The What, Why and How to Paleo Guide



Contents What is Paleo? ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Fundamentals .......................................................................................................................................... 4 The Truth about Fat, Carbs and Protein ................................................................................................... 5 Why Paleo Works ..................................................................................................................................... 6 What You Can Drink ................................................................................................................................. 7 Transitioning to Paleo .............................................................................................................................. 8 Digestion .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Fat Burning ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Cravings ................................................................................................................................................ 8 The Paleo Kitchen .................................................................................................................................. 10 Cooking Paleo .................................................................................................................................... 11





What is Paleo? The paleo a diet is the diet our ancestors ate during the Paleolithic era, and is supported by research in evolutionary medicine to be healthier for humans. Research shows that humans are genetically adapted to be eating specific types of food, particularly the diet of early humans. Early humans ate a whole food diet that included proteins, fats and moderate amounts of carbohydrates. The physiology and metabolism of modern day humans has changed very little since the Paleolithic era, however our diets are drastically different than that of our ancestors. Industrial agriculture, commercial industrial food production has made unhealthy foods available in very large quantities. Modern diets that include refined and processed wheat, dairy and sugar not only increase our waist size, but they are also detrimental to our health. Modern diets high in processed and refined foods lead to weight gain, digestive problems, cardiovascular problems, heart disease and cancer to name a few of the side effects and diseases associated with improper nutrition. While from our perspective, the Paleolithic era was a very long time ago, from an evolutionary and biological standpoint it is a very short amount of time. Modern humans have simply not had the time biologically or physiologically to adapt to modern diets. From a functional point of view, we feel the effects of improper nutrition on a daily basis when we experience; low blood sugar, dehydration, lethargy, inability to concentrate and sleeplessness. Improper nutrition even affects our moods; when we experience irritability due to being hungry, also known as being hangry, or when we eat too many carbohydrates and fats and lapse into a dazed food coma. When we eat food that doesn’t nourish and fuel our bodies, we create stress and put our health risk However by eating foods that work with our genetics we can regulate body weight, stop experiencing blood sugar highs and lows, regain energy and mental clarity, enjoy stable moods and reduced our risk of chronic disease and degenerative conditions. The paleo diet isn’t a trend or fad diet, it’s a lifestyle that lets you take control of your health and weight. *Paleo is the ancestral diet of early humans *Paleo is a healthy whole foods diet *Paleo helps regulate body weight *Paleo energizes you and reduces your risk of disease



Fundamentals Paleo is the way our ancestors ate before modern agriculture made wheat, dairy, legumes and sugar readily available in large quantities year round. Early humans were hunter gatherers, whose diet consisted mostly of whole foods such as meats, fish, nuts, seeds, vegetables, greens, and fruits. It is important to understand how early humans ate, and how to create a paleo diet that works for your food preferences and lifestyle. When you eat paleo, you will eat many of the same foods you are used to eating now with the exception of: Beans Corn Dairy Peanuts Rice Sugar Wheat White Potatoes When you eat Paleo, you will eat: Lean Meats Fish & Shellfish Nuts & Seeds Greens Fruits Vegetables Paleo diets include all the essential nutrients that your body needs in order to function optimally and be healthy. On the paleo diet you will eat plenty of protein, fat and carbohydrates also known as macronutrients, the big building blocks of nutrition. As you will eat a wide variety of whole foods in order to supply your body with macro-nutrients, you will also get adequate micronutrients. Micro-nutrients are essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs in order to be healthy. *Paleo excludes modern grains and refined and processed foods *Paleo provides all the essential nutrients that your body needs *Paleo is a healthy whole foods way to eat *Paleo includes a wide variety of whole foods

The Truth about Fat, Carbs and Protein Modern diets have given fat a bad reputation, but your body needs healthy fats in order to function properly. Fats provide energy to your body and fats produce hormones, maintains healthy skin, and protects the organs. Without fat the body can’t absorb the vitamins A, D, E and K. Additionally a whole foods diet supplies the body with essential Omega 3 fats from fish, vegetables, nuts, flax seeds, chia seeds and leafy vegetables. Paleo has a bad reputation for being low or carbs, which isn’t true, when you eat paleo you eat a moderate amount of carbs. Pale is not so much about avoiding carbs entirely as it about getting them from whole foods. Carbs from refined sugar and processed grains wreaks havoc on your blood sugar levels and leads to weight gain. Whole food carbs are essential to your health as they provide energy and fiber. While modern diets include protein, they don’t include enough of it. Your body needs protein to maintain healthy muscles and bones and supports brain and nervous system functioning, and protein sustains energy and aids in stabilizing blood sugar. When you eat paleo you eat a regular and consistent amount of protein throughout the day, everyday. *Healthy fats are an essential part of maintaining health *Fats help your body absorb essential vitamins *Carbohydrates provide your body with energy and fiber *Protein is essential to having healthy muscle and bone *Paleo provides a regular and consistent supply of protein to your body



Why Paleo Works Paleo works because you eat whole foods that provide your body with consistent energy. The foods you eat do not spike your blood sugar, so you don’t get shaky from low blood sugar between meals. When you eat Paleo, you eat when you are hungry, you don’t count calories. You eat wholesome whole foods that maximize your health and vitality. When you eat Paleo, you increase protein and fat, while reducing simple carbohydrates, this changes the way your body metabolizes and stores energy. When you eat carbohydrates, your body uses them for energy, but when you eat more than your body needs, your body stores carbohydrates as fat. However, when you eat a moderate amount of carbs and increase healthy fat, your body begins to burn stored fat, this is how your body naturally regulates its weight when you eat Paleo. And the protein that you eat at each meal, is used for energy and to keep your bones strong and your muscles healthy while also providing energy. For the most part Paleo foods are very simple, each meal or snack has protein, fat and carbohydrates. Often the portions are smaller, as you are eating nutritionally dense foods, which means that the foods you eat provide your body with more protein, healthy fat and carbs than refined and processed foods like pasta, bread, rice and potatoes. Keeping your diet varied and interesting is not an issue on the Paleo Diet. You can actually get more variety once you stop relying on wheat and grains as a staple for your meals. A typical Paleo day consists of eating 3 meals and a snack as well as drinking plenty of water. *On paleo you eat when you are hungry and you don’t count calories *The balance of healthy fat, protein and moderate carbs allows your body to naturally regulate body weight while burning excess stored fat. *On paleo you eat 3 meals a day and 1 or 2 snacks *Paleo foods are simple and have smaller nutritionally dense portions

What You Can Drink It’s hard to imagine what types of drinks humans were concocting during the Paleolithic Period, so modern folks who go Paleo just keep it simple. When you apply the Paleo rule of no dairy and no refined or processed foods to beverages you automatically eliminate sodas, artificially sweetened beverages, milk shakes and loads of other unhealthy drinks. You might be wondering what’s left, and while there’s a whole variety of tasty Paleo beverages, we’ll start with the most important one, water. Water is essential to maintaining a healthy body. Every day you should half of your body weight in ounces of water. So if for example you weigh 150 pounds you should drink 75 ounces of water per day, if you exercise or are outside a lot, drink more. Water helps your body digest foods, helps you feel full and helps your body eliminate toxins. You can flavor water with fruits, herbs or edible flowers You can also drink fruit & vegetable juices, and smoothies. Drinking coffee, tea or alcohol is a personal decision up to you. *Paleo offers a variety of drinks to choose from *You should drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day *You can drink fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies



Transitioning to Paleo Transitioning to Paleo can be difficult, as you are probably going to miss the easy convenience foods that you have been eating for years. Eating is habit and if you are in the habit of buying and eating refined and processed foods it takes a little bit of time to get to used to not eating those, both for your body and in the way you shop and prepare foods. If you are used to grabbing a bagel with peanut butter on your way out the door in the morning you are going to have to learn how to stock your kitchen so you can grab a paleo breakfast of egg muffins, paleo granola or a smoothie instead. That being said, your body is going to transition faster than your mind and you will have more energy and begin to lose weight, so you will be motivated to stick with it. When you transition to paleo there are going to be some changes in how your body digests food, burns fat and feels overall. Some of the things you experience are not pleasant or even easy to talk about, however they are perfectly natural. Let’s look at each change you will experience, so you know what to expect.

Digestion Initially your digestive system might be irritated, especially if you haven’t been eating a lot of fiber from whole foods. Fiber not only makes you feel full for longer periods of time; it also helps your body eliminate waste in the form of a bowel movement. When you add natural whole food fiber to your diet you may experience gas, bloating, constipation or even diarrhea. While these things can be uncomfortable, they are your body’s way of detoxing and learning how to digest the foods you are meant to eat, and the discomfort won’t last indefinitely. What typically happens is you start eating whole food fiber and you feel great, and about 4-5 days in your body realizes you mean business and then your digestion starts to change. The best way to get through this is to drink plenty of water and do some moderate exercise. As your body adjusts the distress will go away, and you should become more regular and have a daily bowel movement.

Fat Burning Stored fat contains toxins, and when your body burns fat the toxins are released. Just like with your digestion you’ll start to experience the effects of fat burning after 4-5 days. You may feel a little tired, have a headache or even feel like you have bad breath or stinky sweat, again, while these things can be unpleasant they are your body’s way of eliminating toxins. Initially as our body adjusts to new foods to digest and starts to burn stored fat you can feel a bit overwhelmed with digestive upset and fat burning toxins. You’ll want to help your body detox itself from fat burning toxins by drinking lots of water, drinking green tea, exercising, sweating and by getting some extra rest. The more proactive you are when your body starts detoxing, the faster and easier the detox will be. As your digestion settles, and you become regular your body will be able to spend more energy eliminating toxins and you won’t feel the effects of fat burning as much.

Cravings Right in the middle of experiencing fat burning toxins and your digestive transition you might start having cravings for sugary carbs and you are going to want to give in to them because you think this new way of eating is not working, when actually the opposite is true. More than anything else, this is an indication that your metabolism is switching to fat burning, and you absolutely have to resist the urge to give in to your cravings. Maybe you’ll tell yourself I’ll just eat this donut, this cake, this soda or this pasta and then I’ll go right back, and you will be convinced that you will not give in again…but giving in will only make the cravings worse. When you start having cravings you will probably already be drinking lots

of water or green tea and exercising so when you crave sugary carbs eat the complete opposite; eat savory, eat salty, eat fat and eat protein. Try eating pickles, roasted salted nuts, guacamole or some lean protein like chicken or jerky. If you resist the carb cravings they will go away in just a few days, if you give in to them then you will struggle with them for longer. Keeping plenty of healthy snacks on hand will help you avoid sugary carbs, so stock up and keep snacks at work, in your car and in your pantry. *Transitioning to paleo means changing how you shop and prepare foods *Your body will experience changes when you eat Paleo *Knowing what to expect and how to deal with the changes will make it easier *Instead of giving in to sugary carb cravings eat savory foods, fats and proteins.



The Paleo Kitchen - How to Shop & Cook Shopping for paleo, is actually much easier and faster than ‘regular’ shopping. When you shop Paleo you will spend most of your time in the supermarket in the produce section and the meat department, and you will only down a few aisles for nuts, seeds, spices, seasonings and oils. You will notice after a few paleo shopping trips that most of the foods in the center of the supermarket are made of refined and processed foods that will begin to be less and less appealing the longer you eat paleo. When you first go paleo, be realistic about the amount of time you have to cook and your ability and make the best decisions for your lifestyle. For instance, if chopping up vegetables after a long day at work sounds horrible to you, buy prepped vegetables. If you run out of fresh vegetables, keep some frozen ones stashed in the freezer. Little things like this can make a big difference in how motivated you are to stick with paleo. When you start paleo you’ll want to clean out your cupboards and get your kitchen organized. In your pantry you’ll want a healthy snack shelf and it should be full of easy tasty foods that you can munch on between meals. Keep your snack shelf stocked with foods like: Olives Pickled Vegetables Canned Fruit in Fruit Juice Canned Oysters, Tuna, Sardines, Chicken & Salmon Nuts & Seeds Nut Butters Dried Fruit Dark Chocolate Meat Jerky Your cooking pantry should have a good selection of oils, nut flours, stocks, nut milks, spices and seasonings that you can add to your recipes so your meals have plenty of flavor and variety. Items in your pantry should include: Olive Oil Coconut Oil Nut & Seed Oils Coconut Flour Almond Flour Almond Milk

Coconut Milk Spices & Seasonings: Sea Salt, Pepper, Cajun Spice, Curry Powder, Cumin, Chili Powder, Basil, Oregano, etc.. Sweeteners: Honey, Maple Syrup As you learn how to cook paleo you will learn which flavors and styles of foods that you like and you will be able to keep your pantry stocked with the foods that you and your family like.

Cooking Paleo Cooking paleo does take some time and some skill, and while there are a few tools and tips in the kitchen that will make it easier, you don’t need an iron chef kitchen. As you are going to be preparing and cooking whole foods the most important thigs are: Having Cleared Counters A Couple of Cutting Boards A Selection of Peelers and Knives Roasting Pans, Skillets and Pots Strainers A Blender and a Food Processor CrockPot A Thermometer Having cleared counters gives you the space you need to chop and prepare vegetables and meats safely. When you chop anything on a cutting board, place the board on a damp towel, this will prevent the board from slipping. Using a good quality sharp knife or peeler will help you peel and chop vegetables safely. Having the right sized pot or pan for the food you are cooking will ensure that you food cooks properly. Blenders and food processors are helpful when making soups, dressing or smoothies. A crockpot can be a weekday lifesaver as you can cook foods while you are at work and come home to a meal that is ready to eat. And lastly a thermometer takes all the guess work out of cooking meat as you can use the thermometer to tell you when the meat is done, without over or undercooking it. When you cook paleo you will learn what works for you, in your kitchen. Take your time, be organized and have fun because you are cooking your way to a healthier, leaner, more energetic you. *Paleo shopping is easier and faster than regular shopping *Keep plenty of healthy paleo snacks on hand *You don’t need a fancy kitchen to cook paleo