The Paleo Diet Cookbook: More than 150 recipes for Paleo Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Beverages (8 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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Although we don’t completely understand this inconsistency, it may be due to lauric acid’s positive antibacterial effect in the gut. Lauric acid from coconut foods may protect your heart and blood vessels from cardiovascular disease by reducing those gut bacteria that increase intestinal permeability, a known risk factor for heart disease because of chronic, low-level systemic inflammation. Based on the evidence of traditional Pacific Islanders, coconut oil, meat, and milk do not increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, particularly as part of a modern Paleo Diet. So let your palate “go back to the islands” and enjoy the delicious health benefits of this time-honored plant food.
One final recommendation for your pantry: get rid of all beans, lentils, dried peas, peanuts, and legumes. These foods were not found in early human diets simply because they are inedible unless cooked. Humans have been on the planet for about two and a half million years, but the controlled use of fire is quite recent: only about three hundred thousand years old. So our species has had little evolutionary time to adapt to a family of foods that are concentrated sources of certain antinutrients (lectins, phytates, protease inhibitors, and saponins) that increase intestinal permeability, promote chronic systemic inflammation, and adversely affect our health.
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Now that you have tossed the unhealthy foods from your pantry, let’s take time to explore your fridge and see the lurking food dangers herein. Like most people living in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and other Westernized societies, your fridge probably contains a few bottles or cartons of pasteurized homogenized milk from your local store or dairy, some yogurt, a few sticks of butter, and a variety of cheeses, to say nothing of frozen dairy foods (such as ice cream, ice milk, and frozen yogurt). Although these foods constitute about 10 percent of the calories in the typical U.S. diet, they were entirely absent from our Stone Age ancestors’ menu. X-ray studies of dairy-free hunter-gatherer skeletons show these people had healthy, robust bones free of osteoporosis. If you get sufficient fresh fruits and veggies (around 35 percent of your calories) in your contemporary Paleo Diet and just a little sunlight, calcium and dairy products become a nonissue.
Your refrigerator also probably contains a variety of non-Paleo processed foods, which could never have composed even a small percentage of humanity’s original diet. For instance,frozen concentrated juices such as lemonade, apple juice, grape juice, and orange juice have to be cleaned out, as these are all high-glycemic-load foods that spike your blood sugar level. As with your pantry, a good rule of thumb is: if it contains wheat, salt, or sugar, dump it. If you have frozen fruit or veggies, keep them. However, after they are finished, try to always get the fresh versions—they are healthier and they taste better.
Most non-Paleo refrigerators are loaded with artificial processed meats such as bacon, sausage, salami, bologna, lunch meats, and others. Although you may have paid dearly for these meats, remember that they are laced with salt, nitrites, nitrates, sugar, by-products, and other unhealthy additives. So do yourself a favor and pitch these artificial creations. Finally, check your frozen meat section. If you have fatty feedlot-produced meats, keep them. But next time, try to buy grass-fed meats or the leaner cuts of commercial meats.
As you scour your kitchen, you’ll be amazed at the amount of unhealthy foods you’ve accumulated. Most of the items to be purged will be obvious, while others are not so clear-cut. Use the following comprehensive guide if you have any doubts. Finally, don’t forget to check the labels on any vitamins or supplements you may be taking for any non-Paleo ingredients.
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• Whey protein powders
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, wild 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)• Bulghur (cracked wheat)• Couscous• All grain-based flours, including gluten-free flours
CEREAL-GRAINLIKE SEEDS• Amaranth• Buckwheat• Chia seeds• Quinoa
LEGUMES• All beans: adzuki beans, black beans, broad beans, fava beans, field beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), green beans, horse beans, kidney beans, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red beans, string beans, white beans• Lentils• Peanuts, peanut butter, peanut oil (peanuts are a legume and not a nut) . Be particularly diligent when reading labels; even packaged mixed nuts labeled as peanut-free sometimes still contain peanut oil.• All peas: black-eyed peas, green peas, snow peas, split peas• Soybeans and all soy products: tofu, fresh or frozen edamame, miso, tempeh, soy sauce, tamari, ponzu, soy milk, soybean oil, and soy protein powders
STARCHY TUBERS• Potatoes and all potato products
SALT-CONTAINING FOODS• Almost all commercial salad dressings and condiments• Bacon• Cheese• Deli meat• Lunch meat• Frankfurters• Ham• Salami• Hot dogs• Ketchup• Olives• Pickles and pickled foods• Pork rinds• Salted nuts• Salted spices• Virtually all canned meats and fish• Sausage• Any other processed meat• Smoked, dried, and salted fish and meat
FATTY MEATS• All fatty cuts of fresh meat• Fatty pork chops• Fatty pork roast• Pork ribs• Bacon• Pork sausage• Fatty leg of lamb• Fatty lamb roast• Fatty lamb chops• Chicken and turkey drumsticks, thighs, and wings• Beef ribs• Fatty beef roast• T- bone steak• Fatty cuts of beef• Fatty ground beef
SOFT DRINKS AND FRUIT JUICES• All sugary soft drinks• Freshly squeezed fruit or vegetable drinks (okay only for athletes)• Canned or bottled fruit drinks• All frozen fruit juices• Popsicles
SWEETS• Candy• Chocolate• Honey• Molasses• Corn syrup• All refined sugars, including maple syrup, date sugar, and any product that contains fructose, sucrose, or glucose
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS• All vinegars and foods containing vinegar• Foods containing artificial colors or flavors• Foods containing preservatives• All spice blends containing salt• Vitamin supplements containing rice starch, soy, wheat, and other grain-based ingredients
When most of us think about stocking the pantry, we imagine loading it up with staples that won’t spoil. This bias comes from an earlier era, before refrigeration, when it was necessary to keep large supplies of flour, sugar, dried rice, beans, and canned goods on hand. Fresh fruits and vegetables were seasonal luxuries, not staples. Refrigeration and international air travel have now made it possible to eat our ancestral diet no matter where we live.
Once you have purged your shelves of your former staples, you will be amazed at the amount of shelf space that is freed up. You have now successfully completed the first step in your kitchen’s Paleo makeover and are ready to begin the fun process of stocking up on the true necessities for Paleo cooking.
You will soon discover that certain items are essential to have in your newly revised pantry at all times. The convenience and longer shelf life of these items will allow you to quickly and easily prepare Paleo meals without having to run to the store every day. As you can see, except for spices and starchy root vegetables, little or no pantry space is required in Paleo kitchens, because “real food” is fresh food, which typically must be refrigerated. Note that the items in the following list are not necessarily comprehensive, but they are key ingredients in day-to-day Paleo cooking.
OILS• Extra virgin olive oil• Walnut oil• Avocado oil• Macadamia oil• Coconut oil
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