There are a zillion different ideas about the right way to eat, and that's true within paleo circles too.What nearly every paleo plan agrees on is:1. Avoid highly processed foods with a plethora of unrecognizable ingredients.2. Severely limit foods with added sugar (including HFCS) — candy, soda, and the like.3. Severely limit foods containing plant-based oils — soybean oil, corn oil, and canola oil being the most common. ("Vegetable oil" on the label is usually soybean oil.) There are some exceptions. Coconut oil, olive oil, and palm oil, for example, are perfectly fine. What you're trying to avoid are (a) industrially processed oils, like canola, that turn rancid during their heavy processing; and (b) oils with a really high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, like corn and soy. (This means avoiding pretty much all store-bought mayonnaise and salad dressing. Fortunately, it's easy to make your own.)4. If you're going to eat a substantial amount of grains or legumes, prepare them so as to minimize their toxicity (for example, by sprouting or fermenting them).5. Particularly nutritious foods include organ meats, eggs, bivalves (clams, oysters, mussels), and vegetables. Bone broths, too.That's pretty much it for the essentials. After that, there's plenty of disagreement. Is paleo low-carb or high-carb? Is eating a ton of fruit okay? How about starches, like potatoes or sweet potatoes? How about minimally-toxic grains, like white rice? Is conventional meat okay, or is it really important to stick only to pastured animals? Is loading up on saturated fat and cholesterol cool? (This one is no longer very controversial in paleo circles; it's generally agreed that it is cool.) Is dairy good? Even if regular dairy is bad, what about raw, grass-fed dairy? Are nuts too high in phytates? And so on.My personal view is that paleo dieters, in general, tend to err on the side of being overly restrictive. I think fruits and starches are perfectly wonderful for people with decent insulin sensitivity. I think raw, grass-fed, full-fat dairy is great for lactose-tolerant people. I think properly prepared grains are fine for healthy people without gluten sensitivities. Nuts are a great source of minerals; just don't overdo them.In any case, you'll probably have to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you. But you can't go wrong by avoiding highly processed foods and emphasizing high-quality meat/eggs/fish and non-starchy vegetables. (Throw in fruit, starches, nuts, and high-quality dairy to see if they work for you. Maybe even some grains here and there.)'Ren Hoek said:
I'd start out by saying that you should eat to satiety. Your will power, like anyone's, is limited. Trying to overcome the urge to eat to satiety will be a losing battle over the long run. The trick isn't to suppress that urge; the trick is to stick to nutritious foods that promote a properly functioning metabolism so that your appetite naturally prompts a food intake that's right for you.You'll know you're on the right track when you start to feel full a bit more easily and don't get hungry between meals. You'll start to eat less than you currently do not because your will power becomes stronger, but because that's all you're hungry for.
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moment for you?
Sorry to hear about the heart attack. That's some scary stuff, particularly for someone so young.
