A PALEO APPROACH TO PARENTING IMPLY EAT REAL...

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A PALEO APPROACH TO PARENTING: S IM PLY EAT REAL FOOD , L IKE M EAT & VEGETABLES , THE W AY

DINOSAURS DID , FOR HEALTHY & HAPPY KIDS!

BY STACY AND MATTHEW, THE PALEO PARENTS

web: PaleoParents.com email: [email protected]

twitter: paleoparents facebook.com/paleoparents our book: Eat Like a Dinosaur

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Getting Started Introduction

So your kids are cross-‐fitting. Or you’re desperate to get more veggies and meats into your kids but they’re fighting you tooth and nail. Or perhaps you’re struggling with some health or behavioral issue with no solution in sight. So you thought, hey if I go to the workshop I’ll find out all the answers to life and be able to achieve nirvana in my home!

Well, not quite. We’re glad you’re here. And we can help. But it’s going to take effort and work on your part. Both parents and kids have to work hard, make promises and commitments and stick to them. Changing your family’s routine and palate doesn’t happen over night. But, when it does, it is almost nirvana to see your kids beg for kale and turn up their noses at McDonald’s.

About Us

We’re an average suburban family. Ok, that’s not true. We have the added advantage of a stay at home parent. And, as if we weren’t “different” enough with the way we eat – our stay home parent is the dad. But, it’s what works for our family and he’s a fantastic chef. We’re known in the community as the Paleo Parents because we run PaleoParents.com and wrote the wildly popular new Paleo kids’ book Eat Like a Dinosaur, a recipe & guidebook for gluten-‐free kids.

After 3 kids, 6 years of breastfeeding, 200lbs lost and the resolution of behavior and physical ailments in every single member of our family, we’ve got information we love to share. You could find most of what you’re going to learn today on our website (paleoparents.com) or Eat Like a Dinosaur. But, we’ve simplified it for you in this guide. We’ll do our best to offer some words of wisdom, tips & tricks and cheat sheets on how to make living a paleo lifestyle with your family affordable, easy, accessible and fun!

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Going paleo isn’t just for adults. Like all parenting choices, once we realized that going paleo was optimal for health, we wanted to give our kids the healthiest and happiest way of life we could. That meant some tears in the beginning, but now we’ve experienced such amazing health changes that we ALL want to be paleo. Here’s a short list of positive changes in our family’s health that’s happened since going paleo

• Weightloss, over 200lbs total for the adults and the children are no longer clinically “obese” • Improved blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels • Eliminated chronic and seasonal depression • Eliminated severe pet and seasonal allergies • Improved behaviors normally diagnosed as ADD or ADHD • Eliminated asthma and skin conditions, such as eczema and dandruff • Resolution of chronic digestive distress and irregular white blood cell count • Regulated menstruation and improved fertility

Warning: what we’re not -‐ nutritional experts, doctors, scientists or anthropologists. We’ve become the Paleo Parents over time with lots of reading, talking and exploration of the community of bright and gifted individuals. We’ve come to understand what works for us by making informed decisions by following BalancedBites.com, CaveGirlEats.com, RobbWolf.com and MarksDailyApple.com for nutritional wisdom. If you’re left with questions when this is all said and done, we recommend you do the same.

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What is Paleo? Our definition of Paleo is simple: it’s eating unprocessed whole foods that make our bodies feel

good. For different people those specific foods may be different things. We have issues with dairy where others may not. We’re more liberal with “sugar” than others may be -‐ we don’t take exception to making paleo(ish) treats made with ingredients we could have found in the wild. For our family, we focus on how to still live a socially “normal” life while also optimizing our health.

The Basics

There are several “fathers” of Paleo: Dr. Loren Cordain’s, Robb Wolf, Art DeVany and Mark Sisson are the big dogs. Robb’s book, blog and podcasts, are an immediate and useful source for any possible questions you may have.

Paleo refers to Paleolithic (sometimes also referred to Primal and Caveman). That’s not to say we blindly go back 50,000 years without considerations of modern science. The “diet” is really a lifestyle which gets your body back to what it was evolved to thrive off of: non-‐processed, whole, real foods dense in nutrients. This means no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no sugar and no chemicals.

The film Food Inc. is another good source for an immediate and quick data point. In the commercial food industry, we feed grains to our animals to make them fat. What have they been doing to your family?

Paleo is about big change, thinking outside the boxes of food that inhabit your pantry. Get your body into an unimaginably pristine state of health, quickly and without much effort, too. Angelo Coppola from LatestInPaleo.com says it best; Your body isn’t broken by default (1). What ails you, 9 times out of 10, can be solved, or at minimum improved, by better nutrition. Throw out the ideas you have from the FDA food pyramid and look forward to losing weight and feeling energized from bacon, coconut milk and big steaks whenever you want.

Don ’t put your kids on a diet

The journey is just that. For adults, we say give yourself 30 days to try it. See how you feel. If you see no changes, then no harm done. If you feel better, imagine how much more improvement you’ll feel as time goes on. We’ve had friends and family able to go off cholesterol, blood pressure, depression and other medications from ONE month of trying this way.

For our kids, it’s a bit different. They need to be taught cause and effect. We asked our oldest – the only one old enough to protest at the time – to give us 14 sleeps. We marked two weeks off on the calendar, day by day. At the end of 2 weeks, he felt better and agreed to continue. Outside the house, he made his own choices.

After each “cheat” we knew he tried (at school, parties or grandparents houses), we pointed out he had a tummy ache. We specifically would say, “What do you think caused you to feel sick? Do you think your body liked that food? Is it making you stronger and healthier?” We let him answer the questions on his own. Within 2 or 3 months, he was declining gluten-‐containing food on his own.

You lost me at “No.” What about Moderation? If it grows in nature, why can’t I eat it?

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We’re science people, so here’s what convinced us that the “no” items weren’t good at all: Sugar – The more research done on sugar, the more awful it is discovered to be. Recently in the media sugar has been described as “toxic” (2) and “as addictive as cocaine” (3). Sugar, especially fructose-‐based or refined carbohydrates, cause fatty liver in kids (4), and even diabetes and dementia later in life. Sugar prompts the pancreas to use insulin to turn sugar into fat. There’s a big difference in how your body processes fructose and glucose: your body needs glucose, cancer (and all growth cells, like fat stores) love fructose.

Grains are refined carbohydrates. They act like sugar in the body. They also contain inflammatory lectins and Omega 6 fats; gluten is especially problematic – our family is strictly, absolutely gluten-‐free. Grains, glutinous and non-‐gluten containing, contain anti-‐nutrients that not only prevent other nutrients you ingest from being absorbed properly, but they also directly cause gut irritation (5). Continuous gut irritation by consumption of glutinous grains and other irritants leads to increased intestinal permeability, also known as Leaky Gut Syndrome. Leaky gut syndrome has been shown to cause a variety of autoimmune diseases. It makes sense: if you are leaking waste products from the bowels into your body, your immune system is bound to respond! Reports are now surfacing that a Paleo diet aids in the control of autoimmune diseases (6) due to the elimination of gut irritants.

Legumes – Are heavy in lectins and carbohydrates, just like grains. If you want fiber or protein, eat some greens and something with a face. The vitamins and minerals are more absorbable and the proteins and fat easier to digest.

Processed Oils – The process for producing oil from vegetables is extreme: “refined, bleached and deodorized” (7). Since most contain hydrogenation (terrible for you) and are created from soy and corn, they’re a no-‐no. Anything you could reproduce in your kitchen (lard, coconut oil, single press olive oil, etc.) is ideal. Diane at Balanced Bites says it best; ask yourself if your great, great grandmother ate it (8).

If you’re worried about cholesterol, remember that dietary cholesterol only affects the blood level ratios by up to 10% -‐ high cholesterol is caused by inflammation (9). What reduces inflammation? A paleo diet! Since adding in coconut oil, bacon and lard regularly to our diets – our family has seen remarkable improvements in our cholesterol levels. What’s more, is that because we have healthy cholesterol, our body is able to properly process Vitamin D and our VERY fair skinned family no longer sunburns as easily!

Dairy – Research indicates that dairy consumption interferes with insulin regulation and that, like breast milk, cow’s (or goat’s) milk has insulin-‐like growth factor (IGF-‐I) that speed up cell production and growth (10). For infants, this is great! But the results on an overweight individual or cancer patient can be catastrophic. Logically, if we hadn’t domesticated animals we wouldn’t have access to much dairy, so we rarely eat it.

If you’re worried about calcium and other vitamins, keep in mind that milk is fortified – so those vitamins and minerals aren’t as absorbable as they would be from a whole food source. We eat nutrient dense foods, like pastured eggs, bone broths, leafy greens and other vegetables in our diet and end up with MORE calcium and vitamins than we ever did when we were chugging processed, pasteurized breast milk from another animal (see table below).

The best question to ask yourself for all of this is, if you remove the items from your diet for 30 days and then reintroduce them, how do you feel? Most likely while your system was “clean” you’ll have

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slept better, have skin and gut irritations disappear and been hit with a bolt of energy you haven’t felt since puberty. Then, add in the “no” items and I guarantee you’ll have gas, bloating, malaise, depression, acne, dry skin, joint pain or a number of other likely symptoms.

What DO I eat? Wait, what do my kids eat?!

Our kids have been eating the same foods as us since their birth, so the transition to Paleo was less difficult than it will be for some. If you’re still making separate meals for your kids, the first step in this process is to stop. You’re a family. You’re a team. You eat as one. You share foods and enjoy the social aspect of it. Don’t be manipulated: your kid will not starve if you serve them roast chicken, sweet potatoes and salad!

We all have to find mechanisms to deal with the inevitable temper tantrum that will occur as you pass the cereal aisle in the grocery store. The good news is, our boys now say sugar and wheat are “yucky.” Our solution is to let them pick a fresh fruit or veggie of their choice when we go to the store as their “special” item. For early transition it was gluten-‐free versions of the same foods, and we just kept migrating until they understood what healthy, fresh, real food was and why we should eat it.

Their favorites now are fruit – dried, freeze dried, fresh, frozen, mashed, pureed, grilled… doesn’t matter. We do limit it (a 100% fruit diet would be too high in sugar) and try to serve it with protein (sunflower seed butter or a hard-‐boiled egg). They also like all things coconut, too. Coconut smoothies and homemade trail mix with coconut flakes are huge, satisfying hits! They like to snack on Lara Bars, roasted seaweed, all-‐natural jerky and salami.

Getting them involved, picking their “treats” or helping choose and make dinner will always help. For meals, they eat the same food as us. No exceptions, no compromise. When it’s their only option, they won’t let themselves starve; they’ll adapt. They’ll have favorites (honeyed carrots) and least favorites (steamed eggplant) but no matter what, they know what we put on the table is the only choice.

How can I get enough fiber and calcium without whole grains and milk?!

The reason the FDA is so concerned with our micro-‐nutrients is because we’re not eating real food! We wouldn’t have to fortify our cereal, if our cereal was made with ground almonds and fresh fruit. Or we were eating pastured eggs rich in natural Omega 3s every morning.

If you eat a diet rich in nutrient dense food, you’ll absorb more nutrients than if you‘re eating a standard American whole grain, low-‐fat diet manufactured by commercial industry and fortified by all that chemical “goodness.” Dr. Cordain even did the calculations for you (11), his Paleo diet was 38% protein, 39% fat and 23% carb and the SAD is 16% protein, 49% carb, 34% fat.

Nutrient Paleo Avg SAD Avg Calcium 691mg 550mg Fiber 42.5g 15.1g Omega 3 fat 9.6g 2.3g Potassium 9,062mg 2,620mg Sodium* 726mg 3,271mg Omega 6 fat* 14.2g 34.5g Sugars* 76.5g 200g *Notes items which are negative on health

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Tips & Tricks Shopping around for deals

Shopping around town takes a lot of work. As you start to spend more time on shooping for and cooking paleo foods it can be frustrating, overwhelming or feel like you’re spending all your time shopping and cooking. But think about how important fueling your body is.

Consider it a reprioritization – you’re putting the effort in on the front end, and the benefits to your health and wellness will benefit you down the road. Our kids are rarely sick, our health (according to blood tests and how we feel) has never been better. I’d much rather spend time cooking and shopping with the kids, than in hospital, dentist or doctor’s office.

Here’s our strategic recommendations. We’ve done the prep work for you; the best places to buy your paleo ingredients (with convenience and cost considered) are below:

1. Costco a. Fresh Dates b. Raw bagged nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts) c. MaraNatha Almond Butter d. Wild organic frozen blueberries e. Canned wild deboned salmon and tuna f. Organic canned diced tomatoes g. Organic salad mix, organic baby spinach, organic carrots and romaine lettuce (for

“wraps”) h. Produce (whatever you’re not getting elsewhere or use a lot)

2. Trader Joe ’s We actually don’t purchase these anymore, but they’re great choices

a. Applegate Farms Meat b. Salami (we like the stick kind) c. Boxed almond and coconut milk d. Ketchup, mustard, olive oil, e. Canned black olives f. Raw macadamia nuts & dry fruits (pre-‐bagged trail mixes too) g. Organic bananas h. Avocados i. Prepped produce:

i. Butternut squash ii. Beets (great in salad) iii. Mirepoix iv. Sliced & cleaned mushrooms

3. Wegman ’s Whole Foods has them too, just for more money

a. Bagged organic sweet potatoes

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b. Brussel sprouts c. Kale, swiss chard, collard greens, baby bok choy d. Cabbage (buy lots – it’s cheap and goes with everything!) e. Cauliflower f. Bagged organic onions g. Broccoli h. Spaghetti Squash i. Coconut aminos j. Palm Shortening (if not from Tropical Traditions) k. Coconut oil and coconut oil spray l. Almond and coconut milk yogurts

4. Amazon Subscribe & Save a. Natural Value coconut milk b. Brother’s freeze dried fruit c. Palm sugar d. Liquid stevia e. Sea Snax (dry roasted seaweed)

5. Farmer ’s Markets

We love Fairfax City but Falls Church City and Eastern Market are open year-‐long! a. Produce (anything you can find listed above is best from local farms!) b. Local honey c. Eggs d. Humane, pastured meat (if you’re not participating in meat shares or getting direct from

farms – we recommend Mount Vernon Farms, Polyface and Fields of Athenry) 6. Sales, CSAs, coupons, groupons

a. Sign up for the Springfield Butcher’s Newsletter b. Sign up at DC Meat-‐Up Group on Facebook to do “meat shares” c. Find CSA participating vegetable farm (Flavor Magazine is a great resource)

TOOLS WE USE

1. Dehydrator

Everyone needs a snack on the go sometimes. Before, you’d pick up some crackers or a granola bar, perhaps a cookie or cake. Since all of those things are off the table, a good alternative is to eat dried fruit and jerky. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a good source. Take a look at your typical Jack Link and you’ll find soy sauce, soybean oil, preservatives and all kinds of other suspicious ingredients. If you try to find a friendlier version, you’ll find it’s incredibly expensive.

Our solution was to buy a dehydrator. The idea was intimidating at first, but then we realized a dehydrator is just a warm fan with tiers of trays on top and a lid. It was easier to be less afraid of the process. When you make it yourself, you control the ingredients. In this book are recipes for several types of jerky, as well as fruit leather roll-‐ups and dried apples. After several hours, the food is dried out.

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While it’s optimal to switch the trays around for even drying, you could just leave it on overnight and have it be done in the morning—doesn’t get much simpler.

• We use this Waring Pro DHR20 for most of the time. It’s got pretty good capacity and does a full batch in less than half a day.

• Slightly less powerful but cheaper, you can get this Nesco American Harvest FD-‐37. • If you’re super serious, get a professional version that will dehydrate lightning quick like this

Excalibur 3900 Deluxe, a dehydrator so cool, it’s even got an awesome name.

2. Food Processor

One of the most versatile tools we have in the kitchen is a food processor. Everything is made so much easier when you don’t have to spend all your time mincing every ingredient into tiny pieces. Not only that, but most food processors also have a grater attachment to grate your carrots or zucchini or cabbage. Our kids much prefer grated carrots in their salad over medallions, and of course it makes it easier for baking with veggies!

• When we burnt out our original thrift store processor, we lucked into getting this Hamilton Beach one. It’s really served us very well for over two years now! And this kind of simple two-‐function processor is really all you’ll need for most things.

• We recently replaced our Hamilton Beach with this Cuisinart. It’s fancier and more expensive, but also much more powerful and durable!

• If you want to do crazy things like making your own almond flour, you need something with serious muscle. Many people swear by their VitaMix Blender, which features more horsepower than my leaf blower and garbage disposer combined!

3. Ice Cream Maker

Ice cream was a religion in our house. We loved to try out new flavors and new brands of ice cream. We’re sure many of you would share our pain if you had to walk away from that entirely. At first we tried to fill the void with fruit sorbet or processed versions of store bought coconut milk ice cream, but they contain quite a bit of sugar. You can solve this dilemma with a simple machine. Modern-‐day ice cream makers are electric, have bowls you can just place in the freezer beforehand instead of using salted ice, and only take twenty minutes or so to churn. During the summer, we love to experiment with making different kinds of ice cream with different ingredients.

• We have this Cuisinart ICE-‐21 and have loved it! • If you’d like to do it the old fashioned way (well, the late 20th century old fashioned way),

there’s salted ice versions like this Hamilton Beach 68330R for a little cheaper.

4. Silicone Muffin Cups

As gluten-‐free baking staples, almond flour and coconut flour don’t rise very well, so you’ll likely find yourself making cupcakes and muffins instead of cakes. We found ourselves going through so many paper liners that it seemed prudent to get reusable muffin cups. Silicone sticks to the item less, plus it’s nonreactive, so there is even less chemical transfer than if you were using paper liners! They are especially helpful for any egg muffins, as eggs have a tendency to stick to metal and dissolve paper.

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• Here are 12 cups for less than ten dollars made by Wilton! You will seriously make up that cost in a year.

• Better yet, consider using a silicone muffin tin for baking like this HIC Brands That Cook version.

5. Electric Mixer

The biggest time saver in our kitchen is certainly our electric stand mixer. They are not cheap (a KitchenAid classic mixer starts at $180, a lesser brand is under $100), but you will find yourself using it all the time. We find that it’s safer and easier for the kids to help than if you use an electric beater. Any batter we make goes into the mixer. Any time we need to whip something, it goes in the mixer. Plus, with the KitchenAid brand you can purchase attachments to do a variety of other functions, like grind meat, as listed below. For all of our recipes you could use an electric hand mixer for the same purposes. Point is, if you ever want to beat egg whites, you’ll appreciate having something!

• Here’s the KitchenAid Classic, and it’s truly fantastic. If you stalk the sales, you may be able to purchase it at a store for about one hundred dollars or so.

• Otherwise, here’s a hand mixer by Proctor-‐Silex for fifteen dollars.

6. Meat Grinder

We bought a meat grinder attachment for our stand mixer thinking it would be a neat experiment. But from the moment Matt ground bacon for his 50/50 Bacon Burgers, it became indispensable. You’ll appreciate having one, especially if you’d like to start integrating organ meats. Nutrient-‐dense and affordable pastured organ meat can be made more palatable by adding it into your ground beef. Plus, making your own sausages or hotdogs would be a great project with the kids— and you get to save money in the long-‐run.

• Here’s the KitchenAid attachment that will allow you to turn ordinary bacon into the greatest burgers ever conceived.

• Alternatively, a stand alone like this Nesco one will do just as well.

INGREDIENTS ALWAYS IN OUR PANTRY

1. Coconut Milk and Coconut Cream Concentrate

Coconut is one of our favorite foods. It’s incredibly nutritious and has properties to help heal the gut. While coconut does have a distinct flavor, we assure you it’s not overpowering. With time, for us dairy-‐free folks, coconut flavor becomes a base flavor we hardly notice. After all, no one says that food cooked in butter tastes buttery!

Coconut milk is the meat of a coconut grated and squeezed to produce a thick milky substance. It has become such a staple in our house that we buy it by the case. It’s perfect for generally replacing milk and cream in your diet as well as for use in specialty items like curries. We have made a faux béchamel sauce out of it with no problem and have even made a creamy tomato soup. Please note, for best results in all of our recipes calling for it we recommend only full-‐fat and guar gum–free coconut milk. Some brands out there will have a layer of oil that forms at the top of the can and are hard to work with.

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Here are the brands we have used and recommend: • Natural Value Coconut Milk • Natural Value Organic Coconut Milk

Coconut Cream Concentrate, Coconut Butter and Creamed Coconut are all the same thing, as far as

we can figure out. It is the dried and ground coconut meat with coconut oil. Reconstituting this with water will give you control over the thickness of your coconut milk, or you can just add it in directly for a hint of sweetness and added coconut flavor. Here are the brands we have used and recommend: Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate Artisana Organic Coconut Butter Let’s Do Organic Organic Creamed Coconut

2. Fats and Oils

One of the hardest adaptations for us to replace was cooking and baking oils. “Normal” cooking oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil, and soybean oil are highly processed, extracted with chemicals, bleached and oxidized “foods” coming from grains or legumes, so we had to switch. Finding a replacement for flavorless and easy to work with oils was difficult, but it can be done!

Our oils are almost always coconut oil (liquefied), but we use olive and macadamia oil, too. We often

use fats now instead: palm shortening, coconut oil (at room temp it hardens), lard, and bacon fat. If you’re still not gung-‐ho about unprocessed fats being healthy, there are tons of resources available online to help you understand how dietary cholesterol is a requirement in your body for brain growth, hormone regulation, and proper absorption of Vitamin D. Our kids no longer need sun block unless they’re out for an entire day in direct sunlight, and our cholesterol blood tests amaze our physicians. Read this post with links to more educated people than us on the topic and then look into it yourself. We hope you find that the sources we’ve chosen are right for your family, too. If not, substitute according to your desires—just choose a solid (fat) or liquid (oil) accordingly.

Coconut oil has all the wonderful gut-‐healing and healthy fat (repeat after me, saturated fat is

not scary) properties of coconut milk, but in a very flavorful oil for baking or sautéing. It is a solid at room temperature, so when using it keep in mind it will return to that state if given the chance. Coconut oil should be available at most stores these days, just look for a brand that has been pressed instead of solvent extracted, so as to minimize the chemical processing. We also love using coconut oil spray, available at our local Whole Foods, the same way we used to use Pam for oiling baking sheets. Of course you could always do what your grandmother did and grease it with a towel and some solid coconut oil or lard. Here are the brands we have used and recommend:

• Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil, any label (Gold, Green or Expeller Pressed) • Nutiva Coconut Oil • Spectrum brand Coconut Oil Spray

Do not be afraid of lard or tallow! We get lard by the tubful from our local farmer’s market and US

Wellness Meats and use it in everything from pan frying to giving mashed vegetables a creamy buttery taste. Real fresh lard is much more delicious than seed oil alternatives. Best of all, it’s usually not much more expensive than a similar volume of canola oil and stores for a very long time chilled. Tropical Traditions Palm Oil works well for cooking in place of lard if you’re looking for a replacement.

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For baking in recipes that would normally require butter or shortening, we have replaced seed oil shortening (your Crisco, for example) with palm shortening. Unlike vegetable oil shortenings, there are no trans fatty acids with palm shortening. We buy ours from a bulk discount co-‐op at Tropical Traditions, an online store, but this should be widely available at your local health food store or Whole Foods by the brand Spectrum.

One of the most common questions we get on the site is Can I replace Palm Shortening with ___? Our answer is that you can do a swap with butter if you eat it. However, coconut oil or any other product we’ve tried does (unfortunately) not have the same result. You could whip coconut oil until it’s airy then use the volume in our recipe from that whipped coconut oil, but it’s not the same. We know palm shortening isn’t easily accessible, but we hope you can at least get it online. Here are the brands we have used and recommend:

• Tropical Traditions Palm Shortening • Spectrum Palm Shortening (also called Vegan Shortening)

3. Almond & Coconut Flours (Wheat Replacements)

The site does a lot of what we call Paleo(ish) baked goods. None of this would be possible without a replacement for the standard American flour, made with wheat. We’ve tried quite a few flours, including a variety of nuts, root veggies and seeds. For the most part we prefer almond and coconut flour. When these heavy flours are too thick for something to rise, we also add tapioca flour. Just as you might expect, these are ground almonds, coconut, and cassava root, respectively. Not only do almond and coconut flours have protein and healthy fats, but they are also much more flavorful than wheat. Unfortunately, they can be hard to find and expensive compared to the cost to wheat flour (which is subsidized enormously to keep it cheap). Also, watch out for “blends” which can often contain rice, potato or other starches. Keep in mind, these are “treats,” and you’ll use much less quantity. If you can’t afford or find them, you can make your own almond or coconut “meal,” which is a bit more course but still does the trick, with either a food processor or a powerful blender. Here are the brands we have used and recommend:

• Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour (sign up for their newsletter on Honeyville.com to receive occasional coupons)

• It’s not the best, but we’ve used JK Gourmet Blanched Almond Flour and Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour with success too

• Tropical Traditions Coconut Flour • We tried and do not like the Let’s Do Organic Coconut Flour but Bob’s Red Mill Coconut Flour is

OK • Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour

4. Almond and Sunflower Butter

We use almond butter in quite a few recipes, because it’s easy to cook with. Honestly, it’s our way of cheating when we bake. When you see almond butter in recipes, just think of it as almond flour and oil combined.

MaraNatha and Trader Joe’s almond butters are our favorites, but any brand would do. Roasted or raw, crunchy or creamy – it’s all your preference. Just don’t get the “no stir” because it’s got filler ingredients. We suggest raw creamy for baking and roasted crunchy for eating.

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If you have a nut allergy or don’t like almonds, you can easily make this nut-‐free by using MaraNatha brand sunflower butter (we suggest adding a bit more oil or fat than is called for too). Beware: the chlorogenic acid (chlorophyll) in sunflower seeds reacts with baking soda when baked, causing the your baked goods to turn green (what fun)!

Sunbutter is a different animal all together, usually slightly sweetened and extremely smooth this is rarely used in our recipes. We use it in ice creams for a ripple or with fruit to dip – it’s Stacy’s favorite with a honeycrisp apple in autumn!

5. Arrowroot Powder

Because nut flours don’t have the binding proteins that wheat or rice flours do, we use arrowroot as a thickening agent. It works similarly to cornstarch except it is not a grain; it is made from the tuber of the arrowroot plant. It can be found in most health foods stores and Asian markets, or Bob’s Red Mill brand is available online. We’ve tried several off-‐brand powders and had good success with all, no need to worry – just use what you find. For the volume you need it is an affordable product that will last a long time.

6. Dark Chocolate

Chocolate is made from the fat of the cocoa plant, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder. You might be thinking, but cocoa is a bean – that’s a legume! Actually, no. They’re the seed from pods-‐ yeah! In fact, good quality chocolates have been shown to offer excellent health benefits, since they’re high in antioxidants—yippee! Our recommendation is to find the darkest (over 70% is best) chocolate you can (our kids even like 90% when we use it in things like our Nut Butter Cups) and try for a brand that’s soy and dairy free. Read labels, soy lecithin and other odd ingredients often find their way into chocolate. We use the following:

• 70% Rapunzel Organic Extra Dark Swiss Bars (melt or chop into chunks, perfectly sweetened • 82% Scharffen Berger Extra Dark Chocolate (melt or chop into chunks, perfectly sweetened) • 100% Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate Squares (we melt and sweeten it ourselves) • 100% Ghirardelli Unsweetened Chocolate Bars (we melt and sweeten them ourselves) • Semi-‐Sweet Enjoy Life Mini Chips (more like the sweetness of regular chocolate chips) • Dagoba 73% Dark Chocolate Chocodrops

You can also find vegan, soy-‐free chocolate chips at Whole Foods and Unsweetened melted

chocolate at Trader Joe’s if the above don’t work for you. Any brand of cocoa powder will do, but these are the gluten-‐fee ones we personally recommend:

• Navitas Cocoa Powder • Rapunzel Organic Cocoa Powder

Just don’t overdo it. Once sugar and starch are no longer a big part of your diet a tiny amount of

chocolate will go a long way for you!

7. Sweeteners

Sugar isn’t paleo. I mean, it is, because apples are OK. So if we make sugar from dates, is that OK? What about honey and maple syrup, that Grok could’ve had? Who knows? The point is, sweeteners

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change your taste buds. They cause hormonal changes and trigger insulin, which is what made Matt and I need to lose 200lbs to begin with. However! We live in the real world. And I don’t know about you, but my kids like to have cupcakes when they go to birthday parties. And they like to make cookies for their teachers at the holidays. So, we use sweeteners in our treats. We make the best choices we can, but use your judgment over your own health and what works for you and your family’s bodies.

Palm sugar is an unrefined sweetener with a low glycemic index made from the nectar of the

coconut palm, so it even has vitamins and minerals. We use it because it comes granulated and is much more familiar and easier to adapt to traditional recipes. We suggest putting it in a coffee grinder to make a superfine sugar for frostings and meringues. It may or may not be sustainable; we’re not coconut farmers. But I do notice our kids reacting better to it than Sucanant, so it’s what we prefer. We like the Sweet Tree and Nativas brand.

Sucanant is raw cane sugar. Also called Sugar in the Raw, Turbinado, Whole Sugar or whatever – it’s

plain old cane sugar, without that whole refining process. We like to use local honey when it’s available at our farmer’s market, but when it’s winter we like

Tropical Traditions Raw Honey. We LOVE Tropical Traditions Grade B Maple Syrup. Learn about why to use Grade B here. I’m not

going to lie though. It’s insanely expensive. Sign up to be notified of TT deals and stock-‐up when it goes on sale. Otherwise, just get 100% from whatever local source has the best price. Dates… use fresh medjool when you can. If not, soak whatever dates you get in boiling water for 10 minutes then strain to get a better replicate for recipes. You can also use granulated date sugar as an alternative to palm or cane sugars.

When we bake for ourselves, we prefer maple syrup, honey, ripe bananas, or dates for natural unprocessed sweeteners that offer a depth of flavor not found in standard American sweeteners. Each offer not just unique flavor profiles; but, they also include different sucrose and fructose ratios, as well as vitamins and minerals – so, you’ll find that most of our recipes include a variety.

8. Coconut Aminos, Tamari and Fish Sauce

We love to cool flavorful food. Ususally that includes at least one Asian-‐inspired dish a week. Since the number 1 ingredient in most soy sauce’s is wheat, it’s absolutely out.

Tamari is soy sauce without wheat, it’s cheap and easy to find at any Asian market. However, it is made with (fermented) soy, and we really try to keep all legumes out of our diet. So we use Coconut Aminos, which is fermented coconut that replicates a sweet and similar flavor. It’s not cheap but should be available at your health food store or Whole Foods.

Fish sauce is made of awesome. Don’t be afraid. Well, be afraid of the ones with labels you can’t read and hydrolyzed wheat protein as an ingredient. Other than that… get over the fact that you think it smells bad and seems gross – but when you add it to the dishes where we call for it, it’ll give your dish that “pop” you’ve been missing. Stacy likes to joke that it’s the paleo version of MSG. It’s THAT good.

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Do Stuff Together You know what the best part of changing our diet was, in the end? Suddenly, we had excess energy and the overwhelming desire to go out and play. Diet change made us better parents. Here’s ways to incorporate diet with lifestyle and become a family that has fun.

Get outside!

1. Gardening

One of the first things we did when we moved into our new house was to set aside and mark off where the garden would go. It’s much easier than you think and the kids will love it! We chose hearty, lower maintenance plants like tomatoes and carrots and let the boys plant them every year. They’re the ones who now check daily for ripe veggies and they love learning how food is grown!

2. U-Pick Farms

During the summer and fall months, you can find us at various Pick-‐Your-‐Own farms harvesting the freshest produce you can get. Your children will love to climb trees, dig in the dirt, and get sticky with berry juice.

3. Visit grass-fed meat farms

One of the most unfortunate side effects of modern living is our separation from our food. It’s allowed us to either turn a blind eye to the poor conditions much of our meat is produced in or, when we do focus on it, turn to dangerous veganism out of an overactive sense of empathy. As shocking as it is, meat is food for humans and has been a part of our diet for millions of years. We go out of our way to patronize humane, pastured meat farms where the animals live as close to naturally as possible. We love to take to boys to these farms to meet their dinner, so that they understand how food ought to be raised. They love to meet the cows and hold the chicks and even watch the sheep get sheared!

4. Exercise

Somewhere between infanthood and adulthood, we lose the innate desire to play and exercise. Gain it back with the help of your kids! We like to hold challenges that strengthen our bodies together as a family. One month, we all decided to learn to do a handstand, and now we all can! Not to mention that if you follow your kids in their outdoor play, they’ll get your heart working for you!

Shop Together

1. Yard Sale to save the earth and money

If you’re interested in cooking, you soon find that there are lovely toys and appliances out there that you want to have, but cost quite a bit. Luckily, for every person who wants an ice cream maker or dehydrator, there’s someone else who only thought they wanted one! We are always looking for our next adventure at yard sales and thrift stores. Not only is reuse cheaper, but it’s also greener!

2. Farmers ’ Markets

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Just around the corner is the opening of farmers’ market season! We find that shopping at these local markets to be the best way to find new items that will become your favorites and get old staples at a cheaper price! Also, what better way to double check your food’s source than to talk to the producer directly?

3. Grocery stores

Occasionally, especially in the winter, we do in fact go to regular grocery stores. When we’re there, though, we turn it into an adventure! Why not let your kids choose special treats from the fruit section? We’ve tried so many cool new foods just by letting the kids pick our something as a reward!

Cook Together

1. Why this is important

You are making a huge change for your kids. You may even be asking them to eat new foods they’ve never considered. The number one thing that will make this easier for everyone is for everyone to participate. Your children want to have fun with you, and little could be more fun than playing in the kitchen! If your six year old made today’s dinner of eggplant, Brussels sprouts and liver, he or she will be much more excited about eating it than if it’s just presented to them.

2. How to do it and age appropriateness

Every night, one to three of our children will pull up a chair to the counter and ask what they can do to help with dinner. It was so hard to let go of total control and let them assist, at first, but we soon discovered that children are capable of more than you think! Let them stir that pot on the stove! Let them turn on the mixer or food processor! Let them crack eggs (into a separate bowl so you can be sure of no shells in the batter)! We even got them a plastic knife to cut soft things like dates and bananas. Use your discretion, of course. Don’t think the two year old is ready to handle a knife, please!

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Recipes! Here are links to some of our favorite and most popular recipes:

Breakfast

1. Creamed Hot Cereal http://paleoparents.com/2011/cinnamon-‐apple-‐creamed-‐hot-‐cereal/

2. Grain-‐Free Granola http://paleoparents.com/2011/grain-‐free-‐granola/

3. Licorice Sausage http://paleoparents.com/featured/licorice-‐sausage/

4. Beef Bacon Sweet Potato Brunch Casserole http://paleoparents.com/2011/beef-‐bacon-‐brunch-‐casserole

Main Dish

1. Spaghetti Squash alla Carbonara http://paleoparents.com/featured/spaghetti-‐squash-‐alla-‐carbonara/

2. Bacon Chicken http://paleoparents.com/2011/the-‐bacon-‐chicken

3. Curried Mussels not Muscles http://paleoparents.com/2010/1084606214/

4. 50/50 Bacon Burgers http://paleoparents.com/2011/matts-‐5050-‐burgers-‐or-‐birds-‐nest-‐burgers/

Snacks

1. Coconut Pecan Date Rolls http://paleoparents.com/featured/coconut-‐pecan-‐date-‐rolls/

2. Blueberry Coconut Smoothie http://paleoparents.com/2011/blueberry-‐coconut-‐milk-‐smoothie/

3. Applesauce http://paleoparents.com/2011/how-‐i-‐always-‐have-‐applesauce-‐around/

Special Treats

1. Dark Chocolate Banana Bites http://paleoparents.com/2011/dark-‐chocolate-‐banana-‐bites/

2. Pumpkin Pucks http://paleoparents.com/2011/pumpkin-‐pucks/

3. Snickerdoodle Whoopie Pie http://paleoparents.com/2011/snickerdoodle-‐whoopie-‐pies/

4. Chunky Monkey Muffins http://paleoparents.com/2011/chunky-‐monkey-‐muffins/

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FAQ What do the kids eat?

Everything we do. They’ve loved learning about food, helping with dinner and Cole especially has taken to understanding the health of his food. The older boys specifically ask for “bones” and almost always have 2nds of the dinners we serve – even salad. All boys love the farmer’s market and our local farms.

The boys now have learned on their own what they can and can’t eat and why. We strive, all of us, to never slip up, even when out of the house. Both Cole and Finn have begun to ask “does this have dairy or wheat” and avoid it on their own – it’s been awesome to watch them make their own choices and be proud of them!

What DO we eat?

An example week for dinner we’ve had stuffed peppers with lamb sausage, pork loin with apples, roast chicken, curried chicken and beef kabobs. We aim to have a green leafy salad (spinach, romaine, etc.) as well as another vegetable on the table for every dinner. For lunch I take a lot of salads. Leftover meat is great on top or sometimes I just put a can of tuna on. I try to take advantage of being able to have a giant T-‐bone or a whole avocado if I want it – it makes my lunch feel “special” rather than constrained. The key is to have protein, fat and a vegetable with every meal you eat.

For breakfast we eat eggs and bacon or sausage with greens like spinach or kale, mostly. We’ve done some alternative recipes (fritatta, bacon cups, hard boiled eggs, etc.) to keep it feeling fresh. Occasionally, we like to have smoothies with coconut and almond milks and frozen fruit. And for snacks we almost always have fresh fruit, jerky, veggies with guacamole or dried fruit. The kids LOVE applesauce and beg for jerky. Honestly, I’m surprised at how easy it’s been.

Do I miss the old food? Do I cheat?

You’ll see a lot of people in the paleo community advocating an 80% paleo, 20% non-‐paleo split. We advocate striving as much as possible to be 100%. Trust me when I say that once you’ve gotten past the initial few months of “shock”, you’ll completely change how you look at food. Old foods I used to enjoy don’t even appeal to me anymore. If they do for some reason and I really want them, I’ll have it (most often this is natural ice cream made from good quality cream). Of course I miss being able to attend parties and eat the same as everyone, but I’ve tried popping in and out of Paleo foods and I get gut wrenchingly ill and sugar hangovers the next day. No thank you! It is NOT worth it to me anymore. Plus, after not having gluten or refined sugar for months now, it tastes funny and never is as good as I remember it having been. Usually, our solution is a “paleo” version of an item we miss. Then I’m able to relish knowing I’m giving myself a touch of protein that also satisfies a craving.

Wait , isn ’t paleo necessarily low-carb , no sugar? What ’s with all your cupcakes?

Generally speaking, you ought to keep your carb intake fairly low and we do! But for those times when you want a treat, even the most hardcore paleo advocates will eat a cookie. It is so hard to figure out HOW to make a paleo(ish) treat that we try to share our recipes so that you, too, can make them. We don’t eat them everyday (and, probably, neither should you), but we love to cook and bake and love to eat, so sometimes, we’ll make a cake! We go into our use of sweeteners here.

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Resources For Ingredients Eat Wild helps you find local humane meat farms US Wellness Meats online grass-‐fed meats, delivered! Mount Vernon Farm in Virginia Polyface Farm in Virginia Larriland U-‐Pick Fruit & Veggie Farm in Maryland Great Country Farms U-‐Pick Fruit & Veggie Farm in Virginia Coconut products at Tropical Traditions Blanched almond flour at Honeyville Lunchmeat at Applegate Farms

For Lunchboxes Laptop Lunches Bento Box Set Goodbyn Original and Bynto Lunchbot Steel Containers Steeltainers Steel Containers

For Dietary Advice Robb Wolf Mark's Daily Apple Balanced Bites Cave Girl Eats

Random Articles We Love Robb Wolf's FAQ PaleoHacks: Paleo forum filled with wonderful Q & A information What to prioritize when eating Paleo on a Budget Why not to go crazy with nuts Preschoolers with Knives -‐ this sums up our entire parenting philosophy!

Good Choices When Eating Out On-‐the-‐go, we choose Chipotle salads. With farm raised meats and fresh ingredients my kids devour, we’re willing to occasionally forgive soy bean oil. The kids like it when we go to Red Robin. You can ask for gluten-‐free menu, or just get unseasoned fries and a bunless burger (or splurge with their gluten-‐free buns). If you need a place to meet family and friends, find a local chain that has a gluten-‐free menu you can work with. We LOVE Vietnamese and Thai food. Rice noodles can be an occasional treat, or opt for a yummy curry. Todai Asian Buffet (or sushi in general) has a wonderful sushi bar with lots of great salads and fresh food -‐ avoid soy sauce (ask for Tamari, it's wheat-‐free cousin). Brazilian Steakhouses (Texas de Brazil and Chima Steakhouse) are perfect places to dineout upscale -‐ just make sure they dont have a wheat-‐based spice rub on their meats. Locally, I recommend Choices by Shawn in Fairfax, VA -‐ Gluten and Dairy-‐free food options in a celiac kitchen! Lastly, our favorites are local burger joints Elevation Burger, Ray's Hellburger and 5 Guys.

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Sources 1. http://ThisWeekInPaleo.com 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-‐17Sugar-‐t.html?_r=1 3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-‐2056711/Cupcakes-‐addictive-‐cocaine-‐How-‐sugar-‐fat-‐

laden-‐foods-‐like-‐drugs.html 4. http://www.livestrong.com/article/470236-‐too-‐much-‐sugar-‐causes-‐fatty-‐liver-‐in-‐children/ 5. http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2011/12/03/loren-‐cordain-‐leaky-‐gut-‐whole-‐grain-‐and-‐

even-‐potatoes/ 6. http://paleoparents.com/2011/laymans-‐autoimmune-‐disease-‐interpretation/ 7. http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/library/methodsofextraction.asp 8. http://BalancedBites.com/2010/07/fats-‐which-‐to-‐eat-‐and-‐which-‐to-‐ditch.html 9. http://articles.cnn.com/2008-‐10-‐16/health/healthmag.cholesterol.inflammation_1_c-‐reactive-‐

protein-‐bad-‐cholesterol-‐inflammation?_s=PM:HEALTH 10. http://dfwnetmall.com/veg/dairyigf-‐ibreastcancer.htm 11. http://www.ana-‐jana.org/Journal/journals/ACF5FB7.pdf

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