In the Hunt for Paleo Foods

It has been about two weeks now since completely removing all traces of wheat and other gluten containing products from my kitchen.  Also gone are most of the starches and carbohydrates, including potatoes, rice, breads, and other 'food products', seed oils, and processed sugars.  In its place are fresh vegetables from the Saturday farmer's market, and locally sourced grass-fed and finished beef, pastured pork, and free-range chicken.  It is important that the animals eat well too during their lives.  GMO soy, corn, wheat and other genetically modified crops as well as antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides have NO place in their food or ours.

I just finished the final chapters of Michael Pollan's, In Defense of Food.  He suggests several self-imposed rules which I have decided to adopt:

• Eat REAL foods
• Avoid food products that make health claims.
• Avoid food products that:
• are unfamiliar
• have unpronounceable ingredients
• have more than 5 ingredients
• include high fructose corn syrup

•  Get out of the Supermarket whenever possible ( and shop instead at Farmer's Markets, CSAs, or local farms ) 

and a few others that are probably worth considering:

• Do all your eating at a table
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Consult your gut
• Serve smaller portions on smaller plates
• Eat slowly ( Slowfood )
• Cook ... and if you can, plant a garden

I found a local farmer, Jordan from Barking Dog Farms who is offering a Fall CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for 10 weeks from September 23rd until November 28th.  Each week I will receive a basket of freshly picked produce from their farm including tomatoes, green and red okra, muscadine grapes, lettuces, spinach, red Russian kale, smooth kale, Dino Kale, curly kale, Swiss chard, arugula, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, cabbage, pac choi, broccoli and a few others items.  I'm very excited to add these wonderfully healthy and farm-to-table foods to my diet!  My Paleo hunt today included beet greens, green beans, and arugula.

The effects of this quite radical change in my diet have all been positive.  More energy, mental clarity, and the cessation of pain in my knees and shoulder all add to my determination to bring a healthier me to life!

Since finding food on the Appalachian Trail will consist of either general delivery mail drops or re-supplying at small convenient stores, quickie marts and dollar-store type chains, I have been working to find quality Paleo food companies that are interested in assisting me in consuming a healthy diet on the trail.  I have been quite successful to date and have mentioned a couple of these great companies in a previous post.  I will share more about the other ones soon.

One company that sells Paleo baking mixes, PaleoBakingCompany is excited to sponsor me.  Testing methods to produce these with only backpacking equipment is now on my to-do list.  Paleo Baking in the Back-country! - there's something I would not have thought about 6 months ago.

I plan to top these healthy treats with another sponsor's product,

Nikki's Coconut Butters.  Sitting on a mountaintop on a star-filled night 'baking' and then eating a warm fresh Paleo treat.  Yum! - Can it get any better than that?

"Watch what you eat, get off the couch and start being inconvenient. Eat real food, practice functional movement and stand up for environmental preservation, sustainable agriculture, peace and social justice."
 -Frank Forencich, Change Your Body, Change the World

- The Other One