Tummy bug

Sorry no posts for a few days - the family has had a tummy bug. Normal service will be resumed soon!

If I knew you were coming, I would definitely bake a cake

My mum is coming for a visit tomorrow. I haven't told her yet about paleo - I might just present her with a plate of food without carbs and see if she notices.

Anyway, in my family, if you want to show hospitality, you bake a cake, and that's a habit I'm not ready to break. In general I'm not keen on paleo food that pretends to be 'normal' food, but I'll make an exception for my mum visiting.

Fortunately, I know that you can make great cakes with ground almonds instead of flour. Didn't want to use lots of sugar, so I'm making this banana cake: http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Super-Moist-Banana-&-Almond-Cake/7735/ which just has 50g and is mainly sweetened with bananas. Depending on how it turns out, I might try it without the sugar next time.

Anyhow, it's in the oven. The picture above shows what it's supposed to look like. I'll let you know...

A quick and easy (and cheap!) paleo dinner

Sometimes you need a quick meal, and it's tempting to reach for the ready meals and convenience foods. But the beauty of paleo is that you can create a wonderfully healthy, tasty meal with no trouble - as long as you've got the right stuff in the fridge. That's the trick.

Take this meal. Wednesdays are a rat race because both kids have to be picked up from different places and my husband and I are both at work. So we need something hot on the table pretty much as soon as we get home. The above meal is the perfect solution.

My husband gets in from work and puts the chicken in the oven - free range thighs and drumsticks, which Tesco does for less than £3 for enough for four. He just puts salt, pepper and oil on and bangs them in. Then he comes to pick me up, then the kids - a 40 min round trip. When we get home the chicken is done, so we toss a salad in pesto dressing and tuck in. Seeing the lobster gnawing on a chicken leg warms the cockles of my heart.

If you wanted to do it in 5 mins instead of 40, just buy ready-cooked chicken from M&S and grill for 5 mins. With the oven method, be warned - don't use breast meat, which will be terribly dry after 40 mins. The cheaper, fattier cuts, on the other hand, will be perfect.

A meat-only diet?

Why don't the Inuit get scurvy? After all, they traditionally eat a 100% meat-fish diet. Surely we need vitamin C, which is present only in very small quantities in meat, to avoid illness?

This is just one of the dietary paradoxes addressed in an amazing book I'm reading by Gary Taubes, who writes for the highly respected journal Science. In the UK it's called The Diet Delusion, but I believe in the US it's called Good Calories, Bad Calories. I can't recommend it highly enough - it's a truly authoritative work which reviews the science behind current nutritional thinking in a way that I find very satisfying (bearing in mind that I'm a physicist and good science is very important to me!).

I'll be talking about this more over the coming weeks, but let me share with you the answer to the paradox of the Inuit. Vit C, Taubes explains, has a similar composition to glucose and is taken up by the same receptors in the body. When blood sugar is raised by eating carbohydrate, more glucose is present in the bloodstream and this is preferentially taken up by receptors. This in turn means that we need a lot more vitamin C because it is 'fighting' with the glucose to be used.

So if you eat a no-carb diet - for example, pure meat - you need much less vit C and the small amounts in meat are sufficient. Simples! In fact guys, it looks as though one can be completely healthy on a meat-only diet. Yum!

Steve "hates paleo"

My 6-year-old daughter has just told me that she "hates paleo". She misses toast with her scrambled eggs and I think she's worried about what we'll eat at her Hallowe'en party. I think she's also really missing pasta.

But she does like things as well: like the fact that she now squeezes her own orange juice straight from the orange, the fact that we have a much wider selection of fruit (bananas are her favourite), and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I'm not being too dogmatic with the kids. My husband and I are doing fairly strict paleo apart from still eating cheese and drinking beer, but I'm trying to ease the kids in gently. They get a choice in the morning - either whatever egg/fish I'm having that day, or their pre-paloe standard porridge with honey. They choose porridge about 50% of the time. Steve has a school lunch and the lobster has meat and vegetable stew for lunch (more on this another time) and they have tea with us, generally meat/fish, veg and some sort of sauce. This is all topped up with liberal applications of fruit.

To give you an idea of the kids' diets, here's what they had today; it's a weekend so slightly non-standard.

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs with parma ham

Grapes and raisins

Freshly squeezed OJ including the pith

Lunch

Tuna mayonnaise with sweetcorn and carrot sticks

A bit of Gouda

Clementines

Tea

Thai red chicken curry with babycorn, mangetout and cauliflower

Bananas

I actually think, despite what Steve said, that they're enjoying it (with one caveat - they both keep on asking for pasta). I think she's worrying about the party. I'm worrying about it too!

What I ate - Friday 9th October

Breakfast

Scrambled egg and smoked salmon

Lunch

Salad of prawns, avocado and tomato with pesto dressing

Apple

Tea

Sausages with mashed swede, sprouts and carrots

Apple

Evening

2 stubbies

Crazy coeliac family

I've already told you that my son, the lobster, has coeliac disease. He's nearly 3 and it was diagnosed about a year ago. I haven't eaten wheat for 10 years after developing a severe intolerance and my husband gave up gluten a couple of years ago for similar reasons. My father, who is nearly 70, gave up wheat a couple of years ago and has seen a big improvement in health.

So that just left my daughter, commonly known as Steve. She's 6 and had never had any problems with wheat or gluten. But.... but.... she's started complaining of a bad tum, and the doc has told us to try taking her off gluten to see if it improves. Poor little thing, she's very upset about it.

At the moment she's eating paleo at home but having a free rein at school, where she typically chooses things like fish fingers or pasta for lunch. If she does prove to be gluten-intolerant, it'll have to be packed lunches. I knew this was coming with the lobster, but thought it was years away. I'm going to have to do some pretty hard thinking about gluten-free, paleo sandwich substitutes. Any ideas welcome!

Prawns

I love prawns so much. When I did Weightwatchers I always had a jacket potatoes with prawns in a yoghurt dressing for lunch. Always felt really sleepy afterwards, too! The paleo version is just as delicious and a lot quicker and easier, although it's also a lot dearer as I have a whole packet of prawns for a meal instead of half.

This was my lunch today. One ripe avocado, sliced; two tomatoes, sliced; a packet of Atlantic prawns (I worry about the air miles/farming techniques associated with Pacific prawns); and a dressing of pesto loosened with olive oil. Doesn't it look delicious? Believe me, it was!

What I ate - Thursday 8th Oct 2009

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon

Lunch

1 slice smoked salmon

1 slice parma ham

1 slice Leerdammer

Garlic courgettes

Tea

More garlic courgettes

Fried haddock in a light batter

Peas

Carrots

Tartare sauce

Evening

1 coffee with 1 sugar

2 bottles Becks

Money, money, money....

You want to know what the most difficult thing about the paleo lifestyle is? It's blimmin' expensive. I've got an internet shop arriving tonight and, for a week's food for a family of four, the cost is going to be about £130. That's A LOT. When I was in my early 20s I was a vegan for a bit, and I could buy a week's food for £20!

What's driving the cost up? Well, to start with, loadsa meat. I only buy free range chicken, so that's expensive. Tuna steaks for four? £7. Ribeye steaks for four? £7.50. Big hunks of meat every evening - no cheapy pasta or jacket potatoes. Then breakfasts - lots more eggs than the normal family, free range of course, about £8. Smoked fish of various descriptions - not particularly expensive, but a heck of a lot dearer than a bowl of cereal.

And finally - I'm not giving the kids any puddings other than fruit, so I want them to have a nice selection. Another £15.

Haven't yet worked out how to get the cost down - at the moment I'm just concentrating on getting used to it. Good job we always go youth hostelling for our hols - the Bahamas are definitely going to be out for a while.

Postscript: The shopping just arrived and it was actually £147 - eek! Having said that, I made a mistake with quantities of beer and have ended up with 60 bottles. I do like the odd beer, but that's ridiculous.

What I ate - Wednesday 7th Oct 2009

Breakfast

1 1/2 kippers

Lunch

Left-over meatballs

Apple

Banana

Small packet nuts & raisins

Tea

Chicken with pesto dressing

Broccoli

Mangetout

Apple

Evening

2 bottles Becks

A little bit of weight loss?

Not quite there yet, but....

As you can see from the blog, I have emphatically not been dieting in the traditional sense over the last few weeks. True, I've been eating more fruit and veg than previously, and, also true, I've pretty much cut out the crisps and chocolate. But I've been eating loads of meat, fat and eggs (plus too much cheese to be truly paleo!) In fact, I've been eating without restricting the quantities at all, and have been feeling pretty full most of the time.

And guess what? I've lost a bit of weight! I know this using the unarguable "trouser method". I wore the trousers I've got on today on a girls' night out a few weeks ago, before starting paleo. They were uncomfortably tight and led me to feel, frankly, shit about myself all night. And today? They're not quite as loose as they were last Christmas (lowest recent weight) but they are distinctly comfy. Happy days...

Incidentally, it's true that I've been making a bit more of an effort to exercise, and have started swimming twice a week. But I can tell you from loooong experience that that level of additional exercise will make no difference to your weight whatsoever. No, it's down to the meat and veg, man....

ps I should say that I reckon I need to lose about a stone (14lb). But it's always the last stone that's the hardest!

Cheese - is it a problem?

Looking at the last few days' posts, the obvious place where I am wildly veering off-paleo is in my cheese consumption. However looking at other blogs, a lot of people say things like "I allow myself a bit of cheese" or "if you're going to cheat, cheese is the least-worst option". I don't know what the thinking behind this is - I'm going to ask around and get back to you on that.

What I ate - Tuesday 6th Oct 2009

Breakfast
1 1/2 Kippers

Lunch
3 slices Leerdammer cheese
3 slices Parma ham
Apple
Banana

Tea
Meatballs in tomato sauce with a little mozzarella
Avocado
Apple

Evening
Dunno yet... but I'm going to the pub so no good can come of it.

(Later) 1 1/2 pints of beer, packet of crisps and loads of free cheese. But they I only go to the pub about once a fortnight!

Cheese for lunch

Disaster! The soup man wasn't there today. So what's a paleo gal to do? On campus there is only the Spar, so that's where I headed. Bought a packet of Parma ham and some Leerdammer sliced cheese. Cheese is by no means paleo, but this was an emergency and it's much, much better than bread or crisps!

So I ate three slices of Leerdammer and three slices of Parma ham at 1pm. At 3.30pm I cycled home and noted that I felt really, really full... Lasted until teatime and to be honest, I only ate dinner because I was putting it on the table for the family. It's so novel, eating delicious food that's really satisfying over a long time. Why didn't I discover this before?

Lack of hunger

I have always been one for snacking in front of the telly at night - a bag of crisps, maybe a chocolate bar - and so when we went paleo I made sure I laid in some paleo snacks, such as fish pate. I imagined myself sitting in front of the telly dipping sticks of celery in the pot.

But it hasn't turned out like that, and I've been feeding the fish pate to the kids to get it eaten up. Last night we had the Thai chicken curry. I didn't particularly have a larger portion of chicken than I would have previously, but I did have a lot more veggies. No rice though, so I think on balance the total volume eaten was the same or a bit less than an ordinary person would have.

Well, at 9.30pm, I was about to sit down in front of the telly and automatically wondered about having a snack. Then I realised that I was so full that I really, really didn't want one.

So it just goes to show - you really do eat less but feel fuller doing paleo!

Mmmmm Thai red chicken curry

Why is it that you can get a Thai curry to taste almost restaurant-quality at home, but never with an Indian curry? The prawn bhuna I made the other night was so disappointing... BUT today's Thai curry was delish. For two adults and two kids:

500g chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces

3 tbsp thai red curry paste (more if you like it hot)

1 large onion, chopped

400ml coconut milk (I made it very thin)

2 packets Babycorn, halved lengthways

1 packet Mangetout

1/2 Cauliflower in smallish florets

Soften the onion but do not allow to colour. Add the curry paste and combine, then add the chicken and stir round until the meat is sealed. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. When the chicken is nearly cooked, add the babycorn and cauli. Wait a couple of minutes then add the mangetout. When the veg is cooked it's done!

Sorry no pic - it looked as good as it tasted - but we piled in from work/school, grabbed it out of the fridge, heated it and it was gone!

Today's food - Mon 5th Oct 2009

Breakfast

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 piece smoked haddock

1 slice smoked salmon

Lunch

Mushroom soup

1 apple

1 banana

Small bag fruit and nuts

Tea

Thai red chicken curry with cauliflower, mangetout and babycorn

1/4 fresh pineapple

Apple

Evening

2 bottles Becks

More fish for breakfast

"When can we have porridge?" wails my daughter on being presented with a plate of cold hard-boiled eggs and smoked haddock. She didn't like it much, although the lobster chomped it up no problem. Actually it wasn't that nice; I followed the instructions on the packet and baked the fish, but it ended up horribly dry. Next time will poach it.

I thought this egg/fish combination would be like kedgeree but without the rice; but it wasn't anything like as nice. Maybe I should have poached both the fish and the egg? Anyway, so far the best egg/fish combo is scrambled eggs with smoked salmon (on the side, not cooked in). Mmmm.

My husband is still eating porridge. He can't keep up with me; I've been nagging him to eat porridge instead of sugary cereal for years, and now that he does I want him to eat meat! He'll come round eventually...

A list of what I have eaten

I've decided that I won't progress on the paleo journey unless I list everything I eat, in order to pinpoint my weaknesses. Today was an odd day because I went for a long country walk so I'll start a proper audit tomorrow, but this is what I reckon I had today:

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon

Cup of tea with skimmed milk

Walking snacks

Chocolate-covered Kendal Mint Cake

A Magnum

Lunch

Several slices saucisson sec/Parma ham

Dairylea triangle

Broccoli and stilton soup

Apple

Coffee with milk and sugar

Tea

Fresh tuna steak

Carrots

Green beans

Broccoli

Tartare sauce

Tea with milk

Tonight (probably)

A few left-over crisps

Banana

Apple

Two bottles Becks

Picnic!

Picnics are so much less fuss the paleo way (as long as you've got the right stuff in the fridge). No making piles of sandwiches; just reach into the fridge and pull out several packets of cold meat. Take along some tomatoes and carrot sticks (I buy these ready-prepared) and some fruit and a bottle of water, and you're away. We did this today. Having said that, we went for a long walk before lunch, and before tucking into our parma ham and bananas, we had, er, an ice-cream. Oh well.

Got home really tired and not really in the mood to make tea, so did a really quick but massively healthy meal. We had fresh tuna steaks, which cook in about 5 mins, with green beans, carrots and broccoli. I buy the veg prepared for just these situations and cooked them all in the same pan - green beans first, add the carrots after a minute, then sit the broccoli on top after another couple of mins with just the stems in the water so that they half steam. They were all done perfectly at the same time. It would have been really boring without a sauce though, but this one's gorgeous and easy:

Home made tartare sauce

You will need:

Gherkins

Capers or caperberries

Parsley

Mayo (I use Hellmann's)

Put some gherkins, an equal volume of caperberries and a big handful of curly parsley into a mini-blender with a dsp of mayo. Blend until chopped (I did it smooth but less blending probably gives a more interesting texture). Stir in a few more dsp mayo to taste - I used three more. Perfect with pretty much any fish.

Lunch at the veggie cafe

After a harmonious breakfast of boiled eggs chopped-up-in-a-cup (which my Mum used to make for me) and a potter round town, we met friends in a local vegetarian cafe for lunch. Now I don't want to stop meeting my friends for lunch, but this place is paleo-impossible! The lobster had chips and beans and I had skins with sour cream and salad. And boy did it take its toll - I had to go for a nap after lunch. It's true what they say; potatoes really do put you to sleep.

For tea I made myself a prawn bhuna. It was all right but disappointingly tasted nothing like the ones you buy from the curry house. So all in all, food today has been disappointing.

Kids for tea

So what do you do when your kids have friends over for tea? How do you provide an unknown child with something they will probably like without resorting to beige foods? In the past our staple friends-to-tea meal has been fish fingers and chips. Obviously that's now a thing of the past. But while my kids might be happy to eat, say, fresh tuna with broccoli and carrots, their friends might completely refuse and then there would be the humiliation of telling the collecting parent that they hadn't eaten anything.

We had one of my daughter's friends over for tea tonight - a six-year-old girl - and I gave them sausages (M&S premium, wheat- and gluten-free) with mini corn on the cobs. Every last morsel was eaten and nobody commented on the lack of chips. For pudding we had lots of different types of fruit which also went down well. However some kids don't like fruit... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And as for the vegetarians... scrambled egg? Help!

Paleo breakfast!

The one meal I've been chickening out of tackling the paleo way is breakfast. There's something about first thing in the morning that makes me want sweet stuff in a way that I don't the rest of the day. I've been having Oatiflakes with skimmed milk and Splenda so far, but this is the week for a change. I've decided that the most palatable thing for me in the morning is smoked fish so I've stocked up.

So this morning I had that most English of breakfasts - kippers! Hadn't had them since I was a child. I remembered them as being full of bones, and of course they are, but so small you can just eat them. They were tasty but really shockingly salty, and also very filling - the packet in the picture contained two and I struggled to finish them. The kids helped me, though, they loved them. Next time I'll just have one. Must try different brands to see if I can reduce the saltiness, or could I maybe rinse them? Or is that just part of what kippers are?

The perils of shopping day

OK, I've got to be more on the ball. My internet shop is due to be delivered tonight, and due to bad planning the fridge is empty. My husband and I got in late for lunch, both hungry; I spent 10 minutes making an egg and tuna salad, but he didn't have the patience and went for the wheat-free bread. This won't be an option for much longer, as I'm running down the stocks, but still - must be better organised to avoid hunger-induced non-paleo feeding frenzies.

Tea tonight is perforce totally scratch; chicken out of the freezer for the grown-ups, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon pate for the kids. Normally I like us all to eat the same thing at the same time, but needs must.... better than a shared bowl of pasta....

Why is the whole family going Paleo?

Some people have asked me why I am inflicting the whole Paleo thing on the kids. I think the feeling is that it's OK to put yourself on fad diets, but you should let the kids eat 'normally'.

Well, first of all, of course there is no question of me putting the kids on a 'diet'. They are absolutely welcome to eat as much as they want. Actually they are loving it - the fruit bowl is overflowing in a way that it never has before, and they are welcome to hit it at any time. Also they both love meat and fish and always ask for more. My daughter, who is 6, has never liked carbs much, and even as a baby preferred cucumber to chips (she's a changeling!), although I think she's missing pasta. And I'm lucky in that they both like a wide variety of veg.

But the real motivation for going Paleo was the health of my son, who is nearly 3 and rejoices in the nickname of "The Lobster". He was diagnosed with coeliac disease around his 2nd birthday. That means he will have to have an entirely gluten-free diet for life. Because I have had a severe wheat intolerance for the last decade, that was no problem for me. I merrily switched him on to gluten-free pasta and bread, and bought him chips when we went out.

But then I started thinking a bit harder about what he was actually eating. He loved wheat-free bread and pasta, and I could see him growing up to make them the core of his diet. But when you look at what's in them, it's a bit horrific. This is the list of ingredients for the wheat-free bread sold by one of the leading supermarkets:

Water, Tapioca Starch, Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil, Yeast, Dextrose, Psyllium Husk Powder, Humectant (Glycerine), Dried Egg White, Stabilisers (Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose, Xanthan Gum), Calcium Carbonate, Maize Flour, Salt, Citric Acid, Emulsifiers (Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids).

Pretty horrific, huh? Just nutritionally worthless, and can you imagine the processing that has to go on to turn tapioca into bread? I don't want the Lobster to be eating this stuff for the rest of his life. I want to show him another way. I think that way is Paleo.

Yuk!

The liver stroganoff was just horrible - it was so rich. A small amount would have been nice with rice maybe, but of course we don't eat rice! Having said that my husband liked it and finished off everyone else's. Tonight it's going to be oven-baked chicken with veggies, a much safer choice!

Today's meals - Tues 28th Sept 2009

On work days I buy lunch from the fantastic fresh soup stall in the student union shop, but it means I'm a bit at their mercy as far as paleo goes. Today it was either courgette and cream cheese soup (not paleo) or vegetable tagine (probably paleo but sounded a bit yuk) so I went for the soup. Mmmm. Apple, banana; the shop had sold out of fruit and nut mix so I had an Eat Natural bar containing (gulp) puffed rice and chocolate. Oh well...

Tea tonight is a bit of an experiment. We are having lamb's liver. I think this is the first time since school that I've had it. I'm going to stroganoff it with mushrooms, onions, cream and white wine (Delia). Wish me luck. Got to get to grips with all this dairy though...

Let the sun shine in

I cycled in to work today - I do it once a week, about 35 mins each way. I have to cycle very, very slowly because there are no ladies showers in the physics dept so I have to make sure I don't break a sweat! Today it was a bit embarrassing because a runner overtook me...

Am trying to get outside more to boost my Vit D production - apparently it's a good way to ward off the Swine Flu. Used a handy calculator: http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html to work out how much I need to be outside at this time of year in cloudy Lancaster, and it's about two hours a day. That's fine when I'm looking after the kids - then it feels natural to hang around in the park for ages - but might be harder when I'm by myself and especially when at work.

Today's meals - Mon 28th Sept 2009

I'm not doing paleo breakfasts yet. I'll talk about that another time.

Lunch today was the left-overs of last night's cauliflower cheese. Not really paleo - dairy plus a bit of wheat-free flour to thicken the sauce. At the moment I'm trying not to be too dogmatic and ease myself in gradually! I also had half a packet of nuts and raisins, and an apple and a banana. Also a cup of tea with milk - I can tell you right now I'm never going to give that up!

Monday nights are always tight for time so I've planned a really quick tea - grilled mackerel with the leftovers of last night's veggies. Hope there will be enough, if not it'll be extra carrot sticks, tomato and salad all round. For pudding we've got a fresh pineapple, they are really cheap in the market at the moment, 60p or something.

So what is Paleo?

For those of you who are new to the concept of paleo eating, here's a brief overview.

Prior to the agricultural revolution which took place about 10,000 years ago (that's ~500 generations) man only ate stuff that didn't need a lot of processing - meat, fish, fruit and veg. With the advent of farming, grains were cultivated and ground and assumed much greater importance in the diet. Moreover, with the domestication of animals, humans had much greater access to the milk of other animals than previously.

This was a huge shift in diet. However some geneticists suggest that our bodies have not had time so far to evolve and adapt to this shift. Moreover, the archeological record suggest that people got shorter and sicker as the quantity of grains in the diet increased.

Followers of the Paleo Diet try to eat as their paleolithic ancestors would have. That means no grains, potatoes, pulses, dairy, refined sugar and processed foods. It's not Atkins - you are encouraged to eat as much fruit and veg as you want. To me it just makes a lot of sense.

Sunday dinner

One of the nice things about going Paleo is that it means that we are all sitting down to a roast dinner every week. Previously I was always a bit unwilling to do roasts because roast potatoes are such a rat race if you want them to be really nice - they make the kitchen so hot, and you have to do them at the same time as the gravy.

Now it's much simpler. You just stick the lamb (generally my roast of choice) in and then use the hour's cooking to do any veg you want. This week we had mashed swede, carrots, runner beans, sprouts and cauliflower cheese (hmm, not paleo). Shown above is my 2-year-old son's plate. He finished every last drop!

The start of the journey

My husband and I have decided that our family should switch to eating the modern equivalent of the paleolithic diet. This blog will tell the story of how we, and our kids, get on with the change.

A bit about me: I am a 37-year-old physicist and mum of two kids aged 6 and nearly 3. I'm a bit overweight and very concerned about good nutrition. I've tried various different nutritional plans (and notably lost my 2.5 stone baby weight doing Weightwatchers) and recently flirted with the Omega Plan. However chance brought me to Loren Cordain's book "The Paleo Diet" and I was immediately converted.

We started to make the switch over about three weeks ago. I'll be posting details of what we eat, how we are getting on with switching over, how the kids get on with it etc. I'll also be talking more generally about Paleo and other ideas about nutrition.