On Aug 20, 2008, at 2:16 pm, Charlotte Williams wrote:

> I'm debating whether I should aim to eat paleo 100% of the time or  
> allow
> occasional non-paleo eating (such as a non-paleo meal every few days  
> as in
> Cordain's book or a few bites of the family pizza or ice cream each  
> day).
> I'm wondering what arguments are for and against strict adherence,  
> and what
> other people's opinions are?

I think I feel pretty much the same way as the other people that  
replied.  Here's where I stand:

If you react severely to something, or get strong addictive urges on  
eating a small amount of something, you should *really* avoid it.   
It's tearing your body up, and the opiate-release "comfort food"  
effect doesn't change how bad it is for you.  Milk nearly destroyed my  
health, and I have made every effort to eliminate every trace of it  
from my diet (and despite finding it very addictive, I've managed that  
for 4 1/2 years now.)

For foods you don't react noticeably to, I suggest allowing them only  
as trace elements in your food, and only occasionally.  For example, I  
don't react noticeably to wheat, sugar or potatoes.  So I do not  
fanatically avoid (that's not to say I don't avoid them, just that I  
wouldn't spill blood if I found someone sneaked some into my food):  
sauces thickened with wheat flour, foods sweetened with *small*  
amounts of sugar, and soups that contain potato (even though I avoid  
eating the potato itself).  On the other hand, I suggest strongly NOT  
eating things that are made primarily from these things, eg bread,  
cakes, sweets, chips, crisps.  The whole nature of these foods is  
wrong.  It's one thing binging on a paleo stir fry thickened with  
wheat, it's a whole other thing to stuff yourself with bread or cakes.

I like to ask myself, "if the average person today replaced something  
in their diet with thing X in front of me, would they be healthier or  
sicker?".  Here are a few of my opinions (not based entirely on what I  
eat):

Healthier                             Sicker
Soup thickened with potato flour      Plate of mashed potato
85-100% cocoa organic chocolate       40% cocoa milk chocolate
Coconut milk icecream w. some sugar   Mass produced dairy ice cream
Stir fry flavoured with black beans   Tofuburger with tofu sausages
Chicken salad with croutons           Chicken sandwich
Steak fried in butter                 Steak in cheese sauce

> I'm thinking that occasional non-paleo would be a more sustainable  
> diet
> (feels less restrictive), however the longer I eat paleo, the fewer  
> cravings
> I get.  Any thoughts?

You got this half right :)  You're right in that the longer you eat  
paleo, the fewer cravings you get.  But that means that stricter paleo  
is *more* sustainable, not less.  My suggestion is to be as strict as  
you can, and if you do cheat, follow the sanity check above.

It took me three or four years, but my taste has completely adapted to  
paleo now.  I have absolutely no desire to eat non-paleo foods, and  
only do so when an otherwise paleo meal (usually in a restaurant or  
takeaway, occasionally from a supermarket) is contaminated with  
neolithic foods.

Ashley