(no subject)

[axelrod]

1) If you're looking for an alternative to wheat flour, you might consider acorns. Pro: nice nutty flavor, fairly nutritious, if ground finely makes a delicious bread (there's a couple variations here), high in omega 6. Con: work intensive to make (you have to leech tanins out of most varieties) and difficult to source prepared acorn flour, not ideal if you need a diet lower in fat.

2) Has anyone made buckwheat bread? Buckwheat porridge? I really like buckwheat soba noodles, though everywhere I've found them so far they're pretty expensive. Any other suggestions for how to prepare buckwheat? 

3) The book on paleo diets I requested from the library still isn't available, so a basic question: how do people on the paleo diet get enough complex carbs, or is that not really a concern?

4) Cattails seem to be paleo-friendly. You can eat the root, spikes, corms, pollen (which apparently can be used like flour), and seeds. Apparently cattails get incredible yields. There's info here, but I haven't done any research besides (so far). Cattails grow wild in many regions - the concern there is whether there's anything toxic in the soil or water, so if there isn't lots of plant and animal life in the body of water it's growing in or near, you probably shouldn't eat it. Also, there are near-relatives which appear similar to cattails but which are poisonous. The article I link to above tells you what they are and how to identify them, as well as the various parts of teh plant that are edible at different times of year and some suggestions for preparation.

5) Related to #2, what kinds of bread are paleo-friendly? Specifically, I want to make sandwiches and toast.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

There are some paleo baking recipes here -- the first two are apparently sandwich-suitable:

http://www.paleofood.com/baked.htm
http://www.livestrong.com/recipes/paleo-bread/
http://jensgonepaleo.blogspot.com/2010/01/rosemary-fig-nutty-bread-paleo-friendly.html

Some of these are paleo:

http://wheatfreeandglutenfreebreadrecipe.blogspot.com/

Your best strategy is probably either to bake your own, or to look for gluten-free breads and see which ones are also grain-free.

You're not going to get something which comes out like white toast, but that's sort of the point. *g*

There seems to be some debate over whether buckwheat is technically paleo, but as with anything it depends how rigid you want to be.

how do people on the paleo diet get enough complex carbs, or is that not really a concern?

Getting enough complex carbs hasn't been a problem for me per se. Lots and lots of veg and fruit! (I am trying to make sure I get enough vegetables and don't just live off fruit ...). If you find you're not getting enough, then add more starchy roots and tubers like sweet potatoes, parsnips, etc. etc.

It can be worth playing around with carbohydrate levels anyway and seeing what works best for your body; my impression is that different people may have very different needs in this respect, depending on individual metabolisms and activity levels. Some people seem to be blissfully happy on low carbs, while others need more. I found that my general functioning improves quite drastically with high protein and moderate levels of low-glycemic carbs.

For me, where I've run into problems is with bouldering sessions (two hours of strenuous exercise which is almost purely anaerobic, burning glycogen rather than fat); if I don't get a shot of high-GI carbohydrates shortly afterwards, it tends to do nasty things to my blood sugar and thence mood.

So (since I'm only demi-paleo anyway) I take a leaf from Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet for Athletes book and eat some not-strictly-paleo high-GI carbs (rice or potatoes, usually) when I'm refueling after climbing.

But that's a highly specific situation, given the particular type of exercise I do and the fact that I've got mood issues (and even when heavily medicated, apparently right now low blood sugar can tip me into a downturn). Most people don't seem to run into any problems.

So, yeah. It's a very YMMV thing.