No processed foods.


That's it.

Processed foods = anything done industrially that you couldn't easily do to food yourself. So a bag of pre-cut apples is fine, but anything containing flour or sugar or corn syrup is out. Fruits, meats, veg, nuts, etc. all good.

There are a few borderline areas.

Olive oil - I would classify as "unprocessed" for this purpose, but margarine, shortening, etc. are obviously "processed"

Oats - if you like you can classify rolled oats as processed and steel cut as unprocessed. More generally for grains, true unmilled whole grains like quinoa or brown rice are in the borderline category and you can allow or not.

I'm not saying anything about what amount of protein or carb you should eat, that depends on your physical activity and what you're trying to do to your body.

That's a great post and should be stickied or part of the FAQ.

The problem I always have with that is, what do you do with dairy? Raw milk is really hard to get. You basically have to belong to a semi-secret club (at least in Illinois) or live on a farm to get it. And cheese is clearly an artificial human construct and not easily made. Yogurt is the same way, although I guess it could occur naturally and it is relatively easy to make.

Any thoughts on this topic?

Dairy is one of those borderline things; strict Paleo doesn't allow dairy, for example. Any kind of flavored yogurt has a ton of sugar so that's bad. If you like you could say that milk is "unprocessed" but everything else is "processed".

I would discourage anyone from eliminating dairy from their diet, because you can become lactose intolerant if you avoid dairy for a long period. It happened to me and it sucks.

is there any reason to worry about what fruits I'm eating. Some obv have more sugar than others. I've heard berries are better than say a banana, but bananas are a lot cheaper and my cafeteria at work has them but doesn't have berries.

Yeah, obv there is a difference and it depends how nitty you want to get.

My contention is that if you just stick to the "no processed foods" rule you will automatically be eating pretty well and you can stop sweating all these little nitty details. It's hard enough to cut the processed crap. Once you get that under control and are eating a diet made of real foods, then if you want to you can go to the next level and start really sweating all the details.

Bananas are not as starchy as people think though; a large banana, apple, orange, pear, persimmon, etc. all have about 25g of carb and 100 calories. The vast majority of people will not overeat carbs if they only eat natural foods; it's just hard to eat too much fruit.

Rather than worry about getting the right fruit, I suspect one is better served by eating a lot of different fruits. Take the worry out and enjoy fruit in all its wondrous diversity.

thanks guys. I'm really getting into eating right and working out and can't wait to see the results. Everyone's being of great help.

you sound like a fruit

How about scented candles? Are scented candles out?

Seriously though, eat all the fruit -- and non-starchy veggies -- you want unless you're a diabetic or you're eating so much that you get diarrhea. There's virtually nothing you can replace them with that's any better for you or even close to as good.

Good advice cbloom. I'd take it a small step further and say no processed food and eat a wide variety of what is left.

This is the best thread on nutrition this forum has had in a while. That says a lot about our understanding of nutrition.

Wait wait wait I just bought a whole bucket of rolled oats(quaker) to eat for breakfast thinking they were good for me. Bad?

Thanks for this though. This and the K.I.S.S. make having a clean diet seem so much easier. Definately helps a noob like me not feel overwhelmed.

I don't know, but don't think it is a big deal. Rolled oats are more processed than steel cut oats. I'm not sure what the nutritional difference is, if any. SCOs take longer to prepare. If you want to try them and can't find them at your grocery store, or they are priced like a specialty item, then you might try a health food store.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel-cut_oats

Nah, they're fine, they might digest a tiny bit faster, no biggy.

I prefer the texture of steel cut oats, but I actually think they have a few more calories and more fat per serving.

I rarely eat grains, but I'd guess that steel cut oats are a better choice. Rolled oats are heavily processed and this usually results in increasing the glycemic index of the carbohydrates and loss of micronutrients. The difference is an insignificant 25 calories/100g anyway.

I'm pretty sure in the realm of dietary issues moving from steel cut oats to rolled oats is like changing your powder from isolate to concentrate.

that's why he's healthy and you are still looking for a multivitamin.

fyi grains are processed, so "the simplest diet" would be one that consisted of no grains, steel cut, rolled, whatever...toss it.

HAI GUYZ HERE IS A TIP

GOOD- LEAN PROTEIN

BAD- HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP AND TRANS FAT



HOPE THIS HELPS

Choo Choo

hey guys-

im looking to move my cereal to steel cut oats. obv i am not thrilled with potential cook times, however i saw TraderJoes sells pre cooked frozen steel cut oats. anyone have them before? reviews etc?

If taking a seed from a plant and putting it into a bag counts as a grain being processed, then that apple you're eating is processed too since some immigrant had to pick it from a tree. Or banana, since you had to peel it open.

Edit: lol just realized I was replying to a year-old post. Sorry.

sublime - In my local CA Costco, they carry something called Coach's Oats. It cooks up really quick (in like 5 minutes), is made from whole oats, and tastes pretty damn good. I'm not precisely sure what they do to allow it to cook so quickly, but it seems like a good intermediate between steel-cut and rolled. If you look at the oats before they're cooked, they look similar to steel-cut. Worth checking out your local Costco to see if they carry it.

The simplest diet would of course be our natural uncooked carnivorous one. Unfortunately adaptation and finding naturally raised, un-bled carcasses is no longer convenient.

I'm of the camp that believes everyone on a 'paleo' diet cheats way more than the diet intends so the results aren't as reliable as they could be since we don't know which part of the diet is making differences where.

The diet is not impractical if you have a lot of time to cook and are very inventive, it's just the bombardment of modern advertising and the associated convenience that makes us slip way more than we should.

Also, vegetables, meats, and nuts start to taste like clay after a while if you aren't really good at mixing things up. For most people, mixing up means cheating, not coming up with new recipes.