Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Ever seen these things on their awkward little display in the bakery section of your grocery store? (One of the Krogers in town actually puts them in the Hispanic food aisle -- doubtful, guys.)

They taste fine, not great, but I usually use them as a vehicle to shovel other things into my mouth. They're actually incredibly good at flatbread-y pizza.

One of the brands, La Tortilla Factory, makes a wrap that rings in at 10g carbohydrates, of which 7g are fiber, for a net of 3g carbohydrates.

Ingredients are: water, oat fiber, whole wheat flour, soy flour, vital wheat gluten, expeller pressed canola oil, contains < 2% of baking powder, sea salt, guar gum, citric acid, yeast, xanthan gum, l-cysteine.

Well. You'd be hard-pressed to find one of these in a savannah ten thousand years ago; I'll grant that. But maybe one or more counterarguments will persuade you: (1) it's just a 36g little tortilla every couple of days, and/or (2) 80/20.

Having had a good deal of success with South Beach, which doesn't sound the alarm at things like wheat and unfermented soy, I'm interested to hear what Paleo folks have to say.

flag	asked Mar 1 2011 at 1:31 tonysolo 1,386●3●11

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There are many other ways to shovel things into your mouth, take a 1/2 of a green pepper or portobello mushrooms or cucumber slices be creative! If you are really hard pressed for something like this corn chips or tortillas are a better choice than high fiber tortilla. – sherpamelissa Mar 1 2011 at 2:49

Lettuce leaves, cabbage leaves, grape leaves, those giant "lettuce" basil leaves make wonderful wrappers, don't come with the grain problems and are tasty too. – Karen Mar 1 2011 at 13:20

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@tonysolo: Is your question what this community's opinion on low-carb grains are? If so, could you please edit for clarity? – mac389 Mar 1 2011 at 14:49

mari · Answer 1 · 2011-03-01 02:12:40Z UTC

Carbs are not the problem! The problems are grains, esp. wheat, excess fructose, and excess linoleic acid. Just curious, what have you read on paleo so far? I would encourage you to go to Kurt Harris' blog, Paleonu.com.

Those ingredients are not healthy. I don't think you'll get much support for that product here.

MikeD · Answer 2 · 2011-03-01 02:29:00Z UTC

This food does not have a place in a Paleo diet. If you want to stick with South Beach or some other low-carb diet that is fine, but you cannot reap the benefits of a Paleo diet by continuing to eat this food. In fact this food contains some of the biggest baddest foods on the 'don't eat' list for paleo--extra gluten added to the food is really problematic as most people gain benefit from not eating gluten after a few weeks. I listed some links below to help you understand why these ingredients are so bad.

The main ingredients are:

water - paleo

oat fiber - not paleo

whole wheat flour - not paleo http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/

soy flour - not paleo http://www.marksdailyapple.com/soy-scrutiny/

vital wheat gluten - NOT PALEO http://www.marksdailyapple.com/gluten-celiac-disease/

expeller pressed canola oil - not really paleo http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-canola-oil/

Dexter · Answer 3 · 2011-03-01 14:28:40Z UTC

I posted the following on Feb 23 regarding eating just two pieces of bread per day. The same applies to your 36 gram tortillas with oat fiber, whole wheat flour, soy flour, vital wheat gluten

This lifted from Dr Davis Heartscanblog: http://www.heartscanblog.org/2011/02/perfect-frankengrain.html

The perfect Frankengrain. Pretend I'm a mad food scientist. I'd like to create a food that: 1) Wreaks gastrointestinal havoc and cause intractable diarrhea, cramps, and anemia. 2) Kills some people who consume it after a long, painful course of illness. 3) Damages the brain and nervous system such that some people wet their pants, lose balance, and lose the ability to feel their feet and legs. 4) Brings out the mania of bipolar illness. 5) Amplifies auditory hallucinations in people with paranoid schizophrenia. 6) Makes people diabetic by increasing blood sugars. 7) Worsens arthritis, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. 8) Triggers addictive eating behavior. 9) Punishes you with a withdrawal process if you try to remove it from your diet. I will develop a strain that is exceptionally hardy and tolerates diverse conditions so that it can grow in just about any climate. It should also be an exceptionally high yield crop, so that I can sell it cheaply to the masses. Now, if my evil scheme goes as planned, I will then persuade the USDA that not only is my food harmless, but it is good for health. If they really take the bait, they might even endorse it, create a diet program around it. Dag nabit! Such a plan has already been implemented. Another evil food scientist already beat me to the punch. The food is called **wheat**..

If you want more...this a search on his blog for the term "wheat." http://www.heartscanblog.org/search/label/Wheat Be sure to read the comments sections to each posting from readers and their experience with wheat. You can't find a more health damaging food than wheat.

And if all that is not enough, take a look at this Leaky Gut Syndrome post and the role wheat plays in auto immune diseases. http://fitfemaleforty.com/2010/11/10/got-leaky-gut/

rob · Answer 4 · 2011-03-01 02:45:41Z UTC

I agree with Mari, it's not carbohydrates that are the problem, its the highly processed, chemical laden foods that are destroying our health. That along with fructose, and the huge consumption of vegetable oils are destroying our health. Just because those tortillas are low carb it doesn't mean they are healthy.

Kaz · Answer 5 · 2011-03-01 02:47:32Z UTC

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I'm not Paleo to lose weight; I'm Paleo to optimize my health. I would not ever, ever touch those tortillas. They would make me so sick.

Paleo, as many have reiterated here, does not necessarily mean low carb. I'd rather eat a full-carb sweet potato than pseudo-frankenfoods like that.

answered Mar 1 2011 at 2:47

Kaz
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	Thanks for everyone's answers. Kaz, do you think you'd get sick because of your predisposed inability to process grains (or gluten, or whatever it is), or because you've been Paleo as long as you have been? – tonysolo Mar 1 2011 at 22:15
	I gave up gluten/dairy/soy long before I went Paleo; as a matter of fact, it was my extreme elimination diet that led me to Paleo. I was a vegetarian before, and basically I was like, "I can't eat grains, legumes, dairy, or soy -- what CAN I eat?" and thus a Paleo was born. :) I do find, however, that my tolerance for non-Paleo food has gone down since eliminating them. I used to be able to eat the occasional ice cream or white-bread sandwich (could never eat whole-wheat) before getting sick, but now even trace gluten or soy doubles me over. – Kaz Mar 1 2011 at 22:55

Jack Kronk · Answer 6 · 2011-03-01 19:07:14Z UTC

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those ingredients look horrendously bad.

edited Mar 1 2011 at 19:07

answered Mar 1 2011 at 15:24

Jack Kronk
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Low-carb tortillas, etc.

6 Answers