Paleo Challenge: The Basics

The essential rules of the Paleo diet are simple: eat all the lean meat, poultry, fish, seafood, fruits (except dried fruit), and vegetables (except potatoes and corn) you want. And avoid eating grains, legumes, dairy products, refined sugar, processed foods, and added salt.

Here is a breakdown of what you can eat over the next 4 weeks:

Lean beef:

• Flank steak
• Top sirloin steak
• Extra-lean hamburger (extra fat drained off)
• London broil
• Chuck steak
• Lean veal
• Any other lean cut

Lean lamb:

• Grass-fed lamb chops or roasts from Australia or New Zealand

Lean pork:

• Pork loin
• Pork chops
• Any other lean cut

Lean poultry (white meat, skin removed):

• Chicken breast
• Turkey breast
• Game hen breast

Other meats:

• Rabbit meat (any cut)
• Goat meat (any cut)
• Escargot

Organ meats:

• Beef, lamb, pork, & chicken liver
• Beef, pork, & lamb tongue
• Beef, lamb, & pork marrow
• Beef, lamb, & pork sweetbreads

Game meat:

• Bear
• Bison or buffalo
• Caribou
• Elk
• Emu
• Frog legs
• Goose
• Muscovy duck
• New Zealand Cervena deer
• Ostrich
• Pheasant
• Quail
• Reindeer
• Venison
• Wild boar
• Wild turkey

Fish:

• Bass
• Bluefish
• Cod
• Drum
• Eel
• Flatfish
• Grouper
• Haddock
• Halibut
• Herring
• Mackerel
• Monkfish
• Mullet
• Northern pike
• Orange roughy
• Perch
• Red snapper
• Rockfish
• Salmon
• Scrod
• Shark
• Striped bass
• Sunfish
• Tilapia
• Trout
• Tuna
• Turbot
• Walleye
• Any commercially available fish

Shellfish:

• Abalone
• Calamari (squid)
• Crab
• Crayfish
• Lobster
• Mussels
• Octopus
• Oysters
• Scallops
• Shrimp

Fruit:

• Any fruit is acceptable except for dried fruit

Vegetables:

• Any vegetables are acceptable except for potatoes and corn

Nuts & seeds:

• Almonds
• Brazil nuts
• Cashews
• Hazelnuts (filberts)
• Macadamia nuts
• Pecans
• Pistachios
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts

Foods acceptable in moderation:

• Olive oil (preferably extra virgin)
• Avocado oil
• Walnut oil
• Flaxseed oil
• Coffee
• Tea
• Wine (8 ounces)
• Beer (12 ounces)
• Hard liquor (4 ounces)
• Dried fruits (2 ounces)

These are the foods you should avoid:

Dairy foods:

• All processed foods made with any dairy products
• Butter
• Cheese
• Cream
• Dairy spreads
• Frozen yogurt
• Ice cream
• Ice milk
• Whole milk
• Skim milk, low-fat milk
• Nonfat dairy creamer
• Powdered milk
• Yogurt

Grains/grain-like seeds:

• Amaranth
• Barley
• Buckwheat
• Corn
• Millet
• Oats
• Quinoa
• Rice
• Rye
• Sorghum
• Wheat
• Wild rice

Legumes:

• All beans (adzuki, black, broad, fava, field, garbanzo, horse, kidney, lima, mung, navy, pinto, red, string, white)
• Black-eyed peas
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• Peas
• Miso
• Peanut butter
• Peanuts (peanuts are a legume, not a nut)
• Snow peas
• Soybeans and all soybean products, including tofu

Starchy tubers:

• Potatoes and all potato products

Salt-containing foods:

• Almost all commercial salad dressings and condiments
• Bacon
• Cheese
• Deli meats
• Frankfurters
• Ham
• Salami
• Hot dogs
• Ketchup
• Olives
• Pickled foods
• Pork rinds
• Salted nuts
• Salted spices
• Virtually all canned meats and fish
• Sausages
• Processed meats
• Smoke, dried, and salted fish and meat

Fatty meats:

• All fatty cuts of fresh meats
• Fatty pork chops
• Fatty pork roasts
• Pork ribs
• Bacon
• Pork sausage
• Beef ribs
• Fatty leg of lamb
• Fatty lamb roasts
• Lamb chops
• Chicken and turkey legs
• Chicken and turkey thighs and wings
• Fatty beef roasts
• T-bone steaks
• Fatty cuts of beef
• Fatty ground beef

Beverages:

• All sugary soft drinks
• Canned, bottled, and freshly squeezed juices and fruit

Sweets:

• Candy
• Sugars
• Honey

Use this time over the next two days to get rid of all your non-Paleo foods in your fridge/cupboards, and to restock with fresh, healthy Paleo-friendly foods.  Planning ahead is crucial for compliance.

Please, please, please email us your questions, or post them on this thread. We are more than happy to help!!!

Details on scoring/tracking will be posted before Wednesday.