Hello to everyone; I am new to this board. I have read a lot of positive posts by people whose health seemed to have improved by following this diet. However, majority of these folks either 1)ate SAD (standard American diet) before , 2) had acne, 3) had numerous gastrointestinal distress. I have (thank God) none of those, but I have my share of other issues (seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp, rosacea, herniated disks, severe dysmenorrheal and hashimotos, just to name a few).

I am very tempted to try this diet in hopes of improving my health. (Incidentally, I am blood type O, so in light of D’Adamo book I should, indeed, be following a refined version of paleo diet.)

I am, however, terrified of being unable to do this long term and then gaining serious weight once dropping this program. (I can’t afford to gain any more weight, as I have serious back pain issues). I am also worried about being on the program for a long time and then developing serious sensitivities to things I no longer eat (wheat, dairy, etc.).

So…my questions to those of you who follow this diet:
1) How long have you been at it? What motivated you to continue in spite of social difficulties, conveniences, etc.?

2) What improvements in your health did you see and how soon?

3) If you are not celiac, and do not have wheat sensitivities, what improvements did you notice when you stopped eating wheat?

4) I have actually attempted to eat paleo for a few days but found myself overloading on food without feeling full. It’s a strange feeling and I couldn’t quite figure out if it was “mental” or physical. I wonder if anyone can comment on this.

5) Any tips on how NOT to spend a ton of time in the kitchen would be greatly appreciated. Surprisingly, I am a foodie and I LOVE to cook from scratch (always did), but now that my back has to be babied every additional minute in the kitchen counts.

Thank you and good health to you all!

PS. I also want to mention that my current diet is very “clean”: all my meats are organic, grass-fed and free-range, local and/or organic produce, no sodas, organic splash of half and half in my coffee (that, and some goat cheese are my only dairy indulgences),etc. I shop on the periphery of the market and cook from scratch.

Well, from what you are saying, your current diet sounds pretty dang good, compared to a lot of us :p Have you just recently started eating this way, or just started, and wanting to go Paleo from there?

Paleo requires a lot of dedication. Since you have the health problems you do, if you have just started eating the healthy way you have already described, why not give that a chance FIRST to see how you do?

On the other hand; if you have these health problems, and have ALWAYS eaten healthy, and want to try Paleo, that's a different story.

PLUS, you say your current diet is very "clean". Maybe you need to look really close at it, to see if there are any ways to improve it, or things to try to eliminate to see if some of your health issues clear. When you say clean, do you mean that you do NOT: eat much sugar, preservatives, transfats, pre-packaged, etc.? Although from your post, it sounds like you do not.

I can relate to the Thyroid issues, as I've been Hypo for over 30 years. What kind of meds are you on for that? I can only comment if you are only on a T-4 med, you are not getting all you need for your thyroid to function properly. Armour is superior to anything around in my opinion, it has all you need, plus is natural to boot. But if you are on the Hypo end of the spectrum, you may already know that. ;)

Hi, Isis, and thank you for your reply. I have been eating this way for at least 5 years, maybe more. There are no preservatives in my food (I shop and cook from real ingridients like meat, veggies, olive oil. Everything is done from scratch.). Obviously, I don't eat anything with transfats (mostly because I dont' do pre-packaged foods.) I do have some sugar in my coffee/tea and fructose from fruits.

I have read many great acounts of people whose health has improved once they abandoned wheat completely, so I am wondering if I need to take a next step.

Are you doing Paleo? There must be someone on this list that does!

No, not doing Paleo, although I have read a lot about it, and it surely sounds very healthy. :)
I don't think I could stick to it myself though.

I bet you could find a forum out there someplace that discuss Paleo to join that could really help you with this, I have seen them before. When I was low carbing, I saw one that really had some experienced folk on there who did it.

I totally agree with you about the grain/gluten issue, and I would certainly take that as my next step as a way to see if it would help my health issues if I were you. I really believe that can be connected to so many problems for so many people, You may be surprised how much it could help. You sound pretty disciplined anyway. ;)

Meanwhile, your current diet sounds great, so congrats to you on that!

bicoastal,

Personally I think the "paleo diet" is a bunch of claptrap. Paleo ancestors ate fruits, grasses and raw meat when they could find it. THey didn't herd cattle for dairy, nor have cultivated wheat, freezing, cooking, etc.Any correlalation between a 21st century diet and what paleolithic ancestors ate to live to their ripe old ages of 25 is strictly specious silliness to write diet books.

All that said:
my share of other issues (seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp, rosacea,
Do you have any tips you've found for controlling these conditions? I share a variant of them...more like seborrheic dermatitis of the face...MAYBE!:rolleyes: Any hints are welcome.

Hi, Lenin. (Russian by any chance? :-))
A long time ago (when I was just beginning to read health books) I have corresponded with a guy who had a combo of rosacea and seborrheic derm. Interestingly enough, both of these conditions seemed to have gone into remission by him eating pure "paleo" and applying 100% pure aloe on his face. The only other variant was - he started taking 2000mg of fish oil. I didn't know what paleo was at the time, nor did I really take his account seriously enough to try this on my own until now.

I'm guessing the biggest thing thing that may work for many on Paleo would be omission of gluten, as I agree that a large population are in one way or another allergic to it, I also have a feeling it would do nothing short of helping your skin issues.

Another thought here; since practically ALL baked goods are grain, and all baked goods contain Bromine, well, that could be another culprit. Bromine is NOT a great additive to anything. It is pretty nasty stuff itself. :eek: And it's not just in food. You might want to do a little checking into that. ;)