I’ve never been one for labels, clothing or otherwise. Sure I’m not against a nice new pair of designer shoes or a handbag, but I don’t let labels get in the way of what I choose to wear or define who I am.

Sometimes though labels can help. They can help to set a framework on which you can build and expand, much like building a house and then extending on it later. That is what the term ‘paleo’ is for me. It’s a framework which I have been building on and will continue to build as I progress on this path.

Paleo, Primal, Ancestral, Real Food, Weston A. Price… whatever you want to call it, to me these names all have the same underlying message: “eat whole unprocessed foods.” Sure they have their differences, e.g. a person following a Weston A. Price diet can eat grains and legumes if they’ve been soaked, sprouted and fermented according to certain guidelines but those things are avoided on a paleo/primal diet unless the person can tolerate them.

When I first entered the world of paleo it felt like I had a classroom full of children trying to tell me something all at the same time often with conflicting thoughts: “Don’t eat carbs”, “eat carbs but stick to 50-100 grams a day”, “potatoes aren’t paleo”, “don’t eat too much fruit”, “eat more fruit”, “eat more vegetables”, “dairy is bad”, “dairy is good, but only if you can tolerate it”, “eat more fat”…. etc etc. [Read more…]