Friday, February 21, 2014

Paleo misconceptions- Jillian Michaels

First, I am down to 124.5 pounds. So some of the bloat from eating grains is gone. I definitely ended up with a bit of a craving for grains after a few indulgences, and I can't seem to shake it! Something to work on.

Also, I had to skip out on the hike today because I am actually a bit sick. I've swollen glands and a very stuffed nose. Plus, my throw is just a little bit sore and I'm very tired. So I'm going to take a walk today as it's going to be very warm but that's it.

Anyway, yesterday I was listening to a Jillian Michaels podcast that was a few weeks old. She was talking about how she doesn't like CrossFit as someone's main or only form of exercise because she doesn't think the exercises are varied enough. She thinks people should include it once or twice a week with other forms of cross training, such as yoga and boxing or whatever it is. 

But, in her rant about CrossFit, she made a comment about eating Paleo. She thinks it's absurd to completely eliminate a food group.

Now, I usually love Jillian Michaels to absolute pieces. And I still do! I think she's very sweet, funny, and a good person, very real. However, I don't think she's done her research in this area.

I might've agreed with her that eliminating an entire food group is a bit crazy. However, we as humans have so changed the genetic code of wheat, that it no longer resembles the wheat we used to eat. And we did this through our own technology, not through evolution.

That simple fact makes it so that many people are sensitive to eating wheat. It didn't evolve with us through hundreds or thousands or millions of years. We changed it and now it isn't always very good for us. It certainly isn't good for me. It gives me rashes and causes general inflammation.

Then she went on to state that people who eat Paleo pay no attention to the quality of their food especially their meat.

Wrong!!!!!

This is a super common misconception that I keep running into. And I'm sure that there are many people who pay no attention to the quality of their meat, or who eat way too much red meat, or who he too much meat in general on Paleo. The same was true of Atkins and really any other diet that says it's okay to eat meat in the first place at all.

I eat LESS meat now on Paleo than I did before. I've replaced the grains and then some with eating vegetables.

People who really pay attention if they do the whole30 or do any real research on Paleo, find out that eating clean is one of the most important tenets of eating Paleo. Jillian says people who eat Paleo eat way too much bacon, and are ingesting way too many nitrates, which is one of the leading cause of testicular cancer.

But...

Nitrates were a big no-no on the whole30!

Starting Paleo was actually a huge step in me realizing how dirty my diet was before. It gave me the knowledge and the opportunity to clean up my diet, focus on grass fed me, local pasture raised eggs, organic vegetables.

I just wish people would do there research, and find out how people who actually follow Paleo live and eat.

There always anecdotes and stories and people who do it wrong. Always. But just because they are violating the spirit of the thing doesn't mean everyone is.

In the end, I still love Jillian. But I won't listen to her about Paleo!

Namaste!!


6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hi Jeanette!

    I totally agree with you! I love Jillian normally, but she's wrong on this one. Big time wrong. :(

    oh, and please change your blogroll entry / link for me to this, my new blog url:

    http://www.againstthegrain.us/

    Thanks! Hope you feel better soon! I have the same cold it sounds like you are getting! :(

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  3. I have known a number of people who not only eat an excess of bacon but fry all kinds of stuff in bacon grease. They are thinking d-I-e-t in my opinion and not thinking long, life and health. They do NOT get it. And society tends to see only them.

    I have written this many times over the years. If wheat had evolved where we were eating it plain, might not be a problem. But we as a society do not do that. We add all kinds of things to it, and in that complex state it is a trigger and a bloater for most of us.

    I also have been around a lot of trainers and dietitians, who have been around the morbidly obese for years and still do not understand the concept of triggers. They still think everything in moderation. And that does not work for most of us, especially not insulin resistant.

    Really good post.

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  4. Oh Jeanette... I totally agree with all you have said!! This preconception that people have about paleo eating is nuts. I would have thought Jillian might have known better? I eat dairy so therefore consider myself primal but that's just a label. I eat quality meat. I eat loads of vegetables. For me this is about healthy and quality of life. Oh and by the way Jillian... wheat is not a "food group". It is a subgroup of carbs!! I haven't removed carbs at all :) Grrrrrrr

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  5. I was horrified when I heard her say that about Paleo. She prides herself on researching, reading, etc. Looks like she did not do some very basic homework. There's a huge goal with Abel James (The Fat Burning Man) passing Jillian Michael's podcast in popularity. I know there are a lot of myths and miss-information out there . Ditto Vickie and insulin resistance. Ditto Lynda and wheat not being a food group. Wheat is in many things now because food producers know how many repeat customers and high sales they will bring with it's addictive properties. Sigh!

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  6. Oh well...I find it is best not to worry about what others say, if you're sure you are doing the right thing. People used to criticize me for running, saying it was bad for my joints, yet here I am decades later, still running with no injuries. I just don't listen to that stuff anymore.

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