East Grove Blues

So after much reading and thought I have decided to give the so called ‘Paleo Diet’ a try. I figured that trying it for a month wouldn’t hurt me any and if it didn’t click then I would return to my ‘normal’ fare. I have talked to many people about food and what you should be eating, and so far the best answer is to just listen to your body and what it is telling you. Michael Pollan put out a new book that sums this up in a few simple words. Eat food, mostly plants, not to much.

I feel a bit like a hypocrite right now. I have been preaching the evils of meat for several years now and here I am eating a lot more meat than I have in a long time. My normal diet consists of mostly fruits and vegetables, but instead of eating carbs (usually rice or bread), I am now eating meat. I am probably still eating less than most Americans, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better. I am also avoiding normal cuts of meat. I have currently eaten random fish bits, oysters and other shell fish, liver and eggs. I’ll probably buy a heart sometime this week and try that out. Luckily I like organ meat a lot, and luckily it is recommended eating. (It’s also a lot cheaper. Eating meat in Japan is expensive)

A bigger change for me is cutting out as much salt as I can. No soy sauce and no miso at home. I have found that salt makes me a lot hungrier than I actually am. It keeps me eating when I should be done and it makes me pee a lot more than I would like to. It was strange eating the school lunch and being able to tell just how much salt they added to everything. It was almost over powering.

I realized instantly that eating a completely paleo diet in Japan is impossible unless you cook all your own food. I have cut down on eating out because of that, but I still have school lunch. I know I have complained about this before, but school lunches, while tasty, are really bad for any type of diet. It is mostly carbs and even veggies have been pickled in salt. I can’t help most of it, but I have been cutting my rice portions in half. Hopefully I will do a lot better when I get home and can completely control my diet.

The question comes up as to why I would keep trying out different diets. I see food as medicine and since last fall I have had some issues with inflammation. So I hit up the internet to find what foods might cause that and what foods might help. That brought me around to the paleo diet and the evidence that says it is anti-inflammatory. A lot of the people who were espousing its benefits said to give it a try, if you don’t get results try something else. I like that kind of attitude so I have decided to give it a try.

While I haven’t been hardcore about it I have still had some interesting effects already. Warning TMI follows! My gums stopped bleeding during brushing and overall tooth health has improved (yes that quickly). My bowel movements are more solid and more frequent. There is something about Japanese food that turns them into unpleasantness and this is correcting it. I am still hungry all the time, but I no longer feel lethargy along with it. My portion size has decreased, because I am feeling full a lot faster. Finally I am sleeping a lot better and I am not waking up nearly as much as I have been the last couple of months. I am really hoping for this trend to continue until I sleep the entire night through.

I don’t know if I would recommend this diet to anyone, but it has shown some interesting side effects already. It is a little hard, mostly because you can’t eat any grains, which means no beer. sigh… Oh well, like I said, I haven’t been a hundred percent about it yet. I’ll keep updating about it as the next few weeks go on. Who knows what might happen at this point.