I'm starting to find... page

[Kochin]

That as long as I eat quite a bit of offal, ensure my meat intake is varied (chicken, sardines, tuna, mackrel, ox liver, pigs liver, ox kidneys, marrow, beef, pork, chicken liver, pheasant, lamb, scratchings/crackling, anchovies, trotters, tongue...etc have all been going in recently) and eat full-fat dairy and eggs, I don't have any issue not eating veg for several days. As in, I'm not losing fat, not feeling unwell; just eating liver bacon and eggs for breakfast, IFing over lunch and having roast chicken with extra butter for dinner, at most a handful of nuts or an apple at some point, and carrying on over four or five days. End of the "meat feast" arrives and I'll have had an apple, a fistful of hazelnuts and half a small carrot over 5 days. And nothing feels wrong. I just pick up some veg when I finally feel like it.

Doubt it's SUSTAINABLE on its own, but, as part of a Paleo/Primal life, it makes me feel encouraged to just eat whatever the hell I want: no veg = no problems. So, if I don't feel like veg, I won't eat it until I feel like it again. No counting, no "five-a-day", no worrying that I'm not getting "enough"... So much damn freedom!

So, what newfound freedoms are you discovering with a Primal life?

[Damiana]

Nutrients are much higher in the non typo cuts of meats, like offal. The Inuits did it by eating every bit of the seals and whales they hunt. I could never do it, though, I'm almost a vegetarian, I love my veggies.

[KathyH]

That as long as I eat quite a bit of offal, ensure my meat intake is varied (chicken, sardines, tuna, mackrel, ox liver, pigs liver, ox kidneys, marrow, beef, pork, chicken liver, pheasant, lamb, scratchings/crackling, anchovies, trotters, tongue...etc have all been going in recently) and eat full-fat dairy and eggs, I don't have any issue not eating veg for several days. As in, I'm not losing fat, not feeling unwell; just eating liver bacon and eggs for breakfast, IFing over lunch and having roast chicken with extra butter for dinner, at most a handful of nuts or an apple at some point, and carrying on over four or five days. End of the "meat feast" arrives and I'll have had an apple, a fistful of hazelnuts and half a small carrot over 5 days. And nothing feels wrong. I just pick up some veg when I finally feel like it.

Doubt it's SUSTAINABLE on its own, but, as part of a Paleo/Primal life, it makes me feel encouraged to just eat whatever the hell I want: no veg = no problems. So, if I don't feel like veg, I won't eat it until I feel like it again. No counting, no "five-a-day", no worrying that I'm not getting "enough"... So much damn freedom!

So, what newfound freedoms are you discovering with a Primal life?

Give it 20 years not five days to see if it had any negative effect on your health.

[Graycat]

Good for you. This wouldn't work for me though. I need the low-calorie, high volume foods like vegetables and some fruit to make me feel full. I could do meat/offal/eggs/nuts only, I'm sure, but then I will have to ingest 5000 calories a day and that's a boat load of protein and fat.

[Neckhammer]

Yup, that works fine for me too. You could live that way ....many people have, but I don't make an effort to do so. If I "forget" my veggies for several days I just remind myself that they were not "prized" among most tribes anyhow. I use em for flavoring basically. They are not magical. A couple servings here and there are good nuff.

[Paleobird]

Yup, that works fine for me too. You could live that way ....many people have, but I don't make an effort to do so. If I "forget" my veggies for several days I just remind myself that they were not "prized" among most tribes anyhow. I use em for flavoring basically. They are not magical. A couple servings here and there are good nuff.

Exactly my experience. I am moving toward a more carnivorous way of eating just naturally.

I think a lot of the people who report IBS issue and such and blame if on Primal are really just packing in more fibrous veggies than are needed and more than their digestive systems can handle.

My criterion for a veggie is this. If I actually enjoy the taste of it in its natural state (i.e not covered in butter, salt, sauces, cheese, etc.) then I include it. I can make kale taste good in a variety of ways but just raw? I don't think the Groks would have eaten that unless they were facing starvation.

The seriously carnivorous crowd (some of whom are a bit off the deep end for my tastes) seem to be very fond of sea veggies such as kelp and mushrooms. These thing are not officially plants I guess (algae and fungi) and supposedly don't have the anti-nutrient properties of plant matter. This works for me since I love sea veggies and shrooms.

[Kochin]

Give it 20 years not five days to see if it had any negative effect on your health.

I wasn't advocating it as a long term thing ("Doubt it's SUSTAINABLE on its own,"). I was just saying it's liberating that I no longer have to eat "x amount of y" a day, that I can just eat what I fancy and my body seems to regulate the rest. Today I had a TON of veg, because I fancied it. Sometimes I don't eat. Sometimes I just eat yoghurt and butter for a day. Sometimes I stuff myself on offal. Sometimes I go veggie for a few days. And sometimes I eat NO veggies for a few days. The day-to-day stopped mattering because my body's healthy and able to cope with it. It just "requests" vegetables when it needs them.

[YogaBare]

I think a lot of the people who report IBS issue and such and blame if on Primal are really just packing in more fibrous veggies than are needed and more than their digestive systems can handle.

Not my personal experience. At one stage I was eating close to carnivorous (mainly eggs, fish, meat.. little or no fruit/veg) and I've never been so constipated in my life. I also felt like crap. Not all guts respond to the same things.

If some people are biologically carb intolerant, and others are fine, then surely it's not unorthodox to suppose that some people might respond well to a lot of protein /fat, while others can't handle it?

[sbhikes]

I feel the same as you, Kochin. I don't feel "guilty" if I don't eat vegetables every day. I eat them if I want them. I eat as much of them as I want, sometimes enormous piles of them. But if I don't feel like eating my veggies I don't feel worried about it at all. I eat plenty of liver and fish. I know I'm getting a nutrient-rich diet.

It's really silly to start worrying about veggies now because when I was on the wheat and sugar SAD diet I ate fewer vegetables than I do now and I was not worried then, plus back then I was actually doing the things to give me high triglycerides and all the other stuff leading me toward metabolic syndrome and heart disease. Now I'm doing all the things that reduce triglycerides and lower my chances for metabolic syndrome and heart disease. I don't need to wait 20 years to know this is healthier.

[Paleobird]

Not my personal experience. At one stage I was eating close to carnivorous (mainly eggs, fish, meat.. little or no fruit/veg) and I've never been so constipated in my life. I also felt like crap. Not all guts respond to the same things.

If some people are biologically carb intolerant, and others are fine, then surely it's not unorthodox to suppose that some people might respond well to a lot of protein /fat, while others can't handle it?

Um, sorry, was this a carb wars thread? I didn't think that was the point here.

The point is the freedom to choose what you feel like eating on any given day and not be chained to the notion that there must be a veggie next to every piece of meat. That every meal must be "balanced". If you feel like eating nothing but salad one day, great. And then all steak the next, fine too.

About being constipated when carnivorous. I can see that would be a big problem if the diet were very high on the lean protein and didn't contain enough fat. Personally, my digestive system is thanking me for not trying to cram so much vegetation through there.
YMMV.