Trying to be Primal
TRYING TO EAT PRIMAL
My physical health has taken a leap forward from the time I first arrived at my daughter and son-in-law’s place where I have a nice apartment downstairs. My son-in-law has gone from “pre-diabetic” to NORMAL eating his wife’s food! This is BIG.
But what a learning curve for old ladies!
Everything they told you before (and try to tell you again when you go to the doctor’s office) is up for question and TBD after checking with the Primal/Paleo people.
No, I’m not into eating weeds and game caught in the wild, or even raw beefsteak from our supermarket. That is more the Paleo approach. But I am thriving on the Primal approach which has its own rules — sensible rules — but rules which go against all the non-fat, soy-based, low-cholesterol, diet-foods admonitions we have been bombarded with from the food manufacturers with the support of well-meaning doctors who have a lot of vested interest in this whole question.
Get this: protein and fat and non-starchy vegetables are good for you. So are eggs. And whole milk, if you are not lactose-intolerant. Even cream!
BUT: non-fat yoghurt, diet soda, low-fat milk, baby formula, energy drinks are not good for you. Most canned and jarred stuff including baby foods are not good for you. Beans are full of carbs and not good for you. (unless you eat the kind with pods included.) Not even soy beans! Especially not soy beans because EVERYTHING seems to be fortified with soy these days. And wonderful old fashioned white potatoes are bad for you! These turn into sugar when digested and count big as carbs.
they handed out special high-power magnifying glasses to go with the how-to book about shopping for foods intelligently. Especially packaged and bottled foods. Peek and see if fruit is packaged without sugar! I dare you!
As the Primal diet people are becoming main-stream, the ingredients lists on prepared foods are getting very very microscopic. Even on vitamins!!!
Even the directions are teeny! And the quantity in the package.
Well, maybe some of it is that my eyes are aging and so even the stack of “readers” that collect in my purse can’t really make out the fine print.
(Hint: If I go to the counter where they sell “readers” and “borrow” a pair of magnification 3 or so readers, I can usually put them up like a magnifying glass and with my own glasses make out the fine print. But who wants to go fetching the store’s glasses and putting them back every time one goes shopping?)
The Grocery people and the Health food people could enhance their popularity if they provided handout molded plastic magnifying lenses, and hung them on one of those stand-out hooks at grocery stores where the product is thrust into one’s face. Hang them in canned foods, and in packaged dry foods and next to the deli counter and next to the breads. The cakes! Let them see the cake ingredients! And the so called diet drinks. And even the baby formula! Check out the Ensure type products.
(Attention Merchants: Just think of the advertising that could go on pretty little magnifying lenses! Opportunities abound!They could have Oscar Meyer magnifying thingies, and Campbells ones. Also Pillsbury and Wonder, and how about Post and Betty Crocker and Gerber, and especially Swanson and Miller Lite.)
Primal eaters might just flock to shelves they usually avoid just to get some of these magnifiers. Little kids will collect them and do some investigating of some labels and likely a lot of other things.
A little slimmer, substantially healthier, steadily good numbers at the doctor’s these days. And I can eat a nice big steak without guilt, and a whole lettuce, tomato, olive, avocado, celery, carrot, cucumber, and bacon salad with oil and vinegar dressing, all by myself! And I’m still just fine. And a pumpkin pie made with organic maple syrup but skip the crust. And pizza without the crust? Yes! It’s delicious and you get more slices! And lasagne without the noodles? Yes! Try using thin sliced zucchini as your “pasta”.
The world is just a wonderful place if only one could just see what the fine print says.
Susan
By Susan G Holland ©2017 revised from a post in Cowbird.
Illustrations ©2017 Susan G Holland
