your body your health

[galia]

Apparently, if I follow this very strictly, I should be free of it withon 6 to 12 months. It's going to be hard. Forest mushrooms season is starting

I drink only oolong tea and the occasional chai. I think chickpeas are very bad for me, I dont really eat beans otherwise but I do like homemade hummus.

This is going to be fucking annoying

Lowrey: thanks for the suggestion, my posture is indeed atrocious, if I don't do anything about it I'll be a hunchback in 30-40 years. What did you do to correct yours?

[ahn]

So, less fitness than health related

I am attempting to rid myself of chronic headaches, since I am currently not allowed to take any medicine aside from paracetamol, which has little to no effect.

I used to have chronic migranes as well as headaches. Getting laser eye surgery has cured me of most of my migraines (I still get a few cycle based ones, but that can't really be helped without taking hormones and I'm not about to do that), but I still have a lot of headaches.

I started to run a month ago, every morning before breakfast and that has definitely helped.

I also found out I have food intolerances, mainly eggs and ferments (and milk-based products + honey to a lesser degree). I'm going to try and cut both out for a couple of months and see how that goes.

Do you guys have any ideas about other things that might be causing chronic headaches? I have at least one headache a day, and sometimes they last several days in a row. I sleep well, enough hours, good quality of sleep.

I barely drink any alcohol and have given up smoking. I'm running out of ideas about what could be causing this. It's not a super debilitating problem like migraines, but it's a little exhausting and it's preventing me from doing all I want to do in a day.

It is hard to say for sure without knowing the root cause of the headaches.

When I found out I was coeliac 18 months ago I put myself on the Auto-Immune Protocol to heal my gut. Science is showing that overall health seems to start in the gut, and that healing the gut can help ease symptoms of an incredible range of health concerns.

The AIP is designed especially for gut healing and while it was invented with auto-immune diseases in mind has helped people ease symptoms of many more concerns.

Unfortunately AIP is incredibly restrictive. But it's not a permanent diet - it's an elimination diet that will help you work out exactly what you're intolerant to if you stick to it properly. Then you can resume eating all the foods that don't elicit your symptoms!

http://www.thepaleomom.com/autoimmunity/the-autoimmune-protocol

Good luck!!

[galia]

That is is incredibly interesting, but as I don't have an autoimmune disease, this is unneccessary for me and would make my life very complicated.

So far, cutting out ferments eggs and 90% of dairy has made a HUGE difference. Within 48hours my headaches had become manageable, and now after a week or so I don't have them except if I'm dehydrated, stressed of tired. This is a major improvement, I'm super happy.

I think running every morning is also helping generally speaking. I've reached the stage where I'm beginning to actually enjoy doing it while I'm doing it, and not just before and after, which is nice.

I would like to go paleao, but my natural sensibilities make me lean towards veganism (except for my mother's cooking, after all I am French) and being vegan and paleo at the same time would mean being hungry all the time, no? Actually I'd like to know if some people have experienced combining the two, and how they feel.

My husband is doing the 80% paleo diet, in that he's allowed 1 reasonably non-paleo meal every 5 meals. But I just can't deal with the amount of animal flesh he eats, I would feel too bad eating that much meat.

Anyway, thanks all for your tips, it's always helpful to get people's oppinions!

[jurassicsnark]

I would like to go paleao, but my natural sensibilities make me lean towards veganism (except for my mother's cooking, after all I am French) and being vegan and paleo at the same time would mean being hungry all the time, no? Actually I'd like to know if some people have experienced combining the two, and how they feel.

I was a vegetarian for 22 years, and I was put on a protocol by my doctor to try to find the root cause of some issues which was basically paleo (no dairy, no grains, no sugars, etc.). So while I was ovo-lacto vegetarian, the paleo part had no dairy... So I did eat eggs but was otherwise vegan.

It was perfectly fine at home. My partner is an excellent cook, and he always made sure I had plenty of yummy things to eat. But at the time I was doing a lot of traveling for work, and that was pretty terrible. I spent a lot of time in restaurants in smaller towns eating nothing but salad all day. It was not very filling, nor fulfilling, and it was finally the straw that broke the vegetarian's back.

Otherwise, I felt great on the diet, lost a lot of weight, and had my symptoms clear up. I haven't been nearly so disciplined since, and I need to get back on something as I could definitely stand to lose 10-15 lbs.

[galia]

Thanks for sharing your experience. My husband is a very good cook as well, but as I said, he's very meat-centric.

So far what I'm doing seems to be working, I'm losing weight, few headaches, more energy... I even feel happier, weirdly enough. The grains I do eat are whole (except for those in milk form, I'm not sure how those are) and I find that I'm gradually eating less of them without making an effort, so I might end up where I want to be just by going at it slow. we'll see.

Last question: is soy / soy sauce compatible with the paleo or paleo-like diet?

[ronin]

Paleo cuts out all legumes including soy, so I would say no.

I know there are people who follow a vegan paleo diet, but gosh does that seem hard to stick to in the long run. Paleo is, after all, built mainly around meat (as a vegetarian, the very thought of a diet relying so heavily on animal flesh makes me shiver, but considering how popular it has grown I'm sure it has its benefits). However, when you look at it closely, most "paleo-vegans" work their way around one restriction or the other : some advocate adding small quantities of meat, others include lentils or quinoa from time to time, most just eat many eggs. So if you want to give it a try, you probably shouldn't feel bad about making your own adjustments. It's not as if you were cheating with a tailor-made, medically prescribed diet, you have some room to find out what works for you.

[galia]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to play it by ear, simply removing the stuff I'm not allowed to eat + the most addictive foods (sugar, chocolate, cheese, salted peanuts, white flour, etc). That way my body can just tell me what it needs. I've been consistently losing weight without feeling hungry since I started ajusting my diet, which is wonderful

And the paleao diet has done wonders for my husband and many of his friends. it's great for people who are very physically active and makes it easier for the body to accept occasional fasting, which is great for the metabolism. It's just that, like you, I can't deal with the amount of meat. I'm gradually cutting it out, but still eat it when there's a family occasion or when I start craving it, which now happens less than once a month. We'll see how that goes.

[GucciAmen]

The talk of paleo often has the the hidden issue of carb intake, with camps on either side (reg vs. low)... Speaking from experience, I highly recommend that no one here starts cutting carbs as a result of their paleo diet (or any other). I don't have an issue with going grain free per se, but I take a stance against anything even near one's carbohydrate maintenance level. Eating low GI carbs like sweet potatoes/yams aren't going to do any damage, so enjoy those, just don't fall prey to the low-carb theories, it's a bad, bad idea.

[Arkady]

Anyone here enjoy playing with nootropics and herbal supplements?

After a lot of experimentation I'm about to switch to something like this for day to day:

Morning:
B6 (50 mg)
Krill oil (1250 mg)
Brahmi / Bacopa (500 mg - 1000 mg)
Rhodiola (500 mg)

Night:
Ashwagandha (670mg)

Serious work / writing days only:
B6 (50 mg)
Krill oil (1250 mg)
Brahmi / Bacopa (500 mg - 1000 mg)
Noopept (10 mg to 20 mg)
Alpha GPC (30x Noopept Dose -- 300 mg to 600 mg)

L-Theanine (200 mg as needed to relax)

Night:
Ashwagandha (670mg)

___________

I think this could use some Magnesium at night but then again I once overdid it on Magnesium and had a pretty bad time of it.

[stagename]

, just don't fall prey to the low-carb theories, it's a bad, bad idea.

Can you elaborate on that? Also, how low are we talking about? Keto-low? 15% of diet low?

Also, on paleo diet, because fads =/ health and please be critical of what you read.

Debunking the paleo diet
Paleo diet is half-baked
Paleo Diet May Have Included Some Sweets, Carbs

[GucciAmen]

Can you elaborate on that? Also, how low are we talking about? Keto-low? 15% of diet low?

Also, on paleo diet, because fads =/ health and please be critical of what you read.

Debunking the paleo diet
Paleo diet is half-baked
Paleo Diet May Have Included Some Sweets, Carbs

Sure, sorry for how breviloquent that was..

I did the whole gamut of self-toted "health" diets (didn't need any of them, no prior issues with carb intake, was already at 10% BF), not seeing the underlying fad/trend nature of it all (two years ago: 17 year old gym-ridden orthorex trying to get as "healthy" as possible ). I did keto for about 7 months paired with about 10-11 hours in the gym a week (compound/isolated weight training). By the end I was pretty fucked up lol. Still recovering to a degree (compounded with my recent diagnosis of lyme disease -- had it for est. three years).

I did experiment with lower carb diets (grain-free) for some time afterwards (like 75-100g max) and crashed again. So this isn't the answer either, and I would certainly not recommend the 15% you mentioned either.

Found after some extensive research that much of the body's hormones/thyroid operate in correlation to carb intake, so thyroid stands to suffer at a depleted carb intake (significantly kills T3 levels); also low carb, and especially ketosis, mess up the body's insulin -- causing insulin resistance (specifically at the muscle bodies, so the brain gets enough glucose and doesn't fail) -- not good.

I've also done high carb during one dreaded "bulking phase" (only had to do it once to throw in the towel), and this is no answer either (mainly if it is composed of refined grains/breads [I have little issue with whole grains -- not all of them are akin to "frankenwheat"); highly recommend sticking to the tried and true 50 carb/20 protein/30 fat "diet". Proper balance between all the macronutrients (quality food is also key, especially in the realm of carbs) is definitely the way to go for longevity and optimal health (can toy with it depending on your daily level of physical exertion).

I don't mean to source primal cultures literally as it is a foolish idea (doesn't translate well) but most of them do/did thrive on high carb diets, from the pre-modern Okinawans (talking like 80/90% yams [very high carb]) to the Kitavans (lots of yams as well [mainly carbs] paired with fruit, some fish)... Even the paleo attachment to Inuit tribes living off of almost all animal flesh can be refuted (animals consumed almost immediately after death, when the meat actually contains a large amount of carbs within), so paleo doesn't really have the historical basis they thought they had...

[ahn]

Paleo cuts out all legumes including soy, so I would say no.

I know there are people who follow a vegan paleo diet, but gosh does that seem hard to stick to in the long run. Paleo is, after all, built mainly around meat (as a vegetarian, the very thought of a diet relying so heavily on animal flesh makes me shiver, but considering how popular it has grown I'm sure it has its benefits). However, when you look at it closely, most "paleo-vegans" work their way around one restriction or the other : some advocate adding small quantities of meat, others include lentils or quinoa from time to time, most just eat many eggs. So if you want to give it a try, you probably shouldn't feel bad about making your own adjustments. It's not as if you were cheating with a tailor-made, medically prescribed diet, you have some room to find out what works for you.

It's really not and this is where paleo cops a lot of flack unnecessarily. A proper paleo diet should actually be primarily vegetables focused, with meat as a secondary focus.

Meat (especially organ meats) are rich in nutrients not found in other food sources, and paleo is quintessentially about eating the most micronutrient rich foods possible - so naturally the meat thing has become a big take-away for people learning about paleo for the first time because yes the movement is unafraid to promote meat's health benefits. Everyone knows the health benefits of vegetables so that side of it doesn't really get any press.

But the ideal paleo dinner plate for a female would be 1 palm-sized portion of protein, 1 index finger-size portion of good fats, and the rest of the plate should be full of vegetables of as many colours as possible.

It would still be hard to be vegan-paleo I think if you couldn't get your protein intake from eggs. Vegans rely so heavily on grains and legumes which are not considered paleo. But vegetarian-paleo or - ideally - pescatarian-paleo (because fatty fish is basically the king of paleo proteins) wouldn't be THAT challenging I imagine.

[ahn]

Anyway there is no one ideal diet. You should eat the way that suits you best. This article is really eye-opening: http://rawfoodsos.com/2015/10/06/in-...hought-part-1/

[Dropt]

Meat (especially organ meats) are rich in nutrients not found in other food sources, and paleo is quintessentially about eating the most micronutrient rich foods possible - so naturally the meat thing has become a big take-away for people learning about paleo for the first time because yes the movement is unafraid to promote meat's health benefits. Everyone knows the health benefits of vegetables so that side of it doesn't really get any press.

That's entirely true. Although I think the issue with the Paleo diet is that, we precisely no longer live like hunter-gatherers anymore – aren't remotely the same number – and don't have the same ressources available.

The effects of intensive livestock consumption on an ecological standpoint (let alone on health if not properly monitored) are disastrous for the planet. To advocate meat eating everyday is just not sustainable, and let's not talk about animal farming and the ethical issues raised by these practices. It shouldn't be meatless monday but meat monday.

[james]

People get behind food trends like its a religion and considering any other way of eating as illegitimate. The reason all of these food trends (paleo, vegan, raw vegan etc ) are successful is because they're on a reductionist diet of taking out all the bad things Ie processed foods. So of course they're going to see positive results. To truly take your health to the next level you need to be able to read your body and see what works for you, food sensitivities etc