I have Celiac's, so my grain options are limited anyway. I've tried staying gluten free, and also adhering to a Paleo diet.

I don't stay completely away from dairy, but I try to limit it (although I think Cheese could be it's own food group!). I was diagnosed with Celiac's in May of last year. Prior to getting knocked up in October, I did see an overall improvement in my body composistion, along with just the way I felt.

Much of this can be attributed to actually having "something wrong" with me, but really, sticking close to a Paleo style plan seems to have done wonders.

To answer your questions:

What to eat: There's so many good clean foods available, this seems kind of a silly answer. You will start to lean towards fruits and veggies first and always, and then protein rich meats.

Does it work: Yes.

Positive effects: Tons.

If nothing else, check out Joel Friel's materials.

good luck!

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I haven't officially started yet, but am trying to eat as much paleo as possible. I end up munching a bunch of dried apricots and hazel nuts. And as a result from that my stomach "processes the food a little to quickly" i e I need to visit the bathroom a lot more than usual. I figured that dried fruit would be something good to have laying around in the cabinets for when you need something quick, but it has some down sides...

After I got over the initial shock of not eating my favorite foods (bread, nutella and pizza pockets to name a few), I can say that I felt a lot better healthwise. I don't often get sick so I can't really say anything about increasing your immunity.

One thing about paleo, if you stick to it for a week and then eat non-paleo foods, you WILL feel sick. Great side effect, I think.

Here is a list of what most of my meals have included for the 3 months I've been on it. All from Trader Joe's and may not be 100% paleo but pretty close.
Meat: Marinated beef (bulgogi, maui beef), cajun and pecan salmon, homemade burgers using 85/15 ground beef with ground almond meal, olive oil and an egg
Fruits: Blackberries, Strawberries, Peaches and Nectarines (the white ones are starting to get sweet), clementine oranges and blueberries
Veggies: Random
Nuts: Almonds and pecans. I mix these in a bag with dried fruit. TJ's has some without sugar.. just read the labels.
Fats: Avocados, Coconut milk (green can), olive oil and coconut oil (from Whole Foods.. EXPENSIVE)

All my meals take, at most, 30 minutes to make. It's good enough for two with some leftovers for lunch. Beware of the coconut milk. It isn't the best tasting but you get used to it after a while. Just hold your breath and chug.

I usually eat paleo during the week and mix in some cheat meals during the weekend. It's helped me lose 20lbs. I've seen great before and after pictures with people only eating about 85% paleo.

Hope this helps.. give us or me an update a couple of weeks after you start. Good luck!

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If my body isn't strong enough... I hope my wallet will be.

thought about going paelolithic.
decided instead on carbo-rific.
haven't looked back.

+1. Plus, I don't like Dinosaur. No matter what they say, I don't think it tastes like chicken at all.

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I wanna go fast!

"I have Celiac's, so my grain options are limited anyway. I've tried staying gluten free, and also adhering to a Paleo diet."

I'm in a similar situation, with a Celiac diagnosis a little over a year-and-a-half ago necessitating a shift to a more Paleo diet. I will still eat some corn-based cereal (Peanut Butter Panda Puffs FTW!), but am probably close to the 85% Paleo mentioned below. I've definitely felt more energy and my running times dropped a significant bit over that time (faster recovery is a big plus).

Out here in the People's Republic of Boulder, I went on a few training runs with elite athletes that do something similar--it definitely seems like a positive trend.

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+2

I get in my fruit, veg, lean meats and aim for as organic and local as possible, but life is not worth eating like a primitive human with great ethnic food and BBQ out there. I can see some uses for this approach if you have specific medical issues to cut out grains, cheese, etc.

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I primarily eat a paleolithic style diet though do include dairy. What can I say I'm addicted to cheese. Other than that I'm pretty strict and mostly it works for me.

What do I eat?

As others have said fruits, veg, lots of salad, plenty of meat and fish, eggs, nuts and some seeds. What I mostly avoid is bread, pasta, cereals and rice. I limit potato, but eat some for an occasional carb boost.

Does it work for me?

Depends how you define work? I've generally been healthy whether I'm eating carbs or not so I don't see any health impact of note.

It's very effective at getting me lean during the early training period in a race build, but I will admit I do need the occasional carb boost when I'm seriously training. I have used things like nuts and some dried fruits as training food on long rides, but once my weight is where I want it I'll often use cereal based bars again. I find those kind of carbs more effective for more intense workouts.

I also find it's the first couple of weeks that are the hardest. That's when I crave bread, biscuits, cake on a long bike ride! Get past that and I don't want them at all.

Have I noticed any positive effects?

I'm much closer to race weight than I was. How much being Paleo helps with that I couldn't say as I've also clearly had a calorie debt throughout the past few weeks to help drive weight loss. I do think the kind of foods you eat on the diet ensure a good balance of nutrients which helps me stay healthy and fit even when losing weight and training a lot. You could of course achieve the same and still be eating grains.

I do notice I rarely suffer from slumps in energy. The lack of processed sugar in the diet seems to minimise the insulin response fairly well and generally my energy levels remain quite even.

Hope that's some help. Good luck if you do decide to give it a try, but remember there are other options out there too.

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x2 on the first couple of weeks being the hardest.

I went paleo and got super lean. Felt great once I got used to the diet. At the time I was mostly running, so the light weight was awesome.

As I got more into cycling and triathlon, I found that I actually performed better at a slightly higher weight. I had difficulty keeping pounds on. My has since diet evolved. Now instead of eating a huge salad with salmon (or lean meat) for just about every lunch, I eat a huge salad with fish (different kinds) AND some whole wheat pasta, couscous, or the like.

Seriously though, once I got through the first couple weeks, I actually found that I enjoyed what others would consider monotonous. It seems like I have no problem eating the same meals because I actually feel better overall.

Worth checking if its dried fruit or apricots causing the problem. I have a problem with fresh and dried apricots in that need to dash 120 to 140min after eating. Any other dried fruit even those rich in sulphur are fine. Odd and it took a while to work out the link behind the need to dash was

I love how Celiac disease only affects 1% of the American population but somehow it seems to me like it affects 55% of the people in California and 35% of people in endurance sports......I also love how some people translate Gluten free into "good for you".

"oh it's all good man, these brownies are *GLUTEN FREE*"
"no shit? Let me have some I'm trying to eat clean."

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Beautiful!

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Read Paleo Diet and The Endurance Athlete

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I don’t adhere to any diet but within the context of this topic some of you might find my eating habits, and the story of why I developed them, interesting

Back in June of last year I happened to catch an interview on News Hour with David Kessler in which he made the case that the food industry wants to addict the public to food; specifically high sugar, high fat, high salt foods. He backed up the claim with brain imaging studies that demonstrate that some foods create feed forward drive in the pleasure centers of the brain (=addiction). When this happens, the food does not satiate, you just keep eating until the food is gone. You can see the interview here http://www.pbs.org/...g=16062009&seg=7 This resonated with me because I know there are certain foods that I can eat and eat and eat and will not stop until they are gone. Since then I have found another with Kessler on NRPs Science Friday show http://www.sciencefriday.com/...m/archives/200907106 and an interview on a similar theme with David Pollan http://www.sciencefriday.com/...m/archives/200801043 I highly recommend listening to them.
After seeing and listening to these interviews I decided to opt out of modern food culture for a while. Starting June 30 2009 I decided to eat old fashioned oatmeal for breakfast and rice and beans for lunch and dinner. These are not starvation rations, I really jazz them up: oatmeal has raisins, almonds, and yogurt and the rice and beans (one cup each) has salsa and often a half cup of beef or chicken to replace a half cup of beans. Initially I planned to just try this routine for a month but have had no interest in changing back. The effects were profound and immediate. I found I was not hungry between meals. I didn't track it but my sense is that blood glucose is more or less stable all day. Never got that crazy hungry feeling. I should mention that when I started this I was pretty fit for me and weighed around 164 (as a point of reference, weight during highs school track season was around 162). I certainly did not perceive myself as fat at that point. Surprisingly, weight absolutely fell off of me. I got down to 154 pretty quickly and then continued to lose more slowly. I have since added snacks because my weight got down a bit too low (<150) and its stable now in the mid 150s.
The most notable thing is that this weight fell off without any sense of deprivation on my part. I felt I was eating high volumes of good tasting food and didn't want anything else. A big part of the overall effect may also be that I quit buying addictive foods. In the past I would buy a large bag of tortilla chips once a week and eating them over the course of a couple of days. Ditto fig newtons and chocolate bars. We're talking thousands of calories in addition to my normal diet. Once I saw those videos and realized it was an addition behavior I just quit.
My fitness is good, cholesterol is silly low, and my behavior is not governed by when am I going to get my next snack. Your mileage may vary. The down side is that I really need to buy some new pants and a new belt.


Cheers,
Jim

Is soy Paleo? How do you all get calcium? (Hard to meet the requirements with just leafy greens and almonds).

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Hmmm, I've never met anyone with Celiac disease. Could be that it has higher incidence of occurrence in the military population?

In answer to the original question, I've seen a lot of benefits from eating a more paleo diet. I haven't cut alcohol or 100% of grains out of my diet, but eating more meat/fruit/veggies has have an overall positive impact on my fitness and energy levels.

soy is not paleo. The argument is that Calcium requirements are lower since aren't consuming items that limit calcium absorption.

(I eat paleo-ish - grains only once or twice a week to force myself to eat more fruits & veggies. I do eat greek yogurt 5+ times a week, though)

No, I haven't met a single person in the Corps with Celiac, I was just making a general observation of the 'general' population, where in this term population is loosely referring to: competitive athletes, wanna be competitive athletes, age groupers.....oh and also yuppies.

Cheers.

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BTW, it's also funny (and sort of interesting I guess) to note that here's what most people are saying: "oh yea, I cut out refined grains and engineered foods, started eating more veggies, fruit and lean meat and I feel better. This shit is genius."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> :/ ummm, duh?

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Pretty amazing, huh?

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I think you've missed the whole point of paleo/primal "diets." People tend to eat processed grains, etc. instead of veggies. i.e. quit eating crap because the label, govt, and/or commercials say its "healthy" and eat what people have traditionally eaten.

You paleolithic folks must live alone? I just don't see a realist way of eating paleolithic with a family. If I could restrict everything that enters the home/refrigerator but that unrealistic with a wife and 3-year old.

I've read all the books and studies I'm aware of what it is and what it's not trying to do. These books and studies, contrary to recent popularity and attention, have been around for quite some time.

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