A paleo-vegan cookbook ...

[Second Summer]

The Paleo diet is the most popular diet around today, with a huge celebrity following. Most people think it's impossible to be vegan on the meat-heavy Paleo diet, but the authors of Paleo Vegan: Plant-Based Primal Recipes have proven otherwise.

In an exclusive interview March 20, vegan advocate and fitness coach Ellen Jaffe Jones and culinary genius Alan Roettinger said you can enjoy delicious, nutritious Paleo recipes on a vegan diet.

Full article: 'Paleo Vegan' cookbook authors say you can be Paleo on a plant-based diet (examiner.com, 20. March, 2014)

 

[Envy]

Eh, I'm not the person to eat healthy.

 

[Blobbenstein]

sort of a whole food diet.

 

[Second Summer]

Yes, I'm curious about to what extent they include grains. In one sentence the guy seems to be saying this is a raw diet, but then he talks about grains and beans. I thought grains was a big no-no in the so-called "paleo" diet. (I think "neo-paleo" would be more accurate ...) Also not so sure how "paleos" feel about beans.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I have been eating more whole foods recently.....they are supposed to fill you up for longer, so help with dieting.

 

[Blobbenstein]

yes, I'm not sure how many beans a palaeolithic person could find, in the wild.

 

[ledboots]

From the article:
"The fundamental principle of a Paleo diet is 99% identical to my own approach to a vegan diet, which is simply to adhere as much as possible to nature's standard for food: fresh, whole, raw, organic, local, and diverse. No processed foods (especially sugar and refined oils), no dairy products. Where we differ is minimal: a vegan diet excludes meat — which more than likely was not even close to a significant part of the Paleolithic human's diet — and includes beans and grains."

 

[Blobbenstein]

it boggles my mind how palaeolithic people found enough food to survive on, all through the year, which pushes me to think they must have eaten quite a bit of meat.....but that is probably just because I don't know enough about how they lived....I think other people must be pushed to think that way too.

 

[Second Summer]

Where we differ is minimal: a vegan diet excludes meat [...]and includes beans and grains."

Ah, right. So he does say the paleo diet doesn't have beans and grains. (I just wasn't reading it right, I think.)

 

[spottygiraffe]

Where we differ is minimal

I totally agree. There are far more similarities than differences in the vegan/paleo diets and we should support each other rather than be in opposing camps. My feeling is that our ancestors would have found some kind of cereals/grains/pulses, such as wild oats and lentils. I think we are 'meant' to eat small amounts of meat, but with our knowledge of nutrition these days we can choose not to. I have done some self-experimentation and I know that I can't handle diet that is too high on protein or that has a lot of fruit and vegetables without any grains (or insoluble fibre). I'm pretty sure I could never go fruitarian!

 

[Second Summer]

A review of this book:
Paleo Vegan Cookbook Review | Hungry Memphis | Memphis News and Events | Memphis Flyer

 

[yakherder]

Paleo diets were likely as varied as modern diets. Some probably lived almost entirely of vegetation, others a mix of vegetation and hunting, and others insects and rats. In any case, random catchy fad names aside, looks like good, healthy stuff.

 

[yakherder]

On a side note, you might be surprised what you can find during the winter, especially in scarcely populated areas. When I was a kid (I grew up on Fox Island, Washington), I'd take a row boat to nearby islands that were too small to have people or large wildlife on them and come across frozen berries of various types.

Roots can be found year round. Many are quite carb heavy, but can be a pain in the *** to get to if the ground is frozen. This can actually serve as an advantage because that keeps animals away from things that you can't get to without digging tools.

Most sea weeds are edible. They won't keep you from starving, but they're nutritious nonetheless.

Almost any grass will have something resembling wild garlic mixed in with it, and it will often remain edible after a freeze.

Could you support a major population off foraged vegetation in the winter? Not a chance. A small tribe, so to speak? Arguably, yes. At the very least, you could supplement other stored goods.

 

[Bite Size Vegan]

oh this looks really interesting. i've been hoping someone would write a vegan paleo guide as everyone always sees them as an either/or but you're correct in that you can eat vegan within paleo guidelines. (probably the only way to do paleo healthily, i'd argue) thanks for sharing this!

 

[flyingsnail]

yes, I'm not sure how many beans a palaeolithic person could find, in the wild.

There are a lot of wild legumes and grains that were available throughout Africa, the bigger question is how many of them were edible to our paleolithic ancestors.

it boggles my mind how palaeolithic people found enough food to survive on, all through the year, which pushes me to think they must have eaten quite a bit of meat.....

When you analyze the efficiency of foraging vs hunting in "primitive societies", foraging is usually found to be more efficient in terms of calories gained per hour of work. Of course this depends on the location of the society. I think, as with chimps, hunting in human societies goes beyond nutrition and ties into our status structure which would help explain why hunting is almost exclusively a male activity in human (and chimp) societies.

If you walk around in the woodlands of Northern Europe I think it would be easy to convince yourself that paleolithic people had to eat a lot of meat, but humans evolved in a much different climate that had an ample selection of plant foods.

In any case, nobody even knows who our ancestors are among the many fossils let alone what they ate......as a result there is no way to mimic our ancestors paleolithic diet. Just another diet fad.