I asked this very same question a while back.

One favourite answer was from Melissa:

It depends on what is in that 20%. Back when I started my 20% was things like candy...and of course that made me feel crappy. Luckily, since I was eating mostly paleo, I was able to recognize that feeling crappy really was caused by junk.

These days my 20% is properly fermented non-gluten grains and legumes- dosas, traditional grits, miso, buckwheat pasta, etc. These are traditional foods of healthy agrarian societies. They aren't as good as grass fed beef or wild salmon, but I sincerely doubt that they cause real problems.

Another favourite answer was from Drew:

One thing you may need to watch out for in that 20% is that you really still need to avoid gluten and legumes as much as possible. These have long lasting negative effects (weeks) on gut permeability. Antibodies to gluten have been shown to persist for weeks after exposures, and some say it can affect you for up to a year. Dairy, white rice, and corn seem to be less detrimental cheats, so you are going to go for that cheat meal, those are better choices than bread and other grain products.

I think that making positive changes to your diet will result in positive results in your health, regardless of whether they are big or little changes - so take it as far as you feel comfortable. Many people feel that conventional beef is better than no beef. So don't not eat beef if you can't get grass-fed. Also, if you're gonna keep lots of omega 6 in your diet (dressings, etc), I'd suggest ensuring you get some fish oil; but make it easy on yourself - buy the value stuff from Costco. ;)

You're in the right place. Baby steps!

I struggle with many of the same issues. Ex. we still eat conventionally raised beef for the most part (and I buy it when on sale). Every month since going paleo I've hit our theoretical food budget about 2/3 the way through the month, leaving me to wonder if we'd ever afford it in earnest.

Also, I'm a mom of 2 young kids - a 1 yr. old and a 3 yr. old, so I totally get the not having the time (or wherewithal) to brave multiple trips to grocery stores with them in tow. I generally make a trip to our nearest grocery store - Giant - every 3-4 days, where I buy said conventionally raised beef and many conventionally raised fruits and vegetables. Eggs and dairy I try to buy organic (Target and Sam's are actually price-competitive for these). Amazon is a good, price-competitive source for more obscure stuff, that I try to buy on Subscribe and Save where possible, so that is one "grocery trip" I can manage in a few minutes from the comfort of my home after my kids are in bed.

Otherwise, my husband, my kids, and I hit up Sam's Club about once monthly. Trader Joe's, which is near my folks' house further away, about once quarterly (good thing the Kerrygold butter which is cheapest there has a long shelf life).

Another source of compromise is my daughter's preschool where she has snacks 3 times each week - almost invariably pretzels or animal crackers, etc. I had a long internal debate about this at the beginning of the year, but ultimately decided that for my 3-year-old daughter's first year in "school" it wasn't worth the social alienation of setting her apart from her peers every single day while she eats a gluten-free snack. (Any who are feeling the impulse to "excommunicate" me here on the basis of gluten's effects lingering for weeks should also consider that she gets exposed to wheat in Sunday School, at her grandparents' houses [despite my efforts to the contrary], with classmates' cupcakes when they have birthdays, etc. In other words, it is perpetually in some sort of circulation. I amazed at how parents of celiac kids manage to keep all sources of wheat away from their kids.) Because of these regular, incidental doses of gluten, I try to make excluding gluten from her diet at home my main focus. She stopped asking me for breakfast cereal a while ago, and now considers various fruits, bacon, cheese, eggs, etc. as potential breakfast foods. (I dearly hope that attitude will carry on to her adult years.)

ALL THIS TO SAY: Hang in there, girl. "Paleo Perfection" is not a necessary goal. You do not need to have only raw organic pastured artisanal cheese in your fridge, nor do you need to eat only organically-raised pastured animals, nor do you need to eschew deodorant and cosmetics (I don't), to refer to your way of eating as "paleo".

By avoiding grains and refined sugar you are already giving your kids a solid foundation of what real food looks and tastes like. You have plenty of time to tinker (as with your omega-3/omega-6 levels, with finding pastured foods, etc.), as your time and money budgets will eventually allow, so take it easy and pat yourself on the back for your current achievement of a paradigm shift. (And frankly, even if you don't decide to tinker, having gluten and sugar off the menu is HUGE in and of itself.) Whatever else you manage in the future is (gluten-free) gravy. :)

Never wait for all your ducks to be in a row. I have never seen that happen with anything. For me it's not about being "paleolier than thou." Just reading your post I'd have to say you're doing just fine. Keep at it and don't fret about "perfect." That said, don't be too surprised if a few months down the line you have lost your taste for your Russian dressing, or the mayo. Or that you are feeling adventurous and want to see what happens if you give up cheese for a month. Just enjoy the journey and know that you are doing great things for yourself. Have fun!

I treat Wheat like a Celiac. Vegetable Oil as 98/2, Fructose as 90/10

As in 1% of my previous oil intake and 10% of my previous fructose intake

For others, it's about progress, I only frown on backsliding

Hi Jenna:

This isn't a religion, a cult or anything like this...it is about people who happen to be accountants, underwriters, auto mechanics, physicians, etc getting into contact with their inner caveman (i.e. we've come to the conclusion that beneath the apparent technological sophistication all around us, we remain who we were and have been for the last 200,000 years or more...We are Cro-Magnons with nuclear weaponry; cavemen in business suits).

I think you get 90% of the benefit by avoiding sugar, starch, grains and processed crap. I'm about 90/10 paleo (too much red wine intake, love that stuff).

Slowly move to the other positive stuff (grass fed v. grain fed, etc) and you'll get the other 10% (or 9% or 8%) etc...whatever additional benefit is to be reasonabaly had without driving yourself batty.

Chris

I don't even think that the paleo-crimes you cited are really vices, and I'm surely one of the people on here who most likes to micromanage and optimise details.

mayo made with olive oil... a drop of gasp kethcup... a few crumbles of feta, parmesan, or a sprinkle of goat cheese - but only on Sundays... grass fed 100% of the time?... Going to 15 stores every week?

Olive oil mayo sounds fine, if you were trying to get all your fat from olive oil it would be too much o-6, but otherwise olive oil is pretty innocuous (I can just never see the point to using it rather than butter). Ketchup (if it's at all like the British version) is just sugared up tomato and I never worry about sugar unless it's in significant quantities. I think cheese is perfectly paleo acceptable unless you're intolerant, I'd see no problem in eating it daily. I've never knowingly bought grassfed meat (although I do benefit from the UK's relatively high quality meat). And I get all my food (bar one item: seaweed) from one shop.

So for what it's worth you don't sound much of a paleo heretic, but I can't say I've ever seen any paleo nazi activities on here in any case. Of course, if some-one posts saying "Hack my [inflammatory condition]" people will say they should remove their pro-inflammatory foods, but otherwise I don't see any criticism of any-one's lifestyles on here. This is to be sharply distinguished from impassioned debates about whether it's relative ratio or absolute amount of omega-3 is significant, which I take to be intellectual disagreements between (somewhat geeky) individuals who are intrinsically interested in optimal nutrition, rather than wars between different paleo sects.

jenna,

Did you clear your question with the Paleo Orthodoxy Committee?--just kidding

There are all kinds of people on this site, from 0 to 100% paleo. This is a great site for anyone interested in paleo. I would generalize to say that some of the "stricter" paleos tend to be more vocal, but don't let that intimidate you. If you check the archives, you'll see many questions from "newbies" that were met with friendly and helpful answers.

Welcome, and best of luck and health to you in your paleo journey!

Paleo is flexible and adaptable. personally, I'm a strict lacto-paleo, with raw dairy from a2 grassfed cows. All grassfed, pastured, whatever. When I become a poor college student, however, that's going to change drastically. I'll still be paleo, but no way will I be able to get grassfed and organic. Will that be ideal? no. But compared to most, it's pretty darn good. I say don't worry about it.

I understand you can have 60/70 percent of health benefits from paleo diet by avoiding gluten, trans fat, sugar and anything derived from soy and corn, plus having a sound choice of meat, fish and vegetables. Of course it is much better if you are able to get 100% organic food, grass fed meat, etc, but I would not spend too many hours a week shopping around to be "100 % paleo". I just could not do it myself!

I am 80/20, I do not want Paleo to become such dogma over common sense. I am finding this winter tougher to eat strict Paleo so I will do what it takes to keep my diabetes under control and that means adding some diary.

Hi Jenna,

I admire, as well as continue to learn from, the (scientific minded) community of paleo purists.

With that said.... paleo 'nazis' are NOT helpful if they discourage people who are trying to achieve improved health, gain better understanding of what is really significant in paleo nutrition, and experience a level of support from a (great) community such as this.

I was rather turned off by the notion of an editor's intention of outright deleting posts that he felt were not up to some kind of elitist standards recently. Why act like mainstream skeptics? (Unless the person is obviously trolling in order to disrupt... not a good thing.)

So just remember, there are lurkers out here that are not necessarily chiming in but are of a tolerant mind and enjoy pleasant contributors of all manner of discussion. Rock on! ;-)

Regards, Grokette wannabe

I was a vegan for years... I have already had my fill of religious devotion to ousting things from my diet :)

I don't consider it 80/20, 90/10, or any of that, though, it just depends on the situation. I'd have to say on a daily basis it's around 95/5 or if I'm in a bad mood 80/20. On holidays it's more like 50/50, but increasingly more like 75/25.

There are some foods I consider "good" foods, like certain dairy products (butter, ghee, cheese, heavy cream) that I am apt to put in the top number because I am not orthodox paleo. So not that I could talk, but I don't really look down on people for not being pure enough, I think it's kind of rude or to use a better word, elitist.

As far as grass-fed and stuff like that... I actually go for game meat because I hunt and fish, but I can't afford grass-fed most of the time, so I don't get it. Some people suggest avoiding red meat altogether if you can't afford grass-fed and eating canned fish instead. So when I think about people who would turn their noses up at grain-fed meat I tend to think of people who want me to subsist on sardines. Just my experience, though.

What is "100% paleo" anyway? We still don't have "that one" Paleo Diet, do we?

Apart from that I think it's all a matter of what you can make work for you. If 80% is all you can do, then that's your personal 100% and that's great. Whenever someone asks me what the single biggest step to a better diet is, I tell them to just quit sugar. And I think that alone accounts for ~70% of all diet-related problems.

Changing one's diet is very, very hard, some have said impossible. Of course, this is not true. But changing one's behavior in the face of upbringing and social constraints is damn near impossible for most people. And one must experience the benefit of said changes in order to continue with it.

So...I recommend that people implement changes step-wise, one thing at a time. For someone with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, right? So, my "hammer" is: 1) get rid of wheat gluten--completely. A one-month challenge. 2) Reduce carbs--significantly. 3) Eliminate soy. By this point, you will have eliminated virtually ALL processed foods and you may be ready for this website.

Don't flame me for this, but I wouldn't recommend this website for someone starting out. It could be intimidating.

I just do the best I can. It is often impossible in the modern world to do things perfectly, so why beat yourself up over it. For me it is impossible due to finances to be 100% paleo, so I follow the Primal lifestyle thing and keep it as pure as possible. Life is supposed to be fun, not an endless beating oneself up over impossibilities.

If you have true intolerances to wheat, dairy, soy and tomatoes, as I do, it's easy to stay strict Paleo. That's my response when people ask me "My god, how can you eat like that?" when I explain my diet and they then decry that they couldn't do without bread or tomatoes blah blah blah. Well, if you felt like total crap when you ate those foods, you could do without them - trust me. :) I also fortunately have the means to shop at Whole Paycheck so it's a win/win for me. felt better than I have most of my life. My mom can't afford to shop organic/grass-fed, etc. and does the 80/20 - and I say good for her - and for you. Everyone is different - if we were all the same, life would be a very boring thing. :) Go forth and live Paleo as you see fit - at least you're trying and that's more than many others I know are doing. :)

You cannot be 100% paleo unless you are hunting and killing and gathering yourself and frankly I like certain things like Mustard and dark chocolate. I try to keep my foods as clean as possible and look at "Paleo" and "Primal" as goal levels of intake of certain types of energy (Carb/Protien/Fat).