Who am I?

Copenhagen, Denmark
I'm a 21 year old student of the Copenhagen Metropolitan University College's Global Bachelor in Nutrition and Health, Copenhagen, Denmark. The purpose of this blog is to record my experiences with different diet approaches and health techniques, which I try out for 30 days at a time, thus the name.

onsdag den 24. marts 2010

What is the Paleo diet (now - in text!)

Ok so I know it has been a while - unfortunately I can't get the video thing to work at the moment, so instead, for now, you will have to do with the link I gave you - and a short text -


What we were meant to eat

So the paleo diet is a book written by Loren Cordain, however it is also a concept, sometimes referred to as the hunter gatherer diet, the caveman diet, or - the Paleo diet, which has been written about and developed by other authors as well. The shared idea or philosophy behind these different names, is that the optimal diet (from an individual health point of view) for human beings is the one which we are genetically adapted to. In other words the paleo diet builds its philosophy on what is probably the strongest theory in biology; evolution. Now which diet is that? - The argumentation that Loren Cordain uses, is that we have changed very little, since our ancestors were hunter - gatherers (that is, for most people, back in the Paleolithic - old stone age). He argues - that because we our genetic make up, is basically the same as it was back then, we also have the same nutritional requirements as they did. This is off course supported by biochemical evidence, as well as anthropological and archaeological evidence, that hunter gatherer societies were, and are, basically free of the generative lifestyle diseases, that are so common in our civilizations.



So that was the why - here is the what -

The diet consists of three mainstays - lean meat, non starchy vegetables, and fruit. Besides that nuts, seeds and eggs are also allowed in moderation, along with spices and herbs.

- That means no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no refined sugar, no added salt, or refined foods.

What? no bread, cheese, beans, cakes, salt?!  -

As I already wrote the idea is that we only that which our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have had access to on a normal basis. Also there are biochemical arguments for not eating these things, in other words, according to Loren Cordain they are unhealthy to consume, as we have not genetically evolved to be able to properly digest and assimilate them, without adverse reactions.


The diet is NOT, meant to be a low fat diet, though some people around the 'net, criticize it for being so. In fact the diet is meant to contain between 28 and 57 % of caloric intake from lipids (fats). The reason that he emphasizes lean meats, is he wants to hit the same overall composition of different fats (saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated) as a hunter gatherer who eats the entire animal, without people having to do that. Most people would not be too keen on starting a program that involved eating organ meats every day. However organ meats tend to have a different composition of fats, than muscle meats does - where muscle meats tend to hold more saturated fats, organ meats, like brains, contain more poly and mono unsaturated fats. So therefore Cordain advises us to eat lean meat, and then add fat back in, from plant sources, such as olive oil, that is higher in mono and poly unsaturated fats.

The diet is a so called 'high protein' diet, meaning that it contains about 30 % of calories as protein, mainly from meat, which is included  at virtually every meal. The idea is that you eat your full in lean meats, vegetables and fruit, and that the protein from the meat, and the fiber from the vegetables (and fruit) will make sure you stay full until next meal - it is not specifically a weight loss diet, however it is supposed to normalize any weight issues, one might have.


For me personally I consume three or four meals a day, each consisting of 200 - 300g of lean meat, and some fruit or vegetables, often both, possibly along with some extra oil. I also take a fish oil supplement as recommended in the book (as I don't like fish) - 8 1000 mg soft gels - all in all 1680 mg DHA omega 3 and 2400 mg EPA omega 3.


Ok that was it for today, I will soon be back with a discussion of the arguments for and against this diet/concept, as well as my initial experiences with the diet - stay healthy :D


tirsdag den 16. marts 2010

First challenge

Today I restarted my blog, and began my first new diet challenge - 30 days of the paleo diet. What is the paleo diet you might say, well in short terms it is a modern day version of the hunter - gatherer diet, that our paleolithic (old stoneage) ancestors ate. The purpose of this blog is to test different diets and health protocols, in order to find out what works. I am going to post about my experiences with the diets, as I try them out, as well as theoretical arguments for and against the different diets.
This short video explains more on what the paleo diet is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCFZoqmKf5M
I will however soon be posting about this myself, including what it is, and the arguments for and against it.

With regards to the current challenge I am going to try to follow the paleo diet (by Loren Cordain) as closely as possible; yet without eating any nuts, seeds or eggs, for the first two weeks. This is simply because the diet already eleminates most of the common allergenic protein sources (dairy, peanuts, soy, eggs, nuts, gluten, shell fish). So I am simply going to add these things back in again one at a time, probably every two weeks, and then observe if I have a reaction.