Tag: paleodiet

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Diet Health

On Non Milk Milk

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while.  Part of the issue for many people trying the Paleo diet or any diet that’s similar is the ditching of dairy.  I haven’t found it to be a huge issue for me, but I thought I’d throw out my thoughts on the popular alternatives that are currently available.

Raw Milk
Ok so this isn’t really a milk alternative, but it is an alternative to regular milk and having tried it I thought I had to write something.  Picked up a half gallon at Sprouts for the cool price of 8 bux…yes that’s a dollar per glass of milk (8 fl ozs).  It wasn’t as separated as I thought it’d be and didn’t differ a whole lot from regular whole milk.  The flavor difference is there but slight.  Supposedly the raw milk is supposed to be ok for people who don’t tolerate lactose well.  My stomach generally only has minor issues with milk, but I suffered no ill effects with this milk.  They also sold colostrum (thinned out).  For you mothers out there I know you’re giving me a funny/disgusted look.  No it’s not orange and was thicker than the raw milk, but nowhere near as thick as you think haha and no I haven’t tried it.  Maybe some day.

Soy Milk
Probably the most well known milk alternative out there.  Soy milk is pretty close texture-wise to milk.  There flavor will vary greatly depending on what you get.  I actually prefer the slightly sweetened versions to the unsweetened soy milk.  One of the downsides of soy for me is that it’s not paleo compatible.  Why you ask?  Well here’s an answer.  From what I understand the basic Paleo idea is soy (and other grains and legumes) contain phytates that prevent absorbtion of minerals (thus the anti nutrient argument).  It’s also poisonous when not processed, contains estrogen, etc etc.  Make your own decisions =)

Almond Milk
One of the popular choices for people following the paleo diet.  It’s a little bit thinner than regular milk, but I think the flavor is light and for that reason I think it’s actually a closer flavor to actual milk.  It’s still sweeter, but I like it a lot as a milk substitute.  I use it for my coffee in the morning =)  If you’re really going for points it’s easy to make your own almond milk.  Search online and you’ll see tons of recipes of varying degrees of difficulty.  Basically it’s Peel/Don’t Peel the almonds, blend them up with some amount of water (based on the consistency you like), strain/don’t strain.

Coconut Milk
Also a popular choice, but slightly harder to find.  The consistency of coconut milk is thicker than milk and the flavor is not my favorite however from a nutrition standpoint coconut milk might be the best milk alternative.  It’s also going to be the highest calorie content from the group here, but coconut apparently has many health benefits.  Since it can be harder to find there are a couple other ways to get your coconut milk fix.  Some people will buy the thick canned version and thin it with water themselves.  You can also make your own from scratch.  The process is relatively easy and is basically the same as making almond milk.  Get your coconut meat from a mature coconut, blend it up with water (usually hot), strain.

Categories
Diet Health

On Avoiding Food Coma and Diet

Small Update on the Paleo Diet.  Again, I admit to being fairly loose as I do have soy or beans once in a while.  And on weekends it can be dicey sometimes, but let’s say it’s a 75-80% adherence.

I haven’t noticed the boost in performance or energy levels that a lot of people tout when they’re on this diet.  Possibly because of the partial adoption.  But let’s caveat that with the fact that I’m not using a standard set of exercises to judge performance.  I’m only speaking to the fact that I don’t feel so much more awesome than before.  It’s also harder to notice things that DON’T happen anymore on this diet.  This only occurred to me last Sunday when I passed out for the 2nd quarter of the Superbowl due to what I assume was an insulin spike after a #1 large bowl of pho I had earlier.  Only then did I think, “Man I haven’t had a food coma in a while.”

A breakdown of the Paleo diet will show that it tends to avoid foods that have a high glycemic index thus avoiding insulin spikes.  If you then read Wikipedia’s article on the subject of food coma you’ll see the section on insulin spikes and how that can cause sleepiness by way of increased intake of tryptophan.  It’s on Wikipedia and thus must be true haha.  So after about 1 month on the diet there’s my first observation of an advantage to the Paleo Diet.  Note that this is really true about any diet that limits the intake of processed foods and otherwise high glycemic index foods.  Also note that I’m not saying carbs cause food coma, but that there seems to be a direct relationship between cutting sugars and carbs and avoiding food coma.

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Diet Health

On Dieting

This post may be a bit long, but I just wanted to write a bit about my experiences in changing around how I eat and maybe someone else can gain something from it as well.

As I mentioned in my 2011 Goals post in the past few years I’ve gotten more interested in trying out various changes to my diet to see if they make a difference and also just because.  Who knows why, just to try maybe.  I tend to avoid fad diets that give you little nutrition and prefer to focus more on the more holistic lifestyle change type things as they seem more sustainable and healthier.  I tend to go on and off these diet changes as I feel like it and maybe that’s why I keep changing it around.  Just to keep things new.

This started out with just recording what I was eating and guesstimating the caloric content.  This actually worked pretty in making me watch what I ate because well…I would hate to drink that soda then have to write down the 160 calories I wasted on it.  I’m actually pretty sure it drove some people crazy because I can get a bit OCD sometimes about these kinds of things.  I believe this was a good exercise to start with because more than anything it made me more aware of the “cost” of eating certain foods and since I tend to eat certain foods more I got pretty good at guesstimating without looking stuff up all the time.  Sure I may be off by 500 calories at the end of the day…but isn’t that better than not knowing at all?

The next diet that actually piqued my interest was after hearing about how a New York Times food columnist lost weight.  Mark Bittman’s Vegan before 6 approach was interesting to me for two reasons:

  1. I’ve never tried being vegan before.
  2. I can eat whatever I want for dinner which is actually generally my largest meal (I know I know, but sue me it’s how I grew up)

I tried it for about 3 months and found that it’s amazingly hard to be a true vegan.  My breakfasts always consisted of oatmeal with agave with maybe fruit.  Lunches were always salad of some sort or cooked veggies and maybe some sort of starch like rice or potatoes.  To be honest, I like meat and was pretty hungry by 3 or 4.  There aren’t many pastries or breads to eat because they tend to contain butter, eggs, or honey.  Then I found hummus and pita.  Apples and peanut butter were also great.  After the initial adapting phase I got used to it.  Near the end of my experiment I happen to have a blood panel done.  The results were pretty good.  BP good, fasting glucose levels good, cholesterol awesome (I had more HDLs than LDLs and an overall low score), but considering I’ve never done a blood test before (at least that I can remember) I couldn’t say it was directly related to my diet.  But I wouldn’t discount the diet completely either.  Either way it’s not a bad way to eat since you have dinner to curb your cravings, but still a bit difficult if you’re not prepping your own breakfast and lunches.  Again milk, egg, honey…they show up everywhere.

Finally to my most recent venture inspired by the very popular Paleo Diet trend right now.  I remember hearing about this maybe a year ago and thinking that it was interesting…but alas I am Asian and love my rice, and so was not ready to embark on the experiment.  Now that it’s gained a bit more traction and there’s a bit more study around it I’m ready to give it a shot.  At the very least I can have my beloved meats (sorry animal lovers…I like my meat).  Paleo itself is a pretty strict diet, but I’ve found many people do paleo spirited diets.  I say in the spirit of paleo because they allow small cheats like the occasional milk product or legume.  In the interests of being flexible, which ultimately leads me to stay sane and stick to it more, you’ll find me eating in the spirit of paleo with the occasional total cheat meal/day as I come from a family of carb eaters.  We loves our man tou and butter.  I’ll be posting my daily intake so as to be honest to myself on my eats page and just for record keeping.  There is no greater motivation than to see your track record and to aim to do better than you did the day before.