Maybe it's just flour and sugar? page 2

[Leida]

That's what I am doing now, and to be honest I still have sugar in fruit and an occasional grain-less sweet, like home made jam or whey protein with artificial sweetener. I also do not use vegetable oils any more. I seem to be doing much better WITH dairy and legumes than without. I stopped missing grains, but if I feel like a bit of buckwheat, corn or millet, I will have some. I add potatoes in roast veggies mix or in a soup. In the end, whole food approach seem to work the best for me. It takes too much energy and stress to make oneself eat just meat and veggies, and for me it did not result in any long-term happiness, weight loss etc.

[not on the rug]

i have some vegetarian friends (i know, i know) who don't eat flour or sugar. i mean, the occasional pizza here and there. and they don't feed their children flour or sugar either. i was able to convince them to ditch the veggie oils and only use coconut oil and olive oil. now if i could just convince them to drop the soy crap...

[Apex Predator]

That's pretty much what I do, except I consume some white sugar(minimal compared to average, and relative to my activity level), and I avoid seed oils. I eat rice every day, and some potatoes.

[Sabine]

Nothing wrong with vegetarian friends.

[not on the rug]

Nothing wrong with vegetarian friends.

aside from the vegetarian thing... honestly though, they are two of the best people i know. and i have a vegan friend who is awesome as well. they all refuse to eat animals for moral reasons, not health reasons. and i can respect that

[Leida]

If I were to try vegetarian, I won't do soy, simply because it tastes horrid. I'd rather go for mushrooms and beans. But it is a moot point, because I just do not see myself not eating eggs, meats, fish and dairy. It's not like eating vegetarian prevents killing animals. Something always dies every time you eat.

[jennylou]

In the early part of 2010 I went primal, and I was like 95%+. I dropped 40 pounds, my cycle shifted and we had a little surprise, lol. I ate what I wanted while pregnant (because otherwise I'd be sick all the time and I had two other kids to care for) and after she arrived, it was about three weeks and I had to cut out dairy and soy for her sake. Then I cut peanuts, then wheat, then other nuts, finally I did a total elimination diet. So, it started with just eating some fruits (no berries, no citrus), some veggies (no tomatoes, no peas), chicken and rice. After about three weeks I added more because I couldn't do it anymore (and luckily, her rash had cleared and she no longer had blood in her stools). I added the fruits and veggies back in, as well as tree nuts and eggs (oh how that was a glorious day!). I lost about 90 pounds in the last year and a half doing this. In June, I tried adding back in dairy but just cut it back out again since my daughter was not reacting well to it. In the last year, I've not had much in the way of sugar, and if I do, I try to make it raw, organic sugar, as opposed to white sugar. I still eat white rice. And occasionally, I eat beans. But, I don't eat wheat at all, nor do I eat a lot of sugar. And no processed crap either.

So, yeah, I think there is something to be said about just cutting flour and sugar. I keep thinking that I need to drop the white rice, just haven't gotten there yet. Which is probably why, despite having more to lose, I have been about the same weight since around September of last year, lol. I've lost probably ten pounds this summer, as I started jogging and walking a lot (we moved and we walk to places like the sitters and take walks just out of boredom, instead of driving everywhere. I haven't put gas in my van since July 4th).

[sbhikes]

To clarify, they still ate wheat, corn, rice and oats but never as flour. They also still ate peanuts and legumes, white potatoes and probably some soy but we were backpacking so I didn't see any. Also, no carb restriction, no trying to eat grassfed beef or anything like that.

The one guy and his once overweight wife were in a program called Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous. They are instructed that each meal should include fat so he said he puts a quarter cup of olive oil in every meal to get his fat in. Out on the trail he was making yogurt in a plastic container in his sleeping bag at night, so dairy was still in. The other lady didn't say what exactly was her program. She wasn't doing it to lose weight or anything. She was already skinny and healthy. She had heard of paleo and everything else but rejects the idea of limiting grains, especially seeing other people limit so much less and get the same results. I found that observation interesting as well. We had a lot of good discussions about the health transformations we had all experienced and it was amazing how similar they were despite our different approaches.

[Inksplat]

I think it comes down to the same situation as people who can eat as much flour and sugar as they want and still be lean and healthy. It really depends on the person--some people just have the natural tolerance for it.

[Leida]

Yes, this sounds just like whole foods approach, there are different varieties of it. But yes, non-processed grains and legumes are normally in, and one is instructed to combine protein, fat and carb at every meal for higher satiety. That diet was what saved me from starvation on my high carb-low fat diet. Some varieties has no problem with non-processed wheat either, as long as it is hot cereal style. The biggest problem with the processed grains is that they cause heightened hunger. I know some people have tolerance issues, but most people would not. The best idea is to compare how hungry you get while eating grains and not eating grains. I think I had my most telling experience when I was doing carb ups. 3,000 calories of plain rice left me hungry, while equal amount of white potatoes left me stuffed to the gills. Beans are a wonder food in terms of feeling full for me personally, and that was one of the discoveries I made back on whole foods. I really missed them as a food source on paleo/primal.