Paleo Substitutes

Still new to Paleo and trying to work out some substitutes for your favorite staple foods? Well here is a list of eight Paleo substitutes I frequently use. Some are fairly straight forward and obvious while others are a little more quirky. I'll give some basic 'how to' but for more detailed recipe just go ahead and Google them. 

1. Instead of white rice... try cauliflower rice

If you are going strict Paleo, if you want to restrict carbohydrates or lose weight then you may want to avoid white rice. Cauliflower rice is delicious, easy to make and more nutritious than white rice while being less energy dense and very low carbohydrate and high in soluble fibre.

Recipe

• Dice half a head of raw cauliflower in the food processor or as finely as possible with a knife. 
• Place cauliflower in a big pot with about 1cm (1/2") of (boiling) water
• Add sea salt and a couple of spoons of coconut cream (optional).
• Bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes depending on how 'al dente' you want it to be. 
• Drain the excess water then add seasoning to taste and maybe some grass-fed butter or olive oil to make it extra awesome.

2. Instead of cooking with canola/sunflower/other vegetable oil... use coconut oil

Refined vegetable oils such as sunflower, safflower, canola, corn, cottonseed and soybean oil are unhealthy and should be avoided as much as humanly possible. They are very high in pro-inflammatory omega-6 (linoleic acid) and have basically zero nutrition. 

Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is amazing stuff and should be consumed liberally but only when raw. Even though coconut oil and olive oil have a similar smoke point the fact that coconut oil is a saturated fat suggests that it is safer to cook with than the largely monounsaturated fats in olive oil, which tend to denature at temperature and are more prone to oxidation. 

Thus, use coconut oil or ghee (clarified butter) for cooking.

3. Instead of wheat flour... use dried shredded coconut

Wheat = gluten = bad news. Stay clear! You have been warned.

The Paleo diet is so effective because it eschews modern, processed foods. While you can technically make delicious "Paleo" desserts and baked goods using nut flours, dried fruit and honey I really don't think it is a good idea to be regularly eating muffins, cakes, brownies and chocolate mousse just because they are made from "Paleo" ingredients. 

Almonds are very high in omega-6, fat and energy. So if you eat a cake with two cups of almond flour just think about how extreme this is. Imagine if you had to collect that many almonds yourself!

I don't often eat things that require a flour substitute, however I do use dried shredded coconut in my banana coconut pancakes and they are amazing. I also occasionally make carrot muffins using only carrots, eggs, coconut oil, shredded coconut, baking soda, walnuts and a tiny bit of honey if other people will also be eating them. 

4. Instead of toast... try a sweet potato rosti

Image courtesy of www.supideasypaleo.com 

If you really miss your toast and want some carbs with your bacon and eggs once in a while then try making a sweet potato rosti. Sweet potatoes are more nutrient dense than white potatoes and have a lower glycemic load. 

Side note: White potatoes are "not Paleo" because they are a nightshade and therefore contain some potentially harmful anti-nutrients (particularly in the skin). Also the carbohydrate in white potato is readily converted to glucose causing blood sugar control issues in some people. 

Recipe:

• Peel a big sweet potato and then grate it into a bowl 
• Add sea salt and pepper and toss
• Heat coconut oil or butter/ghee in a frying pan
• Take a big handful of the sweet potato and form it into a rough ball shape
• Flatten this out into a patty and cook through, flipping once or twice. This should take about 10 minutes depending on the thickness.

5. Instead of ice cream... try coconut cream with berries

If you can find a nice, thick, delicious coconut cream (thickness and taste varies significantly between brands) then when it is cooled it makes a terrific substitute for cream. 

For a nice dessert add some berries and/or chopped banana to a couple of spoons of chilled coconut cream - and maybe even a little honey if you are desperate for sweetness. I personally don't use honey but I add some nuts, shredded coconut and occasionally shaved dark chocolate. This is my go-to dessert and it's bloody incredible! It all hinges on the quality of the coconut cream though. 

6. Instead of energy drinks... try Bulletproof Coffee

You couldn't get much further from Paleo than Red Bull, Monster or 5-Hour ENERGY. These drinks are simply awful concoctions of sugar and chemicals.

If you really need a Paleo power boost - especially in the morning - then you can't go past Bulletproof Coffee. Check out my post on it for more details but basically it is brewed black coffee blended with grass-fed butter and MCT oil. It is Paleo crack... In a good way!

7. Instead of pasta... try steamed vegetables

This may seem boring but it sure beats the post-meal crashes, bloating and moodiness I used to get after eating pasta. 

Next time you cook up a Paleo bolognese sauce with beautiful grass-fed beef (and bacon) try steaming some broccoli and cauliflower and using that as a pasta substitute. I also really like to use Brussels sprouts. Make sure you add some olive oil or butter to the steamed veggies to maximize nutrient-absorption... and taste. 

8. Instead of sweet snacks... eat 85% cacao dark chocolate

If you haven't noticed I have an (un)healthy addiction to dark chocolate. The stuff is amazing. 85% cacao dark chocolate is rich in polyphenols, magnesium and healthy fats. The mouthfeel is pure decadence and once you get used to the intensity of near pure cocoa it is the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. 

Whenever you have cravings try eating about 15-30g of the stuff and you should be good to go. Try not to eat as much dark chocolate as I do though or you may have to check yourself in to CA (Chocoholics Anonymous).  

Food is like sex - it is enjoyable for reasons that transcend its practical function. So indulge guilt-free in good quality, healthy and enjoyable foods - preferably shared with friends and family - and you'll be better off for it!

PS - Please subscribe by email to receive these posts straight in your inbox. Thanks for reading!

You Are What You Eat… And What It Ate

Ruminant animals...

Q. How do you make a calf gain 600 pounds in eight months? 

A. Feed it corn... A shed load of corn. 

Introduction

Go out into the bush and try and find a fat brush turkey, kangaroo or deer. You won't. Animals in their natural state  are inherently healthy and lean.

Before concentrated animal feeding operations (factory farming), cows raised on pastures typically weren't slaughtered until five years of age. Now these poor beasts are stuffed with corn, antibiotics and hormones to reach slaughter weight at just 14 to 16 months old.

Unfortunately we humans love to intervene. We think we can do better than mother nature. We think we are so industrious that we can increase productivity endlessly. We think that we can make chickens bigger, fatter and grow faster and cheaper. But all of this comes at a cost, and this cost is ultimately born by us and our own health.

The modern epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer are no mystery. These diseases of civilization stem from a mismatch between our modern lifestyle and our natural state, with poor nutrition being the primary culprit.

In this post I'm going to shed some light on how industrial farming affects the nutrition of our food and outline two basic rules to follow in order to make the right food choices. 

Pasture raised cow v CAFO cows

Q. How do you make a human gain tens of pounds and become diabetic?

A. Feed him corn... and wheat, and sugar, and soybean oil, and other industrial foods. 

Now unlike cows, which are ruminant animals that should only eat grass, we omnivorous humans require a broader diet. But in general, the further we move away from a diet of unadulterated (meaning wild, grass-fed, organic, local, in season, unprocessed) animals and plants the more likely we are to get fat, sick and die prematurely. Simple. 

Keep it simple, stupid

I have been ruminating [pun intended] about the diets/inputs of the animals/plants that we eat and how that affects us when we consume them. 

What I have come up with is a couple of general rules when it comes to what we should eat:

Rule # 1: Eat animals and plants that existed in a state closest to their natural environment. 

Wild Salmon v Farmed Salmon

EXAMPLES 

Beef: Organic pastured beef from happy cows on nice small farms is far more nutritious and healthy in every respect compared to feedlot beef: better fatty acid profile, higher protein quality and less toxins in the meat from hormones and antibiotics. This is not even to mention the ethical and environmental benefits of pastured beef. 

Plants: Organic vegetables grown locally in nutrient-replete soil free from chemical fertilizers have significantly higher nutritional content and none of the nasties found in mono-crops farmed in nutrient-depleted soil and sprayed with harsh chemicals.  

Seafood: Wild-caught seafood is far superior to farmed seafood. Farmed fish is no different from farmed cows, pigs or chickens. The fish are often confined in overcrowded unsanitary tanks and administered antibiotics to keep them from dying. Furthermore, the fish are fed processed pellets made from soy, corn, canola oil and even other dead fish - clearly a terrible diet for salmon, for example, which are supposed to subsist mainly on krill. 

As the adage goes, "rubbish in, rubbish out". Same goes for farmed aquaculture. One study found farmed salmon to have eight times the levels of PCBs (synthetic chemicals) than wild salmon. 

This unnatural diet also affects the nutritional value of the salmon - reducing the amount of anti-inflammatory omega-3s and increasing the amount of pro-inflammatory omega-6s. This is exactly what happens with beef and poultry. 

You see, the fat in corn and soy is overwhelmingly omega-6, which is why corn, soybean and other industrial seed oils are so harmful to humans in the way they skew our diet towards a high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Our ancestors had a ratio around 2:1 of omega-6 to omega-3. Today the average Westerner has a ratio of 20:1 or more. This is hugely problematic and is thought to be a major culprit of inflammatory conditions such as heart disease. 

So not only are we screwing ourselves by eating corn, soy and refined vegetable oils but we are compounding the situation by eating animals that are fed corn and soy - causing their own omega ratio to be out of whack. 

Poultry: Chickens are supposed to scratch around in the dirt eating grass, seeds, worms, bugs and insects. But now we feed them - you guessed it - corn and soy! 

Poultry, especially the skin and dark meat, has a very high omega-6 content. This chart estimates poultry to contain around 3g of omega-6 per 100g. Compare this to pork (0.8g/100g) or beef (0.3g/100g). 

This brings me to my next point:

Rule # 2: Eat animals that eat mostly green stuff

When it comes to choosing your meat, it matters what your meat ate. 

Ruminant animals are ideal nutrition for humans because they have a clean, healthy diet... of grass. 

If we had four stomachs and could digest 70 pounds of grass a day I would totally recommend a raw vegan diet of grass! But we don't, so I recommend we eat cows, sheep, goat, bison, elk, deer, raw vegans, etc. 

Since grass derives its energy from sunlight consuming red meat is basically eating mouthfuls of sunshine! How awesome is that? And much healthier than eating mouthfuls of corn, antibiotics and animal cruelty! 

Seriously though, I believe pasture-raised red meat to be superior to poultry and pork because of the fact that grass is a simple, natural and healthy diet for ruminant animals. Compare this to pigs. Pigs are omnivores that sometimes eat questionable matter. Toxins from their diet will be stored in their fat and could potentially affect us when we consume pork. 

Incorporating the same logic explains why (smaller) fish that predominantly eat algae generally have better nutritional value than larger fish that eat these smaller fish. 

We've all heard about metal toxicity (mercury) in fish. Usually the higher up the food chain (the more predatory) a fish is, the more mercury and other toxins are contained in it's flesh. Toxicity accumulates the older and bigger a fish is, and the further up the food-chain it is. 

IMPLEMENTING THIS INFORMATION

Eat animals and plants that lived in the way nature intended them to, favouring ones that eat green stuff or convert sunshine... 

Ideally:

• Eat organic, locally farmed plants that are in season. 
• Eat wild or grass-fed ruminant animals as your first preference for meat
• Eat pasture-raised pork and poultry as your second preference for meat
• Minimize consumption of CAFO/factory farmed animal products
• Eat wild-caught seafood and avoid farmed seafood
• Favor smaller fish such as anchovies, sardines, mackerel, herring and salmon over predatory fish such as swordfish, tuna and shark. 

God/evolution (you choose) created a harmonious system of nutrition from sunshine to green stuff to animals to humans. Mess with it at your own peril!

"Eat Paleo. Train. Live life."

The Paleo Model

PS - If you care, share! Also if you haven't already you should subscribe by email (below) to get these posts direct to your inbox with no advertising. Thanks for reading!

---

References

Burridge, Les, Judith Weis, Felipe Cabello and Jaime Pizarro (March 2008). Chemical Use in Salmon Aquaculture: A Review of Current Practices and Possible Environmental Effects. World Wildlife Federation, Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue. 

http://chriskresser.com/how-too-much-omega-6-and-not-enough-omega-3-is-making-us-sick

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sea-to-table/is-farmed-fish-really-the_b_3455436.html

Image Credits

http://meatonomics.com/2013/11/11/9-things-everyone-should-know-about-farmed-fish/

http://crossfitfire.com/grain-fed-cattle-vs-grain-fed-people/

http://www.sustainabletable.org/859/industrial-livestock-production

http://libidiny.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-cows.html

http://www.kellysofcornwall.co.uk/our-farmers/

http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/wild-salmon-returns-waters-dinner-plates