{Paleo Diet & Crohn's Disease}

The lovely Laura over at The Mrs Makes has written a blog post on 'Eating Paleo' and she's inspired me to give this diet a try. Basically, the theory is that you eat like our caveman ancestors did... the diet is high in protein, low in carbohydrate and no processed food. My sister is also going to attempt a diet of no processed food to help curb her sugar cravings... I really need to get motivated for this I reckon! No more cake!!?

I've already said that losing weight is 70% diet and 30% exercise. I've got the exercise part sussed - I do at least 4 runs a week normally and I try and make a metafit class when I can. It's the diet part that's seriously lacking.

The more reading I've done, I actually think it might help reduce my Crohn's symptoms and be very beneficial to me health-wise.

Head on over to Laura's post to get some of the background information on Paleo principles, and below you'll find some thoughts on a Paleo diet specifically for autoimmune diseases, like Crohn's.

Paleo Auto Immune Protocol

Some of the normal Paleo-friendly foods have been shown to cause issues for individuals with autoimmune disorders. The key for Paleo for Autoimmunity is to remove Neolithic foods (grains, breads, potatoes, beans and dairy) and it's also recommended to avoid the following foods:

• eggs
• tomatoes and aubergines
• peppers
• spices such as curries, paprika and chilli powder
• nuts and seeds

This then means that I can't have an omelette or scrambled eggs for breakfast, and I can't have my usual porridge or muesli either... hmmmm...

*goes away and does more googling*

Right, here are my initial thoughts:

Breakfast

Smoked salmon, fruit salad, banana

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Lunch

Chicken salad (greens, red onions, cucumber, beetroot, sweetcorn, avocado, carrots; no peppers or tomatoes)

Prawn, avocado and mango salad 

With homemade salad dressing of olive oil and garlic

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Homemade vegetable soup

Dinner

Grilled fish and vegetables (no peppers or potatoes)

Grilled meat and vegetables

Squash 'spaghetti' and meatballs

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Snacks

Not sure what I can do for snacks as my usual 'healthy' choices are rice cakes, hummous, yoghurt, nuts & seeds or some cherry tomatoes! None of which are allowed. Instead, I guess I could try these:

Mange tout

Sliced apples / pear

Carrot and celery batons

Handful of dried fruit

This definitely needs more thought.... suggestions are much appreciated. Do you know anyone that's tried a Paleo diet for autoimmune disease?