Paleo diet?

Has anyone have any luck or failures with the paleo diet? I did it in the past with great success, really reduced the mucus in my BMs.



Thanks :)

My parents (who have no IBD, though my mother suffers from IBS) follow it and love it. They've both lost a lot of weight (with a lot of exercise as well) and are feeling great. The book about it has a section where someone with UC was "cured" by the paleo diet. I think the overall concept is valid, but it restricted too many things that i find work well for me (like potatoes, rice, etc.)

High protein, low carbs, low sugar, low grains, low dairy is the backbone of my diet that got me into remission. It didn't work overnight although eliminating gluten gave very quick positive results. It's a very healthy diet and most people would be healthier if they ate this way.

Heart disease and cancer from animal products is controversial at best. Paleo is a balancing act; Yes, you eat mainly protein as your source of energy but more importantly you're supposed to FILL your plate with fruits or veggies. And cook only in healthy fats/oils.

I'm not on paleo myself but I'm on SCD which is very similar. Only big difference is that it allows beans/legumes which I think is better if you are concerned with eating too much animal protein.

bananagirl said...
i wouldn't say it's controversial that animal products significantly increase your risk of getting disease. there are plenty of studies done that have proved this, the biggest being the china study.

WRONG! Those studies are seriously flawed. First of all, they do not distinguish between natural fats and the artificial crap like hydrogenated oils. To learn more about this, read:

www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/

xtra, they do not distinguish between the two because it makes no difference. that wasn't the purpose of the study. it was to prove that animal fats/proteins increase risk of disease.

I can see where a concern would be about too much fat/animal protein but the fact all of our major organs live off protein and fat, not sugars and carbohydrates. We have been conditioned to believe that a mostly grain/carb diet is healthy for us but when you really think about it we're being told to essentially eat what they pump into commercial meats! And as we all know, that's not good for the animals so why would it be good for us? We're not built to eat that way. Our diets, barring individual allergies, were meant to include animal protein and fat.

texasmax said...
Yup, controversial topic. I've spent a ton of time reading all the bloggers, who quote the other bloggers, who quote others who have actually gone and read the studies, and then there's the subset of the study readers who look a them fairly and quantitatively and understand how proper studies are created and executed... I'm partial to the one where the Alaskan Eskimos all have sky-high LDL because their diet is primarily animal blubber, and none of them have heart issues. Maybe it's that they have no oxidized cholesterols, etc.

I'll agree with the above and say, do what works best for you. Regardless of how healthy or not it is to the normal population, know that UCers are working with a completely different set of circumstances (which you already knew).

Can you send a link of that high LDL in Eskimos study? Cause everyone says "yeah look at the eskimos getting problems" but dont' forget, traditional eskimo diet is long gone, and they're plagued by poverty, drugs, and the SAD diet getting obseity, and metabolic problems...

And as for the China study, I think theres some flaws in it, it's a book someone wrote, not a formal peer reviewed research paper. And the veg*n community pushes it hard like its the bible of truth. Where as theres real studies about improving blood lipid markers in paleo diet that nobody seems to hear about. You can go to the wiki page on paleo diet and all the sources of the metabolic research is there.

But great debate by many here!

My paleo had great sucess in the past, my staple was giant salads! Maybe this time around I'll go for more fatty cuts of meat, only cause I cant get bones to dig out bone marrow for fat sources. I was too high protein last time, but only a minor thing that didn't have any direct side effects other then mild strength loss cause I wasnt getting enough effcient sources of calories (from fats or fruits). I WAS gluten free-vegan for a short period of time (2-3 weeks), Im not opposed to it but for me the grains, lectins, legumes, just gave me such bad reactions from swelling skin, itchy skin, IBS, and lousy moods. I was using fruit and rice as a staple but it still didn't help much. Still had a ton of mucous and pus in BMs.

I wanted to thank you all for discussing these issues in such a good way. I've looked around on this forum and see that people are generally very open about what they think and feel, but at the same time very tolerant and open-minded when it comes to other people's opinions. For someone who has been suffering from UC for about 18 months now and has just had a few days/nights in hell, it is really great to see that you can discuss these issues properly.

I've had lots of different meds, so far, but nothing, except Prednison, really helps (and even Prednison did not make the bleeding stop completely). Some of the stuff makes the symptoms slightly less, but since I started this 'adventure', I've not been without inflammation. So, that has made me wonder about whether changing my diet, for example to paleo, would do the trick.

To me, it seems such a big step though (especially since I've been a vegetarian for a long time). Of course, if it really helps, it is probably worth it, but at this moment I'm just scared that I won't be able to do it, living according to the rules of a strict diet, and that it then somehow is my fault that I'm so sick (at the moment, my tummy is like a war zone: lots of blood and explosions). I'm very happy to read your comments about 'doing what works for you', etc. Rationally, I think that that is the best approach, just trying things out. Now I just have to try to be a bit easier on myself.

herinnering,

Welcome to the forum.

I think you need to go easy on yourself.

And you need to find out what works for you.

I think you'll find that many of us UCers do much better on Paleo.

And then there's the SCD which many are on as well.

I hope this helps.

A high sat fat diet will not send LDL sky high , but rather HDL, the so called "good" cholesterol. i did SCD and later paleo and my lipids were excellent, as were the key ratios used to assess risk. i also did an enhanced test to look at breakdowns of subtypes of LDL and my LDL was skewed to the larger, fluffy harmless LDL type.

i did paleo because it reduced my UC symptoms, but I dont have a colon any more and for now find that i not only tolerate fine, but to some extent need starches to bind up my ostomy output to firm it up a bit.... this doesn't thrill me at all as I am convinced starches are horrible for heart health. i think either a low carb/paleo or low fat diet can help prevent heart disease as long as both go easy on sugars and refined starches. high sat fat (organic/wild) is healthy if refined carbs and sugars arent mixed in... I am trying to figure out how to shift my ostomy bulking food away from white rice and bread over to healthier stuff.

in any case, paleo isnt atkins, and there is no need to eat high fat meats as opposed to lean meats. i eat very little red meat but i dont think organic/wild / grassfed red meat is unhealthy.

After Humira started to fail on me last year, as a last desperate attempt to avoid the surgery, I switched to Paleo. In 3 weeks all my symptoms were gone and I stopped taking Humira shots. That was last November. I am still completely symptom free and I am down to 1 Asacol tablet 2ce a day(I am actually ready to go down one a day). We can talk all we want about the ill effects of diet with high animal fat and all, but in my book, how your body responds to your diet trumps everything else. BTW, my lipid are excellent too. Over time, my body has healed to the point where I can handle some non paleo foods now. I buy beef fat and render it to use for cooking along with clarified butter, buy pork belly and make bacon at home (and eat it every chance I get). Basically I have made a choice to stay with Paleo and stay healthy.

If animal fat really caused cancer/heart issues, human race would have gone extinct by now.

This thread has good info., and I'm going to read it again. What are the primary differences between SCD and Paleo? Btw, legumes (beans) do not work for me.

I agree that veggie fats, like coconut, can be good. I've followed a modified Paleo diet, and have not gained any weight at all, though I actually need to gain weight, seeing as I'm 110 lbs. or less, and rapidly losing weight.

I asked a question about diet in a post (see above), and would love to know more.

Margaret