Trying to do a gluten-free diet but still want to stay on the forum....curious to see how gluten-free Paleo is compared to Atkins? Thanks all!

Hiya Leslie,

I've been low carb for ten years, and staying on the wagon has been difficult. I am 2 kilos heavier than when I started low carb (atkins) in 2002. I've had a baby in that time, and consistently fell off the wagon. I got to my heaviest this christmas and mid January I decided to stay on plan. I decided to check out Paleo. I decided that the small changes- which was quit sweeteners and dairy and make a good effort sourcing the grass fed meat and pastured eggs, was worth a solid crack.

I podcasted like a machine, getting a lot of info which supports the reasons for the paleo principles, which truly helped me. While its only been a few months, I feel I'm less likely to fall off plan for months at a time.
I'm finally sleeping better (more than 5 hours a night)and since my 6 year old daughter has gone paleo too her learning is improved and her bed wetting has ceased.

I would encourage everyone to switch to paleo for a month. The first week is tough as you source grassfed beef, and good eggs.

Oh and my weightloss is making me very happy. I'm eating far more and actually losing weight. Before I was eating so little and not losing, and gaining monumentally when I would fall off the wagon. Now I am eating so much more!
I told my partner I wanted to try this for a month, but I'm sorry, I will never go back, and neither is my daughter. I want to force him to come with me, but I'll just cook the evening meal, and gradually discourage him from going to the shops.

Regaining my sleep has been wonderful. I have so many friends who should do this, gluten is seriously evil and grains will never be part of my family's diet. I wish I could encourage them, but of course they are hardly ready. On a positive note I am looking fitter and people are taking notice of that.

Good luck- search latest in paleo or that paleo show for a 12 podcast intro to paleo.Latest in Paleo is a good podcast, but That paleo show is a nice little intro to paleo. I also like it because it is australian.

Good luck, I hope you decide its not as restrictive as so many people perceive. If you've gone gluten free, grain free and dairy free already the remaining changes are easy peasy.

Well, gluten-free is a step toward paleo. I think of paleo as a continuum. One extreme is trying to recreate paleo in its entirety. No nut flours, no "paleo" baking, if you couldn't kill/forage it with a sharp stick you can't have it.

The other end of the spectrum allows "moderate" dairy, that's the Primal setup.

There's the "Wheat Belly" diet that is fairly close to paleo too, but uses nut flours, coconut flour, some baking, no sugars and as close to natural whole foods, with some exceptions for things like "natural", non-caloric sweeteners.

I think paleo is a spectrum. There's a lot of flexibility, or inflexibility, depending on what you like.

Thanks.....I'm just trying to figure out which WOE on here would fall into gluten-free/sugar-free/yeast free category. Doesn't leave much to eat other than meat without spices and garden veggies....after doing Atkins for so many years, I can do that but without the salad dressing & spices/condiments, it's definitely a challenge. (This is not really for weight loss at this point - I suspect I may have gluten intolerance...)

Basic stoneage Paleo is just a little too harsh for me.

I chose the Primal label because I decided that my ancestors kept a cow or two and had learned how to milk them, so that allowed me cream in my coffee and butter on my veg. They absolutely knew how to ferment fruit, so I can have a glass of wine. I'm trying to convince myself that they smashed cocoa beans against rocks and mixed the powder with butter and honey from beehives, thereby approximating Lindt 90% chocolate.

Seriously though, I do take into account that my ancestors had to work hard for relatively small quantities of food and that probably kept them lean and agile. I try to honor that principle and try not to overstuff myself just because abundance is easy to get now. As for gluten-free, it's a cinch on a w.o.e. that completely eliminates grains.

I love this simple, wholesome way of eating. I will never go back to packaged, processed anything again - even if it is labeled gluten free and low carb.

Can you make your own salad dressing? Vinegar and/or lemon juice and olive oil are pretty good. Bacon grease makes a wonderful dressing too, but you need to heat it so it is liquid. Then put on something acidic, like lemon juice if you're avoiding vinegar.

Why no spices, herbs, etc? I use a lot of things like dried spices, fresh herbs (homegrown for the most part), garlic, onion -- fresh or dried.

Fried cabbage is one of my favorite things. And tasty. Fry it up in bacon grease, with some garlic and onion and a little crushed red pepper if you want extra zing.

Or wilted greens...again using warm bacon grease.

Not all spices have preservatives or yeast in them...it's just a matter of figuring all this up front and then looking through recipes.

And with Primal, you can have fruit and nuts.

Why do you refer to it as an extreme? It's just paleo. Not some terrorist organisation or wierd fetish

Just a convenient way to describe either end of a continuum.

I like the idea of a spectrum. I think many people who turn low carb may ease into paleo after deleting grains. After the grains are gone the remaining exclusions (sweeteners, dairy, seed oils) I have found are easy changes. As long as you can source the quality. I consider myself very lucky to be in australia.

I have found it to be a continuum. It has been a learning curve of what LC plans worked for me and didn't until I finally found that paleo works for me. Until I added some fruit I just wasn't able to stay with it and I also found that with other plans I just didn't lose as well. I can say I tried many other LC plans and I would never knock any of them because some seem to work great for others. I just had to find what worked for me I just try to support others along on this wonderful Low Carb journey to health. Any Low Carb plan is a great step in the right direction. The science supports that.

Convenient for you but I find it a little offensive that the way I have eaten and got great benefit from for the past 7 years or so is now being spoken of as being extreme by other people who are actually on a similar diet just because it is now fashionable to be about 80% paleo (whatever that is? ).

Of course they did!

I'm gluten free and Primal, which means I eat high fat dairy, because I'm also convinced that our ancestors had domesticated animals long before they got into intensive agriculture. And I've had a couple of rounds of not eating dairy, with zero results.

But for optimum health, carbs are still a factor. Sounds like Wheat Belly is the right book, and perhaps, plan, to look into. He was one of the first who was very clear that grains were dangerous beyond their high carb count. He explains that it's not enough to eliminate the gluten, because gluten free substitutes are full of starches which create metabolic stress and overweight.

My daughter, 6, has just switched from being gf non dairy to paleo- thus omitting all grains. Her paleo journey is for learning and cognitive benefit. Since we have removed all grains from her daily intake she has stopped wetting the bed, which is a major step in her cognitive development. Her working memory and executive functioning have also improved.

I encourage everyone to limit their grains and ensure they don't eat gluten- I'd be preaching to the converted here on this forum, but out in the real life world I would say most people would see benefits from going gluten free.

I was at a party yesterday when someone brought up the subject of Paleo and opined that it was ridiculous to cut out whole groups of foods - moderation was the way to go. My new philosophy is not to enter into food discussions any more. Let people believe what they believe, I'm not their keeper. Unfortunately a couple of the guests knew that I eat that way so it felt like lying by omission not to say anything.

I said that many people cannot eat grains in moderation because they have an addictive quality and since I eliminated them completely I have resolved three major health issues: asthma, osteopenia, and a 26-year skin rash that no doctor could cure. I chose not to mention my 35lb weight loss because I didn't want to inform the whole room that I used to be fat, lol, but then someone's mother remarked that I was a lot thinner since the last time she saw me! The "moderation" lady then confided that her whole family had not been feeling well for a while and they'd looked into Paleo but she couldn't see how to make it work in a family with kids where both parents work long hours. She had always been dependant upon fast, commercial food for herself and her family and the idea of finding time for actual cooking was the biggest turnoff.

I must admit I had a lot of sympathy with her because I'd never cooked either, but of course it's turned out to be the best thing I ever did for myself and essential to making this w.o.e. work in the long term. I'm sure it's the perception of cooking being time-consuming that is keeping most of the population dependent on processed, chemical "food".