Introducing "It's Primal Y'all!"

Hey, I have a new primal blog, with a catchier name, on a platform that will be easier to use (so I've heard), so please go there to continue reading my posts about the primal/paleo lifestyle:

It's Primal Y'all! Primal with a Southern Drawl

 

 

All the posts I've written from the past two months were transferred over to the new website (there's an export/import function for both blogspot and wordpress that makes it easy), and I think I have updated all the links. Some of the photos are not positioned correctly, so as I have time I will reposition them, but otherwise, it looks the same as this one.

 

When I created this blog, it was not intended for primal/paleo info, it was just stuff I thought was interesting. The name is a total dud,  (sandy's check it out -- that's really the best I could do? haha!) and along with the difficulty of using the blogspot editor, I thought it was time for a new name and a new editor.

 

Being from the South, even though I don't have much of a southern accent, I thought this would introduce the idea that Primal isn't just for people in California! (Many of the primal bloggers are out there.)  Southern food is not typically what you'd think of being adaptable to primal ingredients --  after all, grits are grits, and there's no substitute. But I just don't like all the weird ingredients I see on so many primal websites; eating things that are toooo different will cause me to have a primal-fail! so I thought it would be fun to try to put a primal spin on Southern Food!  And I will continue to share info that is interesting as it applies to learning about living in a healthy "primal" way.

 

Thank you for reading, I hope you will join me at It's Primal Y'all! today!

Sandy

Is Paleo Even Possible?

Recently there's been some criticism of the "paleo" diet, but it's not so much the diet that is criticized but the name. People apparently want to condemn the whole idea of eating real food because of the name-- paleo, primal, ancestral, caveman -- saying that we can't possibly know what people 10,000+ years ago ate;  are they implying, therefore, that we should eat junk? Are they serious?

I have no doubt that few of us would want to live and eat like ancient people. And even if we wanted to, we simply couldn't.

Nutty Bites

Nuts* seem to be in a lot of primal snacks. I just made these little Nutty Bites yesterday --they are yummy and you can eat one in two bites (or if you are like my husband, just  pop the whole thing in your mouth). For an extra treat, I put a spoonful of coconut oil on top of mine just before I ate them.

 

Vary the flavor by using different fruit and nuts.  I think dried mango, dried pineapple, raisins, coconut, almonds, and macadamia nuts would be good.  Or try dried blueberries, raisins, cranberries, almonds, and cashews (with "paleo white chocolate" if there is such a thing)!

Paleo Popularity

Maybe I spend way too much time clicking on random internet links but I am finding a lot of paleo websites around the web.  Most of them are well designed, with articles and plenty of recipes. The reason there are so many websites is probably because people want to share the good health results they are experiencing.

The more primal/paleo/ancestral/real food websites there are, the more people will hear and learn about the benefits of eating Real Food!

 Farmer's Markets are becoming more popular as more and more people want to buy real food grown locally, (frequently without chemicals). There's been a huge growth in the number of farmer's markets around the country in the past few years.

Grain-free "Breads"

I don't encourage you to make bread substitutes all the time because I think you will continue desiring wheat bread that is now off-limits. Save these recipes for special occasions or when you have company. I have tried the scones and the cheese biscuits, and they are good enough to serve to company who will probably have no idea they are not made with flour.

Most of these recipes use almond flour which is very expensive at the grocery store. It is less expensive when bought in a 5-pound bag through amazon.  Coconut flour, while less pricy than almond, can also be found on amazon. The cost of these flours is another reason to make hese recipes infrequently.  Store almond and coconut flours in the refrigerator or freezer.

Diet Books

4 Bookshelves of Diet Books

Everyone must be trying to solve the obesity problem now because there are hundreds of Diet Books available. How would anyone know where to start? Which diet to choose? Do most people use the recommendation from friends or maybe a TV host to choose their next diet? Notice I said "next diet".

Americans seem to go from diet book to book hoping to find some way to make it easy to eat the junk and still lose weight. We believe the promises made on the book covers that we can eat all we want and lose pounds.  You might start out well enough, but after a week or two you are tired of the food restrictions, always hungry, tired of counting calories, and you let yourself cheat a little bit. Soon you toss the book aside assuming you are a failure and doomed to keep gaining weight until the next book cover entices you to try it.

Eat Beets!

When I was a kid, I might have eaten canned sliced beets about once a year.  I started cooking with fresh beets when I learned to make borscht in 1995, but I threw away the greens, thinking that only the round red root was edible.  (By the way, as with most other foods, fresh tastes much better than canned!)

Now that I buy fresh local organic beets, we eat the greens and the root. I took a couple pictures while making beets today to show you how to work with them.

Primalizing old Cookbooks/ Polynesian Chicken Salad

There are so many paleo/primal websites online with recipes, and quite a few paleo cookbooks at the library, so you really don't have to buy special cookbooks if you want to start eating Real Food --meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, and fruit, with olive and coconut oils, and nuts. These aren't weird ingredients.  (I tend not to like cookbooks that have unusual ingredients I am not used to eating.)

Many of  the primal websites focus on recreating the old food that are off-limits in the primal world: primal cinnamon rolls, primal cookies and muffins,  primal bread, and paleo pizza! They are ok once-in-a-while, but I think it's a mistake to try to make these substitute foods because they just aren't going to taste the same and that will cause you to miss the grain-based foods you enjoyed.

I Can't...

What is holding you back from trying the Primal way of eating? Could you try it for just 14 days? Maybe you've thought about it briefly but concluded that I Can't...

• Give up cereal and toast in the morning
• Stop using sugar in my coffee
• Give up snacks
• Afford pastured eggs and beef or organic vegetables
• Cook like that
• Take time to learn about primal
• Chase after every fad diet that comes along
• Bother counting calories
• Give up wheat, I will feel terrible
• Make my family eat like this

Here are some of my responses:

Getting Along in Life

Maybe you are satisfied with the way your life is, so you have no interest in changing the way you eat. In fact, you eat rather well, especially compared to those around you at work and compared to what you see people buying at the grocery store. You tend to follow the government's recommendations to eat plenty of grains, and you eat vegetables and fruit, you try to buy low or no-fat milk and dairy products, and you cut all the visible fat off meat.

Yet year after year you see a weight gain of a 2 or 3 or 4 pounds. Maybe you have a lot of clothes in your closet that are too snug now (or are yours like mine--I just assumed they had all "shrunk" in the dryer). Have you considered that by gaining just 2 or 3 pounds a year, you will be an extra 20 or 30 pounds heavier in 10 years? And  40-60 pounds heavier in 20 years? Getting fatter is not a necessary process of getting older. 

Meat Eaters

This week I read a fascinating article written in 1935 by Vilhjalmur Stefansson who lived with the Inuit for about 11 years in the early 1900s. He wrote of his life with them and the diet they consumed-- fish, seal, polar bears -- no vegetables or fruits at all, yet the people were healthy and without disease.  (They had not yet started eating white-man food.) They ate every bit of a fish, including the head, and they tossed the heads into a pit where they would rot, and then they would eat them. It is impossible for me to imagine eating things like that yet it  was only about 100 years ago. I have an idea that we simply can not comprehend what a paleo/caveman would have eaten.

Tom Naughton and his Bad Science lecture

Science for Smart People is really funny while being very serious too. Comedian Tom Naughton makes fun of scientists as he explains some of the problems with results of "scientific studies."  These studies, unfortunately, are what the US dietary recommendations are based on...and they are often intentionally misleading.  You can watch it on youtube or here where I found it on the Authority Nutrition website.

Casseroles

When I started eating the Primal diet I stopped making casseroles since most have noodles or some pasta in them. As I find recipes for casseroles  made with "primal approved" ingredients I will post them here.

Spinach Chicken Bake just
out of the oven

Spinach Chicken Bake
This is delicious following the basic recipe, next time I might try it with the extra ingredients. While dairy is not on a strict paleo diet, it is sometimes ok with the Primal Blueprint plan.
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup homemade mayonaise
1/4 Mozzarella cheese (I used fresh cheese that I sliced)
1 cup Parmesean Cheese (I used fresh grated Parmesan Reganno)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups cooked chopped chicken (bake or boil then chop)
1 10 oz package of frozen or fresh spinach* cooked, squeeze to remove a lot of the water 

Mix yogurt, mayo, Mozzarella, Parmesean, garlic powder, and salt in small bowl. Set aside.
Combine chicken and spinach, add half the cheese mixture.  Mix well. Pour the chicken mixture into a medium size greased casserole dish and smooth the top. Spread remaining cheese mixture over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Makes about 6 one-cup servings.
(modified from original recipe at sparkrecipes.com)
Optional ingredients: Add any or all: 1/2 sauteed onion, 1 can drained mushrooms, diced tomatoes, diced zucchini
*I used a pile of fresh small spinach, cooked it in a little water in a large covered skillet. The spinach was piled above the skillet but cooked down. Sorry I don't have an exact amount, maybe 8 cups or more.

Freezing Greens

I just returned from another trip to Rose Paradise Farms; this time I spent $11 on this pile of produce. I lined everything up on the counter just to enjoy looking at it: a huge pile of kale, a pile of spinach, green garlic (the long grassy things hanging down), one bunch of beets, a huge bunch of parsley, a really huge pile of chard, plus a some cilantro and dill that were coming up from last year that she gave me for free.

I'm going to make a salad with the parsley, will cook the beets, not sure what to do with green garlic, and I'm going to freeze the greens.

But first, everything had to be washed two or three times outside with the hose, because some of it was really dirty. The spinach, being small, was growing very close to the dirt, the beets were in the dirt, the chard was pretty dirty as well. The kale was small but on stalks several inches above the ground so it wasn't too dirty.

Get Wheat out of your Life

One of the grains we eat the most is Wheat.

In 2012 when I started to investigate the possible connection of wheat and migraines, Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis might have been the first book I read. It convinced me that wheat is really not good for anyone, even for those who don't officially have celiac disease. I highly recommend reading this book cover-to-cover.

Dr Davis also writes an informative blog and it is also worth your time. Start at the beginning (here) and page through each post where you will learn a wealth of information as well as read inspiring stories of improved health of people who have removed wheat from their diet.  Dr Davis often answers questions in the comments section, so glance at those too. While his book and blog are titled Wheat Belly Dr Davis is generally opposed to all grains since they all raise insulin levels. 

What kinds of problems does wheat cause? Here are just a few:

Weight gain

Diabetes and pre-diabetes

Hypertension

Joint pain, arthritis

Acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome

Peripheral neuropathy, cerebellar ataxia, dementia

"High cholesterol"

Migraine headaches

Depression

Water retention, edema

These Wheat Belly blog posts might whet your appetite to learn more about this modern version of the grain we call Wheat:

Frequently Asked Questions a good place to start
Wheat Belly Quick and Dirty some of the problems with wheat
Wheatopia another summary of health problems resulting from wheat
Finally A Wheat Relationship gone Bad   a rather funny (in a "truth in jest" way) story of breaking free from wheat's hold on us.

Primal Desserts

If you've read the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson, or the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf, you know the idea is to eat (and move) like the hunter/gather people did before agriculture was invented. (I won't get into my thoughts on how this fits with the Bible when Cain grew crops and his offering wasn't accepted; I am planning to write about it later) ... Anyway, it's obvious that people waaaay back then (even after agriculture societies formed) didn't end each evening meal with dessert, although I'm sure if they found fruit or honey they enjoyed the sweet taste.

However, dessert is a part of our culture, and if you feel like the primal lifestyle deprives you  of "all the good stuff", you might decide to give up. I prefer to have a few recipes that use primal ingredients, so if I want to end a special meal with something dessert-like, I can! (For a few years I ended every meal with either a dessert or a bowl of ice cream. No more.) On very rare occasions (out at a fancy restaurant, on a cruise, at a wedding) if I eat a eat a few bites of dessert made with sugar and flour, it's probably ok.  Beware though of so many of the primal-safe desserts that just substitute a lot of honey or maple syrup for sugar, or use sweeteners like xylitol and erythritol (whatever they are). 
(Update: I just read a Wheat Belly  post by Dr William Davis on sweeteners and he says avoid using honey and maple syrup. He uses xylitol and erythritol in his recipes online. So I don't know what to use, will have to read more.  Check out these articles from Mark Sisson as a start: Are Sugar Alcohols Healthy? Is Stevia Healthy? The Truth on Truvia. I generally use small amounts of honey, not recipes that call for 1/2 cup or so.)

I think using other sweeteners causes us to desire the sweets, which might make it more tempting to eat them more often, regardless of the effect on insulin.

So here are some ideas for Primal Desserts (more to come as I find them):

Sauteed Pears
I made up this recipe as you can probably tell, but it is very good.
2 Tbs butter + 1 tsp for later
1 ripe pear, unpeeled, thinly sliced (about 16 slices)
about 1/2 tsp cinnamon
about 2 Tbs raisins or dried cranberries
about 2 Tbs sliced pecans
splash of vanilla (about 1/8 tsp)

Melt butter in a small skillet and lay the pear slices in the pan, try to have each slice on the pan and not piled on top of each other. Sprinkle with cinnamon, the raisins, and pecans. Cook on low heat for a few minutes, then flip the slices over. Don't overcook or the pears might fall apart. You can sprinkle with a bit more cinnamon if you like. 
Make a little clear area in the middle of the pan and drop in 1 tsp more butter and the splash of vanilla.  Try to coat the raisins and pecans in this vanilla/butter. Serve the pear slices in two small bowls, top with the raisins and pecans and spoon over any remaining buttery sauce.  I used a Comice pear, it is the most delicious pear variety I've ever eaten. If the store doesn't have Comice, I just don't buy pears.

Chocolate Parfait
Good enough to serve in a pretty crystal parfait glass!
For each serving:
1 tbs chocolate chips
1 heaping teaspoon coconut oil
1 tsp cocoa powder.
1/2 cup full-fat Fage Total Greek yogurt (I buy a large tub at Fresh Market)
splash of vanilla
optional topping: marachino cherry, grated dark chocolate
Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil over low heat, stir in the cocoa powder. Let the chocolate cool a little then stir into the yogurt with a splash of vanilla. You can add a few drops of honey if it needs to be sweeter. Spoon into a parfait glass and top with a maraschino cherry (not primal) or grated dark chocolate. Yummy!

Cherry Pie Truffles
These are tasty little bites to have with tea or after dinner.
2 cups pecans
1 cup pitted dates
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/4 cup ground flax*
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup toasted coconut (for rolling)

Blend pecans in food processor until they look like meal.Add flax and pulse until blended.
Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, dates, and water. Blend until it starts to clump together.
Place mixture in a bowl, and stir in cherries.
With a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop 1" balls and roll in toasted coconut. Cover and store in the refrigerator. For a special treat drizzle with chocolate.
* when I made these I didn't have flax so I used almond meal.
(Recipe from DAMY Health Blog.)

Chocolate Candy
1/2 cup  coconut oil
2 Tbs  honey or  maple syrup
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Warm the coconut oil just until melted in a 2 cup measuring cup; add the honey, whisking until thoroughly blended. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla. Pour into a silicone ice cube tray or silicone mini muffin tray. Cool for 30 minutes in the fridge or freezer. Makes 12. Or pour onto a sheet of parchment paper, chill, and break into pieces.
Optional ingredients: add 1 tsp orange rind to the chocolate or drop chopped nuts, dried fruit, coconut into the ice cube compartments before filling with chocolate.
(Thanks to France for this recipe.)

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Here is a special dessert that does have a bit of sugar. It qualifies as gluten-free but not primal.

Lava Cakes
I made this for Valentine's dinner, and while it has some sugar, in my opinion, it is totally worth it!
4 large eggs, separated
6 1/2 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Pinch salt
4 tablespoons sugar, divided*
4 chocolate truffles (such as Lindt’s Lindor truffles), in your favorite flavor
Fresh berries, for serving (optional)
Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly butter four 6-ounce individual ramekins or custard cups. Dust the ramekins with rice or coconut flour; tilt to coat and tap out the excess.
Separate the eggs and reserve 2 of the egg whites for another use. Set aside the yolks and 2 remaining egg whites.
Place the chocolate, butter, and salt in the top of a double boiler over 1 inch of simmering (not boiling) water. Whisk until the chocolate is smooth and no small lumps remain. Remove the pan from the heat; let cool 10 minutes.
Place the 2 egg whites in a clean, grease-free mixing bowl. Beat on low speed until frothy. Increase speed to medium and gradually add 1 tablespoon sugar. When the sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium high and beat until the whites hold stiff, but not dry, peaks.
In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of the sugar. Beat (use the same beaters) until the mixture is thick and light, about 2 minutes. With a rubber spatula, scrape the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold the two together.
With a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until well combined.
Divide about one-quarter of the batter among each ramekin. Add a chocolate truffle to the center of each and cover with the remaining batter. (The recipe can be prepared up to this point up to 4 hours ahead. Cover the ramekins with plastic wrap and refrigerate them until 15 minutes before you plan to bake them.)
Bake the cakes for 11 minutes, or until they are puffed but still soft in the center. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cakes cool for 5 minutes. Run a small knife around the sides of the cakes to loosen them. Place plates on top of the ramekins and invert the cakes onto the plates. Serve warm, with berries and whipped cream (if using).
*You could proably use honey in place of sugar. (Thanks to Rudi on the Holland America blog for this treat.)

Don't Diet!

I have never been "on a diet" ... I'm not on a diet now. I read about eating in the paleo/primal style in Primal Blueprint and it made sense*; I read about avoiding wheat in Wheat Belly and it made sense:  we must eat good food that contributes to our health and well-being and we must avoid stuff that not only does no good, it actually harms our health. 

Our diet-- what we eat -- should be for the purpose of keeping us healthy. 

The word "diet" has been distorted today. We have the idea that its ok to eat whatever we want unless we need to lose weight. Weight is just one component of being healthy. In our culture today, "being on a diet" implies that you will reach your weight goal and then you can go back to whatever you were eating before. You may be willing to be deprived of what you want to eat for the immediate goal of weight loss. But it's been shown that most people who manage to lose weight on a "weight-loss diet" will gain that weight back (and more) when they get off the diet. So skip the diets.

Don't look at your diet as a way to lose weight by starving yourself or eating weird food for a while; instead look for the food that will make you your healthiest. Surround yourself with healthy real food. (Learn about real food here.) Recognize that a LOT of stuff that is sold is imitation food-like products, made for a long shelf life, made to make you crave more -- it's BAD stuff!

I continue to read about the primal lifestyle and read the success stories of other people to help me stay on track and not fall back into unhealthy eating. Here's a great video series about real food; you can watch it on youtube: Hungry for Change (there are 7 parts, each about 10 minutes). It's well worth watching. (There's also a book by the same name on amazon.) 








*While I agree with the primal lifestyle recommendation to eat real food, I don't agree that we evolved to eat like that.

Labels

A new book is out (with some bad reviews) trying to make fun of the paleo lifestyle. Paleofantasy. I guess it is no surprise that someone would try to make money by ridiculing the paleo/primal/cavaman diet, just as others have done with the Atkin's, South Beach, Ornish, Pritikin, and Grapefruit diets. A new diet plan becomes well-known and soon enough the detractors write a book against it.

It's unfortunate that the paleo/primal lifestyle had to choose that name, it's just asking for jokes since it immediately invokes images of dirty, hairy brutes hunched over a fire, gnawing a huge bone.  Maybe there are a few eccentric people who really want to live like cave-men, but most of the well-known names in the paleo/primal community realize that it's impossible to live like the cave man, and they wouldn't want to anyway. We have a lot of wonderful blessings in the modern world and an author who implies that we'd toss it aside to live in a cave does not understand what the lifestyle is all about.

So forget the labels, don't jump on the bandwagon of the latest fad just to jump off again when you read a criticism of that fad. Instead, consider this: You probably want to live a long healthy life, feeling great, with plenty of energy to work, play, and enjoy every day; you probably do not want a life of sickness and pain, experiencing problems that require frequent visits to doctors, drugs, and maybe an early death. Good food and clean water are two things our bodies need to be healthy.  (The others include exercise and rest.)

God created a variety of plants and animals for our food so we can live healthy lives. The food that God created is not like the so-called food that is created in a food-industry lab. Food scientists try to discover the properties and individual molecules that are in real food so they can isolate and repackage them, but there's more to food than individual molecules.  It is truly a case of the whole being greater than its parts.

Produce from a Farmer's Market

Real food grows in the ground or eats the plants that grow in the ground, or lives in the ocean. Eat real food, as close to its natural state, raised with the least amount of chemicals, preservatives, and processing possible.

You will not find real food in a "health food store" that is nothing but rows of supplement bottles lining the shelves. You will not find real food in the aisles of boxes and cans even in a "whole foods" type of store.  Just because a store calls itself "fresh" or "whole" or "natural" doesn't mean you don't have to be careful of what you buy inside.

Beef cattle at Fort Creek Farm in
Sparta Ga.

(Obviously,  sometimes we eat things that come in a bag, can, or box; just today I bought raisins*  and raw walnuts (in bags), tea bags in a box, and olive oil in a can; I also buy cans of coconut milk and a large container of coconut oil.)

Don't get sidetracked with labels to describe the diet you follow. Let the primal/paleo lifestyle simply be a guide and a reminder to avoid modern processed phoney-foods. Just eat real food for life.

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*By the way, check your bags of dried fruit; it's hard to find any that don't contain a vegetable oil. Amazing that they add oil to keep dried fruit from clumping. I'd rather break apart the clumps by hand that eat the oil. I was buying Newman's Own Organic Raisins until I noticed that they add sunflower oil. Sun Maid raisins contain no oil, but they aren't organic. So which is worse?

Dancing Donuts in Kindergarten

We homeschooled when our kids were little, and one thing I remember was creating a homemade board game for them to learn about healthy eating, based on the Food Pyramid. Remember seeing this diagram? (I used to wonder how anyone could eat up to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta but I didn't question the overall government recommendation.)