Take a look at this chart.
I've listed Paleo foods and non-Paleo foods. Take a guess on which column is Paleo.
You probably guessed that Column A is Paleo. Obviously, I'm going for shock factor here, so the best guess would be the most shocking foods. Well you're right, A is Paleo! Which column would you rather eat from?
I wanted to give you these examples to show you how Paleo isn't really a "Diet". For the most part, people on the Paleo Lifestyle love the food they eat!
When I say for the most part, I mean that some people try to increase their nutrients with foods like liver and sardines even though they don't like those things. I'm trying to incorporate liver in my diet now, it's not easy. Last night I ground a bunch up to add to meatballs and hamburgers so I wouldn't taste it. I for sure wouldn't be able to eat it straight. You're lucky if you already like liver, it's one of THE healthiest foods you can eat.
Anyway, back to diets. It seems that one thing that all diets have in common is that the food is usually not tasty, sometimes they can be pretty bland. Rice cakes, anyone? Those Column B foods up there don't taste good to me. Column A on the other hand... Steak? Bacon? CHOCOLATE? YES! Aside from which foods or diets are healthier (cough, PALEO!), the Paleo lifestyle is a lot easier to follow. It consists of tasty foods! BONUS - you don't have to count calories, carbs or fat! You just eat good foods and don't eat bad foods. That's it!
Some people hear the list foods you can and can't eat on the Paleo diet and they don't realize that it includes their favorite foods! When they hear you can eat meats, do they think 'Oh, that includes Bacon!'? Probably not. We've been so programmed to think that certain foods are bad, that we automatically assume that it wouldn't be allowed on the Paleo 'diet'. Stop thinking this way!
The more I dig into health information, the more I find that the mainstream healthy foods are actually not healthy! Never assume foods are unhealthy based on what 'they' say. You know 'they', right? We always say 'they' when we really don't know who 'they' is. Like, 'Oh, 'they' say a glass of wine everyday is good for you now'. No one ever remembers who 'they' is and what study was done to prove it. Basically, it's word of mouth and people don't research it for themselves, they take it as fact and live their life that way.
Back to the point... don't those Column A foods look tasty? Paleo is my husband's dream come true, by the way. When I told him I wanted to start it, he was a little worried and sad. He thought he would hate the food and he wouldn't be able to eat as much as he wanted (if he liked the food well enough, ha!). Well, after we started it, he was pleasantly surprised! He loves the food and gets to eats as much as he wants! Maybe you will love it, too!
Before I end this post, I have to tell you about my health insurance screening. Every year we have to fill out a survey, get weighed and have tests like cholesterol levels done. It's done by a third party and they supposedly don't share the results with anyone, but you know that's a load of crap. Anyway, one of the questions in the survey was asking me how often I ate certain foods. Foods were grouped into two columns like the list above accept Column A was unhealthy foods (to them) and Column B was healthy. I had to lie! I basically never ate their good foods and always ate the bad ones. They considered all red meat unhealthy and well known healthy fat foods, like avocados and walnuts, too! I thought avocados were considered good by everyone. #paleoproblems :)
