6/8 Foodie Friday

One of Coach Heidi's "Mighty Minis" handstand walks across the gym. Coach Heidi is offering a class for TEENS 8:15 - 9:00 AM Mon/Wed/Friday June 18 - Aug 10. 
For the past few Foodie Friday posts I have been focused on what you can eat. For the next few Foodie Friday posts I'll address the foods I want you to eliminate. 
As you recall, our nutrition plan is to eat meat, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. This is our basic Paleo eating plan and the major food groups we are eliminating are grains, dairy, dried legumes and of course sugar. Last week I explored why we eliminate grains (wheat, oats, barley, rye, millet, corn (maize), rice (including wild rice), sorghum, teff, triticale, spelt, kamut, buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa.) This week I explore why we eliminate dairy. 
As you recall from last week's post, Insulin is a hormone that controls carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Remember, Insulin is the hormone that regulates fat accumulation at the waist. One of the main reasons for eliminating dairy (and grains) is to regulate insulin. 
Milk is composed of two types of protein, whey and casein. Casein is about 80% of total milk protein. Casein is digested much slower than whey and for some people can cause a histamine (allergic) response. Whey protein is a blend of multiple types of smaller proteins and hormones, including immunoglobulins, insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), estrogens, and other growth factors. For some people whey can trigger a strong insulin response. 
In addition to protein, milk supplies carbohydrates via lactose (milk sugar). Many people are either lactose intolerant, meaning they are unable to metabolize the sugar or lactose sensitive, meaning even just a little bit of dairy will upset the belly. 
One of the main reasons I recommend eliminating or reducing dairy consumption is that it is VERY EASY to over-consume. Dairy, especially cheese, is what I call a food with no breaks. A food with no breaks is one that we can eat, and eat, and eat and will eventually either give us an upset belly or give us an accumulation of belly fat. Neither consequences are fun. 
Now, before you tell me you can't possible live without cheese, I recommend you eliminate it for 30 days. Then add it back in ONCE PER DAY using the recommended serving size which is ONLY 1.5 - 2 ounces of cheese. That's about equivalent to the size of 3 dice or 1 domino tile. How frequently do you limit your cheese to that amount? Yeah, never. 

This is the recommended serving size of cheese. How often do you limit your consumption to only 1.5-2 ounces?

Want to dive deeper into why we eliminate dairy on a Paleo Diet? Check out the "Dairy Manifesto" from the folks who created the Whole30 program. 

Click Here for the Whole30 Dairy Manifesto

Just because we are eliminating dairy on our Paleo diet it does not mean that we can no longer eat yummy comfort foods like creamy soups. We just alter the ingredients a smidge and everything is good to go. Please enjoy the delicious recipe for Curried Cream of Broccoli soup from Nom Nom Paleo. You can make it in our stovetop or in your Instant Pot. Click on the image for the recipe. Happy Eating! 

Going Paleo does not mean boring.

Click Here for The WOD