I should have just had blueberries with cream or full-fat yogurt for my snack and been happy with that… it’s something I really enjoy, but that day it just occurred to me that I had the quinoa in the cupboard.

Oh well, when this kind of thing happens, I am strongly reminded of one very good reason why I am on the Paleo diet: a quiet and comfortable digestive system! I will find a good home for the quinoa, as well as the millet and chickpeas that I still have in the cupboard. Having stuff in your cupboard or fridge that tempts you and/or doesn’t agree with you is NOT a good idea!

On reflection, I think I know why I was tempted. I had run out of bone broth and that’s my favourite snack food. It is so delicious and satisfying. My favourite breakfast is also bone broth, so the next morning I had to have eggs instead. That’s okay, I find eggs very easy to digest. Anyway, it was a good lesson learned: always have bone broth on hand!

Some people make several batches of stock from the same bones. I haven’t done that yet, as I haven’t really felt the need to make the bones stretch that far. I think it makes good sense economically, if the nutrition is similar in each batch, but I don’t know how to judge that, other than maybe the amount of gelatin that forms each time. Anyone have any ideas or opinions on that?

Beef feet at $8.77/kg ($3.99/lb), is economical enough for me, as the amount of broth I’ll get will actually cost about $1.73 a meal (8 cups of broth), if I only use the bones once. Yes, oatmeal is a lot cheaper, but it’s not paleo and what value are you getting from oatmeal compared to bone broth? It’s not even in the same realm!

Bone broth has got to be one of the easiest things in the world to digest (as well as to make!) and when I have it for breakfast, it lasts me until noon or even later. Oatmeal, on the other hand, bloats me and lasts about an hour until I’m starving again, unless I add fat and/or protein to it, like cream or nuts. I might as well just have the cream and nuts for breakfast… no grains, no gluten!

All I ever add to bone broth is salt. Have you ever tried to eat oatmeal with just salt? I guess maybe if you’re Scottish you eat it that way (do you?), but most people load it with butter, cream, sugar, fruit, nuts or something else to make it palatable.

I noticed in the last few weeks that I’ve started to crave bone broth. I pretty much have it for breakfast every day now and I sometimes have it for an afternoon snack, too. I love how it picks me up and makes me feel all warm and nourished. I always feel like I’m taking really good care of myself when I have bone broth.

[Update: The first batch of broth from the beef feet produced an almost solid gel... amazing! So I decided to try a second batch. That batch is now in the fridge and looks like it will gel, too. A bit too early to tell, but I'll update this once I've given it enough time. I decided to return the bones, fat and gristle to the crockpot for a third round of stock. I will update this as I get results.

If this works, it will bring down the cost of the stock considerably. As of today it would be $.86 per cup; as of tomorrow it would be $.58 per cup. If I can get four good batches out of these bones, the price would be $.43 per cup... now we're getting closer to oatmeal prices! Well, not yet, plain oatmeal with NO added ingredients runs about $.06 per serving! Of course, does anyone ever eat oatmeal with NO added ingredients? That's a rare individual indeed. Usually we add expensive ingredients like nuts and dried fruit. I looked this up online and the cost ends up more like $.52/serving (http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/07/baked-oatmeal-355-receipe-052-serving.html). So, now we're talking comparable prices!

I'm still concerned about the nutritional value of each subsequent batch, but if it keeps gelling well, I won't be so concerned. Also, even though I added vinegar each time, the bones are still fairly hard, so all the minerals have definitely not been leached out of them yet.

Okay, a further update: batch #2 gelled the way regular soup bones gel, nowhere near as solid as the first batch. Batch #3 barely gelled and batch #4 probably won't gel at all; it's quite weak and watery tasting. I decided to make soup with batch #4 and some leftover lamb roast, rather than use it as bone broth. I wonder... if I rendered these stocks down more, would they gel? The trick might be to add less water to each batch.

I have to find some dogs in my apartment building that I can give the left-over bones and bits to. Apparently cooked bones are safe for dogs if they're softened this way. Throwing them out seems such a waste.]

Normal Blood Pressure

“Listening to your body” can be a double-edged sword! For one thing, we don’t always recognize what our body’s signals mean. Often we have to get dehydrated before we realize that we’re thirsty. Or we confuse thirst with hunger and end up snacking when we should be drinking a glass of water.

Then there are habits and cravings that we can easily mistake for signals that the body “requires” a certain food (chocolate? crusty white bread? corn chips?). Let’s face it, the body does not need chocolate or grains at all. If our desire for wheat or corn is a really just a plea for more carbs in our diet, then a piece of sweet potato will quieten that voice. Our body doesn’t crave any particular food, but it might need certain macro- or micro-nutrients. You will be hard-pressed to figure this out by listening to your body. Symptoms can: vary from day to day, overlap, be misleading, be masked by other variants, be very subtle. And so on.

The first few weeks of any new regime can be exhilarating or fraught with problems. When you go Paleo you are moving to a healthy, scientifically-proven diet, but your body may still rebel at first! We can make false assumptions based on our initial experience… good or bad! Once the adaptive phase is over, though, then you might be able to listen to your body a little more.

And don’t forget that when you go Paleo, you may still get sick now and then. Our Paleolithic ancestors got sick, just like we do. Infections and infectious diseases are mainly what killed them! They didn’t have any antibiotics. Animals in the wild get sick. It’s called “survival of the fittest,” something we’ve totally undermined with modern medicine. Now even the weakest of us can survive, procreate… and pass on our bad genes.

Be warned: your tendency might be to blame every illness on your new regime. But think about it… people who eat a Standard Ameican Diet (SAD), don’t blame every illness or ache and pain on their diet. Why would you do that on a Paleo diet?

Be careful of listening to your body when it doesn’t actually make sense to do so.

How do you know the difference? I don’t know for sure, but I think things like a blood pressure test and a comprehensive blood test can help us with some objective feedback. I think our energy level, our ability to get a full 8-9 hours of restful sleep and our ability to recover quickly when we do get sick can tell us what our body might be lying about when it’s whining for crusty white bread.

They turned out pretty darn good! I still have to taste-test them on the little boys, of course. But I do know that I’ll make them again for myself using real ground meat. Fake meat isn’t something I want to eat anymore; I ate enough of it for the seven years I was a vegetarian myself! And it really, really disagrees with my digestion… burble, burble!

The recipe is quite simple.

Beat together:

• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup grated cheese
• 1/4 pound ground cooked meat (sausage meat would be nice)
• one finely diced red pepper
• salt and pepper.

I used about 1/4 of a red pepper and a small piece of red onion, both finely diced. And, of course, I substituted fake meat for the real meat. I sprayed six muffin cups with butter-flavoured Pam, but you could just butter them well or use paper muffin liners. Bake them for 18-20 minutes at 350F until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Don’t overcook them or they’ll be overly dry. Makes six egg muffins.

Tip: If you have empty cups in the muffin tray, fill them about half full of water.

I have enjoyed several recipes from Mark’s two cookbooks:

• Primal Blueprint Cookbook (Egg Muffin recipe is from this book…)
• Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals (but this book is actually my favourite.)

Check out Mark’s Web site, too, at Mark’s Daily Apple.

And, please, use real meat in your egg muffins when you make them!

I thought I would answer the questions here for my own readers.

1. In as few words as possible, how would you explain the Primal Blueprint to someone new to the concept? “A modern lifestyle that tries to emulate some aspects of our paleolithic ancestors’ lifestyle, for scientifically-proven reasons related to health and well-being.”
2. What is the first thing a person should do to kick start their Primal life? “Drop all grains and legumes (especially soy and peanut), and replace those carbohydrate calories with good fats.”
3. What do you think is the most important thing one should understand as they attempt to go Primal? “That carbohydrates are not an essential macro-nutrient and that saturated fat is our friend, not our enemy.”
4. What was the biggest hurdle you experienced when going Primal and how did you overcome it? “I had some fears around ketosis when I started and I had some weakness at first when I went low carb, but that went away after a few weeks. Now I don’t even think about how many carbs I eat. I stick mostly to vegetables, including tubers, like sweet potatoes… and minimal fruit, mostly berries and sometimes an apple or pear. I sometimes miss corn chips, but I’ve recently discovered that Romaine lettuce leaves work great as a vehicle for guacamole! Plus, I always wanted to eat guacamole with a spoon and could never justify it, but now I can! That’s what I had for lunch today: homemade guacamole with Romaine lettuce… and a spoon, just in case!”
5. If there is something you’d go back and do differently as it relates to diet, fitness and lifestyle behaviors, what would it be and why? “I would never have gone the whole grain route back in the seventies and ruined my digestion! Paleo eating is so comfortable, digestion-wise for me! And I would never have been a vegetarian for seven years in the eighties. That created even more digestive issues for me.”
6. What do you usually eat for breakfast? “This really varies. I always start with a glass of water, with 4 tsps. of Kombucha tea and 1/2 tsp. of Hydro-C mixed in, then 30 minutes later I have something like this: a raw egg or two topped with 1-2 T. whipping cream (slurp!), a plate of bacon and eggs, scrambled eggs with lots of butter, soft-boiled eggs, leftover meats (usually eaten cold or at room temperature; maybe with some kimchee or sauerkraut), homemade bone broth with 1-2 envelopes of Knox gelatin mixed in (I love bone broth!), full-fat yogurt and berries, full-fat cheese (Havarti flavoured with jalapenos is my current favourite!) with half an apple or pear. And always a cup of tea with Stevia and whipping cream, or sometimes no cream, depending on how I feel.”
7. What is your favorite Primal recipe and how do you make it? “This might seem crazy, but my favourite thing to make is bone broth from chicken feet or oxtails. I have become sort of addicted to bone broth!”
8. What is your favorite Primal workout and how do you do it? “I don’t ‘work out,’ but I like walking and lifting heavy things.”
9. What is your best dining-out tip? “Choose a salad topped with some protein, like grilled chicken or steak. No one even notices.”
10. How do you manage to stay Primal when friends, family, coworkers and the rest of the world aren’t? “I use the 80/20 rule. It’s more like 95/5 in my case, but the theory still applies. I work at home so I don’t have any issue with colleagues, but, if I’m visiting friends or family and the meal is not primal, I just eat what everyone else is eating. No big deal. I might not eat the rolls or have cake, but people know I watch my weight, so that’s nothing new to my family and friends. Some of my friends and family are aware of my primal eating, but I have never asked them to accommodate it. And I don’t expect them to, especially since some of them are vegetarians! Vegetarians often have a moral issue with eating meat, but paleo lifestyle adherents don’t have a moral issue with eating vegetables and grains, just a lifestyle preference. Some might have food sensitivities, of course, but this is a different issue. I would expect family and friends to accommodate those. I don’t have any major food sensitivities. Wheat tends to bloat me, but it’s not a big deal.”

Anyway, I started to look into the whole slow cooker thing and I found that some people feel the same why I do and other people actually love their crockpot. But one thing I found that people agreed on consistently was that the crockpot can make wonderful bone broth or soup stock. Homemade bone broth, especially the kind full of gelatin is very, very good for you.

So I went out and got some packages of chicken feet* (which make wonderful gelatin-rich stock) and dumped them into the crockpot. I covered them with cold water and added two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I let the chicken feet soak for an hour to help leach out the minerals, then I put the crockpot on low for 18 hours or so. I added a cut-up onion, too, but it’s not necessary to add veggies or seasonings to make good stock or bone broth.

Oh my, the stock it made was amazing! So easy and I never had to watch the pot at all.

By the way, you can add Knox gelatin to a cup of hot stock or broth to further increase the gelatin and add some protein. Gelatin is anti-inflammatory and helps balance out the inflammatory effects of tryptophan and cysteine in meat, so it’s good to drink stock at the same time as eating a high protein meat meal. Gelatin also counteracts many of the effects of stress on the body.

I love a big mug of hot stock with some salt added to it. It’s incredibly comforting, filling and nourishing.

Tonight I have a bunch of oxtails bubbling away with an onion and some celery in the crockpot. (I keep wanting to call it the stockpot instead of the crockpot!) In the morning I’ll strain the stock and refrigerate it (maybe freeze some) and have a big mugful for breakfast. I like beef stock, but I have a hard time finding beef bones that produce enough gelatin. Apparently beef feet are good for that, but I haven’t found any yet. So, I’ll probably add a packet or two of Knox gelatin to my morning broth.

[Update: the oxtails made a very gelatin-rich stock; it was completely gelled in the fridge this morning. Beef feet are no doubt cheaper than oxtails, but I have what I was hoping for, gelatin-laden bone broth! Yummy, too! Note: I scraped the beef fat from the top of the gel. I wouldn't do this if the beef was grass-fed and grass-finished, but these oxtails were from feedlot beef. In this case, I usually add back some good fat like coconut oil, pastured ghee, etc. to my cup of broth.]

I guess chicken feet will be my regular go-to bones for stock, though, since they work so well. And we have a lot of Asian markets here in Vancouver, so I can get chicken feet very inexpensively, too.

Coming home to the smell of simmering stock two or three times a week is delightful. Even though I work at home, I do venture out now and then… so I do get the pleasure of walking into my apartment and breathing in that delicious aroma!

My inexpensive crockpot now has a valuable job… making wholesome, delicious stock!

* Note: Some people recommend you wash the chicken feet and clip off the toenails. I think this is a cleanliness thing, considering where the chicken feet have been! I’ll probably do that next time.

Full Fat Milk

While the various paleo/primal diets that are currently popular vary in opinion as to whether you should eat dairy or not, I just wanted to clear up a few things. Our Paleo ancestors did not drink milk, except their mother’s, of course. While the Maasai keep cattle and drink their milk and their blood, their Paleo ancestors would not have done this. Keeping cattle is Neolithic; it’s a form of agriculture called pastoralism.

On a paleo or primal diet you can choose to use dairy products, of course, since nothing is set in stone. The idea is simply to try to eat as close to our paleolithic ancestors as we can… but to also realize that we can never come close to that goal! Regardless, if we do eat dairy, the idea is to eat high-fat products like whipping cream, sour cream, full-fat cheese, cream cheese, full-fat yogurt, butter/ghee, etc. Ideally these products would be raw, but that’s just not practical in most communities. Skim milk products don’t fit into the paleo plan at all, since eating saturated fats is encouraged and not to be feared. Drinking milk is actually not part of any paleo or low-carb plan that I know of, though, since milk is high in carbohydrates (lactose).

While coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut cream and coconut butter are good substitutes for dairy, they are not paleolithic, either. Coconut water and coconut meat might have been eaten if available, of course. One thing about coconut that’s good is that it doesn’t elicit the common food sensitivities that dairy often does: excess mucous/runny nose, respiratory infections, ear infections, eye infections, enlarged adenoids, etc. (Not to mention lactose intolerance.) Of course, any food can elicit a food sensitivity or allergic reaction. However, coconut oil has been associated with some great health benefits, like protection from a lot of degenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s being one of them). You can find pros and cons about anything, of course, so do your own research!

Try to get coconut milk in non-BPA cans (e.g., Native Forest brand), glass jars or maybe tetra-paks. Or make your own from frozen coconut often found in Asian grocery stores. Also avoid coconut milk with guar gum or carageenan. Some people who are just fine with 100% coconut milk will have digestive problems with these additives. Making coconut milk at home is another good reason to get a Vitamix blender. I love my Vitamix! (I have the gorgeous red one!)

Vita-Mix Blender

Rare Steak

At first I thought it would be too expensive to eat primal the right way with grass-fed beef and pastured chicken, etc., but when I realized what I wouldn’t be buying (no bread, pasta, processed foods; almost no canned or packaged foods) and how satisfying eating high fat was, I began to think this way of life was quite affordable. So I decided to do a bit of math…

Today I spent $54.07 CAD at “Meiridian Meats and Seafood” in Port Coquitlam, a couple of minutes drive from my home. Here’s what I got:

Grass-fed, grass finished Beef:

• 2 lbs. ground beef $9.15. That’s about eight meals.
• 3 New York Strip Steaks $14.97. Three meals.
• 5 Rib-Eye Steaks $29.95. Five meals. Oh man, is this ever delicious steak!

Then I went to Walmart. Here’s what I got:

I’m not taking into account shrinkage here, so you might want to decrease the number of meals per item for the ground beef and pork tenderloin a bit, but not for the steaks of course (1 steak per meal).

Steaks are quick and easy meals (I fry them in ghee for about three minutes per side). Then I add a few veggies (a simple salad, usually) and a little fruit (usually berries) for dessert and Bob’s your uncle… dinner! Today I had a fresh fig for dessert. That was a really nice treat! Sometimes I mix the berries into full-fat yogurt sweetened with Stevia. I also make homemade ice cream with whipping cream, full-fat coconut milk, vanilla, and Stevia for the sweetener. Yummy! You can flavour it with melted chocolate (85%-100% cocoa) or fruit of any kind or just leave it plain and eat it with fruit or drizzle melted chocolate over it.

I’ve also been buying regular pork shoulder and grinding it myself in my 30-year-old food processor. It’s really quick and easy and saves you money! I’m looking for a good local source of pastured pork now, although here in Canada at least none of our beef or pork has growth hormones… or antibiotics in many cases (e.g., President’s Choice brand). I can get pastured pork across town, but I would like something closer. Driving across town only makes sense if I’m going to buy half a pig. Since I don’t have a freezer (just the one in the fridge), I can’t do that… yet! I’m seriously thinking about getting a small chest freezer, though!

I can get frozen bison burgers at the local Save-On-Foods or Safeway (can’t remember which, maybe both). Really delicious!  But, just to let you know, bison is often grain-finished, just like beef, so beware!

I can also get pastured meats at Planet Organic, but their prices seem super high to me, so I haven’t bought any. I guess I should do a price test like I did with the meat from Meridian and Walmart.

Don’t forget that bones from grass-fed or pastured animals/poultry make great bone broths, stocks and soups.

If it IS more expensive to eat Paleo, is your health worth it?

If so, where can you cut down/out other expenses? Eating out? Cablevison? (Use Netflix instead; that’s what I do: $7.99/month.) Electronic games and gadgets? Expensive cellphone plans? (My no-frills plan costs me $17/month.) Beer/Wine? Protein shakes? Gym membership? (There’s really no need for a gym to get your exercise.)

Do Not Eat Fiber!

1. Stop Eating Fiber: Read “Fiber Menace.” For most, this will mean removing all grains and legumes from your diet, although white rice seems to be the least offensive grain and may be eaten, if tolerated, and, if a paleolithic-type diet is not being followed.

2. Eat Saturated Fat: Bacon fat, lard, tallow, suet, butter, ghee (clarified butter), coconut oil, red palm oil, olive oil (do not use olive oil for cooking). For information on why saturated fat is good for you, read “Good Calories, Bad Calories,” “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It,” “Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life,” “The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet,” “Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food,” “The Primal Blueprint,” “Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health.”

Follow these blogs: http://www.marksdailyapple.com, http://www.rawfoodsos.com (this is NOT a “raw vegan” Web site! Denise Minger is an amazing researcher who completely debunks “The China Study” book), http://www.garytaubes.com/blog/, http://robbwolf.com/, http://thepaleodiet.com/, http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/. Read or watch anything by Mat Lalonde, a young, buff Canadian scientist who will blow your mind!

3. Increase Motility: 1) Take buffered Vitamin C powder to hydrate and soften your stools: Ageless Hydro-C or Thorne Research – Buffered C Powder, 2) Take 500 mg Magnesium Oxide at bedtime (magnesium is a muscle relaxant, so only take large amounts at bedtime). Increase by one tablet per day, until stools become loose, then reduce by one tablet.

4. Rebuild Intestinal Flora: Probiotics (daily), Fermented Food (daily), Ageless GI Recovery(tm), Fecal Transplant (not as bizarre as it sounds and relatively easy to do yourself if someone in your household or in your family is willing to donate a bit of their poo!).

5. Increase Hydrochloric Acid: Take NOW’s Super-Enzymes. Take one capsule in the middle of a large meal. Increase to two at the next large meal. Once you get a warm feeling in your gut, reduce by one capsule at the next meal (that is your set-point for a large meal). Never take more than seven capsules per meal.

6. Rebuild General Health: Vitamins and Minerals: I prefer the ease-of-use and practicality of supplements that are packaged together, rather than buying several individual bottles of vitamins/minerals. Find a supplier that you trust. I use Ageless Nutrition’s Morning and Evening Packs, but there are many companies that package supplements together. I think Mark Sisson has a product like this. Supplemental Foods: Eat homemade bone broths, gelatin (you can make hot chocolate with a package of Knox gelatin, hot water, dairy/coconut cream, cocoa or 90% dark chocolate and Stevia; you won’t even know the gelatin is there), homemade fermented foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, yogurt, kefir, etc.), kombucha tea.

Will the road to gut health be smooth? No, it will probably be bumpy. Will you feel better overnight? In some ways, yes, maybe… but more likely it will take several weeks (at least) to get things sorted out. Everyone wants a magic bullet… the closest thing I can think of to a magic bullet is a fecal transplant. Everything else takes time! Keep at it; you will get there!

You may go through constipation and/or loose stools as you sort out what works best for you. But keep adjusting things and experimenting, keep researching and don’t give up or give in to Conventional Wisdom (CW) without a fight. If you don’t fight for your own health, trust me, no one else will!

1. If you have to buy regular, grain-fed meat, buy the leanest cuts available. Supplement the lean meat with good fats: butter/ghee from pastured cows, organic coconut oil, organic red palm oil, lard from pasture-raised pigs, fat rendered from grass-fed/finished beef/lamb/pork, fat from free-range chickens that are not fed soy. Example: buy chicken breasts and remove the skin and fat, but add good fat, for example: cook the chicken in good fat, cook your veggies in good fat, make a sauce with good fat, add a salad with an olive oil dressing, add some slices of avocado to your plate, have some veggies with guacamole for dipping. You get the idea!
2. If you buy grass-fed/finished* meat or free-range, organic (not soy-fed) poultry, buy whatever cuts you like and eat all the fat you want. You can still do all the good fat things I said in the previous point, too!

*Grass-finished means the animal does not go into a feedlot to eat grains and get fattened up, it stays in the pasture until slaughter. Some ranchers raising “grass-fed” beef, still finish the animals in feedlots! So, look for grass-fed, grass-finished beef, not just grass-fed beef.

If you buy rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, please be aware that these are often laden with additives and injected with non-paleo vegetable oil. Read the label carefully! All you want on the chicken are some herbs and other seasonings. All you want injected into the chicken is… nothing!