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The Paleo lowdown on eating fruit

Posted on 8 March, 2017 by | 1 comment

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It’s a question I’ve been asked time and again since becoming something of a health authority: is fruit paleo? An excellent question, and one which I usually don’t have enough hours in the day to answer in sufficient detail. This, in case you’re wondering, is not one of those times.

Can you eat fruit on a Paleo diet?

The short answer is: yes! While many “hardcore” Paleo punters wouldn’t be caught dead beside a bowl of fruit, it’s totally unreasonable, and in many cases unhealthy, to completely remove fruit from your life. Phew! Am I right?

But that affirmative isn’t your one-way ticket to a daily fruit binge. We know that our Paleolithic ancestors certainly ate fruit – the berries or drupes that they came across in the wild would have provided valuable nutrients and minerals to fill in the nutritional gaps of their predominantly protein-based diets. But what we also know is that those fruits were not the same as those we find on our supermarket shelves today.

If you’ve ever walked through a forest glade and noticed a patch of wild strawberries growing in the sunshine, you’ll know what I mean. Wild strawberries have almost no resemblance to their monstrous cultivated counterparts, and this is due to thousands of years of genetic selection. Some time after the agricultural revolution, around 10,000 years ago, humans began to alter those “wild” fruit species that our Paleolithic forebears foraged. People realized that by only selecting and growing those fruit variants that were larger, sweeter, or more edible, they could develop a whole new “species” of superfruit. This selective style of cultivation continued throughout the millennia, to give us the fruits we are sold today. Yes, even the organic, non-GMO fruit!

In many cases, this was an essential part of allowing humans to eat and enjoy a certain kind of fruit in the first place. For example, the uncultivated, wild version of bananas are actually virtually inedible. Their seed to flesh ratio is so high that it’s almost not worth bothering to eat them, but every now and then a sterile banana is produced that doesn’t have any seeds. It was those sterile bananas that people loved to eat, and they therefore started taking cuttings of the sterile plants and reproducing banana trees without all the seeds. Because they’re all sterile, the only way these trees can be reproduced is by vegetative propagation – taking part of the original tree to create an exact genetic copy of it.

I happen to love bananas, so I’m not going to begrudge those enterprising farmers for playing around with nature. But what these genetic selections means is that cultivated fruit is completely different to the wild fruit our ancestors ate. It’s generally sweeter (so far higher in fructose), less nutritionally dense…and there’s a whole lot more available today than there was 10,000+ years ago!

With this in mind, for the Paleo eater, fruit should become less of a “health food” and more of a nutritious treat. That orange juice with breakfast or fruit smoothie for lunch, by the way, is not what the doctor ordered.

Not all fruits were created equal, however, so if you’re going to get your daily dose of fruit, which is best for your health?

Which fruit is best to eat on a Paleo diet?

There’s a few ways you can approach the healthiest fruit:

  • how much sugar does it contain?
  • how nutritious is it?
  • how much chemical residue does it contain?

Ideally, you’d only eat those fruits that are low in sugar, high in beneficial nutrients, and low in pesticides and herbicides. Often it’s hard to tick all three boxes, but here’s a short overview to get you heading in the right direction.

Sugar content of popular fruit

Generally speaking, your berries and sour citrus fruits have the lowest fructose content, while things like apples, grapes and mangoes have the most. Probably no great surprise – fruit that makes your face pucker up is generally low in sugar!

  • Avocado (yup, it’s a fruit!): 1 g sugar/cup
  • Lime: 1 g sugar/medium
  • Lemon: 2 g sugar/medium
  • Raspberries: 5 g sugar/cup
  • Kiwi: 6 g sugar/medium
  • Strawberries: 7 g sugar/cup
  • Grapefruit: 9 g sugar/medium
  • Watermelon: 9 g sugar/cup
  • Orange: 13 g sugar/medium
  • Banana: 14 g sugar/medium
  • Blueberries: 15 g sugar/cup
  • Dates: 16 g sugar/medium
  • Apple: 19 g sugar/medium
  • Mango: 23 g sugar/cup
  • Grapes: 23 g sugar/cup
  • Raisins: 86 g sugar/cup

This is just to give you an idea of which fruits are better than others on the fructose scale. On any given day, you’re better off sticking to berries like raspberries, strawberries, cranberries and blackberries, citrus fruit, and maybe the odd kiwi, plum, or watermelon. Fructose is highly inflammatory, and can contribute to conditions like fatty liver disease and diabetes. Generally the less fructose you consume per day, the better.

How nutritious is your fruit?

This is probably the most difficult aspect of prioritizing your fruit. Different fruits contain different ratios of various nutrients, making direct comparison rather difficult. If you’re suffering from cramps or headaches, you could be lacking in potassium, meaning from a nutrient standpoint a potassium-rich banana might be a good choice. If you’re worried about cancer, however, dark-colored fruits like blueberries or strawberries might be a better choice as they have more antioxidants. It really comes down to what your body is lacking. For fruit-specific nutritional content, you might want to check out this database.

Otherwise, a very committed researcher from William Paterson University ranked 47 fruits and vegetables based on 17 different nutrients considered critical for fighting heart disease and cancer. You can check out their handy ranking system in this article. You’ll notice that there’s far more vegetables on the list than fruit. That’s not a coincidence. I’ve stressed time and again that vegetables should form the backbone of produce in your diet, as they’re generally more nutritionally dense and lower in sugar than most fruit.

Those fruit that did make the nutritional cut are tomato (yep, also a fruit!), lemon, strawberry, orange, lime, grapefruit and blackberry. I’d also be inclined to add avocado to that list – it’s certainly a nutritional powerhouse.

All these fruits also happen to have relatively low sugar content. How convenient!

Is your fruit doused in chemicals?

I’ve written about this very topic in my guide to shopping for fruit and vegetables. Based on comprehensive data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists tell you which produce is best to buy based on potential for chemical residue, and which is worst. Based on their findings, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, kiwi, honeydew melon, grapefruit and cantaloupe have the lowest risk of chemical pesticide, herbicide or insecticide residue. Unfortunately, lots of your favorite fruits didn’t make the cut, including strawberries, cherries, apples, nectarines, peaches, grapes and tomatoes.

You’ll notice that those fruits which made the Clean 15 all have thick skins which you don’t typically eat. Those that were included in the Dirty Dozen have thin skins that blemish easily and are almost always consumed (except for the oddballs who don’t like apple skin!). With this in mind, I have three recommendations: firstly, always buy organic when you can, as this sidesteps any risk of chemical residue. Secondly, if you can’t buy organic, go for those fruits with the thicker (inedible) skins. And finally, if you must eat your non-organic strawberries and other Dirty Dozen fruit, be sure to give them a good soak first.

Recipe: Paleo fruit salad

Personally, I take great pleasure in eating fruit. It adds a whole lot more flavor and color to my day, so I’m not willing to completely throw in the fructose towel! And when you take into consideration the above factors, there’s no reason why you should give up fruit either.

To rekindle your love of fruit, here’s a great recipe for a Paleo fruit salad I’ve honed over the years. Its filled with fruits that have lower fructose content and higher nutritional value, so it’s not only a tasty treat, but a healthy one too! Just be sure to limit your fruit intake to around 2 servings (a couple of handfuls) per day.

Ingredients:

  • 3 plums, cut into wedges
  • 1 peach, cut into wedges (organic or soaked is best)
  • 1 orange, cut or pulled apart into segments
  • 1/2 cup strawberries, chopped in half (organic or soaked is best)
  • 1/2 cup blackberries
  • 1/2 cup raspberries
  • 1 banana, sliced
  • 3 limes, squeezed
  • 1 sprig mint, finely diced

Instructions:

Using a lemon squeezer or your own trusty hands, squeeze the juice from your 3 limes into a small bowl. Remove the mint leaves from the stem, and dice the leaves relatively finely. Add to the bowl of lime juice, and allow to sit for at least 2 hours so that the mint infuses the lime juice.

Next, cut your plums, peach and oranges into wedges, adding to a large serving bowl. Chop up your banana and throw it in, along with your halved strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Peel the orange and add in the segments – if it’s a particularly big orange, you can cut each segment in half to ensure it doesn’t “steal the show”.

When you’re ready to serve, drizzle your lime and mint dressing over the salad, give it a gentle toss to ensure all the fruit is covered and well-mixed, and sprinkle over a garnish of mint leaves if you have any left over. The lime and mint dressing provides a refreshing counterpoint to the sweetness of the other fruits, and has the added benefit of helping to preserve your fruit salad for longer.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know whether you’ve tried the recipe, or if you have your own Paleo-tastic fruit salad to share with the world!

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Posted in Ancestral Nutrition, Real Food Recipes, Uncategorized, Wild Foods & Foraging

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How to shop for the healthiest eggs

Posted on 12 August, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Eggs. They’re small, roundish, and surprisingly mysterious. You might navigate your way swiftly and surely through all the isles of the supermarket, only to be stumped by the dilemma that these nutritional powerhouses present.

Eggs can be an amazing source of essential fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and beneficial compounds when they come from quality sources. The problem is, it’s not always obvious what those sources are, and how to pick out the healthiest eggs from an extensive selection which, to all outward appearances, look almost identical. In this post, I’ll explore why you really need to prioritize “good” eggs over “bad” ones, and then how to go about digging out those good ones from amongst the masses.

Why you need to invest in high-quality eggs

In the paleo, primal, bulletproof, and wider health communities, eggs have developed into something of a cult following in recent years. There’s a good reason for this – they’re an inexpensive, readily available, easy-to-prepare source of healthy fats, protein, and nutrients. Few foods rival the humble egg’s nutritional capacity, but only when those eggs come from healthy, happy hens. And while this may seem a simple enough solution, the agricultural industry is slowly but surely turning egg production into the stuff of nightmares.

When it comes to buying eggs, most people make the mistake of prioritizing price over quality. I myself used to be one of those people, heading straight for the lowest-priced eggs and feeling like I just scored a financial victory as I strolled towards the checkout. After doing some research, however, I later discovered that those decisions made absolutely no sense, due to the fact that I was paying far more in health problems from eating things like inferior eggs than I could ever save by tightening my budget in the store.

While for some foods the difference in price is simply due to branding, eggs are an excellent example of how price can be an excellent indicator of quality. In general, cheaper eggs are cheaper for a reason:

  • cheaper eggs come from hens that are jammed wing-to-wing into tiny battery cages inside vast, reeking warehouses. These cages offer little to no movement, certainly not the movement required for a hen to be healthy, but this allows farmers to squeeze in far more chickens into a small space – effectively increasing their productivity per square foot of warehouse space.
  • cheaper eggs come from hens which are given the lowest-cost feed available, feed which is designed to fatten the chickens up as fast as possible (and therefore get them laying faster) but not to support the development of healthy bones and organs
  • cheaper eggs come from hens which have their wings and beaks clipped to prevent harm or cannibalism in such as tight space, are injected with growth hormones to ensure they reach their egg-laying age faster, and regularly fed antibiotics to ensure they don’t get sick or die due to the cramped conditions.

The result is warehouses which can literally pump out thousands of eggs, increasing productivity and lowering the cost of these eggs. Unfortunately, the benefits stop there. Many of the toxins and health problems of the hens are passed into their eggs, meaning they contain antibiotic and growth hormone residues, a very poor omega-3 to omega-6 ratio (making them pro-inflammatory), and high levels of environmental toxins.

Eggs which come from healthy chickens, on the other hand, are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, have bucketloads of nutrients, keep you feeling fuller for longer, and are much less likely to contain harmful environmental toxins. For this reason, a 3 or 4 dollar difference in price could mean the difference between something which can harm your health and increase your risk of disease, or something which can nurture your body and actually work to heal any ailments you might be suffering from. Anyone who is aware of this difference and still goes for the cheaper eggs clearly doesn’t value their health at all.

Finding the healthiest eggs

While price is a good starting point for sorting the quality eggs from the bad, it unfortunately isn’t a hard and fast rule. Many companies market their pricey eggs as a higher-quality product, with fancy packaging and fancier words, when really their eggs are just as bad as the cheap ones. Here’s how to know to look out for the best eggs:

  • Pasture-raised: these are the best eggs you’ll ever find. Chickens which produce these eggs live on farms that allow them to roam freely outside, eating foods of their choice (like tasty worms and bugs!) and getting plenty of sunlight. These hens are free from hormones, antibiotics, and the hardship of a life spent inside a tiny cage.
  • Free-range: not as good as pasture-raised, but still a healthy choice. Hens that produce these eggs are permitted limited access to the outdoors, and don’t get kept in cages. They can move around, but for most of their lives it’ll be inside a large open-plan warehouse rather than outside.
  • Free-run: a slightly lower quality version of free-range, and often synonymous with “cage-free”. These hens don’t have access to the outdoors, but can move around freely and are much healthier than caged hens.
  • Cage-free: pretty self explanatory really! Cage-free can include all three of the above egg-types, however if you can’t see any other labels then chances are these hens are confined to the indoors.
  • Organic: The organic label assures you that those eggs come from hens which were raised on feed without additives, animal by-products, growth hormones and antibiotics. In certain places, this also means that such hens must be given access to the outdoors, perches, dust-bathing areas and stipulated minimum space requirements. Don’t be sucked in by “organic vegetarian fed” labels – chickens need to eat worms and bugs in order to thrive, meaning “vegetarian” is not necessarily a good thing.

At the end of the day, all of the above types of eggs are better than caged eggs. Generally, the price of eggs will go up according to how the hens were raised (pasture-raised being most expensive, cage-free being least expensive). Where possible, try to find eggs which tick more than one box – i.e. free-range eggs which are also organic. Also keep in mind that “omega-3” eggs are a bit of a gimmick, and you’re far better off getting high levels of omega-3s from eggs lain by healthy chickens than by chickens who have had artificial sources of omega-3 slipped into their feed.

If you’d like to find out more, this article provides a really good analysis of the various eggs available on the market and how to determine whether they’re good or bad.

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Your Paleo guide to grocery shopping: milk and dairy

Posted on 30 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Mention the word “dairy” to your average paleo enthusiast, and they’ll shake their heads and mutter to themselves about potential toxicity issues, food allergies, and the untrustworthiness of these types of products. And they’d be right – this subject area is a very difficult one to navigate, as dairy products are typically shrouded in mystery and have the potential to throw your clean dieting right off the rails.

In Part 3 of our food shopping series (check out our guide to fruit and vegetables here, and our guide to shopping for meat, poultry and fish here), we’ll explore how to tell if milk and other dairy-based foods are good for you, how to find high quality ingredients in your supermarket or at the farm gate, and hidden dangers you need to look out for.

Read on, to continue your training towards becoming a supermarket superstar!

Is dairy and milk paleo?

From a strict Paleo standpoint, dairy was not consumed in the Paleolithic Era (aside from human milk, that is!), and for this reason many of those who follow a regimented Paleo diet stay away from it.

But just because something wasn’t available to our ancestors doesn’t make it inherently bad. Good quality dairy is an amazing source of nutrition, designed by the animal that produced it to be loaded with saturated fats, beneficial bacteria, essential fatty acids, proteins, vitamins and minerals. As it is the first thing a newborn calf, kid (in the goat sense) or lamb drinks, it provides a vital burst of nourishment that this animal needs to survive the first phase of it’s life.

Now, while this milk was not designed for human mouths, there’s no reason why we might not gain benefit or nourishment from it. In my opinion, it’s the same as eating good quality eggs – they clearly weren’t designed for human consumption, but they’ve attained an almost godlike status amongst the Paleo community, and are celebrated for the vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats they can provide us. Milk is the same – we can benefit from the same compounds that the calf, kid or lamb would thrive on.

Where dairy gets a bad rap is with regards to lactose, casein and the potential for introducing synthetic toxins into our bodies. It’s important to note, however, that this is usually only a problem when buying regular, grain-fed, store-based milk or dairy products. These products are made from cows (and to a lesser degree, sheep and goats) which have been raised on a diet consisting almost solely of GMO corn and soy, while being confined to tiny pens inside horrific dairy factories, away from the sun. These animals are also regularly injected with hormones, to make them grow faster and produce more milk, and antibiotics, to prevent them from developing diseases due to their unhealthy living conditions.

All this nasty stuff gets into the milk, while all the good stuff (the beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes, saturated fats) gets removed during the processes of skimming, pasteurization and homogenization. The result is a dairy product devoid of nutrients and healthy fats, which is now missing the very bacterial cultures and enzymes which make it easier for our stomachs to digest in the first place (and which would otherwise prevent us from developing lactose or casein intolerance).

Why raw milk is NOT dangerous

Unfortunately, the agricultural industry has made it ridiculously difficult to get your hands on good quality dairy. Most of the US states continue to impose a complete ban on the sale and distribution of raw milk, citing antiquated cases of people becoming sick or even dying from consumption of raw milk that was somehow contaminated. These fears are based on a system of pasteurization which was introduced back before the invention of refrigerated transport and storage, when milk or dairy products could become eventually become contaminated by harmful pathogens after sitting in a warm place for too long.

Well, as it happens, we have fast, refrigerated transport now, and cold storage, and fridges at home – so those claims about the necessity of pasteurization are completely redundant! What’s more, those stories of people getting sick from raw milk were almost always due to that milk coming from cows which were raised in undesirable conditions – like the small pens, with antibiotic-injected, hormone-enriched, grain-fed cows I talked about earlier. If the cows themselves are raised in pasture and allowed to roam free under the sun, these health concerns are even more redundant.

In actual fact, you’re far more likely to get sick from drinking regular pasteurized milk than you are from raw milk! One expert even goes so far as to state that “you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk”. So quit worrying! If, however, you still find yourself shaking in your boots at the very notion of drinking something which hasn’t been heated to smithereens, check out this article we wrote a while back.

How to buy good quality, healthy dairy products

Rather than going into too much more of a rant about the dairy industry and how it’s turning people against one of the most nutritious (not to mention delicious!) food sources available, lets get down to business. You came here to learn how to ferret through all those nasty dairy products and locate the actual good, healthy ones, and the below table should help you do just that. The table is laid out to present the most desirable sources of dairy first, then works down the list to products which you should probably just stay away from altogether. Remember – if you can’t find good quality dairy, it’s generally better to just cut your losses and eat or drink something else.

Thrive Primal how to choose the right dairy product

It turns out that making a table to show how best to prioritize your milk is a difficult task. Hopefully the above gets the point across: the highest quality milk and dairy is from humanely-treated, grass-fed cows (and sheep and goats) that have been raised on an organic farm (which implies that they’re free from hormones, antibiotics and probably GMOs). The best milk is also raw and full-fat! As you work down the table, the dairy becomes progressively less good for  you when it is no longer organic or full-fat. To provide a rough indication, I’d recommend regular (daily to 2 or 3 times a week) consumption of dairy products which are found in the green category, occasionally (no more than once a month) for those products in the orange section, and never buying those products in the red. ESPECIALLY dairy which is raw but comes from non-organic, grass-fed cows…although you’re fairly unlikely to ever come across that!

Finding good quality dairy is difficult, but not impossible

During our time living in Canada, Liivi and I became obsessed with the idea of getting our hands on a regular supply of grass-fed, raw dairy. It was very, very difficult, on account of strict Canadian laws which prohibit the sale of raw dairy products, and because 99.9% of the dairy farms there are grain-feeding. After much searching, we eventually came across this website, which got us in touch with a cooperative that provided real, organic, humane, grass-fed, RAW milk and dairy products. They products were expensive, but boy, were they good!

In the US, state governments are slowly starting to loosen up the laws, following increasing pressure from the public. Check out this interactive map to see whether your state allows the sale of raw milk in-store, or at least at the farm gate.

If you live in an area that is prohibitive to raw milk, however, don’t dismay – you can generally still get your hands on some high-quality, grass-fed dairy products, even if they’re not raw. As we travelled through the States and Canada, we would keep our eyes peeled for either the Kerrygold brand or the Anchor brand. Kerrygold comes from Ireland while Anchor comes from New Zealand, and both are produced from grass-fed cows, with no hormones and no antibiotics (I would know: I used to work for Anchor as an environmental officer!). You’ll often find Kerrygold butter or Anchor butter in your supermarket, and sometimes also Kerrygold cheese. Elsewhere in the world, you’re more than likely to stumble across a range of Anchor products, including Anchor butter and Mainland cheese. Failing that, order them on Amazon:

Another great way to get many of the benefits of grass-fed, organic cows, is from this whey protein powder which I came across after days of painstaking research. Find out more about it, here!

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Your paleo guide to grocery shopping: meat, fish and poultry

Posted on 29 July, 2016 by | Leave a comment

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Confused about how to get the most out of your meat shopping, either at your local supermarket, butcher, or down at the weekly farmer’s market? You’ve come to the right place!

It might look a little overwhelming as you stand there and eye up the towering mounds of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, and various other unidentifiable meats. But with a little bit of ground work and a knowledge of how to prioritize the best meats, you’ll do just fine. Here’s the quick and dirty on what you need to know.

On the importance of fat

If you’ve just recently made the shift to paleo, chances are you’re having trouble wrapping your head around the whole fat-is-good thing, especially with regards to saturated fats. This understanding of fat plays such a foundational role in the success of the paleo, primal, and Bulletproof diets that it needs to be revisited before we go delve any further.

So, without further ado: the saturated fat and monounsaturated fat that comes from meat, be it beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, fish, or otherwise, is one of the best, healthiest sources of fat available to humans. This is particularly the case with animals that have been raised in healthy living conditions, or are wild caught. Keep this in mind as you peruse the meat section of your supermarket or pretend you know what you’re talking about when you instruct your butcher what cuts you want.

Saturated and monounsaturated fats are your friends, so don’t shy away from meats which look fatty – these are the best, most nutritional cuts of the entire animal, aside from the organs (more on that later). Your traditional red meats (beef, lamb, bison, venison) have the highest saturated fat content, and incidentally have the best nutritional profiles (rivaled only, perhaps, by cold water fish like wild salmon or wild sardines). Chicken and pork, on the other hand, are generally lower in saturated fat content, have a higher monounsaturated fat content, and are packed with less vitamins and minerals.

Is it important to get grass-fed, pastured, or wild?

In a word: yes. Very important. If you’re going to put your dollar to work in the supermarket, put it to work buying the best quality meats you can find: the difference between a low quality meat and a high quality one is huge.

Grass-fed meat

“Grass-fed” is a term used to describe any ruminant (cow/beef, deer/venison, lamb, bison) which has been raised all its life on a diet of grass. This is what their digestive systems have evolved to process, and they can only truly be healthy when allowed to roam freely and eat grass to their heart’s content.

Grass-fed meat is much more nutritious and has a significantly better Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio, meaning it is less inflammatory than grain-fed meat and much better for your body. Grass-fed meat also has a significantly higher saturated fat content, which is a good thing.

Meats which display the label “grass finished” indicate that the animal has been primarily raised on grain throughout its life, then has been allowed to graze at pasture for a few weeks prior to slaughter. While this is better than a ruminant which hasn’t had any interaction with grass at all, it is nowhere near as good for you as grass-fed meat.

Pastured or free-range meat

The term “pastured” essentially has the same implications as “grass-fed” but it applies to non-ruminant land animals like pigs, chickens and ducks. If a meat displays the label “pastured” or “free-range”, it indicates that this animal has been raised in a healthy environment where it can roam freely, eat selectively and choose those foods which it gains the most benefit from. “Free-run” is slightly different to free-range, with free-run chicken or eggs coming from hens which can theoretically run free in an “open concept” barn, and are not housed in cages like conventional hens – not quite as good as free-run, but still better than your average cage-raised hen.

Even if the meat is not organic, if it is pastured or free-range it is generally fair to assume that this meat has less antibiotics, hormones, and other nasty surprises hidden in it’s depths. This is purely because such animals are healthier than their caged counterparts, and therefore need less synthetic treatments to keep them alive.

Wild-caught

“Wild-caught” can technically apply to any type of animal which occurs naturally in nature (such as venison or duck), however in most cases it refers to fish. As with the previous two categories, there’s a huge difference in quality between wild fish and farmed fish. Farmed fish are fattier, but it’s the wrong kind of fat, with a high ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s. This higher fat content in farmed fish also means that you’re getting less protein per serving than wild fish.

Possibly worse than this is the amount of toxins you’ll find in a typical fillet of farmed fish. In one of these babies, you’re likely to find high concentrations of body-harming compounds like dioxins, PCBs, fire retardants, pesticides, antibiotics, copper sulfate, and canthaxanthin (a dye associated with retinal damage used to make colorless farmed fish various shades of “wild” pink). Delicious.

Wild caught fish can contain these same toxins, but in far lower concentrations, and it’s only because of humans polluting the waters they swim in that they’re present at all. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of destruction and pollution that these fish farms are doing to the waters in which the real, wild fish make their home.

For more information on choosing the right fish, check out this article from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Should I try and buy organic meat?

Yes, you should certainly try. While organic meat is often hard to come buy, it’s worth seeking it out as it typically has an improved nutritional profile, but more importantly it doesn’t contain toxic residues from pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics or hormones which you’ll find in high concentrations in other, non-organic meats.

If a meat is organic, the feed it is given also needs to be organic, which means that this animal will be healthier and it’s meat is therefore of a better quality. Most of the time, organic also implies GMO-free, which is always a good thing. For more information on this, check out the section on GMOs in this article.

Which meats are best?

Originally, I had intended to put a list in this section which rated each type of commonly-stocked meat based on a range of variables and then recommended which were best. After giving it some thought, however, I came to conclusion that many others have reached – there’s no single best thing. Such a list should never exist, because there are so many different variables at play.

That being said, I do have some recommendations for what you write on your next grocery list with regards to buying meat:

Vary your meats throughout the week

While many paleo enthusiasts consider beef to be one of the best meats due to it’s high concentration of saturated fats, wide range of nutrients, and balanced fatty acid profile, you shouldn’t eat beef every single day. Doing so would put you at risk of iron toxicity, as red meats like beef and lamb have high concentrations of iron. Similar issues apply to other meats: too much chicken or pork could mean not enough saturated fats or an overload of polyunsaturated fats (the troublemaker of the fat trio), and a lack of the nutrients found in red meats. Too much fish, especially salmon or other cold water fish, could actually lower your omega 6 levels to the point where they’re unhealthy (yep, thats a thing).

The point is, vary your meats throughout the week and you’ll be getting all their benefits without getting an excess of their less desirable attributes. I have a very basic system whereby I always separate my meats by at least 2 to 3 other meats. For example, I might eat beef for dinner on Monday, then have eggs for breakfast on Tuesday, chicken for lunch, fish for dinner, a smoothie for breakfast on Wednesday, and lamb for lunch. This way, you’re enforcing a buffer period so that you don’t eat the same meat over and over, which can lead to health complications.

Eat organ meats on a regular basis

Yes, they taste pretty darn horrendous, but they’re probably one of the most nutrient-dense foods available to humans (if not THE most nutrient dense food!). This means they’re well stocked with many vitamins and minerals which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. For this reason, they can really give your health a kickstart, by filling in any nutritional gaps you might have in your body.

Of all the organs, liver is by far the most nutritionally-dense, so you should make sure you have this at least once a week. Other organs which you’ll likely see in the supermarket include kidney, heart, and tongue (these last two technically being muscles, but lets not nit-pick) – experiment with different organs and different recipes (this article has lots of good tips), and you’re bound to find SOMETHING which you and your family can choke down without complaining too much.

Oh, and remember to go for high quality sources (grass-fed, pastured, free-range, organic, yarda yarda)

Experiment with different cuts of meat

You know when you get up to the butcher’s counter, and they ask you what cut of beef or lamb you’d like, and you start to panic because you know NOTHING about which cuts are best? Well, you don’t have to panic any more – there IS no best cut. Traditionally, people would slaughter a cow or lamb, for example, chop it up into manageable portions, and proceed to literally eat that animal from nose to tail. These people, as it happens, were a whole lot healthier than most modern day westerners.

Take a leaf from their book and embrace the “nose to tail” mantra. Try buying different cuts of meat each week, perhaps even asking the butcher if they would recommend any particular cut which is interesting or different from usual. Eating different parts of the animal means you’ll be gaining access to a range of different nutrients and fat ratios, and as I’ve said before – variation is good!

Questions? Comments?

Phew, that was a lot of writing! I seem to recall saying that this was going to be “quick and dirty” at the start of the post, but it turns out that it was more “long and arduous”. That said, if you’ve got any further questions, or have a beef (pun unintended, surprisingly!) with something I’ve said, then drop us a comment and let us know! Oh, and do check out post number 1 in this 3 part series, which explains how to shop for fruits and vegetables like a pro!

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Why you can’t be healthy without meat & animal products

Posted on 19 November, 2015 by | 1 comment

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The topic of this post is a controversial one, and is bound to get a few of our more “plant-inclined” readers a little riled up. But here at Thrive Primal, we strive to provide our audience with useful, possibly life-changing nutritional information, regardless of how indigestible (excuse the pun) that information might be.

Humans evolved by increasing uptake of animal products

Meat and animal products. I hear a collective gasp from our vegetarian friends, but the fact is that we need these food sources to function at our best. Today, humans are arguably at the top of the food chain because of our dietary switch to animal-based nutrition millions of years ago. We evolved from our early plant-eating hominid ancestors when we began supplementing plants and vegetables with meat and animal-derived products, which resulted in marked increases in brain size.

The downside to this was a reduction in the size of the early-human gut system. This is due to the dramatic energy requirements of both brains and guts – development of one is inversely proportional to the other, thus as our brains grew and began to demand more energy, our guts shrunk. This essentially had a feedback effect on our evolving diets, as early hominids turned to the most nutrient-dense foods available – you guessed it, meat and animal products! – to support our brain development and make up for the loss in digestive capacity from our shrinking stomachs.

As such, humans have been evolving with the aid of nutrient-dense meats, organs and animal-derived products for millions of years.

Why modern diets have failed us

In recent decades, food consumption has changed dramatically from fresh, locally grown, whole foods to mass-produced, GMO, non-organic, semi-synthetic foods which have seen a dramatic increase in health problems, most notably in the US. Here, obesity rates have gone through the roof in the last 30 years, with one in five deaths associated with obesity, primarily as a result of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and liver disease, all of which are correlated with misaligned metabolic function (i.e. an unhealthy diet!).

Subsequently, many people have turned to vegetarianism and/or veganism as a means of avoiding consumption of so-called “dangerous” saturated fats, which the US government seems to have a personal vendetta against. The issue here is that, contrary to mainstream nutritional teachings, well-sourced saturated fats are necessary for healthy metabolic functioning in humans. They are vital in the absorption of important vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins A, D and E, and actually help to support optimal heart and organ function. As a general rule of thumb, vegetarian diets are very low in saturated fats, with the exception of the odd fat-savvy veggo who consumes suitable levels of coconut oil and avocado, and so many vegetarians are severely lacking in this important dietary component.

Many vegetarians might read this and argue that they feel just fine eating only plant-based foods, and that a switch to vegetarianism has improved their health. And it’s true that many people experience marked improvements in their health and well-being with a switch from a modern, processed foods-based diet to a vegetarian one. This is because vegetarian diets do, in fact, have many benefits, particularly in that they bring people back around to eating organic, fresh, whole foods which help to replace many of the nutrients they lost while relying on processed foods. The problem is that, in the long term, our bodies cannot remain at their best on a vegetarian diet, as our digestive system is simply not designed to obtain all the required vitamins and nutrients from plants alone. This is why many vegetarians experience an initial improvement in health but then dramatic declines in health in the long term. This may manifest within as little as a few months, or take a number of years to become apparent.

Eating high-quality meat and animal products is essential

The fact of the matter is, we need animal products in order to thrive. But, and we cannot stress this enough, your meat and animal products MUST be from quality sources. In a nutshell, this means products from animals which are happy, healthy, and thriving in their optimum environment. It makes sense that food sources which make us thrive should also thrive themselves, right?

So, what are the key elements determining high-quality animal products, such as meat, organs, eggs, and dairy? The first one is a no-brainer, and one which you’ll probably roll your eyes at: it must be organic. This means free from pesticides, insecticides, herbicides (anything with the word “cide” in it, really!), artificial hormones and antibiotics. Do not automatically assume, however, that “organic” implies “non-GMO“. In many instances it does, such as in the case of USDA Organic, but not always.

Second, the animal from which your food comes from needs to be either grass-fed or pastured. “Grass-fed” applies primarily to cows and sheep, while “pastured” applies primarily to poultry and pigs. “Grass-fed” is not always synonymous with “100% grass-fed”, however, and many labels will claim that your beef or lamb is grass-fed, when in fact it may have been raised on grass and then “finished”, in the weeks leading up to slaughter, with grains in order to fatten it up. This is a nutritional no-no, and many of the benefits which can be gained from eating grass-fed products (see more on this here) are lost if the animal is grain finished. Therefore, do your homework – avoid, if possible, anything which says “grain finished” (or even “grass finished”), and consider researching your particular brand online before you buy. Sometimes this is the only way to really be sure.

“Pastured” essentially means a “free-range” diet, i.e. one which allows the animal to roam over a comparatively large area and choose foods at-will. This means that the animal chooses to eat only those foods which are best for its own nutrition, and as such the meat is of a much higher quality. This term applies a little more loosely than “grass-fed”, as pigs and poultry have a far more varied natural diet than cows and sheep, which subsist primarily on grass.

Finally, the meat or animal product should have been produced in a humane way. Typically, the previous requirements of organic and grass-fed/pastured would ensure that this is automatically the case, but not always. Therefore, always look for the “certified humane” sticker on your product before you buy it, as this will ensure that the animal was treated with compassion, kindness and not put under undue stress during slaughter.

Choosing quality animal products drives sustainable farming

If you follow the above principles while buying meat and animal products at the store, you’re helping to drive a market which supports sustainable, humane farming practices. This means that farmers have an actual economic incentive to raise their animals in the best possible way, ensuring those animals are given happy, healthy lives. Boycotting the meat industry altogether through vegetarianism is not the answer, as meat producers will continue to supply low-quality, factory raised, inhumanely slaughtered animals to the majority of the population who only cares how the meat tastes in their greasy McDonald’s burger.

The health benefits of eating meat and butter

Provided your meat or animal product is sourced based on the above criteria, it will be some of the healthiest food you could ever eat. Grass-fed beef, for example, contains the perfect composition of fatty acids (think more Omega-3, less Omega-6!), super high levels of Vitamins A and E, and bucketloads of important micronutrients like potassium, zinc, iron and phosphorus. Furthermore, grass-fed butter is loaded with saturated fat, which can improve your blood lipid profile, raising levels of HDL (aka “good”) cholesterol and providing large amounts of Vitamin K2, a nutrient virtually absent from most other foods and which helps to de-calcify your arteries.

The bottom line

Meat and animal products are the bee’s knees. Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to extract optimum nutrition from animal sources, and we function at our best when we obtain the right amounts of these on a daily basis. Make sure, however, that you only buy organic, grass-fed/pastured, humanely-raised meats and animal products.

 

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The Best Clean Paleo Primal Protein Powder

Posted on 29 January, 2015 by | Leave a comment

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Scary junk in commercial protein powders

First things first, let’s start with why you don’t want to go buying that typical protein shake from Walmart or GNC or Herbalife or Isagenix. As explained in this article by leading natural physician Dr. Mercola, commercial protein powders often contain concerning amounts of heavy metals like mercury and cadmium.

Also if you read the ingredients, you will find a long list of things like artificial flavours, sweeteners, thickeners, texturizers, gums, and waxes. Plus the protein is from non-organic milk, so you’re getting all the hormones and pesticides from that. Consider that in making the whey the milk gets concentrated, so those chemicals get concentrated too.

Finally, they are high-heat processed so the protein molecules become denatured and aren’t as useful to the body. Basically commercial protein powders are a massive waste of money, and could actually be toxic.

But isn’t whey isolate best?

When we were initially researching the best protein powder, Dave Asprey the Bulletproof Exec was recommending cold-processed cross-flow microfiltered whey isolate. This was supposed to be the cleanest, purest source of protein to eliminate all those nasty toxins & ingredients mentioned above.

However, excuse my dumb non-sciencey language, but whey isolate is basically a “chemistry molecule”. Kind of like taking a vitamin C supplement instead of eating an orange. It’s just one constituent of the food and the body doesn’t quite know what to do with it. When you eat the whole orange (or get all the proteins from natural milk), your body understands how to use it most effectively. (Dave Asprey has now changed his recommendation to a less-processed form, see more below – his product is my second best go-to)

Ok, so real-food protein powder is better

Will gets all the credit for finding our current favourite, and in my opinion the Best Paleo Protein Powder. He wanted to get more muscley and wanted to do it in a healthy way. Sounds good to me! ;)

He found that Protein 17 is the most minimally-processed, well-sourced, real-food based protein powder on the market right now (that we know of!). When they use minimally-processed complete milk proteins, you’re getting all the goodness of the milk, (not just the “chemistry molecule”! ha.) This includes enzymes like lactase, and minerals like magnesium. Protein 17 is actually a pretty good source of magnesium, which is something our diets often lack.

From the Protein 17 website:

protein 17 best paleo protein powder

I like how Protein 17 gives the most information about exactly how the whey powder is processed. There are a number available that say they are organic and grass-fed, but they don’t specify nearly as much about how the delicate immune-supporting proteins from the milk are minimally processed so that they remain intact.

They even explain on the container how there are no additives to make it blend with water (like most protein powders have), so it’s necessary to use a mixer or magic bullet.

It currently has 207 five-star reviews on Amazon which I found pretty dang impressive and clearly those folks are super-discerning customers. The only grass-fed organic whey on Amazon that has more reviews (Tera’s Whey, 275 reviews, 4.5 stars) doesn’t specify their processing methods, so I’m not as apt to trust it.

The second best choice for Paleo protein powder

If you see anything on your protein powder that says it “mixes easily with water” or “dissolves instantly”, that should be a red flag for additives. However, if you can’t deal with having to blend Protein 17 every time, my next best recommendation is Upgraded Bulletproof Whey.

It also contains coconut MCT (a healthy fat) for brain-power and colostrum for immunity.

Dave Asprey is a badass and does his research to the max, so I would be open to trusting and buying his products. In fact I have his Upgraded coffee beans, toxin-free vanilla, and MCT oil.

If whole foods are better, why would you use protein powder at all

Good question, and totally valid point. Generally speaking we certainly stick to whole foods 95% of the time, (and real food 99% of the time! except maybe the very occasional hung-over McDonalds feast. GASP! Yes, I said it!)

However, as discussed above, Protein 17 is pretty darn close to a whole food. And 3 other things come into play here:

  • convenience – sometimes we just need grab-and-go nutrition!
  • cost – having protein as a supplement helps save a bit on buying whole meat, poultry and fish
  • “eatability” – Will wants to consume more protein for muscle-building, but a normal person in a normal daily life can only physically eat so much. While lean muscle is awesome, neither of us really want to eat 1.5 lbs of meat at every meal. And that would get mighty expensive.

What we use protein powder for:

  • to add nutrition to our “paleo treats” recipes like muffins, loafs and pancakes, as well as to smoothies. We make baked stuff for easy breakfasts sometimes (see one of my recipes here)
  • Will has a protein shake every day after working out (raw organic grass-fed milk and Protein 17) for manly muscley purposes

That’s basically it. What do you use it for?

Share your experience with paleo protein powder

What are your thoughts on using protein powder as a smart nutritional supplement? What protein powder do you think is best? Has protein powder helped you achieve your goals? Has this article enlighted you to reconsider your approach to protein powder? Let me know your thoughts below!

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