Charles Alban <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>H-g's don't do much food preparation, they just eat nuts and seeds as they
find them.  If you forget about the concept of "meals" at fixed times which
have to be prepared, you will be closer to h-g.

My reply:
This is one way to do it, but certainly not the only way.  If you talk to
different people, you will get different ideas and suggestions.  No one way
is the gospel truth. It is up to each person to decide how he or she wants
to practice a paleo diet.  Some people find that if they do not eat
regularly scheduled meals, they end up bingeing on high fat foods, nuts
(which are very calorie and fat dense), dried fruits, or unhealthy foods (if
they are famished and away from home without packed meals).

Many people find that eating meals at regular intervals makes their
appetites more predictable and their mental and physical energy more stable,
and allowed them to avoid bingeing behavior.  If you don't let yourself get
uncontrollably hungry, it is easier to stop eating when you do eat.  Many
people on this list eat breakfast, pack lunches, snacks, and eat dinner with
friends or family, or pack dinner if they must work in the evening.  We are
social animals and sharing meals is an age-old tradition.

If you are eatin a lot of very calorie dense, concentrated foods, such as
pemmican, nuts, seeds, bacon, or jerky, you may find that your portion sized
go down, but not your calories.   (Or, if you load up on high fat foods, but
don't have a very fast metabolism, your waistline may expand!!)  One small
pemmican cake may contain 600 to 800 calories each; two handfuls of nuts
pack 800 calories; and 4 ounces of jerky (from 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of beef),
800 to 1200 or even more calories.  If you opt for lower fat, less calorie
density foods, such as fresh rather than dried foods, your portions may
increase and you may need to eat more often, for example, eating 4 meals per
or 3 meals and 1 or 2 snacks each day, as some folks on this list do.  It
all depends upon what you choose, what your goals are, your metabolic rate,
activity level, etc.

Charles Alban wrote:
>>Your goal is to eat much less than you are currently eating. Moderns eat
maybe ten times more food than paleo h-g's would have for their energy
expenditure. You will find that as you cut out the starches and sugars in
your diet, you will be eating much less overall and your energy levels will
increase considerably.

My reply:
Again, this is one way, but certainly not the only way!  It is not
necessarily the case that one will need to decrease the volume that one eats
when adopting a paleo diet.  Many anthropolgoists have found that primitive
people eat far more calories than modern people and also that older, wild
species of foods often had a lower calorie density and higher nutrient
density than modern foods.

 In general, non-starchy vegetables and fruits have a lower calorie density
that grains and processed foods.  So, you may actually find that if you eat
the same volume of food you used to eat, as plants and lean proteins,
supplemented with healthy fats (in place of high fat restaurant fare,
refined cereals, grain products, cookies, cakes, French, Dutch or American
pastries, and rich desserts) that your calorie intake will be much lower.

You may actually need to increase your food intake to meet your energy and
nutrient needs when eating unprocessed vegetables, meats, and fruits.  This
is not a bad thing.  In fact, these foods will provide more nutrients per
calorie than the processed foods.

The typicall modern person eats 3 to 4 pounds of food per day (I do and so
does my husband!).  I have checked this out many times over the past 10 or
so years and find that that is a reasonable estimate.  The difference
between the modern and primitive person's food intake lies in the content or
quality of the food.  The volume or weight may remain the same or go up, on
a paleo diet; the quality will surely rise, regardless.

There is no need to starve yourself on bird-like portions or to skip meals,
or fast.  In fact, from all that I have seen over the years, over-controlled
under-earing (skipping meals or eating teeny portions and going hungry)
often backfires, leading to un-controlled overeating.  So, don't be afraid
of your appetite or the amount of food you may need to eat.  The quality is
as important as the quantity!

Welcome,

Rachel Matesz

PS.  As the saying goes, "there is more than one way to skin a cat."  I've
never skinned a cat, but I can tell you that there are many ways to apply
paleo principles, as you will soon find out.  Read all posts with a grain of
salt and don't take any as the gospel truth!  Be open to experiment.  :-))