Pdxjoe.us: New Update of High-Calorie Garden For health and Natural Diets. It takes approximately 8,000 calories per day to feed a family of four. Learn how you can grow a high-calorie survival garden for more fuel from less garden.
When it comes to growing a garden for survival situations, one of the most important things needed is fuel. In survival type situations where a lot of physical energy will be exerted and being able to eat as little of your food supply as possible to satisfaction, matters a lot. You need every bit of your resources to go a long way. So why not plan to give your body maximum fuel with a high-calorie garden? Let’s do some quick numbers. The average adult requires approximately 2,000 calories per day. Now multiply that times a family of 4, you are quickly at 8,000 calories per day to feed the family. That adds up to be over 240,000 calories per month to feed a family of 4 in a survival situation. Get the picture yet? That would be hard to do if you are only growing tomatoes and lettuce. Make your planting efforts go a long way, by choosing to plant a few of these.
Nuts ⇒ High-Calorie Garden
You may not have the luxury of already having mature nut trees (like pecan or almond) planted in your yard. However, there are faster-growing options. Consider growing sunflowers for sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds offer 135 calories per ½ cup. These are also high in protein and contain healthy unsaturated fat.
Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes ⇒ High-Calorie Garden
Grow your white potatoes in the cooler seasons and grow your sweet potatoes in the warmer months for a year round supply of potatoes. Although, these two share the same name of “potatoes” they are surprisingly not even in the same family. However, both potatoes are easy to store away for extended periods of time and will provide your family with ample calories as an option to your diet. The sweet potato is a superfood providing 76 calories for just ¼ a pound (3.5 ounces). The lesser nutritious but more calorie dense white potato provides 86 calories per ¼ pound (3.5 ounces).
Beans and Peas ⇒ High-Calorie Garden
Not only do they taste delicious when cooked but both beans and peas are in the top 5 most calorie rich foods you can grow. Beans are ranked number 1 as the most calorie dense category and peas are ranked at number 5. Beans provide 143 calories per ¼ pound (3.5 ounces), and peas offer up 84 calories per ¼ pound (3.5 ounces).
Here is a list of foods you can grow and their calories per ¼ pound (3.5 ounces):
Pdxjoe.us: “Garden” Food Forest Permaculture: Mimic How Plants Grow In Nature.
Why is a food forest the best survival garden you can have? No weeding, fertilizers, or pesticides needed. Plant once and harvest for many years. How does it work? How can you easily set one up?
“Garden” Food Forest Permaculture
This is absolutely one of the best survival gardens you can grow. Not only are many of your plants low or no maintenance and most everything is perennial, but this garden is also camouflaged. Why? Because, it looks natural, like what naturally occurs in nature. Let me explain. If some emergency survival situation occurs where a food shortage takes place, which style of garden looks more obvious and give passersby a signal that food is growing here? A) The traditional garden in a nice rectangular shape, maybe a fence, and rows layed out where you can see the garden style and food growing? Or B) A “garden area” that looks like overgrown underbrush and where the only “design” you may see is something looks like a forest layout perhaps? Which of these would be more appropriate for a survival scenario? If you are thinking B, then you are correct.
Here are Some of the Benefits of Having a Food Forest Garden:
Takes up less space than a traditional garden
Produces 5 times for food for the same amount of space as a traditional garden
Perennial- plant once and reap your harvest of food for many years or a lifetime
No need for fertilizers
No need for weeding
No need for pesticides
Camouflaged, natural-looking design to not expose what you are growing
Many indigenous cultures before us lived largely off of perennials. Think about it. They didn’t have the modern “conveniences” of being able to run to the store for seeds, fertilizer, weed killer, pesticides, etc. and they had no refrigerators or electricity, all of these things had to be naturally built into their daily lifestyles.
How the Food Forest Garden Works
It works simply by mimicking nature’s way of growing food and nature has been doing it successfully for thousands of years. So why re-invent the wheel? Nature does not grow food by lining them up in neat little 1-2ft rows. While the approach may seem somewhat “scattered” to onlookers, it is actually very orderly. With nature’s design plants need no trimming, cultivating and an abundance of herbs, vegetables, nuts, fruits, and more are successfully produced by its method every year.
In nature, plants grow in circle dimensions in such a way that all the plants get the rain, sunshine, air, share of nutrients it needs to survive. See Also: Survival Garden Perennial: The Tree Collard Green
Here is what the food forest natural growth pattern looks like:
The center is a tree of some sort (maybe a nut or fruit tree), which will provide natural weed suppression and mulch as it drops leaves, pine needles, etc. in the fall.
This tree provides much shade beneath it for shade-loving plants, like blackberries and blueberries. So this is the next circular ring of plants growing in the trees’ shade.
The next ring outside the circle of shade lovers can be herbs. These herbs attract pollinators and wasps that will eat the “bad guy” bugs, a natural pesticide. The herbs act as a protective layer for the fruit, berries, and nuts.
The outer layer is usually a ground cover, which acts as a natural fertilizer, as it accumulates nitrogen and makes that nitrogen available to the surrounding plants.
Pdxjoe.us: Love Coffee? So Does Your Garden. Kick Start Your Garden With Coffee!
Don’t throw away those coffee grounds! Learn how you can use fresh and used brewed ground coffee as fertilizer, compost, and more to boost your garden plants!
Can’t start the day without a cup of Joe to boost it? You’ll be glad to know that you can perk up the plants in your garden with your favorite drink! Really? Coffee? Yes! Ground coffee! It is versatile and has remarkable benefits for your patch of crops and veggies. So don’t throw those bags of used coffee! Here’s how you spruce up, protect, and help your food grow after you drink the last drop of your cup.
Fertilizer
Coffee grounds contain as much as 2 percent nitrogen per volume, and sometimes, with a nitrogen:carbon ratio of 1:11, which is ideal for homemade fertilizer. When added to the ground, it immediately increases the nitrogen levels of the soil.
However, you must keep in mind the fresh ground coffee are acidic. This is only good for acid-loving vegetables and fruits, such as radishes (4.5-5.5), sweet potatoes (4.5-5.5), parsley (5.5-6.5), peppers (5.5-6.5), potatoes (4.8-5.5), and rhubarb (5.5-6.5), blueberries, cranberries (4.2-5), currants (5.5-6.5), elderberries (5.5-6.5), gooseberries (5.5-6.55).
Moreover
You can successfully perk up the soil with fresh ground coffee for many acid-tolerant vegetables and fruits
Such as onion (as low as 5.5)
Beans (5.5-7)
Broccoli (5.5-7)
Cabbage (5.5-7)
Carrots 95.5-7)
Cucumbers (5.5-7), squash (5.5-7)
Sweet corn (5.5-7)
Tomatoes (5.5-7)
Turnips (5.5-7)
Apples (5.5-6.5)
Grapes (5.5-6.5)
Raspberries (5.5-7)
Strawberries (5.5-6.5).
You can also water your acid-loving plants with diluted, leftover brewed coffee, which contains potassium and magnesium, minerals that they need to grow as well. Just allow brewed coffee to cool down, dilute with the same amount of water, and use it to water your acid-loving plants. Brewed coffee has a pH of between 5.2-6.9 and tap water is alkaline with a pH of greater than 7. Therefore, diluted coffee can increase the acidity or pH of soil.
Soil with high acid levels or lower pH is not ideal for plants that do not thrive in acidic ground. Rinsed, used coffee grounds, which have a near neutral pH of 6.5, are best for plants that do not grow well in acidic soil.
Compost
Adding used ground coffee into your compost file is a good way to add nitrogen. You can also throw in your used coffee filter into the compost. However, keep in mind that ground coffee is considered green compost material, along with manure, recently pulled weeds, grass clippings, and food scraps, which are high in nitrogen. If adding to compost, you must balance by adding some brown compost material, including dry leaves, wood chips, straw, sawdust, corn stalks, and newspaper, which are sources of carbon.
Mulch
Mulch helps guard against heavy erosion, provide moisture protection, and control weed. The best way to use ground coffee as fine organic mulch is to add a good 1/2-inch thick layer of coffee ground on top of your normal organic mulch. As the soil microbes and worms go to work, they will break down quickly. You can add more ground coffee as the last layer breaks down. Do not pile too thick. Otherwise, it will encourage growth of the wrong kind of mold.
Vermicompost
Coffee grounds are good for earthworms when used in moderation. The good nitrogen level and grit makes them an ideal food for your garden friends. Ground coffee is also convenient since you don’t have to cut, chop, or process them beforehand. When adding ground coffee to the menu of your earthworms’ diet, do not feed them with more than 25 to 50 percent of their weight. You should also pre-compost your ground by letting ground coffee sit for 3 days before adding them in any worm food. This will allow microbial growth; growing microbes are what earthworms actually eat, not the decomposing food. Moreover, coffee is acidic, so always test the pH of your vermicompost if feeding your worms with coffee ground. Acidic vermicompost can drive earthworms away to friendlier grounds. If the soil has high pH, you can lower the acidity by lightly sprinkling with lime and then watering or adding generous amounts of crushed eggshells. You can also turn your worm bed regularly to buffer pH levels.
Pest Control
Put some leftover ground coffee around plants that are troubled by snails and slugs. A well-maintained ring around your plants will deter them from attacking vulnerable plants. You can also keep ants away by putting ground coffee around ant holes.
Prevent Fungal Disease
Decomposing ground coffee have their own mold and fungal colonies that fend off other fungal colonies that cause disease in plants, including the Sclerotinia, Pythium, and Fusarium species, which causes fungal wilts and rots.
Incorporating ground coffee in your compost can help prevent the bad fungus from growing. You can throw ground coffee into transplant holes for plants that are susceptible for various wilts, such as eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes.
Pdxjoe.us: “food forest” No time to set up a traditional garden? Not wanting to be bothered with pots, other containers, or raised beds, either. Just want to get on to growing your own food? Do this.
“food forest” Reviews and Simple Tip to Set Up a Traditional Garden
Setting up a garden can be tedious, or in some survival situations where you may not have the luxury of much time, you need to get to producing food as fast as possible. You have been reading and watching videos on Youtube, and it all still seems like a lot to get a garden going. You just want a simplified method to get to producing food. Well, here it goes.
In this method, you will be applying parts from the food forest model. With the food forest model, you get a natural looking garden that does not expose what you are growing and has no need for weeding, pesticide, or fertilizers. If you want a low maintenance garden, where you plant once and reap the harvests for many years to come, you can plant perennials to your zone. In nature nothing is planted in rows, it is more of a circular direction.
If you are unsure, here is what the food forest natural growth pattern looks like:
The center is a tree of some sort (maybe a nut or fruit tree), which will provide natural weed suppression and mulch as it drops leaves, pine needles, etc. in the fall.
This tree provides much shade beneath it for shade-loving plants, like blackberries and blueberries. So this is the next circular ring of plants growing in the trees’ shade.
The next ring outside the circle of shade lovers can be herbs. These herbs attract pollinators and wasps that will eat the “bad guy” bugs, a natural pesticide. The herbs act as a protective layer for the fruit, berries, and nuts.
The outer layer is usually a ground cover, which acts as a natural fertilizer, as it accumulates nitrogen and makes that nitrogen available to the surrounding plants.
Here is What You Will Need to Do
First, find a tree. The main reason is mentioned in number one above, but also under the tree will be very rich soil from the years of natural mulch falling from the tree and breaking down into rich soil. This ground will usually already be ready to plant in. Determine how much sun the area on the ground beneath the tree gets and plant only plants that love partial to total shade. You will be planting in a circular motion, walking in a circle around the tree.
Now, on the next circular ring out decide what you want to plant. It doesn’t have to be herbs here. You decide based on your climate, what amount of sunlight this area get and the plant needs, your desires and what value the plant adds to your garden.
For example, I may start with the main larger tree as the center. Then plant a smaller fruit tree or shrub in its shade. I may also plant a vine plant like grapes around the tree, which are accustomed to living in a tree’s’ shade. From there, I would work my way outward considering the sunlight, needs of the plant, what works in my area and what I desire.
You can also plant plants that need full sun in your food forest garden. You just need to plant them on the outer ring, outside of the trees main shaded area and make sure that they get their recommended number of hours of sunlight per day.
However, the best immediate soil to work with for an instant garden is that right under a tree that has been there for years. You will find some of the best natural soil here, ready for planting your plants that don’t mind the shade. If you would like to add more nutrients to the soil, then consider making a compost tea that you can use that day.
Pdxjoe.us: Survival Garden Perennial: The Tree Collard Green. Have no idea about these super nutritious and fantastic greens? Learn everything you need to know about tree collards and start planting them in your garden!
Have you seen it during a farmers’ market day or just heard of it, but never gave more attention? If you don’t know what tree collard is, then it’s high time to get to know this this plant and add it in your garden, soon!
Tree collards or Brassica oleracea, variety acephala are actually the giant version of regular collard greens, a relative to kale, and a part of the cabbage family – the tall cousin.
Like their ground tall cousins, the collard, tree collards are very nutritious. They are high in protein and have very high calcium content. They provide 8 times more calcium and 4 times more protein than milk.
This superfood can grow all-year round or perennial and can reach to about 8-10 feet, even 12-feet tall, with some claims that 20-year-old-plants reaching up to 20 feet! They grow best when watered regularly and under fall to part shade, which makes it a great addition to your edible garden. They can live for up to 4 to 5 years and even longer. However, it’s best to replace them after 3 years since they absorb high amounts of calcium from the ground. The best way to start rotation is to take cuttings, plant them in new beds, and get them established, before replacing the older trees completely with a different plant.
The collard tree leaves looks and tastes just like the outside leaves of a cabbage, but the leaves don’t head like a cabbage. They are tastier, tenderer, and sweeter in winter and when they experience rain and cooler temperatures, but they thrive well and grow through the summer.
Once the plants are about 4-6 feet tall, it’s best to cut the top foot of the main stem off. This will allow more side branches to grow. If you cut the trees short, their leaves will be smaller and if you let them grow tall, the leaves will be bigger. However, letting them grow very tall is not advisable since strong winds can blow them over. If you plan to keep them tall, then stalk them with a 10-foot pole with a 3-foot base buried underground.
How to Grow Tree Collards
They rarely produce seed, so the best way to propagate them is from cuttings. Just cut a non-woody healthy branch that can be cut into more than 2 cuttings that are about 4 -6 inches long with at least 6-8 nodes each. You can get up to 6 cuttings of tree collard from a good-sized branch with nodes spaced closely. You can increase the length of each to 6-8 inches with nodes are spaced apart, but do not cut longer than 12-inch long cuttings.
Remove all the leaves from the cuttings, leaving the upper 1-2 leaves.
Cut and Grow Roots
First, you need to determine the top from the bottom of the tree collard cutting’s nodes. The bottom part a node is more curved that the top. The top part of the node is where their new roots/leaves will grow out. The nodes will look like a smile or a heart when the cuttings are on the right side up.
After determining the top, cut it diagonally or an angle to prevent water retentions and avoid rotting. Cut the bottoms parts flat, cutting off about 1 inch and cutting below the succeeding node. This will allow the cutting to pick more water easily. A clean, fresh cut will also encourage a good root system to grow. The flat cut will also help you remember which way to plant the cuttings.
Put each cutting on a 1.5-2-inch hole in a 3-inch deep mounded soil in a flat, ensuring that at least e nodes are under the mound and 3 nodes are above. Put the flats under partial shade and keep them evenly moist. If planting during summer, then put the flats under full shade.
Transplant
In about 2-4 months, the cuttings will have full root of about 3-4-inch tendrils forking from their nodes under the ground and will have 2 leaves growing from the nodes above. It’s best to transplant the cuttings in spring or while the weather and temperature is mild. Each cutting should have 1 strong stem, so remove the others that have grown.
Plant each cutting 1-foot away from each other in 9-inch holes for smaller leaves and 15-inch holes for bigger leaves. Smaller leaves mean longer harvest time with the large number of leaves. It’s difficult to sell bigger leaves.
Keep in mind the tree collards grow tall, so make sure that the cuttings are planted deep enough to secure the plant firmly. Plant 2-4 nodes without roots beneath the soil to increase stability and allow other roots to develop as well.
Stake and Shade
Right after transplanting, put an 8x1x1-inch stake and burry 18-24 inches into the soil placed about 2-inches from a plant. When the stakes are buried, drape a 30-percent shade net over the newly transplanted collard tree. When the plants are 18-inch tall, loosely lop a figure 8 heavy twine around the plant and the stake, about 1-foot from the soil, tying a new loop 1 1/2-feet above the previous one periodically as the plants grow taller to provide adequate support.
How to Harvest
It’s best for marketing and consumption purposes to harvest the leaves from your tree collards during cooler weather. The sweetest leaves are ones harvested after a light frost.
The best larger leaves are 40 percent purple and 60 percent green, which are the most delicious (green leaves aren’t as sweet), leaving at least 5 leaves on top of each stalk and 6-8 during winter, to ensure the plant has enough leaves for photosynthesis stays alive. If harvesting on stems with small leaves, then remove about 1/3 of the tree collard leaves. Leave purple leaves at the bottom to fall from the stem naturally. If you remove them, the leaves on top will turn people the following day, which will reduce your yield.
How to Prune
You need to prune your tree collards 2-3 weeks before the hottest heat of the summer to give them enough time to grow for the winter harvest season. The best method is to prune the tree collards 2 feet during the first year, 2.5 feet on the second, and 3 feet on the third. Prune out twisted or bent, woody, and weak stems, leaving about 3-4 of the strongest and healthiest stems.
Loosen the soil about 3-4 inches deep between each and around the bed edges to let water in easily and aerate the soil, making sure not the disturb the roots in the process, and then water well, about 6 minutes for every 100 square feet.
How to Eat and Enjoy
You can use them raw or cooked in any dish that calls for cabbage, collards, and kale – they just cook longer than kale. They are especially wonderful in sauces and soups. The stems can also be eaten and are 2 times sweeter than the leaves.
Pdxjoe.us: “review” Why Gardening is Imperative for Survival. Plant your own food crops for a long-term sustainable food source and survive any emergency!
Can you imagine a world without plants? Can you imagine if all the plants suddenly died? Our Earth would not be the world we know now if plants did not exist. No life that depends on plants would be able to survive, and that includes us, humans.
Do you know what to do in case there is a food shortage? If you’ve never heard of a survival garden, then now is the time all the things you need to learn about how to build one for you and your family’s survival!
What Is A Survival Garden?
A survival garden is basically a food or vegetable garden specifically designed to provide you and your family with sufficient crops, ensuring that you can live on the produce in any emergency situation.
Why Is A Survival Garden Important?
We have 3 basic needs for survival – food, water, and shelter. We can live without food for only 3 weeks and we can live without water for only 3 days. So, we must be prepared to take care of our families in during an emergency, natural disaster, man-made disaster, war, or food shortage, and any situation.
The key to survival is preparation. If you have a survival garden, then you and your family will be able to live on the produce from the food crops you’ve planted in case of any manmade or natural disaster. When you have a garden with enough food crops to feed you and your family, you can weather any crisis.
Let’s face it; most of us today are grossly unprepared to meet our family’s food need in case of an emergency. Many of us underestimate the importance of growing or raising food crops to feed our family. Most of us depend on outside sources and we have no or little idea on how delicate and vulnerable food supply is to government policy, economics, pestilence, drought, and natural disasters.
Why Do We Need A Survival Garden?
In recent years, the price of food has undergone dramatic fluctuations in response to government mandates, drought, and disasters. There are already a few cases of foodshortage in some regions of the world. In addition, all the recent patterns indicate that we are not growing enough food crops to meet the supply demand of the world’s growing population.
Moreover, less and less of us are investing in agriculture or gardening. There is a lack of knowledge about farming. We have forgotten a very basic need for our survival – how to create a sustainable garden and provide our family with food.
Why Do We Need To Start Gardening Now?
Most of us rely heavily from outside sources, thinking that supermarket shelves will always be stocked with affordable food. However, some of us realize over-reliance on an insecure and vulnerable food supply chain can disrupt the delicate supply, so these people choose to store food. It’s a good strategy, but it’s a short-term solution. This solution still relies upon finite or fixed sources of food. You will only have enough food to replace or supplement your family’s needs as long as there is supply in the market.
What happens if there is not enough supply?
The viable and long-term strategy to ensure that you have enough food supply for your family is to start growing your own food. Even a small garden can provide your family with the food you need. It is the best way to ensure that you and your family have enough to survive any emergency.
Other Benefits of Survival Gardening
Aside from being sure that you have a sustainable food source in times of crisis, gardening is a simple way to reduce carbon footprint. You will save about 2 pounds of carbon for each pound of food you grow. Food crops that you grow for your family do not have to be shipped, thus, saving gallons of fuel. You will also save gas because you do not have to go to the supermarket for fresh produce.
You also have a supply of fresh, healthy food right in your backyard. Lower the amount of money you spend for grocery. The price of fresh, organic food is going up. If you plant your own from seeds, then you’d save tons. Moreover, you can be sure that they are truly organic because you grew them yourself. Eating vegetables and fruits is also a proven way to improve health and stay healthy. Gardening is also a great way to spend more time with nature and relax.
Currently, the paleo diet is one of the hottest and most popular diets on the planet. Thousands of people have reported benefits such as weight loss, less inflammation in their bodies, the disappearance of certain illnesses, etc. after they adopted the diet.
The diet is pretty restrictive and anyone who adopts it will find themselves unable to eat most of the foods they are used to eating.
Processed foods, artificial flavoring, sugar, etc. are anathema to the paleo diet. The focus is totally on keeping things natural and wholesome. It adopts a mantra similar to what fitness guru, Jack LaLanne once said. “If man made it, don’t eat it.”
The paleo diet follows a concept of eating foods similar to what our caveman ancestors ate. The theory is that our bodies have not evolved that much after all these years and we would be better off eating in the same manner that our ancestors did.
The efficacy of the paleo diet has been proven over and over by people who lose weight very effectively after adopting it. Just omitting sugar and high fructose corn syrup from our diet is half the battle won.
The paleo diet also uses virgin coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil for cooking. You are not allowed to use the hydrogenated food oils sold in supermarkets. After all, our cavemen ancestors didn’t have access to the commercially produced seed oil extracts.
What many people do not know is that the oil sold in supermarkets and promoted as being healthy are in fact highly detrimental to our health. They cause a plethora of problems from inflammation to high cholesterol.
Since you’re not allowed to use the usual sauces and seasonings that you’re accustomed to, you will need to have some knowledge of paleo cooking.
There are several excellent online paleo recipe books such as Paleohacks recipe book which will have recipes that you can follow to whip up tasty dishes.
The paleo diet will take some getting used to. It is the polar opposite of the standard American diet which is heavy on oil, junk food, processed foods, etc. Making the change will be stressful in the initial few weeks.
However, with time, your body will adapt and start to enjoy the paleo meals. It may take you a month or two to fully adopt the paleo diet. You will notice that you feel better and have much more energy.
These are just some of the benefits of the diet.
What You NEED to know about the Paleo Diet
This diet has its fair share of fans and detractors. Yet, you shouldn’t worry too much about what the rest are saying. What truly matters is how the diet makes you feel.
You will need to try it out for yourself to appreciate the benefits and understand the intricacies of the diet. Since the diet is natural and healthy, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The diet focuses on eating single ingredient foods such as fish, grass fed meat, goat, poultry, rabbit and a lot of other meats. You are also encouraged to consume a variety of vegetables from broccolis, carrots, cabbages, etc.
Contrary to popular diets, the paleo diet also encourages the consumption of healthy fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, macadamia oil, grass fed butter, etc. The emphasis is on wholesome, nutritious foods that our early ancestors ate during the Paleolithic era.
Grains, refined and processed foods, sugar and other modern foods that the typical American consumes avoided. Success with the paleo diet means that you will need to adhere to the guidelines of the diet strictly.
There are no cheat days with the paleo diet where you can go crazy and pig out on pizzas and ice-cream. Unlike conventional diets, the paleo diet doesn’t focus on calorie restriction or controlling your carb intake.
The paleo diet is focused on eating foods that are natural. For example, getting your carbs from eating white bread is not natural. If you’re on the paleo diet, you will be getting your carbs from vegetables and fruits.
Normal diets will recommend reducing or avoiding consumption of bad carbs such as white bread or white flour products. This is not even an issue with the paleo diet.
The rules are so rigid that they could be set in stone. The food you eat has to be natural. White bread and flour products such as doughnuts are a no-no. There is no negotiation here. You just can’t eat them. Period.
Current trends in obesity have shown that it has skyrocketed and reached epidemic proportions. The Standard American Diet, also known as SAD amongst paleo fans, is to blame for this. Of course, a highly sedentary lifestyle plays a role too… but the diet shoulders a much higher burden of blame.
You may encounter articles or people that claim the paleo diet is unhealthy because you will not get all the necessary nutrients that your body needs. This is a misconception since your body will only lacks nutrients if you do not consume a varied diet. By eating a variety of paleo foods, your body will definitely have all the nutrients it needs.
Another point that detractors may throw up is that consuming too much meat and eggs will raise your cholesterol level. This is yet again another fallacy.
Studies have shown that dietary cholesterol has minimal impact on your blood cholesterol level. The real culprit is modern day foods that inflame the body and cause cholesterol to be formed to heal the inflamed cells.
On another tangent, there are folks who say that the paleo diet is uncivilized. This is purely an image issue.
The fact that the diet is modeled after a caveman’s diet and is actually called that, conjures up images of feral men tearing into raw meat in some caves. This is just a psychological issue.
Most paleo dieters just eat more meat and they cook it well, spice it up and in many cases, their food tastes just as good as or even better than a greasy steak you may find at a local diner.
The crux of the matter is that the paleo diet is extremely beneficial to one’s health. The saying, ‘Don’t knock it till you try it’ applies here. It will do you good to give it a try and you just might find yourself a fan of this remarkable diet.
What Are The Best Foods For a Paleo Diet?
Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. This is very true and you should always remember that every time you eat or drink something, you’re either feeding disease or fighting it.
While the paleo diet may not be the panacea for all ills, it has numerous benefits. You absolutely must know what the beneficial foods to eat are. It will be excellent to study the foods you eat to see which contain the different vitamins, minerals, etc.
You’ll then be able to consume a variety of foods to ensure that your body is getting all the nutrients it needs. Knowledge is power.
The paleo diet is not rocket science. The concept is pretty easy to understand. You have a list of foods that you can eat and a list of foods that you should not eat.
It is very basic and anybody can understand it. Unlike other diets which use nutrient timings, food combinations, detoxes, lemonade, etc. the paleo diet is straightforward.
However, it is not an easy diet to follow. You’ll need to be determined to get over the initial hump and inertia of adjusting to the new foods. You will have cravings that will be gnawing at you constantly. Sugar cravings for the most part. Once you get past this, it will be smooth sailing.
The paleo foods you consume will be nutrient dense and natural. It is highly recommended that you eat organic produce and grass fed meats. Even eggs should be free range.
However, this may prove to be expensive. So, if you cannot afford organic vegetables and grass fed meats, then by all means get the normal produce and meats. Most importantly, stick to the food list recommended by the diet.
There are many types of foods you can eat while on the paleo diet. It would be best to get a guide like the PaleoHacks Cookbooks so that you know what options are available to you. This article will give you a few suggestions, but it is by no means comprehensive. You will benefit more from research.
It is understandable if you balk at some of these foods mentioned above and some might be next to impossible to obtain, but this is just a list. Pick and choose what you like and eat those. It does not have to be a rigid diet. Some flexibility is good.
If you consume only the foods on the list above, you will notice your health improve and you will look and feel better. Of course, always eat in moderation and not surfeit. If you eat sensibly and follow this diet, the results will be fantastic. Do give it a go.
Can I Lose Weight with the Paleo Diet?
You can lose weight with any diet as long as you are at a daily caloric deficit and you’re exercising regularly. The hard truth is that you can lose weight with the Mediterranean diet or even a normal sensible diet.
However, with the paleo diet, your results will come much sooner and the weight loss process will be easier. You will not have sugar or other processed ingredients in your diet.
Many of the sauces and seasonings that we use to flavor our food contain high amounts of sugar, chemical and additives. These unnatural foods cause our body to stubbornly hold on to fat.
It’s more than just calories in and calories out. You must consider the quality of the calorie.
Getting 200 calories from a packet of M&M’s and getting 200 calories from a slice of steak are two different things. The numbers are the same but how the food causes changes in our body are worlds apart.
The chocolate will raise blood sugar levels and cause fat storage. The meat will help with muscle building and indirectly result in fat loss.
So, the paleo diet is very effective for fat loss.
The paleo diet is without a doubt the toughest diet on the planet and the attrition rate is high. Thousands of people try it and quit within days because it is more than a diet. It is an entire lifestyle change.
You must be mentally prepared to make the change. If you can do it, you will shed the excess pounds.
The natural whole foods that are consumed in the paleo diet will leave you feeling more satiated and less prone to cravings. You will not suddenly wake up in the middle of the night with your tummy growling for Belgian chocolate ice-cream.
Since the paleo diet is strict, you will always be watchful of what you eat.
The average person just gobbles up whatever they get their hands on. If you are constantly on guard as to what you’re eating, you will not be making poor food choices.
It will be extremely easy to exceed your calorie deficit requirement for the day. 2 slices of pizza can come up to about 600 calories.
Guess what?
You can’t eat pizza while on the paleo diet. You’ve just cut 600 calories off your daily consumption.
The paleo diet is extremely effective for fat loss and when coupled with a sensible training regimen, you will shed the fat faster than you can say “paleo”. It will be an uphill battle to adapt to the paleo diet, but once you master it, the rewards you reap will be totally worth the effort.
What Should My Calorie Intake Be if I’m On a Paleo Diet?
It can be whatever you want it to be. It all depends on what you want.
If you want to be overweight, you just need to be on a caloric surplus. If you wish to remain the same weight, you just to maintain your calorie intake. If you wish to lose weight, you should be at a caloric deficit.
The key point to note is that the paleo diet does not decide your calorie intake.
You do. Your goals do.
Firstly, you need to know what your daily calorie requirement is. You can find out form this link
If you wish to gain weight, you need to consume more calories than your daily calorie requirement. This is for people who are underweight or if you’re trying to build muscle and bulk.
If you’re happy with your body and don’t see any need to get bigger or smaller, you just need to maintain your calorie intake. Then you will need to consume your paleo foods in the right proportion to meet your calorie intake.
There is no exact number as far as macro nutrients go with the paleo diet. You will need to adjust your macros to suit your needs. It helps to know exactly how many calories you are consuming with each meal.
You can find this out by doing a Google image search for “paleo foods calorie list” or similar search terms. In fact, you can find out how many calories a serving of food is by Googling it. Things are really easy these days.
If you’re trying to lose weight, you need to be at a caloric deficit of about 500 calories a day. Generally, most people say that it is much easier to lose weight on the paleo diet because sugar, hydrogenated oils and processed foods are not allowed on the paleo diet.
If you are an athlete, your calorie requirement will be much higher than the average person. You will need to gauge how many calories you are expending during your workout and eat accordingly.
The paleo diet does not allow the consumption of rice, bread, grains, etc. So, if you are training hard and not consuming enough carbs, you may end up feeling lethargic. Or you may lose weight rapidly and end up looking gaunt.
The aim of the paleo diet is to make you look and feel healthy. In order for it to benefit you, you must know its limitations and restrictions so that you can adjust and get the best out of the diet.
While a high degree of compliance is necessary as far as avoiding the “harmful” foods, there is some room for flexibility. You may consume bananas or potatoes if your workouts need more carbs.
Use common sense and make the diet work for you and do not end up a slave to the diet. Then you would have truly mastered the paleo diet.
The Pros and Cons of the Paleo Diet
Nothing is perfect for everybody.
While the paleo diet is has thousands of fans all over the world, not everybody may be able to adopt it for a variety of reasons.
People have lost weight, reduced allergies, gained control of their health issues like diabetes, cholesterol, etc. and much more with the paleo diet. In fact, it is considered one of the best diets around.
Yet the paleo diet has its pros and cons. You will have to decide for yourself if the pros outweigh the cons. Thousands of people decided that it did and adopted this diet.
First, you will need to understand the paleo diet. It is a diet that is more concerned with food choices rather than calories, nutrient timing, carb cycling, detoxing, etc. In theory, the paleo diet is simple.
Eat the permitted foods and avoid the other foods. All you need to do is follow the food list. In practice, however, the paleo diet is extremely difficult in the beginning because it involves sacrifice. Nobody likes that.
Many people just may not have the discipline or determination to stick with the diet till they have gotten used to it. The temptations of junk food and other guilty pleasures may be constantly beckoning them and they give in and quit.
It happens. That’s one of the cons. This is a difficult diet to adopt.
If you have health problems such as high cholesterol, allergies, diabetes, inflammation, etc. the paleo diet has your name written all over it.
The paleo diet is rich in protein and it keeps your blood sugar levels stable and prevents insulin spikes. This prevents weight gain, helps control diabetes, prevents muscle loss, etc.
The diet is also very clean and that means it is anti-inflammatory. Most people on normal diets often complain of aches and pains for no reason. This is due to cell inflammation from food that is not good. No such problems with the paleo diet.
One of the cons of the paleo diet is that it is not suitable for vegetarians. Paleo dieters often do not balance their meals well. Too much protein is consumed without adequate carbs.
So, they’ll need to carefully keep track of what they eat. When food choices are limited, more attention is required to keep the diet balanced. A vegan who is on the paleo diet will need to track how much protein, iron, vitamins, etc. they’re consuming.
This is why it is essential to have a good paleo recipe book. At least then, you will have a variety of dishes to make and the dishes will address your nutrient requirements. Most people are creatures of habit and just eat the same food over and over.
Having a recipe book will challenge you to try new dishes and keep things interesting. Unlike people who are on a normal diet and are spoilt for choice when it comes to food, paleo dieters really have it tough.
It’s next to impossible to find a restaurant that serves paleo meals or even one that uses coconut oil in their cooking. That is why learning how to cook your own meals is imperative to succeeding with this diet.
You will need to assess your goals and weigh your options. If you’re willing to make sacrifices for better health and fewer health issues, you definitely want to adopt the paleo diet.
It is well worth the effort and can be truly life-changing.
