i was going to suggest upping your fat.
that always keeps me regular.

Thanks for that. The article explains a few things I've been struggling with lately. I wonder if withdrawl symptoms mean I'll have big health improvements from giving up dairy. This afternoon I feel like I've been opening up new sinuses that I didn't even know I owned.

Are dates Paleo? Even remotely?

No, they're not 'low-carb' but Larabars (which I've been having on occasion in advance of weight training sessions) seem to work.

The lowest-carb one is the pecan pie flavour - it has dates, almonds and pecans in it, nothing else. Yeah, it's carby - but it works, and doesn't bother my tummy at all. Gluten and dairy-free too.

Other than that, I think you're on the right track to be thinking of nuts - almonds, walnuts or what have you.

Lately, I've been buying raw organic almond slices at the health food store, by the pound. I take a few tablespoons and 'toast' them in a dry-frying pan (a non-stick pan) on high-ish heat for about 30-60 seconds. These make a very nice addition to a lunchtime salad or just for snacking. Only 1 carb per two tablespoon serving. The sliced almonds seem like 'more' food than the regular almonds.

As far as I know dates are paleo. Lots of us don't eat them because we're low carb paleo and they have an awful lot of sugar in them. They're amazingly good though.

I asked that question of Tarlach, he says yes. I found some Medjool dates that taste just like carmel . I didn't lose any weight while eating them, though.

I'm crazy for the banana Larabars (just dates, dried bananas, and almonds) but I have no self control when they're in the house.


Good tip. Thanks.

One way to limit the carbs on a Paleo diet (and do Paleo more "authentically") is to eat locally and seasonally. Obviously, since dates are dried they could be eaten beyond their climate and season, but people would probably have run out of them soon enough that they never became a major part of the annual diet. The Egyptians used a lot of dates and honey, but even by that time it was an unusually high amount of sugar compared to other parts of the world.

I have to be careful of those Larabars. I first tried them for an 'emergency' sort of snack/food item on a recent vacation. Got to eating a few too many of them.

They were banned.

But then, a few weeks ago - started up a weight training program, and was getting nauseous after the so-called "leg" day. Did some reading, and from some hints from my trainer - the suggestion was to have a "tiny" amount of carbs about an hour beforehand.

I don't know that I need them anymore. That said - I keep them in the garage... Half a Larabar works just as well for weight training as a full bar. The Pecan Pie flavour is 17 'net' carbs per full bar, and I usually just have half or 1/3 of it - three times a week, at like 5:30 am before going to the gym for an hour-long weight session.

In any case - with regard to Nancy's stuff - they 'work', if you know what I mean.

And from experience - eating half a Larabar before an hour-long weight training session does NOT cause cravings, whereas before - when I got into eating them a little too often, they did cause the 'hungries', which I don't like. I have a feeling that the 8.5 carbs pre weight training are pretty much burned off by the time I get home from the gym.

I wouldn't recommend them if you're serious about the 'low-carb' aspect. Unless for emergencies only (ie. travel) or because you don't know what else to eat before gym and you're not gonna start cooking up a storm at dark o'clock in the morning.

Nancy - the combo of dates and nuts 'work' better than nuts alone.

Ok - back to the coffee, or lack thereof.

You know, it seems like people have different trigger foods for making their guts go. People swear something works and it won't work for me. I'm not sure what my new and improved gut will do now... used to be that seeds like sunflower or pumpkin would clean me out something awful.

Oh, I'm trying something new today I have seen this horribly over priced stuff in the HFS called... Mache tea or something like that. It's from S. America. But they had it at TJ's about half the price as at Henry's, still rather pricey but I was curious, so I bought some. Anyway, it doesn't really taste all that great. Kind of bitter but with some splenda it is drinkable. Unfortunately I had a cup of it around 6-7 last night and I couldn't get to sleep like 5 hours later! I wasn't jittery but I just felt wide awake.

So anyway, I just had some with my breakfast this morning. I'm going to need it after staying up so late!

This stuff is pretty good. I picked some up the other day. To me, it tastes just like coffee, but heavy coffee drinkers will be able to tell the difference. I had another non-coffee drinker try it and she also said it tasted just like coffee. It does say it's gluten free on the side, tested by an independent lab. I got no reactions to it. Thanks for the recommendation!

Well, been about a month now and living coffee free is very easy.

Have you by any chance increased your consumption of dark chocolate? I was eating one tiny square with my reward meals, but quit three days ago -- and am craving a cup of strong coffee just terrible.... so I guess I'll pick up another bag of dark chocolate squares.

Nope. I've had a little bit but nothing like I used to eat. I used to get a couple of bars (low sugar) every week but gave that up quite awhile back. Now it's a very rare thing, I kind of lost my craving for chocolate and extremely dark chocolate stopped appealing to me.

Looking back at this thread, I got curious about drupes (stone fruit). Here's what I learned on Wikipedia:

Coffee berries, coconuts, dates, mangoes, almonds, and olives are all drupes.
Almonds are no more nuts than coconuts are.
The only true botanical nuts that are commonly eaten in the U.S. are chestnuts and hazelnuts.
A coconut is a "fibrous drupe" - the mesocarp (pulp) of a coconut fruit is the fibrous coir.
The water of a young coconut becomes the meat of a mature coconut, which is why mature coconuts have less water.
The water of a mature coconut is more bitter.
Coconut water can be used as an IV fluid.
Date trees are palms like coconut trees.
A coffee "bean" is actually a pair of seeds, found inside the coffee "berry." The coffee "berry" is edible.
Wild coffee shrubs can grow up to 36 feet tall, though commercial varieties tend to reach less than half of that and are trimmed even shorter to make harvesting easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupe


Recently some of my coconut milk yogurt has been smelling and tasting a little like coffee. I thought at first I had used an improperly washed jar that had contained coffee, but that's unlikely because I reuse the same jars over and over for coconut milk yogurt. It could still have been contaminated if I'd accidentally switched the lids, but now I'm wondering if coconut actually contains a little caffeine. They say coffee and tea are fermented to increase the level of caffeine so it might be possible that my coconut milk yogurt has elevated caffeine levels too. I don't know how to find out.

According to USDA data, no 100% coconut product contains any caffeine.

From a pointy stick or botanical family point of view, both coffee and cacao are paleo (they are both seeds).

Raw coffee and cacao are Paleo (I tasted raw cacao once, and it was delicious, but totally unlike chocolate), but to make coffee and chocolate as we know them is a very long and intricate process. It doesn't require industrial technology, but I think you could argue that it needs at least agricultural technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee