Tag: primal foods

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Is it okay to consume dairy if you decide to go primal?

A couple of weeks ago, I went to an Amish farm to buy more goat cheese, one of my favorites! Have you ever tried goat cheese? It is perfect as a snack when you are in a rush. I like to put goat cheese in my salads. It pairs so well with the green lettuces. 

In The New Primal Blueprint, Mark Sisson states, “The Primal Blueprint stance is that certain forms of dairy can provide excellent nutrition and enjoyment for those who can tolerate dairy consumption without digestive distress.”

Which dairy is okay to consume?

According to The New Primal Blueprint, when you want to buy dairy products, you want to get pasture-raised/grass-fed or organic dairy. And the best picks are:

  • Raw
  • Fermented
  • Unpasteurized
  • Unsweetened
  • High-fat

This means you can buy things like:

  • Ghee
  • Butter
  • Full cream
  • Aged cheese
  • Cottage cheese
  • Cream cheese 
  • Greek-style full-fat yogurt
  • Half and half
  • Kefir
  • Raw whole milk

Buying pasture-raised/grass-fed or organic dairy products means that you bypass the conventional dairy filled with hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics. In Food Fix, Dr. Mark Hyman specifies, “Find dairy from heirloom cows that contain A2 casein, which doesn’t cause the same digestive or inflammatory problems as modern cow products.” A2 casein is a protein in milk, “perfectly safe,” as opposed to A1 casein (a lectin-like protein). You also get A2 casein with goat and sheep dairy.

Sidenote:  Lectins are natural plant toxins that can damage the thin lining of the small intestine.

Whey is the other protein you find in milk. And lactose is a carbohydrate you find in milk.

In summary

Buying high-quality products is a must with dairy. If there are no farms near you, there are some online sites you can check. In a previous post, I mentioned US Wellness Meats. There is also an online site called Organic Pastures that you could check out. Consuming dairy is okay, provided the dairy you buy is pasture-raised/grass-fed or organic. See how your body reacts to your food picks and adjust accordingly. Dairy is an awesome treat that I am happy to still be able to enjoy whenever I feel like it!

References

Gundry, Steven R. The Plant Paradox Quick and Easy : The 30-Day Plan to Lose Weight, Feel Great, and Live Lectin-Free. New York, Ny, Harper Wave, An Imprint Of Harpercollinspublishers, 2019, p. 257.

Hyman, Mark. Food Fix : How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet-One Bite at a Time. New York, Little, Brown Spark, An Imprint Of Little, Brown And Company, 2020, pp. 54–55.

Sisson, Mark. The New Primal Blueprint : Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2017, pp. 237–240.

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Today, I thought I would talk about how I have been changing my eating habits since April 2014. After reading the book I mentioned in my first blog post, Your Personal Paleo Code, by Chris Kresser, I went ahead and started implementing the Thirty-Day-Reset plan suggested in it. I had a headache for the first three days, but it eventually went away. Weaning ourselves from processed foods we have been eating for decades can trigger this type of reaction at first, but almost right away we can also feel an amount of energy that seems miraculous. I had such a sweet tooth up until that point, but I knew I needed to change that. I started putting coconut oil in my coffee instead of sugar, eating 1-2 eggs with ½ an avocado in the morning, enjoying a green smoothie as a snack, and eating simple whole foods the rest of the day.

In 2016, I discovered the Bulletproof template and started making Bulletproof coffee with grass-fed butter (or ghee) and Brain Octane oil. Drinking this coffee gave me even more energy, and now it is all I need to have in the morning, right after a cup of warm water with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and Celtic sea salt. I stay in mild ketosis* during the day and refeed with healthy carbs, part of a balanced meal, at the end of the day. Whenever I start to miss bread or tortilla chips too much, I go online and purchase some of the many paleo options the site Thrive Market offers. 

Removing the foods we have been eating for decades can seem overwhelming at first, especially when it comes to comfort foods. But by taking it one day at a time and finding new delights in the many different ways we can prepare simple whole foods, it actually makes eating paleo/primal a very feasible option. And not every day has to be perfect. There is the well-known 80/20 rule which gives a 20% margin of not eating 100% primal/paleo. This rule usually doesn’t affect, in most cases, the efforts we’re making to better our health. 

I do not contemplate, even for a minute, going back to eating foods that make me feel sluggish. Having enough energy each day to accomplish whatever we have to do is, in my opinion, the key to finding joy in life, whatever the challenges we have to face may be.

*Ketosis is a state in which our energy levels are fueled by mitochondria (the powerhouses of the cells) using ketones instead of glucose, as explained in Head Strong, by Dave Asprey.

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