We don’t have a name yet, or even a complete idea of what this product would be, but that’s where you come in. If you’d be interested in hearing more and being part of our beta users to help shape what we offer and how, now’s your chance. Right below this paragraph is where you can put your email address so we can reach out with some questions, some information, and a sample of what we’re thinking. And really, we want to know what you think, and if you’re interested. So, go ahead, put your email address in there. We’ll wait.

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If you don’t feel comfortable giving us your email address (we promise we won’t sell it or do anything else rude with it), please just comment below about your ideas for a fitness product from Paleo Plan. Would you want an ebook? A subscription plan? Something else? Tell us what you think.

OK. That was awesome. Expect to hear from us soon, and thanks a lot. We’re really excited about what this could mean.

I wrote a review and recap of the conference in my blog post, “The PaleoFX Conference: A Success“. So check that out to find out more about my thoughts on what was said, and who was saying it.

To sum it up, though, the conference was hosted by Kevin Cottrell and Keith and Michelle Norris in Austin, Texas at the University of Texas – Austin. There were three stages that were graced by the likes of Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, C.J. Hunt, Jack Kruse, Chris Kresser, and of course, me

I was part of a panel that discussed how to make the Paleo/Primal movement go mainstream, during which I had a little argument with Robb Wolf, despite my enormous respect for him. Love that guy.

Some of the main speaker topics included Robb Wolf’s how to run a gym awesomely, Chris Kresser’s truth about cholesterol, and Jack Kruse’s why you should sit in an ice bath on a regular basis. There were mastermind panels that included Paleo/Primal favorites like Emily Deans, the Whole9 pros, Dr. Lane Sebring, Keith Norris, Stacy of Paleo Parents, and so many others. It was a whirlwind event with a lot going on all the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the attendees end up buying the DVD’s because they missed so many talks while they were listening to someone else speak or doing MoveNat outside with Erwan Le Corre.

So again, the link to buy the DVD set is here, and I’d highly recommend you get these gems for yourself!

“Can I make a milkshake with coconut ice cream and coconut milk?” and then a week or so later, “Am I a terrible person if I want to cheat tonight and get a pizza? I’ve been good for almost 3 weeks and just want some pizza…”

I bet nobody reading that can relate to those questions, right? My replies: yes, eat a milkshake made of coconut products and yes, eat a pizza, but know that you can make a Paleo pizza if you want to. Here’s the recipe.

So is eating a coconut milkshake really cheating? Well, not totally, but coconut milk ice cream usually has quite a bit of sugar in it, whether it’s in the form of honey, agave, cane sugar or all of the above. So for a person on a low-carb diet trying to lose weight, it’s not number one on the list of things to eat. But my sister needed something sweet – we all do sometimes – and I just think it’s better to eat coconut milk ice cream than go to Dunkin’ and get a caramel soy latte and some chocolate eau clairs. Know what I mean?

A client of mine told me the other day that she was craving something sweet, and in lieu of the oreo cookies in the cupboard, she opted for Paleo Mug Cake from www.thewannabechef.com, which is made from nothing more than the following:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons almond butter (or any nut butter)
• 1 egg
• 2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons sweetener (optional)
• Chocolate chips, walnuts, dried fruit, or other mix-ins (optional)

I think she did herself a favor with this, and it totally satiated her craving. Check out this recipe here.

Stick to Paleo Treats

I think anytime you can find something not made with grains, dairy and refined sugar to feed your cravings, you’re doing yourself a favor. Eating old favorites – brownies, cookies, cake – is often how people “fall off the wagon”. It’s no accident that once you taste that divine combination of sugar and grains and that sweet, sweet butter,  you never want to go back – no matter how good you feel on Paleo: grains are thought to actually induce an opioid effect on your brain and body, and opioids make you feel euphoric, sedated, and they decrease your pain perception. Common opioid drugs are morphine, OxyContin®, Percocet®, and Vicodin®. As you know, they’re addictive and can cause withdrawal symptoms, which look uncannily similar to the dreaded Paleo detox symptoms, when taken away abruptly.

I’m not saying that grains are as powerful as Vicodin! But almost I DO think that once you’re off the grains, many people should STAY off the grains so you can stay ON the Paleo wagon. Those people with more addictive tendencies (like myself) should be more aware of this than others who can seriously have a pizza once a week and then go straight back to being Paleo the next day. Once again, it all depends on the person.

Defining Cheating

Back to cheating. I really don’t even know how to define cheating on the Paleo diet, since there are so many iterations of the diet at this point, depending on the person – dairy/no dairy, white rice/absolutely no grains, sweeteners/no sweeteners. I know that when I eat chocolate I get acne, and I hate acne, so that to me is cheating. You may “cheat” by eating Dominos pizza once a week, and you know that night you’ll have heartburn and the next day you’ll be phlegmy, and therefore it’s a cheat. Or you may feel super anxious and then crash an hour after eating sugar – even fruit sugar – so an apple is a cheat to you. It just depends.

Parting Thoughts

What I encourage you to do when you get that special craving is to consider whether you could make a Paleo version of that thing. There are so many Paleo recipes out there now that I don’t think that should be a problem. But if you can’t, say, find your Italian grandmother’s traditional lasagna recipe ANYWHERE in the Paleosphere and you MUST have it, then you should indulge. But my ulterior motive here is that you’ll find the more you indulge, the more you feel terrible, and that sick feeling will incentivize a deeper commitment to sticking to the diet. You’ll learn.

Here’s what I indulged my sweet tooth with the other day - sweet potato Paleo brownies (made with carob – not chocolate). It was a cheat because the carob had sugar in it, and anything that looks or acts like chocolate turns me into a raving lunatic. So it was a cheat. But it was delicious

“So this fasting thing – is it like my friend who drank lemon & cayenne water for 10 days?”

“No, no, no special concoctions.”

“Just don’t eat?”

“Yeah, just don’t eat.”

Welcome to the third post on Scheduled Eating/Intermittent Fasting! We’re going to delve into some of the most common questions in this post. If you’re reading this first, you may want to check out our previous posts here and here. 

Here we go!

Is this the same as “Detoxing”?

In general a “detox fast” is one where people feel their body is full of toxins (heavy metals, pesticides, for example), and they need to spend a certain amount of time either refraining from food, or having special concoctions (cayenne lemonade anyone?) to assist their bodies to do so. This process is generally embarked on for a set time (usually 3-10 days, depending on the fast), and then the person tries to make better food choices from then on. As far as I could find, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of scientific research proving that people had these desired “detoxing” effects. For example, I found no studies showing that detox fasting individuals lowered their cellular concentrations of Round-Up Ready Pesticide. However, there does seem to be a LOT of anecdotal evidence to suggest that people feel more alert, have better energy, have “brain fog” lift, and things of this sort that they attribute to “detox” fasting.

Some people swear by detox fasts, but I’m still searching for peer reviewed studies showing actual documented detoxification. If anyone reading has some that aren’t linked directly to a product, let me know!

In contrast, Intermittent Fasting is a way of eating that has many real scientifically observed benefits, but it is also something that is practiced on a regular basis, usually daily or weekly. It’s seen as a way of scheduling your calories continuously, rather than a yearly “detox.” 

What about going into “starvation mode” & losing muscle?

Aha! The dreaded “starvation mode!” On any of the current generally recommended  protocols, you won’t be fasting long enough to get into the dreaded “starvation mode.” Unless you’re running a marathon every day, it takes, on average, around 2-3 days for your body to use up its stored sugar (read: glycogen), and go into super fat-burning mode (a “healthy” ketosis), then it can take up to several weeks (link), depending on your body composition, to get to the place where your body will start to break down muscle to use as fuel, usually 5-6% body fat. If you’re not doing extreme fasting for 40 days, and if your body perceives the need to keep that muscle on you (see next question), you have nothing to worry about! (link) The longest intermittent fasting protocol (which we’ll go over later) is 24 hours, well within this timeline of several weeks. It will also help tremendously if you periodically lift heavy things.

So, I should still workout during a fast?

Yes, but be aware of the timing of your workouts (see more on this below). The most effective way to maintain that sweet lean muscle mass that we’ve worked so hard to acquire, or to put it another way, the best way to stay “toned,” is to pick up some heavy stuff, repeatedly (and with good, safe form!). There must have been a time in cave-people’s lives when food was scarce, or at the very least, not as plentiful. Imagine if our ancestors, after only a few days without eating, were eating up their muscle mass. When that bison herd came back through, they wouldn’t stand a chance of chasing one down and killing it! Sure, that ultimate survival/starvation mode would turn on eventually (see above), but for the fasting protocols that we’re talking about (24 hours or less), we are well within the “safe” window to be getting the good effects from our bodies, without too much worry about the negatives.

Should I train fasted or fed?

Ideally, you’d be training in a fasted state, then break the fast after your workout, though this may not be practical for everyone (don’t obsess about this!). For most of us, this will take a bit of getting used to. If you’ve never trained hungry before, go easy the first couple of times. You may find that you don’t have as much juice as you usually do. I wouldn’t try to hit my 1 rep max deadlift, or beat my mile time the first day out. After an adaptation period of a week or two, however, you may find that you prefer to work out in a fasted state, and studies like this one have shown that working out in a fasted state (before breakfast in this study) keeps your insulin sensitivity primed and can keep you from putting on weight, even on a surplus of calories.

This can be highly individual, so play with it. For sure, working out in a fasted state can be really tough, especially for people prone to hypoglycemia, but some people prefer it. And actually, breaking the fast after a workout makes paleological sense (very hungry, track bison, chase bison, eat bison). I’ve found personally that working out fasted fits me well, and when I refuel, I feel amazing. You may or may not find the same for you. You may find that you like to train during your eating windows after a meal. Or you may prefer to train while fasting on “heavy days” but have a little something on your “cardio” days, or vice versa.

What kind of workouts should I be doing?

Something like CrossFit is good, but by no means necessary, though focusing on heavier weights, instead of traditional long drawn out “cardio” will do more to maintain muscle mass and keep “starvation mode” in check, rather than simply depleting the energy stores you have in place. Working the big, major muscle groups is a good place to start, movements like deadlifting, squatting, bench press & chin-ups, are the big 4 that activate the most bang for the buck as far as your lean muscle mass goes.

You can drive yourself crazy here trying to make up the perfect workout, but as a basic guideline, you want to push with your legs, and both push & pull with your arms. Using heavy enough weights that you find you hold your breath, or make a face for a second to lift them (if you’re making a face, you’re probably holding your breath too A good trainer/coach can be very valuable here. Complete articles have been written on breathing and lifting, but for here, lets just make sure that you’re pushing with the legs for a full range of motion (read: squatting), and pushing and pulling with your arms with a full range of motion (read: bench press or push-up, and chin-ups). We could really make an exhaustive list here, with weights and protocols, but individual needs can vary greatly. That’s what your local trainer is for, or hit us up in the comments, and we’ll see if we can get you started. You could always go hang with Neely for a session or two of full body climbing goodness.

Let me just say here that you need to be doing something, as far as weight training. If you’re not using you muscles, your body has no reason to keep it. Have you ever had a cast on a part of your body? What happened? It got way smaller and weak. This was from non-use. The rest of your body is the same way: if you don’t at least give it a little challenge now & then, it’s like having a cast on your entire body. Find a way to move your body through a full range of motion that involves added resistance at some point. Not just a “body pump” class, but some kind of weights, machines, whatever!

Should I worry about calories?

I know that we don’t make a huge deal about calories here at the Plan, but I want you to just bear with me for a second (caution…math ahead). The basics of “calorie counting” can be beneficial when looking at the general effects of weight loss, or body maintenance when fasting.

You can imagine that if we’re closing the eating window for a period of time each day, we’d also be cutting a few calories. Though that may happen, cutting calories isn’t necessarily the goal. The full 24 hour fast, however, is a very efficient way to cut out calories without making yourself crazy counting them at every meal.

If we shrink your eating window each day, it may even feel like you’re eating more, since you’re eating the same amount in a shorter period of time! Try getting in that 2,000 calories a day in only a few hours instead of the 14-15 we usually do!

If you skipped a full 24 hour period of eating each week (more on approaches in the next post), and ate “normally” for the rest of the week, you’d be at a 2,000 deficit at the end of the week! That’s getting close to the caloric equivalent of a pound! Now, we all do realize that weight loss is NOT linear, but you CAN see how this math can work in your favor, and over time, can have some pretty sweet, and perhaps even dramatic, effects. The trick, if fasting for weight loss, is to not “reward yourself” with food. As in, “I made it through my fasting, now I get to eat two full batches of carrot banana muffins!” 

How about caffeine?

Be careful. If having green tea helps you delay breakfast and gives you something to sip on in the morning, I’d say you’re fine. But as Neely warned in this post, don’t use it as a way to enter the world of eating disorders. If used like a crutch, caffeine can be just as bad as diet pills. Sure, it doesn’t raise your insulin (by itself), but it’s really not doing you a bunch of favors either. 

Once again, if your green tea happens to have caffeine, no worries for most people. If you’re popping Exedrin and washing it down with an espresso and Diet Coke, maybe you really just need a nap. 

How do you recommend starting again?

Our previous post suggested a 12/12 split, meaning 12 eating/12 fasting. You should head over there to check it out! 

As always, comments are always appreciated!

“So, this fasting thing…how long should I not eat? Like, a day?”

“If you’re feeling gung ho, sure, but I was thinking something a little shorter.”

“That sounds easier.”

“That’s the point. I want you to have success! This really shouldn’t be something that’s terribly stressful.”

“But I won’t be eating. That stresses me out!”

“Ideally, we want to get away from being stressed about food, for BOTH sides, when we’re eating, and when we’re not.”

“So not eating should make me less stressed about eating.”

“Yeah, that’s the idea.”

I’m psyched! How do I start?

Let me just take a second and make a point here. Changing nutrition, in any way, can be a cause for stress for people. We don’t just eat because we’re hungry. We eat for a list of other reasons, from being social, to being bored, or even as a coping mechanism, or as a reward. 

That being said, we here at Paleo Plan don’t want you to be that one person who isn’t going out to eat all the time, and gets the reputation in the office for being a nutritional Nazi. You’re already turning down the Friday donuts, so if not eating is going to make you the annoying person at work, school, or home, consider other options. Really. 

Having the mantra, “Oh, my god! I can’t eat until 2pm today! This is going to be so hard!” isn’t going to make this any fun for you. 

So how do you start? With a great attitude, a big bottle of water, and a plan.

Alright, so what’s the actual protocol?

There are many different protocols suggested by different trainers, experts, and the like. Here at Paleo Plan, we’re going to ease you into things. Keep in mind that these are guidelines. I’m not a doctor, although I may be fitter than yours.

Mark Sisson actually did a great breakdown on all the different protocols in his series on fasting, they can be found here. There are many, many options here. We’re going to take the most gentle approach possible, and make suggestions about how to move into more “advanced” territory if you’re feeling like it’s working for you.

12/12 Split

For my clients I always recommend starting with a 12/12 split, meaning that you’re fasting for a 12 hour window, then eating for a 12 hour window: i.e. fasting from 7pm to 7am, and eating from 7am to 7pm. The empowering thing about this is that it shouldn’t take a lot of adjusting to your schedule. You may have to put off breakfast, or shift dinner a bit, but those should be the only adjustments necessary to make a 12/12 work. This will also make you aware of your eating schedule.

When I first started experimenting with fasting, I was surprised at how much I was snacking in the evenings. You may find something similar, that you either wake up and start throwing stuff down your gullet right after your morning pee, or maybe you make one more pass through the kitchen before heading to bed, and have a bite at a few of those paleo muffins you made this afternoon. Either way, you’re probably eating out of habit, as opposed to actually being hungry. Having a bit of a schedule, even just 12/12, will make you more aware of the timing of your meals and eating habits, and can give you good insights for when you want to delve deeper into the world of not-eating.

The 12/12 would be practiced everyday. It’s your new way of eating.

Yeah, it’s that simple.

I’ve got the 12/12 down, now what?

If you’re finding your groove well with the 12/12 after a few weeks. Great! You may want to move towards some of these other protocols. Once again, this won’t be for everyone, listen to your body, in a positive way, and forge on!

Basically, I encourage people to gently head towards a 16/8 (16 hours of fasting, 8 hours of eating). We do this a little at a time.

After the 12/12 has become a habit, start making breakfast a little smaller everyday, then week by week move it an hour later. Pretty soon, you’re doing 13 fasting/11 eating, then 14 fasting/10 eating, and over time, you may settle into something akin to a 16 fasting/8 eating, or even a 20/4. Where you “settle in”  completely depends on your schedule and preference. You may have really busy Mondays, and do a 16/8 on that day, and do 14/10 the rest of the week. Many of my clients have settled into a 16/8 routine. Meaning, for this example, that their eating window is from 11am to 7pm, and they’re fasting for the 16 hours from 7pm to 11am. Some women, especially, find that they settle into a 14 fasting/10 eating a little more naturally, so stay tuned into your body and just nudge things. Don’t push it!

The key is to not be obsessive about these numbers! If one day you’re 16/8 and the next you’er 18/6, and the next 17.3/7.7, don’t stress! It’s fine! Just remember that the more consistent you are the more your body will learn to time its expectations of feeding. Meaning that your body will start learning when to be hungry. If you’re naturally not hungry, don’t force it!

There are ways to fast for a full 24 hours, and they’re honestly not all that different than what’s above. Our one caution with this type of fast is to only do it for one day a week, or at the very maximum 2 separate days, like Tuesday, & Friday. By doing this type of fast, you will be cutting calories dramatically. For someone who normally consumes 2,000 calories a day, fasting for two 24-hour periods could change your intake from 14,000cal/week to as low as 10,000cal/per week, or the equivalent of just shy of 1,500 cal/day! If you wanted to maintain weight and still fast two days a week, (why?) you’d need to try to get 2,800 cal/day in on the days you are actually eating. Get out your bib!

For more on this 24 hour type of fast Brad Pilon‘s eBook, Eat Stop Eat is invaluable. Though not Paleo, he is research obsessed and has done his homework. If you’re considering intermittent fasting, and would like a great easily searchable resource, it really is worth the investment of his book (apologies for the “sales page” link)

While it’s easy to get mired down with specifics, be honest with yourself and find what works best for you. We’re all a little different. What the research does show is that giving your body a break from the constant onslaught of calories can be quite beneficial.

How strict is the fast?

Ingesting the least amount of calories possible during your fast would, of course, be best. Your water bottle is going to be your best friend. But also, having a bit of tea, herbal or otherwise throughout the day can at least help you get a little flavor into your system without compromising on calories. The idea is to be as low calories as possible during your fasting times, and let your body naturally deal with the lack of calories in its own, evolutionary way.

What if I’m starving?

You’re not. You may be irritable, or “hangry”, but you’re not starving if you skip a meal or two. And if you’re starting with the 12/12, starting your day with two big glasses of water should naturally push off hunger for a while.

You could be craving though, and that means your sugar demons are coming out for battle.

What’s the difference between craving and real hunger?

If you’re willing to eat vegetables, you’re hungry. If not, you’re just craving.

May you find strength when facing your sugar demons!

Shouldn’t I listen to my body?

Yes. Yes, you should. The problem with this is that most of us are so out of tune with what our bodies really need. It’s not our bodies talking: it’s our demons.

A heroin addict could make the argument that he’s just “listening to his body” as he’s shooting up, and he’d be right. Know the difference between real hunger, and sugar cravings or even eating from boredom. If you’re not willing to eat vegetables, you’re not hungry – you’re just craving. Craving means addiction, and that’s not so good.

It’s really more like Scheduled Eating, huh?

Yup. Intermittent Fasting is going to work best for those of us who have a relatively consistent schedule. Your body does like to be on a schedule with sleeping, working, and eating during generally the same times every day. If you’re one of those that changes shifts from graveyard to swing to day shift within a week, it may be really tough to have a consistent time dedicated to not eating.  Maybe the 24 hour protocol will work better for you or maybe fasting just won’t it into your life right now. Once again, don’t stress!

Those of us that are regular 9 to 5-ers may find that simply delaying breakfast every day brings us pretty close to a 16/8, allows us to have nice, relatively big meals to keep our calories up, and still lets us have dinner out a couple times a week with friends to keep our social lives intact. 

You mean I can have a social life AND abs?!

Yeah, pretty sweet, huh?

What if my schedule gets knocked off?

One of the great side effects of going for a while without eating is that you learn that you’ll survive. If it turns out that your meeting went long at work, and you missed the food truck for lunch, just have a big glass of water, and tell yourself you’re not going to eat till dinner. You don’t have to stress about it! Your mother always told you that there are people all over the world without enough to eat, and it’s true. They make it, and so will you.

I mean, what if I eat too soon, will it wreck everything?

Don’t stress. If you happen to have a bite of something at work without realized you weren’t “supposed” to eat for another couple hours, its fine. Seriously. Just make a mental note, and do better tomorrow. This shouldn’t be stressful!

Try it on.

We’re NOT saying this is for everyone! (It may even be detrimental for some.) But if you’ve plateaued, and can’t seem to make any more progress, why not give it a shot? The first few days will be hard, yes, but you may find a new, sustainable practice that will reliably help you towards your goals!

As always, we LOVE comments!

Wewantpaleo.com is the beginning of a food revolution. We want Paleo options in our local restaurants and we’re pretty sure you do, too. Even just a few options would be amazing because I’m honestly tired of eating plain, bunless burgers on a bed of lettuce every time I go out to eat. BORING. So sign your name and give us your zip code and we’ll try to make that happen. We Want Paleo is like a petition to restaurants all over the U.S. for Paleo menu items.

The more names and zips we get, the more data we’ll have to work with. When we start seeing areas that have a large calling for Paleo options in restaurants, we’ll start reaching out to restaurants in those areas. If we can say, “Hey, 2,000 people in your city will give you business if you offer them something Paleo to eat,” we think that’ll be a pretty compelling reason for them to change their ways.

So help us out! Spread the word! Go to www.wewantpaleo.com, sign the petition and then share it on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. Then blog about it, tell your friends and family, and write the url on your forehead. Just kidding about that, but seriously, we need help getting the word out.

Thanks for your support!

Hi Neely,

I just noticed that one of my supplements contains soy lecithin. I know it’s a by product of the soy after the oil has been extracted and according to the information I’ve attached, it is actually not very good for you, despite previous claims that it is excellent for many things. They say that even though it’s an extract there always remains some soy in it. Would you suggest I discontinue this stuff?

Thanks for your response.

Mark

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi Mark,

Here’s what I think about soy lecithin.

No, I don’t like soy, my opinions of which are laid out here. It has many problems, like its phytic acid, lectin, phytoestrogen, and enzyme inhibitor content, and the fact that most soy is genetically modified. Please read that article for a more concise explanation of soy and my distaste for it. Besides all of this, that article you linked me to is a pretty horrendous account of the realities of soy lecithin. But regardless of my opinion and that article, soy in any form is not technically a Paleo food, since it’s a legume and it has all of those anti-nutrient properties I just mentioned. So if we’re going based off of the rules of the diet, no, you shouldn’t eat it.

Having said that, I don’t think that the tiny amounts of soy lecithin that are ubiquitous in supplements, chocolate, and all sorts of otherwise Paleo products are going to be the death of anyone (unless they have a life-threatening soy allergy). I think we pick our battles with Paleo, and sometimes soy lecithin wins. For instance, when I was a chocolate eater, before I realized that it gave me acne and ocular migraines, I didn’t give a damn whether my Almond Sea Salt Chocolove had soy lecithin in it. Much less sugar, because it was one of my “cheats”, if you will.

Now, having said THAT, I have to say that many people really do have serious soy sensitivities, and even a small amount of soy lecithin may bring about symptoms, especially if people are eating it every day. And yes, that amount really can affect someone. I had a client who was sensitive to soy (very sensitive), and she didn’t realize for a couple of MONTHS that she was consuming soy lecithin in her probiotic every day. She got very sick (fatigued, bloated, skin broke out) and only started to feel better after she changed her probiotic to a brand without soy. So let that be a lesson to us all.

In the end it’s, of course, up to you. Can you find a brand of that supplement that doesn’t contain soy lecithin? Probably. And you’re probably better off doing so.
 
 
 
 

She’s very lady-like, except that she lifts her leg to pee. She doesn’t drool or lick, and her farts smell like pumpkins. She will not touch another dog’s ball if she isn’t invited to, and she will not touch her own ball if it has rolled in poop. She responds appropriately to about 50 English phrases, like “You’re not begging, are you?” (walks away), “Kill your frisbee!” (violently whips the frisbee around), and “Do you want to eat that kitty?” (licks her lips). We love our dog a lot.

Zala’s Diet

That’s why she eats better than we do. That little brainstem gets a marrow bone once every two days to gnaw on. We take them out of the freezer and just let her chew on them frozen, gradually licking the marrow out of them. It keeps her busy. You can buy them from the butcher section at your grocer or ask for them when you buy meat in bulk from ranchers. She also eats raw, pastured meats and eggs, coconut oil, and kibble that costs almost as much as gold nuggets.

I believe that dogs should eat DOG food – not grains and sugar like most “dog food” companies are mongering.

Crappy Dogfood Details

Here’s a list of the ingredients in Ol’ Roy Walmart brand dog food, one of the best-selling dog foods in the U.S. You can buy a 20-lb bag of it for $9.67 here. Note that the ingredients are NOT listed on their page. This product is 22% protein, 26% fat, and 52% carbohydrate = not enough protein for a dog.

INGREDIENTS: Ground yellow corn, soybean meal, ground whole wheat, corn syrup, poultry fat, Meat and bone meal, Animal Fat Preserved with BHA and Citric Acid, Chicken by-product meal, Rice, Animal Digest, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin D and E Supplement, Niacin, Copper Sulafate, Manganous Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, *Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex Source of Vitamin K, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Cobalt Carbonate, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite, Folic Acid

And here’s a list of some other common dog food brands’ ingredients.

Gross.

I’m not going to feed my highly carnivorous dog something whose first 4 ingredients are grains and soy. Now, having said that, my dog doesn’t eat an all meat diet like some Boulder dogs do. She eats kibble and goodies on top of it. I haven’t yet figured out how people feed their dogs completely raw diets without going totally broke. I guess you just have to buy enough meat for another little person (like you would for a kid), and I’m not ready for a kid yet, so she gets the most Paleo kibble I can find: Orijen.

Better Dogfood Details

Here are the ingredients of Orijen’s Regional Red Adult Dog Food. You can buy a 15.4 lb bag of it for $49.95 here. Yes, that is WAY more than $9.67 for 20 lbs, but your dog’s health and happiness are priceless, and it might just save you thousands of dollars in vet bills.

INGREDIENTS
Fresh deboned wild boar*, fresh deboned lamb*, fresh beef liver*, fresh deboned pork*, lamb meal, peas, salmon meal, russet potato, herring meal, fresh whole eggs*, fresh deboned bison*, potato starch, fresh deboned salmon*, pacific whitefish meal, fresh deboned walleye*, salmon oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), sun-cured alfalfa, pea fiber, dried organic kelp, pumpkin, chicory root, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, apples, cranberries, blueberries, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, vitamin A, vitamin D3, vitamin E, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, selenium yeast, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Enterococcus faecium.

* DELIVERED FRESH, preservative-free and never frozen.

I don’t know how I feel about the peas and the pea fiber, but I’m pretty sure the peppermint leaf will help her digest it… I certainly like that their meats are free-ranging, wild-caught, and the meats are fresh. And that meat comprises the first five ingredients. It’s 80% meat, 20% plant matter, and 0% grains. I like that. The food is slow cooked into kibble, and dogs are meant to eat raw food, but she’ll have to suffer through it. Oh, and if you’re wondering, all of those words after the vitamin E in the list are vitamins, minerals, and a probiotic.

Best Dogfood

On top of her kibble twice a day, she gets one or a combination of the following: pastured egg(s), raw ground turkey thighs, raw liver or whatever other raw organ meat from our freezer we don’t feel like eating, canned salmon, chicken necks, whatever meat is on sale, and sometimes coconut oil. She likes bully sticks (that’s dried bull penises for the uninitiated), grass-fed beef rawhides, and dried sweet potatoes to gnaw on.

To be quite honest, I haven’t done a whole heap of research on dog nutrition per se, but I do have quite a bit of common sense. And judging by how well humans do on a human (Paleo) diet, I will assume for now that dogs do best on a meaty, dog diet. A lot of dogs have terrible allergies, gross gas, they’re overweight, they have fatty cysts, digestive problems, they stink, and they just look.. well, sick. I know that when a lot of dogs switch over to a dog diet, they thrive and they don’t have these problems.

Here’s a website on the ins and outs of going raw with your own dog or cat. Once again, don’t look to many vets for info on it, as they’re not given much of an education on animal nutrition, and a lot of them make loads of money on crappy kibble.

Anyway, back to Zala. This is what I’m faced with on a regular basis.

Would anyone care to chime in? How does your dog eat and what benefits have you seen from feeding your dog a dog diet?

How Long Do They Take?

We make a big batch of these things about once a week, and it takes a couple of hours when all is said and done. That doesn’t mean you’re actually in the kitchen that whole time. It just means you’re checking on them in the oven every so often to make sure you don’t end up with sweet potato charred crisps instead of chips

You could also make these in smaller batches – maybe just one sweet potato as opposed to the three I used last night – and that would take less time. I just like to have them in the fridge so I can eat them cold or stick them in the toaster oven. Anyway, they’re delicious and satisfying and a great alternative to the sweet potato or potato chips you buy at the store, which are covered in seed oils.

Here’s what you need:

Sweet potato(es) – I use white sweet potatoes because they’re really sweet and light, but any will do
Baking sheet(s)
Sea salt (or not)
Oil (coconut, tallow, bacon drippings, lard, or ghee if you’re into that)

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 360 degrees F.

 

2. Slice the sweet potatoes into thin rounds, as consistently shaped as possible. The more consistent the thickness, the more consistently they’ll bake.

 

3. Place the rounds on baking sheets, using the space as efficiently as possible – they can be touching.

 

4. Sprinkle them with sea salt (or not) and add any other seasonings you like (pepper, rosemary, cayenne).

 

5. (This step is optional, too.) Drizzle a couple drips of oil onto each round. I melted some coconut oil in a pan and dripped it on with a spoon. OR you can just shave off some tallow or solidified coconut oil and sprinkle it over the rounds. There’s no right or wrong to this process, and they’ll turn out delicious regardless of how much oil you put on them. They’ll look like this before they go in the oven…

 

 

6. Bake on 360 F for 15 minutes until they look like this.


 

 

7. Then take those thin, brown, crispy ones out and put them on a plate – they’re done. Flip the rest of them over and put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes. The remaining bake time really depends on how thin the rounds are sliced. The thinner they are, the less cook time they’ll need, and that’s why you have to constantly check on them. The end goal is light brown, crispy edges. Don’t let them go until they’re completely brown or they’ll be burned.

 
That’s it!

They shrink down considerably, and I usually can’t resist eating them while they’re coming out of the oven, so make more than you think you’ll need. I store them in the fridge for up to a week and eat them with my famous guacamole (the recipe to which I will someday nail down and post here), or as part of a meat and veggie dish, or just on their own. Eat them cold or heat them up in a toaster oven.

Nutritional Value

This is for about 10-15 sweet potato chips with the oil. This info was derived from www.myfitnesspal.com.

Enjoy! And please let me know how they work out for you if you try them.

The reason for the dinner was that the American Society Of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP)/Nutrition & Metabolism Society (NMS) Symposium is happening in Denver right now. There are doctors and speakers of all kinds there, including low-carb proponents, talking about how to end the obesity epidemic. Many of the speakers ended up at our dinner, which also included the members of the Denver Paleo Meetup group and people from all over who just wanted to be in the presence of the mighty Jimmy Moore. And I mean mighty. That guy is tall! Check us out standing together…

Anyway, Jimmy goes to this conference every year to learn new stuff, but he also acts as a sort of media monger for the event, Tweeting and Facebooking little snippets of the conference so people know what’s going on there. Having met Jimmy over Skype late last year, then again at PaleoFX, I can say that he is one of the sweetest, most genuine guys in this community that I’ve met. He has a big presence in the low-carb/Paleo/Primal worlds, and he uses his voice in the gentlest way possible while still getting his point across. I really like spending time with him.

The dinner was at Fogo de Chao, which is a Brazilian restaurant where you get all-you-can-eat salad and meat. One of my best friends once said that I eat more meat than any other person she knows, so I can tell you that I did eat all-I-could-eat-meat. And by meat I mean prime rib, bacon wrapped chicken, top sirloin, lamb shank, and on and on. No, I don’t believe it was grass-fed or pasture raised, but sometimes I make an exception for delicious meats. Everyone at the party got a circular card that had green on one side and red on the other. If you wanted a server to come over and slice you off some perfectly prepared variety of animal, you needed to have the green side of your card showing. If you’d gorged yourself enough, you displayed the red side and they left you alone. Here I am being sliced off some filet mignon.

Across from me at my table was Peggy Emch. To be quite honest, she gives me hope that I, too, might look hot at 6 months pregnant Here she is.

I don’t know if you’ve seen Peggy’s blog, but she sort of reminds me of Denise Minger in her brazen dismissal of socially acceptable behaviors. She caught my attention because she was (and sort of still is) a raw carnivore for years, meaning she only ate raw meat and very little vegetable matter, because that’s what made her feel the best. She’s been at this Paleo/Primal thing for longer than most of us, since 2005, so she’s had some time to experiment. She also has a 6 year old daughter who eats just like she does, and a baby on the way. In fact, she told me over dinner that her daughter actually PREFERS the taste of raw beef over cooked beef, and that she LIKES cod liver oil. Oh, how I wish I’d been raised like that…

I met a bunch of other Primal/Paleo/Low-Carb people at the dinner, and it was really good for me to know that I’m not alone in the Denver/Boulder area in my nutritional habits. There are people who eat just like me, and they come in all different flavors, and with all their own different backstories.

I can’t wait for our next meetup. I really, really encourage you all to create a Paleo/Primal meetup of your own in your city. I think you’d be surprised by how many people join the group, and how many things you can learn from each other. I mean, because of this meetup, I may very well try eating my meat raw. Who knows? It may be the thing that makes me climb 5.14…