How to Go on a Paleo Diet (2 page)

Of course, this diet is not necessarily for everyone. There are a few people who should avoid using this diet:

1.
       
People who are adverse to consuming meat for moral or ethical purposes might want to avoid this diet. The diet will involve plenty of meat because it is made with protein and less carbohydrates so you can build more muscle mass over time. (Interestingly enough, many stories you might read online about people who have used the Paleo diet are from former vegans who found that this worked better than their old vegan lifestyles. This doesn’t mean that every single one will be comfortable with even thinking about this idea.)

2.
      
Anyone who is concerned about dairy deficits might also want to avoid the diet. While it is true that many of the leafy greens involved in the diet do contain calcium and other dairy-related nutrients, the risk to some people suffering from extreme bone loss issues could be dangerous.

3.
      
People who require grains to help with staying regular might want to avoid this diet too. The diet does restrict the use of grains. The effects of fiber and meat might support the body just as well as grains could but it’s still a risk to think about for some cases.

4.
     
Anyone who isn’t willing to go along with the restrictions on the diet should avoid the diet. This diet is much easier to use than others but at the same time it might be tough for some to live with due to the rules that come with it.

5.
      
Some people might not be able to afford the diet due to the cost involved with getting meats and other special foods prepared while on the diet. It will more than likely be more affordable than one of those special twelve-step programs with massive food packages that have to be bought but it’s still more expensive to follow this than to just stick with the foods one is already familiar with.

A Special Note About the Kidneys

One critical part of getting into the diet involves seeing how your kidneys are functioning. This is because many of the foods that are used in the Paleo diet include purine. This is a compound that cam be broken down to form uric acid.

The excess amounts of purine in the body can be removed from the body through the kidneys as uric acid. This should help you out with keeping healthy.

However, a person with unhealthy kidneys may not be able to process the purine over time. This can cause gout or even kidney disease to develop at times. Therefore, you might need to get your kidneys examined and tested to see if they are healthy enough to actually process all the purine that you will be using while on the diet.

Talk With Your Doctor

This diet should work well but just make sure that you talk with an appropriate nutritionist before getting into the diet. Only a nutritionist can definitely tell if you need to go with this diet and if you are safe for it. It’s all to make sure that you are fully aware of what is going on with the diet and that your body will have a positive response to it.

As you will see in the next part of this guide, there are many foods that can work well for your dietary needs. These foods can help you out with keeping yourself healthy and controlled.

The problem with so many diets is that they involve several restrictions relating to what you can and cannot eat. These restrictions are very annoying and tough to live with but at the same time they must work in order to get a diet to run right. It’s especially problematic when you consider how some diets have extreme caloric restrictions or focus on only one food above all else that you could be using.

Fortunately, the Paleo diet involves a large variety of foods for you to choose from.
You can take advantage of many foods in a large variety of categories. Here’s a look at some of the foods that you can use while you are on the Paleo diet.
The choices you have
proven
that there’s something for just about everyone on this diet.
You don’t be easily bored when you are on it.

Meat

You can use a variety of meats in your diet. Beef, lamb, pork, sheep, rabbit and many others can be used here. These are all naturally occurring meats that should help you out with keeping your body healthy and under control.

You could even go along with organ meat if you want to. This can include such meat options as the kidney, heart or liver. You should probably avoid the brain due to its high cholesterol content but other than that the options you have for consuming animal organs are impressive to see.

These meats can also include proteins to keep your body healthy. Proteins are needed to make it easier for your body to build a healthy tone without adding more fat than needed.

You can also use poultry in your diet. This has less fat in it and might work well for you if you aren’t comfortable with some of the other meat-based options on the diet. You can go along with chicken, turkey or duck among many other poultry meats.

These meats can all work provided that they are not impacted by anything that might add to caloric contents. These include things like salts, peppers, frying procedures and many others. The meat must be pure and unadulterated because that is practically what our ancestors would have eaten. Remember, you should avoid trying to eat anything that was prepared in a way that didn’t exist back then.

It’s especially important to use
grass-fed
meat. Grain-fed meat can be harmful to your body. Grass-fed meat will be leaner and healthier for you to use. In fact, most types of organic meat products come from grass-fed sources.

There are times where you might not be able to get this kind of meat though. Fortunately, you can always go with
lean meat cuts
while adding coconut oil or clarified butter to the mix.

Remember, the key is to think about handling your meats with all sources in mind. These include meats from the
air
(chicken, duck, etc.), the
land
(lamb, pork, beef) and, as you will see in the next section, the
sea
.

Fish

Enjoy an American shad on your diet.

Fish can be used in your diet. It’s true that fish has some fats but these are healthier fats that have been found to help you out with weight loss needs. These include omega-3 and omega-6 oils. They are fats that are known to improve your body by keeping old toxins out and by removing old saturated fats that might have gotten into your body over the years. In fact, it can be easier to get these oils through fish than it might be to just use a simple supplement capsule.

You can go with all sorts of fish in your diet. These include fish like tuna, trout, salmon, cod, haddock, anchovies, herring and grouper.

You can also go along with shellfish. This is a kind of fish that is protected by a shell or other coating. You obviously have to remove the coating or shell in order to take advantage of it but the choices you have are amazingly varied. You can take in crab, lobster, shrimp and oyster options.

This can work well but
you should only go along with fish if you are not allergic to any fish-related products
. You can stick with meats instead but the key is to think about your general health and how you will respond to fish if you want to go on this diet.

Eggs

Use eggs in your diet. (
source
)

Eggs can work in your diet. These include eggs that come from different poultry-based animals. Eggs are capable of providing your body with choline, a substance that is used to help you get your heart controlled to keep the molecules that harm blood vessels down.

It is true that there are some egg allergies. However,
most people outgrow their egg allergies as they become adults
. Therefore, you might have an easier time with handling eggs if you are older in age.

Of course, you can always go along with a plan that only involves egg whites or egg yolks depending on what you want to get out of it. Just make sure that you only work with actual eggs and not egg substitutes. Trimming off the white or yolk parts of eggs should not be all that hard for you to do.

Fruits

Fruits are not only capable of improving you immune system but are also naturally sweet without any artificial sugars being added. The fruits that you can use include apples, oranges, bananas, pears, grapes, pineapple, coconuts, figs and many others.

There are no restrictions on the fruits that you can use either. Now it is true that some of these fruits might have fats in them like bananas. However, they should be easy for the body to use because the fats are organic in nature and should not be as likely to stick within your body as other processed fats that you might have been using before getting into this diet.

The best thing to do is to eat fruits carefully without going overboard. Fruits work well as a snack but they should not be used as often as vegetables. This may come from the natural sugars that you would be getting out of these fruits. This is in spite of the strong nutrient quantities that you can expect to get out of fruits.

Vegetables

Collard greens can be used as vegetables in your diet. (
source
)

The vegetables that you can use in this diet are able to help you out with improving your body’s ability to use fiber, calcium and other critical nutrients that you need in your diet.

Leafy vegetables are the most popular options to find. These include cabbage, lettuce, spinach, turnip greens and even mustard greens.

Root vegetables are also popular choices. These are vegetables that grow underground. They have been harvested by people for millions of years. Some of the vegetables that you can use here include carrots, radishes, turnips, beets and artichokes among many others.

Even squash can be used among vegetables. This includes winter squash options like butternut and acorn squash but also summer options like zucchini and yellow squash.

You can use these vegetables in either a
cooked or raw
form. This can be according to what you might personally prefer.