Garden, Forage, Fish and Hunt!
As we have seen in our 12 previous, weekly episodes of PQTD, food and nutrition are the mainspring of the Paleo Diet and lifestyle! What we eat and drink; i.e. what we put into our bodies has more of an effect on how we look and feel, and our resistance to modern diseases of degeneration, than anything else! In other words, if we have our nutrition nailed down and in order, we are 90% of the way there...
And you, my friend, if you have been following along in our step-by-step approach to adopting the Paleo way of life on Paleo Quick Tip of the Day, the changes you have seen have been life-changing. You probably have lost significant body fat, and noticed even a loss in the bloated look to your face, and neck! This is one of the most obvious changes I see in almost everyone- they literally change their face to a younger, leaner, and far more healthy look. Lack of refined carbs and sugars cuts down the inflammation in the body to a much lower level, and it shows in the lack of inflammation in your face. Look around- these days, it is rare to see someone over the age of 25 that is not starting already to get that round, inflamed, reddish countenance that at one time was reserved for old, rotund men and women... Santa and Mrs. Claus, for instance! But, with the horrible food consumed in America and the West these days, even kids are starting to look like that. Diabetes and all...
But, that is all behind you now! We can always improve, and add more tweaks to our Paleolithic arsenal of health, and today I want you to start gardening, foraging, fishing and hunting!
In my neck of the woods (it is literally a neck of the woods!), all of these are still givens.
But, even if you live in a city, you can adapt the principles of these activities to improve your health and diet:
Square Foot Gardening is a wonderful book, and a wonderful concept of raising gardens in small, 4 X 4 containers, in a weed free soil mix of vermiculite, compost, and peat moss. You can garden anywhere with one or more of these small boxes, and it is so efficient that I have converted my formerly large garden into a fenced in area of square foot raise garden beds!
You can forage by using dandelion greens in your smoothie, and in salads. Nuts, morel mushrooms, and other wild plants and berries are available to gather; and, even if there are none where you live, forage at the store, at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods! Pride yourself on seeking out the healthiest, most nutrient dense foods you can find for sale. Try new things- grass fed beef liver, topped with hollandaise sauce is wonderful- try other organ meats, packed with nutrition- if you can’t really fish, fish the supermarket aisles, for wild caught salmon, other fish and lobster, and hunt for all the healthiest meats you can find- pastured beef and pork, free range chickens and pastured eggs. Forage for spices like turmeric powder for your smoothies, cinnamon and kelp and spirulina... you get the idea!
Turn your shopping life into an adventure in healthy eating! The Paleo type of diet is perfectly congruous with the finest cuisines in the world- by substituting grains with rice, the French cuisine is a perfect match with paleo, as is Asian cuisine, and the fine cuisine of Italy- The best of every culture was once largely “Paleo” in nature, and only by our continual industrialization and adulteration of great food into “food like substances” have we turned our many once wonderful, healthful diets into hormone and corn syrup laced monstrosities!
Get back to basics- be like your ancestors, wherever they were from! And get healthy and stay that way!
Great, great, great, great, great Grandma and Grandpa will be proud!!
J
