why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

everyone has their favorite diet/way of eating...how can I know which is the best one for me?? :help
I never thought about it, I just ate (and cooked) like my mom.
Then the atkins crazy kicked in, and that was the THING.

Then the ornish diet.

Then weight watchers revamped their system.

Then the government revamped the pyramid.

Then I became crunchy and decided that vegan was the way to go.

Then the whole foods craze kicked in.

Then I joined GCM and discovered the plethora of actual choices...GAH!

Right now I'm interested in making changes for myself. And probably DH. He's diabetic, so it's a little chancier for him to make big changes. Plus he has gout, so too much meat is bad for him-it makes it flare up terrible.

Anyway.
I've liked the paleo versus primal thread; I'm a midwestern farm girl, so no meat seems sacrilegious to me. :lol But grain-free just doesn't feel like the right thing, either.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

Thats why I liked the whole30. It's only 30 days. :shrug. It's kind of a "try it before you buy it" kwim? If you give it the whole 30 days you'll know if it's the right thing for you.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

IMO it's because when you look at the scope of human history paleo/primal wins out over vegan every time. In traditional cultures you cannot find a single one that is vegan, and you can find plenty that are paleo/primal.

I'm not here to knock veganism if someone feels it is working well for them :no. But I don't see any compelling historical evidence that it is the most ideal diet for the majority of humanity, and I see plenty of compelling historical evidence that paleo/primal eating (which is eating clean meats raised on the food they were intended to eat, animal fats, plants, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, etc... (can include dairy, fruits, plant-based starches, etc...) - whole foods with lots of nutrients, protein, fats, vitamins, etc... is a very healthy way to eat.

I don't consider it a fad diet b/c it's not about dieting (in terms of temporary eating habits you do just for weight loss), instead it's about looking at food in a different way and changing habits long-term.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

Yeah, I don't know if you can really know unless you try whatever it is for awhile. :shrug some people do better vegan, some not.


I think something we *all* would do better with is cutting out as much of the processed, refined, artificial, junky foods that are everywhere we look. Maybe you feel like whole wheat bread is healthy, but I doubt you'd say the same for a Krispy Kreme. :giggle so no matter what *plan* you end up with, I think just cleaning up those things is going to help our health. :yes

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

that's so true, jen. I tend to look at the whole picture, then I get overwhelmed with all the changes I MUST make, no matter what "diet" I go with, kwim?
If I just do a couple things at a time it will all come together, right?

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

everyone's journey is quite different. i was very close to vegan at one point :yes also raw vegan. i'm GLAD i was there :yes i learned so much about cooking, and eating veggies and fruits, etc.

however my health continued to suffer :td when i eliminated allergens, i was left with pretty much Holy Spirit to sustain me :giggle sooo, we started eating a little more meat. Gluten-free stopped working for me, so, i learned to make fermented gluten-free stuff :tu I'm GLAD I know how to do that ;) but that too, didn't fix the problems i was having. so, shortly after that we ended up on GAPS (which is strict paleo, minus starches, plus ferments, roughly speaking)
GAPS did fix me :yes :tu and my dd. dh even, and we didn't even know he was broke :lol ds is doing better, but continues to have many issues i wish would just go away.

so, to sum up, it's been 10 years in the making, from SAD to the way we eat now. i am grateful for all the knowledge and skills i've acquired over time, and i don't look down my nose on gluten-free vegans, or nourishing traditions, or SAD-eaters, b/c I"ve been there ;)

something like nourishing traditions is a great place to be. it can be easily scaled from almost none to high-animal product diet.
generally speaking, it seems that traditional societies in the tropics ate more fruit, and less meat. up north--almost no fruit and all protein. but the basics are the same: wholesome foods, properly prepared :heart

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

:shifty :hiding
Now, if you'd asked the question the other way around, I could give you a few of (my) reasons... :giggle.
but nevermind... :)

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

Thank you, DWE! :highfive Nourishing Traditions is a hard book for me to figure out. :blush I can't seem to make it all into one cohesive plan in my head.

Shelbi...ok, now, ANY reasons are good for me! :giggle I want to know why you chose vegan over the rest. :)

I love how you describe it as a journey, DWE (I have to keep looking...I forget your username...:doh :lol) That would describe me so well right now. Plus I'm getting to that point where you tell yourself "If I ever get to this point imma DO SOMETHING!!" Well, honestly I probably hit that point years ago. :blush :lol

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

On the scariness factor of making such radical changes... I found that doing the 30-day "boot camp" so to speak did help me realize that for me, I could be satisfied with the food I was eating on the primal diet. Truly, for many people, once you get past the first week or two of cutting out the grains, legumes and (most) sugar, the carb-y sweet foods don't have nearly the draw that they once did. As a sidenote, I think two changes that wrought some of the biggest changes weren't necessarily specifically primal: one was stopping drinking sweetened drinks---whether juice or sugar or sugar-substitute sodas or coffee extravaganza drinks---and the other stopping going to fast-food restaurants. :blush (I do still drink black coffee almost daily along with my water, and we have several restaurants that serve healthier options when we want to eat out.)

Since I started I haven't been (or even tried) following the diet absolutely perfectly. I kind of adopted the thought that if I can eat "cleanly" at least 80 percent of the time or more, I'm doing well. I've been eating this way for almost a year and a half. This month I'm doing another 30-day boot camp, as some of the old sugar cravings have been creeping back. But I'm not coming at it from a feeling of failure, but rather a desire to bump my health back up a notch. I don't feel like this lifestyle is a life-sentence. It feels very do-able and even enjoyable to me.

Hope that is encouraging and not coming across as overly evangelistic... (seeing as I didn't speak to your original question :shifty)

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

:giggle :hug not preachy at all. I wanted to sorta talk out my choices in healthy diet changes.
I also started taking juice plus vitamins a couple months ago, and I'm hoping to see some helpful changes with that.
We have cut back out out to eat (fast food) consumption a LOT. We still eat junk (like tostinos pizzas...) but its easier controlled at home, if that makes sense.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

---------- Post added at 11:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 PM ----------

[/COLOR]
I'm not either, but would we want to eat the way our ancestors ate? Didn't they live very short lives? I'm also researching all the options.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

Because ligers ate them. Or whatever animal was about ;). They didn't die of degenerative diseases.

I could give you many reasons why I think strict vegan is the most unhealthy diet man ever came up with. I think lacto ovo vegetarianism is very healthy for some people, but overall I think veganism is dangerous to all humans. I'm on my phone so I will bbl With links. I will say this though. I spent ten years battling infertility. Every single reproductive endocrinologist I saw asked me if I was a vegan and told me they would not treat vegans until they introduced animal protein for six months. They said that vegans with fertility issues often only need to eat animal protein to heal their womb. That itself is very telling

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

I don't know why you would choose paleo over vegan, but I know why I would. (I am not even vegetarian, btw, but rather "meat-lite.") If I were going to change my current eating pattern, it would be towards more vegetarian, not more meat, because that's my personal taste preference. I love fruits, vegetables and grains better than meat.

I also think that the human body was designed to eat far less meat than the average person eats.

Strict eating rules/fad diets/diets that promise to heal everything that ails you really bother me. I think a good starting place, like one of the pp mentioned, is to clean up your diet by making changes that just about everyone can agree upon--less sugar, fewer processed foods, lower sodium, more vegetables, and probably smaller portion sizes.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

You'll want to be careful with them especially I'd you do paleo. They are full of sugar.

Re: why would I chose paleo over vegan?
 

I want to come back and expand but my brief opinion is it's a journey toward finding what works for your particular body. Not all bodies react to food the same.