Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

1

I am currently trying RAW Paleo. I eat all my vegetables raw, occasionally raw sashimi, but I also have some cooked meat as well.

I felt like I needed some starch because eating raw cucumbers and raw carrots does not fill me up. So I have been eating at least 10 bananas each day for their starch content in addition to other raw vegetables and berries. This is the only starchy fruit I know. I do not know anything else starchy and raw.

So far so good, but I have a question: are there any benefits of eating bananas vs tubers/safe starches or visa versa?

What is more nutritionally dense - bananas or cooked pumpkins? Do you know any other sources of raw starch?

Thanks in advance!

edited Jul 17 at 5:40

asked Jul 17 at 5:07

VB
11.7k●1●7●42

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Tubers generally need to be cooked. – RaiseFitness Jul 17 at 5:08

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Cashews are full of starch, if you want an uncooked source of starch. Most nuts have some level of starch, but it varies. – Jamie Jul 17 at 6:05

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10 bananas per day are not enough. Try 30. – Dave S. Jul 17 at 12:12

I can only eat 8-10 for some reason, sometimes less. I eat a lot of other vegetables - zucchini (raw), carrots, cucumbers, parsley, spinach, etc. – VB Jul 17 at 12:22

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I think Dave was referencing this: 30bananasaday.com – smartcookie Jul 17 at 14:28

show 6 more comments

Christine M. · Answer 1 · 2012-07-17 05:25:47Z UTC

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Some tubers can be eaten raw, but they're pretty nasty, imho.

If you're going with a raw diet, your main calorie sources are going to be (1) sweet fruit or (2) fat. I'd recommend the latter. Avocado, nuts, seeds, olives, and associated oils.

answered Jul 17 at 5:25

Christine M.
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I can digest fish and meat, but avocado and olives do not agree with me. I can only eat what I can. – VB Jul 17 at 5:37

Primal NOLA · Answer 2 · 2012-07-17 05:19:40Z UTC

3

If you're eating 10 bananas a day, you're not eating paleo. Not by any definition I know of. Bananas are not considered a fruit that paleolithic man would have had access to, because they didn't exist. Also, eating 10 servings a day of ANY fruit is really not paleo by even the most liberal definition.

I stick with sweet potatoes and yams. Yams are arguably the very best that I know of, because they're a very slow carb and tasty.

answered Jul 17 at 5:19

Primal NOLA
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Yeah we know that we had chickens in the paleolithic :-). Or that there were apples. – anand srivastava Jul 17 at 5:27

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@Primal NOLA - Nothing that you buy in the store now, even organic, existed during Paleolithic times. Carrots did not have as much sugar, just as apples and even cranberries - a garden variety is different from a wild one. So if you want to be true Paleo you have to actually hunt wild game and gather wild roots and leaves. Everything else has been bred, cross-pollinated and selected for most sugar content. So it is not fair to apply those rules to bananas only. – VB Jul 17 at 6:09

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Yeah, because fruit doesn't exist in the wild right? And of why would paleolithic humans eat fruit, fruit tastes gross! lol @ this answer. – Mscott Jul 17 at 7:47

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There are better reasons to criticize a 10 banana/day habit than it's not reenactment worthy. – Matt Jul 17 at 12:09

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Yep, lets make sure we don't use farmer's markets either since they weren't around then. For that matter, maybe we should just use foods found in subsahara Africa. Man, this paleo stuff is quite complicated. – RaiseFitness Jul 17 at 14:41

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anand srivastava · Answer 3 · 2012-07-17 05:30:15Z UTC

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If you are restricting yourself to Raw foods, obviously raw pumpkin is not edible, so you need to eat the bananas for the carbs. Anyway cooked foods are more nutritious than uncooked foods, because the nutrients are more bio available.

But you still need a decent amount of uncooked foods because some nutrients get destroyed in the cooking process.

answered Jul 17 at 5:30

anand srivastava
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I do not do well with cooked foods. Maybe cooked food is more nutritious, but I fall asleep after eating cooked food. I can only eat what makes me feel better and cooked food is not what makes me feel better, it makes me feel exhausted. – VB Jul 17 at 5:39

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I don't usually disagree with someone stating their N=1 but to put a blanket on cooked food making you feel 'worse' and fall asleep seems well, ridiculous. You said in your original post you eat some cooked meat, so I don't know what that says about your strange logic in sentence no2.. I'm sure you have your reasons for hunting down starch but considering some peat principles you might find some relief/ satiety from eating a variety of fruits and then some energy benefits over time from the sugars (provided you aren't too insulin resistant and you don't crank the sugars too hard in one hit). – PaleoMouth Jul 17 at 10:11

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^Depends on what the meal is. VB, it's very obvious to me that you have low stomach acid. Even more so after I just read you used a PPI. – BoneBrothFast Jul 17 at 16:32

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If your problem is digestive, then you should consider consuming a lot of fermented foods. They will help aid the digestion. Actually if you fermented the vegetables with their own bacteria, ie ferment them without cooking, then you will gain the ability to digest them. I agree you should avoid things that cause problems. – anand srivastava Jul 19 at 12:47

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Be careful with the fermentation though, you do not want to eat problematic bacteria or fungus. If the fermented food looks bad or smells bad, or you have a bad feeling throw it out. – anand srivastava Jul 19 at 12:48

show 6 more comments

JoeB · Answer 4 · 2012-10-03 12:58:48Z UTC

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Jicama (a tuber) is excellent raw, and if you really want to wake up your taste buds squeeze some lime juice on it and add a little salt and chili powder!

answered Oct 3 at 12:58

JoeB
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Ashley · Answer 5 · 2012-07-17 17:20:13Z UTC

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If it's a concern of filling you up, Kale is very filling though the taste takes some time to get used to.

Small sweet potatoes are delicious cut in half and steamed for 15-20 minutes.

The bananas makes it sound like you need a lot of easy carbohydrates to stay functioning.

I was doing something similar with Mountain Dew. I'd keep drinking it to avoid a crash. Anything else I ate made me sleepy. If I ate 'healthy' stuff (vegetables, cooked meats, and whole grains) I'd get sleepy or have no energy at first. It took about 2 months of eating just regular low carb before I didn't feel sleepy after meals, and didn't feel low energy from what I was eating.

Maybe the focus should be on blood sugar stability and weaning yourself off that much carbohydrates? It's just a thought.

answered Jul 17 at 17:20

Ashley
221●6

	Ashley, thank you for your comment - I am looking for RAW foods. I will try your suggestions to wean myself off bananas. Raw foods are fine and they do not slow me down. I made tons of experiments, and raw foods (even bananas) give me tons of energy whether cooked foods (even cooked kale) makes me sleepy. I believe I have a problem digesting so I am looking into RAW foods that fill me up. – VB Jul 17 at 17:30
	The Kale can be eaten raw. I oil it up and use red chili flakes and lemon juice. Sorta forgot about the Sweet potatoes needing to be cooked, sorry. However, they are supposed to be good for blood sugar stability as are bananas if eaten in suitable quantities. If you can get a to a point where you're not tired from eating cooked food, that's the next thing I'd go for. – Ashley Jul 17 at 18:12
	I cannot have oil, chili flakes and lemon juice - not sure why they bother my stomach, maybe because of my gastritis. However, I continue to eat cooked kale (raw is a bit bitter) and other cooked vegetables on occasions even though they make me feel a bit tired. Thanks for all the suggestions. – VB Jul 17 at 19:17
	@VB. I have to wonder if all your experiments were worth anything. It takes weeks to do proper elimination diets. If you're swapping variables willy-nilly then you're very likely to get a confused result. Not sure you're doing your gut any good with your current diet. It's likely just holding the status quo. – Matt Jul 17 at 21:06
	@Matt - you are probably right. For now I eat things that do not bother my stomach and it seems to be working. I used to have stomach pains after everything I ate. My stomach does not hurt now when I eat many things. – VB Jul 18 at 5:18

NewEra · Answer 6 · 2012-10-03 15:57:37Z UTC

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You can eat turnips and peeled white potatoes raw. They aren't the best tasting things ever, but there you go. Also: (red) beets. Beets are very tasty raw.

answered Oct 3 at 15:57

NewEra
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limeinthecoconut · Answer 7 · 2012-10-03 18:12:18Z UTC

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The only foods i eat raw are fruits. I cook all my vegetables, animals and tubers. I hate raw food!

answered Oct 3 at 18:12

limeinthecoconut
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Bananas VS tubers and safe starches

7 Answers