Paleo Christmas
Healthy food and snack suggestions to stop your body from getting on Santa’s “naughty” list.
When food intolerance is part of our lives and we do not considering it as such, it’s during the Christmas season that it resurfaces to spoil our festivities. But with determination, and some discipline, we can soften their effects.
So with such a variety of delicacies, how can we profit from this holiday season to set limits, when it is right at this time that we free ourselves from those invisible bonds that keep us from exaggerating?
In fact, if there were a food “excess” meter, such as the thermometer for body temperature, the option for healthy ingredients would have a greater preponderance in traditional menus. Personally, I have suffered in the worst way the consequences of repeated negligence — a generalized physical “crash.” Just like crashing against a wall after drinking too much.
From my own experience, the adoption of new eating habits, combined with changes in lifestyle, resulted in a significant improvement in my quality of life. Although not “cured”, and still in the process, it is noticeable how the removal of grains, dairy, sweets and refined oils from my shopping list has eased my struggle.
In the meantime, I have learned that the great fallacy of the pleasure of savoring boils down to… addiction. Yes, addiction to sugar, fried foods (the crispier the better), sodas, bread, cakes and biscuits. As much or worse than our conscious (mental) dependence, our body is also addicted to certain types of ingredients, often demanding more and more to satiate hunger.
Without going into the selection or preparation of the dishes themselves, I believe we can always switch to frying in extra virgin olive oil, or coconut oil, instead of an hostile cooking oil (processed industrially). Changing the composition of certain sauces is a more delicate procedure — due to the flavor’s possible adulteration— though eventually, natural ingredients can be used instead of bottled ones. True, it doesn’t taste the same, but it’s the price to pay and your body will thank you for it in the long run.
Then we have candies and pastry, a complete harmful mockery — refined sugar, flour, saturated fats. It’s where everything gets out of control, often in an unconscious or misinformed way. Most of the seasons’ sweets and cakes are based on cereals (gluten) and milk (lactose), in other words, two of the most evident triggers of common food intolerance.
Interestingly, today it is scientifically proven that the problem exists and we neglect it, closing our eyes to the evidence in favor of a momentary pleasure, of which a repeated continuity can bring so much suffering and consequences in the future. In most cases, replacing a few ingredients is enough for the symptoms to disappear.
Buckwheat, almond or carob flour instead of wheat or rye. Dried fruits and raisins in exchange for candied fruits. Eggs by whipped cream. Dark chocolate (+70%) instead of the traditional cooking one, high in sugar. And just what to do with refined sugar, this silent and invisible killer?
Well, for our own good, the ideal would be quite simply to eliminate it. Of course, replacing it with sugar from natural sources — coconut or honey, for example. Won’t taste the same. Dommage, your body will thank you later.
Paleo is much more than a diet based on ingredients ancestrally available in Nature. It is a healthy, integral and multi-functional lifestyle, which aims to improve our general condition — physical, mental and emotional.
Is all this sacrifice worth it for the sake of physical well-being? Absolutely!
A Merry Paleo-Christmas!
