’s immune system loses the ability to distinguish between what is “self” and what is “nonself,” attacking healthy tissues and organs as if they were foreign invaders.
In the case of ulcerative colitis, strong immune responses are directed against specific proteins in the colon. With multiple sclerosis, the sheaths that cover the nerves are destroyed. In rheumatoid arthritis, the joints are attacked by the immune system. More than a hundred specific diseases are known to be autoimmune in nature, and you will probably recognize a few of the more common ones listed in the table below.
One of the surprising facts about autoimmune diseases is that environmental elements represent 70 percent of the risk for developing these illnesses. Genetics play a lesser role, with 30 percent of the risk being attributed to inherited factors. Up until the last five to ten years, autoimmune diseases were the black boxes of the medical world. We really had no idea how or why environmental factors triggered these diseases in genetically susceptible people.
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