80.Going Paleo
John talks about how he changed his diet to improve his health after he was feeling sick and unhealthy.
Sarah: So John, I heard you've been trying out a new diet. Can you tell me about it?
John: Yes. I've been trying the paleo diet.
Sarah: What's that?
John: Well, this diet is supposed to make you feel better and eat healthier. And the idea is that a lot of the problems we have with health, a lot of modern human health problems, come from the foods we eat. So the idea is that maybe we should eat a diet which is closer to what early humans ate before.
Sarah: Early humans ate? Like what did they eat?
John: Well, they mostly ate fruits, and berries, and nuts, and meat. They didn't eat grains because grains come from agriculture, from growing plants on purpose.
Sarah: Uh-hmm.
John: And they didn't eat bread and cake and cookies and crackers.
Sarah: It sounds like a hard diet to keep.
John: It's a little difficult at first. What you have to realize is that these foods are refined foods. Refined foods are not really natural foods because humans have to do a lot of cooking processes to make these foods.
Sarah: Uh-hmm.
John: When you want to eat natural, you should eat food just the way it comes like raw vegetables and fresh fruit and meat that isn't processed. So you can't eat hot dogs.
Sarah: Okay.
John: And sausage.
Sarah: Okay.
John: But you can have steak…
Sarah: It sounds…
John: And fish.
Sarah: It sounds like an expensive diet.
John: Well actually, it turns out that when you eat fresh vegetables and fresh fruits, it can be cheaper. Processed food, refined food, comes in lots of packaging from the store, and sometimes it can be more expensive for convenience. Modern humans eat these processed foods for convenience. You don't have to wash it. You don't have to do the chopping and preparation when you eat refined foods.
But when you go on paleo diet, you buy the fruit and you eat it. You buy the vegetables, you have to wash it and chop it and then you eat it. So it's not processed, and it's much healthier for you.
Sarah: How do you feel since you started this diet?
John: I feel much better actually. When we eat carbohydrates, we can feel tired. Carbohydrates are in processed foods like anything that comes from grains. Like I said, bread, cookies, cake, crackers. They have lots of carbohydrates. And when we eat them, our body has to use lots of energy to digest carbohydrates. It takes away energy which could be used for doing activities. That's why if you eat lots and lots of bread and cake, maybe you feel tired.
Sarah: Oh, I see.
John: If you just eat fresh vegetables and fruit, you can feel like you have lots of free energy.
Sarah: Are there any foods that you miss?
John: I think the food I missed the most is pizza. Pizza was my favorite food before. I used to eat pizza three times every week. Now, I rarely eat pizza. Pizza has a crust. The crust is bread, so the crust has lots of carbohydrates. Also, pizza has a lot of processed meats including pepperoni and sausage. Those meats are not very healthy for you. Also, pizza has lots of cheese on it. Cheese is another processed food. So if we cut out pizza from our diet, we can eat healthier and feel like we have more energy.
Sarah: Well, that's great. Thanks for telling me about paleo.
John: You're welcome.
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