Please don't tell me what to eat!

I know, I've been there.  You've transformed your life with food and you want to share your experience with the world.  What better way to do that than tell everyone who will listen what they should eat to make them feel better?  You're really on a mission to share what you truly believe will help everyone.  But here's the thing, just because it worked for you, doesn't mean it will work for me.

As Joshua Rosenthal says in Integrative Nutrition, "Nutrition is a funny science.  It's the only field where people can scientifically prove opposing theories and still be right."  We are each biologically diverse and there are many factors that may contribute to nutrition study findings.  Correlation is not the same as causation.

For me, personally, I get irked when people tell me that all humans should be vegetarian, and the only reason to eat meat is because it tastes good.  I can tell you from several years of personal food exploration that I do not do well on a vegetarian or vegan diet.  I get bloated and lethargic when I eat too many grains, or any legumes at all, which are primary sources of non animal protein.  If I don't get enough protein I get serious blood sugar drops and spaciness.  I am not alone in this. I know quite a few people who have had the same experience, including some who spent a significant amount of time eating vegan, such as this person.  I once happened upon an article from a woman bemoaning the fact that our environment was so toxic that even on a perfect vegan diet she still suffered several autoimmune issues refusing to consider the fact that maybe her diet wasn't so perfect for her after all.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against vegetarian or vegan diets in general.  If you are on one and thriving - that is awesome!  I'm just saying that it can't be assumed that it is the perfect diet for everyone.

If you are concerned for ethical reasons, I totally respect that.  I found this article interesting. It does not condone factory farming, but it looks at the ethical issues of farming from a perspective I hadn't considered. 

I myself have found that something close to the Paleo diet, or "Perfect Health Diet" seems to work best for me.  When I first discovered the difference it could make in my energy and health, I wanted to share it with the world.  I realize though that what works for me, might not be great for everyone.  When people trash the concept though they are not seeing the people for whom this diet has really transformed their well being.

Most of us know these days that cutting out processed foods and moving to a more whole foods based diet can have a positive affect on our bodies.  Everybody has different needs though when it comes to proteins or processing different types of foods such as grains, legumes and dairy.

Please do share your own experiences with food, but lets make a deal - don't tell me I'm wrong for eating meat and I won't ask you where you get your protein.

Easy Dairy Alternatives

There's a reason it's hard to give up dairy. Cheese is actually addictive. It's no wonder it took me so long to admit it was an issue for me when my reaction to it was not immediate.  Unfortunately, when that was the only major thing I cut out, the evidence was undeniable. My skin cleared up, my digestion improved and I lost the 10 pounds I had gained when work started back in the fall.  

The idea of never eating cheese again seemed terrible. I immediately got an Artisan Vegan Cheese Book. Unfortunately many of the recipes are pretty time intensive, and I don't have a lot of time to spare these days. I'm sure I will get to experimenting with the recipes some time, maybe this summer, but in the mean time there are some easy recipes I've tried when cutting out dairy in the past, and a few new ones I'd like to try.

Almond and Coconut Milk - One of my biggest vices is a nice creamy and sweet cup of coffee.  I've gotten to the point where I usually limit it to one time a week, if I have something like teechino instead.  Still, I like it sweet and creamy.  I'm not a fan off soy milk (or really any soy that's not fermented).  My local coffee shop Di Tazza makes me a great almond milk latte with maple syrup. They even went out and bought almond milk when I asked for it.  I find though that too much nuts can be overload on the system, so at home I often make my own coconut milk by putting one cup shredded coconut in a blender with two cups of water.  For almond milk I use about twice as much water.  With my Vitamix, I just blend on the smoothie setting and strain through a nut bag.  With a standard blender, I boiled the water first and blended for a whole 10 minutes before straining.  Coconut works well for me in coffee, but if I want to make hot cocoa for myself and the boy, almond is more creamy.  Next time I think I'm going to try to combine the two! 

Banana Ice Cream - My favorite healthy ice cream substitute is simply a frozen banana in a blender or food processor.  It's great alone or with added cocoa, nut butter, cherries or anything else you can dream up!  I take any extra and put it in push pop molds for future consumption. 

Almond Cream Cheese - When I first went paleo, I made a grain free pumpkin bread with this cream cheese substitute.  It was super tasty and a big hit at parties, but I realized I was going overboard on the nuts so now its an occasional thing.  I also tried it as a substitute for sour cream to make a tasty dip. 

Nacho Cheese Dip - This one was surprisingly tasty. When I stopped eating a lot of grains and beans, I haven't really used it, but I think I will try it again. It might also be a good cheese sauce in some sort of casserole or Mac n' Cheese like recipe. 

Cashew Parmesan - Another deceptively simple one.  I just combined cashews, salt and garlic in the food processor and blended until the texture of Parmesan cheese.  I even put this on one of our attempts at grain free pizza.  The "cheese" tasted better than the crust. 

Cauliflower Ricotta - So many cheese substitutes involve nuts or other foods you probably shouldn't consume in large quantities, so I was super excited to find this substitute for ricotta that mostly consisted of cauliflower!  I even made an easy lasagna by layering sauce, gluten free lasagna noodles, "ricotta", ground meat and sauce two times and then topped with Daiya cheese. 

It's not super pretty, but it was super tasty!