Paleo Food List
Eating “paleo” seems to be getting really popular these days. The Paleo Diet is basically the idea of eating more like our primitive ancestors as much as possible, as opposed to eating the traditional western diet of today.
If you listen to our recent interview with Robb Wolf, you will see that there is a lot to the paleo way of eating, and what is now being called the “paleo lifestyle”!
What can get confusing is, what is paleo and what is not paleo? I thought it would be helpful to come up with a paleo food list. Feel free to comment and add anything else you might consider paleo!
1. Meat- (beef, chicken, pork, game)
2. Fish- wild caught salmon is one of the healthiest
3. Eggs
4. Vegetables- stick mostly with the greens.
5. Fruits
6. Dark Chocolate- go for the higher cacao percentages, eat in moderation
7. Guacamole
8. Coconut/coconut oil/coconut milk
9. Coffee
10. Tea
11. Nuts (except for PEAnuts!)
12. Seeds
The paleo foods list is easy to create.
The non-paleo foods list is a lot harder! I’m going to work on that one, but if you can comment below with additions to the above list and questions about other foods, it would help a lot!
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Shameer Mulji on Wed, 21st Jul 2010 5:20 am
I’m fairly new to the paleo way of eating. Would you consider potato / sweet potato paleo foods?
Thanks.
Wes on Wed, 21st Jul 2010 7:26 pm
Hi Shameer. I know humans in the paleolithic age ate various tubers. Most advocates of paleo eating today prefer sweet potatoes and yams (root tubers) over regular taters (stem tubers). Both of course contain predominantly carbohydrates, so make sure to eat them in moderation–and absolutely no brown sugar or marshmallows on top! :)
W
JimS on Fri, 30th Jul 2010 3:41 pm
When or if eating seeds, it might be useful to think of how often they would be available to our paleo ancestors, how much time/effort it would take to yield a significant amount, etc.
I pick wild blueberries & blackberries in season and eat them out of hand (not seeds I know), and it doesn’t take very many to feel sated and to have had enough of the picking.
Cheryl on Sun, 1st Aug 2010 9:50 pm
Hi, Wes and Kevin. I’m confused about fruit. Which of your guests said that an apple is worse than a candy bar because it spikes your insulin faster? I recently cut almost all fruit out of my diet, and I do feel better. Once again, more awake, more alert (the same improvement I felt when I went off grains). Still, it’s hard for a part of me to believe that something from the produce section of the supermarket can be so bad for you. I’m hesitant to tell my children that fruits are a bad choice. I see that you still have them on your list of paleo foods.
Thanks.
~Cheryl
Wes on Wed, 4th Aug 2010 5:44 pm
Hey, Cheryl. That was Doc Carlson about the apple versus candy bar comment, I believe. Of course, it would be a pretty sad world without fruit. ;( We just need take the extra carbs into consideration when we reach for yet another apple (or cup of applesauce) or one more banana. As we all know, fruits have lots of beneficial micronutrients (unlike grains); so, coupled with veggies, they’re part of a healthy eating lifestyle. Fruit juices, however, are a different story, because they enable the consumption of extra fruit carbs much more quickly. Paleo humans didn’t have blenders and juicers, after all. ;)
Fran on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 12:10 am
What’s wrong with peanuts?
Wes on Sun, 8th Aug 2010 9:50 pm
Peanuts actually aren’t nuts, Fran, much to my dismay (they’re so damn tasty). They’re legumes, which apparently have many of the same gut-irritating properties as grains. So, given that they were first cultivated in the neolithic period, paleo humans never experienced the ever-popular pb&j.
Car on Wed, 8th Dec 2010 8:54 pm
Check out this awesome website created by Jennifer Higgins:
PaleoFoodList.com
It’s really good!
If you like it please share it with others.
Thanks,
Carl