bookworm
I’m currently reading The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf. I am only 50 pages in, and I can already tell that this is going to change my life. I’m already drinking the dairy-free, gluten-free, low-carb kool-aid.
Why am I so quick to accept everything he has to say?
Well, there are a few different reasons.
- I’ve known for a while that I don’t tolerate dairy very well, at least in high doses. And by “high doses” I mean a glass of milk or bowl of ice cream, or even a buttery pasta. My mother had the same problem and my husband also doesn’t tolerate the stuff well.
- The last time I went all hardcore with my diet I barely consumed any grains at all in the beginning and did hardly any processed foods. I felt GREAT. Then, as I started to slowly add back in some grains in the form of whole wheat breads and whole wheat pasta I felt TERRIBLE. My energy decreased, my mood swings returned AND I craved more sweets even though I hadn’t added more sugar into my diet.
- I know a lot of people think a vegetarian diet is the ultimate in healthy, but I have NEVER understood it. I mean, just in design a vegetarian diet almost requires that you consume some processed food, even if it isn’t highly processed like a Kit Kat, it still requires some processing. Also, after my gestational diabetes class I knew that consuming a high amount of carbs wasn’t good for you, I mean, I knew that before, but the class just reinforced that. Okay, so how do you eat a diet that consists of veggies, fruits, grains and legumes without overloading on carbs? I mean, half the foods you can eat are carbs. Isn’t that just a recipe for diabetes? Weight gain? Also, with people having gluten issues, how is all that grain healthy? So, once you remove the health argument, what’s left? The moral issue. Well, quite frankly, for me, this boils down real simple. There is no way in heck I am putting a cow or pig ahead of my own health. I mean, the ideal way to do Paleo is to eat humanely raised and slaughtered animals, so that alone deals with much of the issue. But, even if you can’t afford to do this, I’m still not going to put a pig’s welfare ahead of that of my family. I know I might catch flack for this, but it’s real simple for me. God gave man command over all animals, so, just as God’s happiness and desires rank higher than man’s, so does man’s rank higher than an animals. I don’t think of this as an excuse to treat animals cruelly, but I do think it a bit ridiculous for anyone to allow themselves to waste away to protect animals. (I can just see this ending up on the Peta website with a slew of hateful comments, but I gotta be honest.)
- When I Google for vegetarians that have gone Paleo I get pages of relevant results, but when I Google the reverse I get nothing. Now, I know that vegetarianism is much older than Paleo-ism, but still. I have yet to find a story of a vegetarian who converted to the Paleo diet, found it awful and reverted to vegetarianism, so I think that says something.
I’m truly excited to finish this book and get the ball rolling on eating this way. I do feel that I will be completely content and well-nourished without the grains, dairy and legumes. I know I don’t need processed foods, and I do intend to change my girls’ diets as much as possible as well. I think I am going to have to take a slower approach with them, but we’ll get there eventually.
