At 6:29 PM -0500 26/3/03, Melinda G Nielsen wrote:
Hi Melinda,
Welcome to the list. I think your problems have all been experienced
my some of us here at various times and I expect you will get lots
of helpful advice.
>poor focus have been chronic problems for me that I have been struggling
>with my whole adult life, so this was a blessed development and made me
>want to stick with the Paleo Diet.
Ok, you have seen the benefits of the diet and you want to stick with
it. Now it's just a matter of working out how to make the paleo diet
fit in with your non-paleo lifestyle ;)
>Then I got the book The Paleo Diet, and learned that the recommendation
>is for lean meat only, almost no fat,
Well now. You can't eat both a low carb diet AND a low fat diet. This
only leaves protein as an energy source, and the human body cannot use
protein in huge quantities (meaning more than 40% of calories from
protein).
So, you have to eat a combination of fats and carbs to make up the rest.
There is much dispute (and heated discussion on this list) about just
how paleo people made up the rest of their calories, but I think there
is general consensus that fats were preferred, and made up at least 30%
of calories. Which leaves carbs somewhere between 5 and 30% of calories.
Since your body seems to thrive on a low carb diet, you might like
to keep your carbs down under 20% and eat more fat, aiming for maybe
40-50% of calories. Note though that this does not mean 50% of your
food by weight is fat!
There are 9 calories per gram in fat and only 4 in protein and carbs.
So you would be aiming for intake by weight of one quarter carbs,
one quarter fat and about one half protein.
>So how do you all deal with cravings for grains and with dissatisfaction
>from bland food? Believe me, I have tried pepping my food up with herbs
>& spices and lemon juice/citrus fruits, but herbs can’t hold a candle to
>salt, and I can’t put lemon on everything, it just doesn’t work with
>everything. Any secrets to success?
Personally, I like my food with a LOT of flavour. I tend to cook mostly
Asian recipes. I cook curries and stir-fries of different types. I use
lots of spices, garlic, ginger, tamarind, lime, galangal, coriander
(cilantro), pepper, hot chilli, lemongrass etc.
I have found that herbs and spices can be purchased fairly cheaply
through a local produce market. The fresh herbs are often a quarter the
price I pay at the local shops, and dried spices even less (local shops
sell 30 gram packets of coriander seeds for $1 but the market sells 250
gram packets for $2.50!).
I also use quite a lot of fish sauce especially in Thai cooking. This
is very salty, but this doesn't concern me greatly.
In your case, given the benefits of the Paleo Diet, I would think that
if adding extra salt to your food lets you keep to rest of the diet,
it would be beneficial for you in the long term.
>Problem #2: Expensive!! I’m trying to follow the book The Paleo Diet.
> I’m following the menus and recipes, ...
>what to do. It calls for fresh everything ...
>there’s the meat, and not just the budget cuts, it has to be lean ...
> And flax oil !! Holy Moses, it’s like $15 a pint.
Believe me, I know what it's like to live and eat on a tight budget.
My partner and I are both self-employed and we often go several months
with no income AT ALL!
For starters, I never use flax oil. I take an omega 3 fish oil
supplement (gel-caps) and try to eat cold-water fish fairly regularly
(although I don't like fish much). I cook with a good olive oil which
I buy in gallon cans fairly cheaply.
The lean meat question I think I have addressed somewhat above. Don't be
overly concerned with the amount of fat you're eating. But be aware that
the fats from fish and to a lesser extent poultry are much better for you
than fats from beef, lamb and pork. You can also use cheaper cuts of meat
if you simmer them for a long time. Stews and casseroles I find a little
bland, so I cook cheap cuts in a spicy Indian curry for a few hours :)
Meat is always expensive, so it is worth shopping around for the best
prices you can find. My local produce market has a large range of
meats, and the prices are fairly reasonable. I always buy large
quantities (I shop on payday, so it has to last at least a month :)
and freeze it. Buying more than a couple of kilos of something nearly
always gets you a discount. I bought 5 kilos of lamb chops once, and
got them for nearly half the displayed price, and I don't haggle hard.
I just said "how much for a whole tray of lamb chops?" and was very
surprised at the price!
Oh, and as for the herbs rotting in the fridge. I suggest using more
of them in the meal! That will also help address the blandness problem!
>Problem #3: Time-consuming!!
Yes, this is the big killer for me. I'm busy with my work and cooking
takes quite a while. I resolve this in a few ways:
I try to make shopping and cooking a social event. I have a group of
friends I catch up with about once a month and we get together and cook
a wildly spicy meal. I'm sure I wouldn't ever see a couple of them if
it wasn't for cooking together! Perhaps your boyfriend would be able to
help you with the cooking... perhaps he will enjoy it so much he will
take over as the main cook in the household, like I have :)
I also treat cooking as a time to relax and wind down after a day at
work. I think it is very important to take time to eat in a relaxed
way. Stress hormones and a full stomach just don't mix. Obviously you
aren't going to be able to relax while you are cooking if you are
stressed about getting the recipe "just right". Perhaps with a little
more practice, or perhaps taking a more cavalier approach to cooking
would help there.
And you can't beat a couple of good tools to make the cooking process
easier. I have a couple of really good knives and when I visit friends
who have "normal" knives I have a hard time preparing food! I also have
a coffee grinder which I use to grind up spices... invaluable. Next on
my list (next payday) is a good blender - a friend has one of these and
it cuts the time taken to make a Thai red curry paste from hours to
minutes.
And when I cook I make a huge batch and either eat it for a couple of
days or freeze it for later. This works really well when making up a
curry paste... I sometimes make a kilogram of curry paste in a batch.
This makes it very easy to make a curry - just cut some meat and some
vegetables and throw in a dollop of paste and a can of coconut milk.
Hope this helps.
...Richard.
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