{"id":22523,"date":"2015-09-08T10:19:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T17:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=22523"},"modified":"2015-09-08T10:19:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T17:19:31","slug":"our-funny-little-brains-and-why-primalpaleo-is-a-good-place-to-start-but-not-always-the-greatest-place-to-end-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/08\/our-funny-little-brains-and-why-primalpaleo-is-a-good-place-to-start-but-not-always-the-greatest-place-to-end-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Our funny little brains and why primal\/paleo is a good place to start but not always the greatest place to end up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I’m fasting — doctor’s orders (vision quest, vision quest, vision quest)<\/i><\/a> — So naturally, by 9:00 a.m. I was ravenous.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That’s ridiculous. I often don’t eat until 11:30 or noon without even thinking about it. And since I practice intermittant fasting (IF)<\/a>, going without food until late afternoon or early evening is fairly routine and entirely non-traumatic.<\/p>\n

But tell<\/i> me I can’t eat — and poor, pitiful me!<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Speaking of IF, which is part of going primal … somebody twitted me the other day about my drinking sugary tea<\/a> to recover from a hot, sweaty morning on the roof. <\/p>\n

“Since when is sugar primal?” said twitter queried pointedly.<\/p>\n

Um … well, yeah. Since never. But I<\/i> haven’t been strictly primal for a while. And even if I were, I’d probably keep some sugary, salty, electrolyty-chemically beverage on hand for body-out-of-whack emergencies.<\/p>\n

I did go straight primal for a while about six years ago and it was interesting. It helps a lot of people and toward the bottom here I’ll say why I think it can be a great idea. But I wasn’t looking to clear up any medical condition or lose weight or gain muscle mass or any of the things primalistas rave about. So interesting was about the extent of it.<\/p>\n

These days my diet is somewhere between modified primal and modified Mediterranean. Tons of veggies, nuts, seeds, modest consumption of fruits, healthy oils and butter, white meat and fish, other meats used more as a condiment than a main dish, and once in a while some whole grains. (I do think the no-grain recommendation of primal\/paleo makes sense; I’m just more inclined toward moderation.) <\/p>\n

The biggest differences between my diet now and primal\/paleo or whatever varients are around nowadays are legumes (because, face it, these are the king foods for providing both protein and fiber in one delicious bean dip), starchy root veggies, and the fact that I’ll occasionally eat any darned thing I want and damn anybody’s rules.<\/p>\n

I got tired of reading primalista lists of “10 foods you must absolutely never touch” and of reading absurd recipes for recreating processed junk foods with “healthy” ingredients. Srsly? You mean I can’t ever eat potatoes, but I can spend two hours whipping up some faux substitute for cheesecake as long as I use powders I bought from your website? Um … no.<\/i><\/p>\n

Cavemen ate … whatever non-poisonous natural thing they could get their hands on. And I’m going with that.<\/p>\n

I still think primal\/paleo can be a great idea for anyone who really needs to change lifetime eating habits. If you’re overweight, sluggish, chronically ill, have bowel problems, or other miscellaneous conditions that have resisted every proposed cure, giving up processed foods in favor of veggies, nuts, seeds, and grass-fed meats might just perform a miracle for you.<\/p>\n

But that said, it’s most likely the giving up processed foods and eating healthy, natural ones<\/i> that’s the miracle worker. Unless you have specific bad reactions to certain foods (and I know some here do), a medical condition, or you’re in training for a marathon or somesuch, there’s rarely a need to follow anybody’s rigid nutrition regimen. <\/p>\n

The great thing about primal\/paleo (and all their cousins) is that they get you thinking down a better path. Going primal for a time certainly made me very conscious of what I eat and what effect my choices have on mind and body. It put me on a healthier, more conscious path.<\/p>\n

But paths have lots of turnings and branches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I’m fasting — doctor’s orders (vision quest, vision quest, vision quest) — So naturally, by 9:00 a.m. I was ravenous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-science","category-mind-and-spirit","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}