Debra Kierstead wrote:

> my one starting question is about how to know how to have a balanced diet.

Hello Debbie, and welcome aboard. I have been trying paleo for about 9
months and have had good results so far. A lot of nagging middle aged
health problems have cleared up nicely. I do not plan to go back to
eating the standard diet.

I think the basic rule for a balanced diet does not change much from
standard advice, except for eliminating certain problamatic foods such
as grains. I have found that wheat was a big problem, just eliminating
that one thing helped me a lot. Milk may be yours. Yogurt helps milk
digestion if taken regularly, for me.

In general, try to eat a wide variety of foods. The advice here in
Japan is to try to eat 30 different foods a day and not to worry too
much about specific nutrients. That seems like good sense to me. The
paleo diet includes more meat and fat than modern dieticians
recommend. Nutrients from meat are easily digested, and fat helps the
adsorbsion of many nutrients. If you are eating plenty of veggies
along with meat and fat you should be close to getting everything you
need. Include fish, eggs, organ meats, fruits, and that should be
fine. (I also take a non-paleo multivitamin/mineral as insurance)

The biggest problem people seem to end up with is that they get tired
of eating the same foods over and over. I have started using a bigger
variety of spices and pungent foods to avoid this. I do miss pizza
though  ;--)  I try not to be too religious about this, it is after
all just food, and do not worry about the paleo purity of my diet as
long as I continue to follow the general rules most of the time. Other
people are more strict.

As for my kids, I have to balance what I think is proper diet with
what my wife thinks, family peace is pretty important too!

If you have not, read Neanderthin by Ray Audette, or Loren Cordain's
book on paleo diet, I do not recall the title. They both give the
slightly different but similar advice on a good paleo diet.

Good luck.

Tom