QuestionQUESTION: Hi,
I am just starting the raw paleolithic diet and have decided to follow your advice of prefrozen exclusively grassfed organic meat and occasional fresh wild fish/shellfish. I am also planning to include a little (organic) fruit.
Right now, I have access (I live in Eastern Canada, Quebec) to:
- prefrozen meat from bison and (Highland) beef
- all types of muscle meats
- kidney (although farmer says it tastes foul cooked), liver, tongue, heart
- wide variery of wild fresh fish and shellfish
- organic fruits of all sorts
As you can see, bone marrow or brain (which I both loved eating in the past) isn't included in the list (sadly) although I may get hold of bone marrow in the near future. For this reason, I'm worried about lack of fat in my diet given the amount of protein consumed. For this reason, I plan to eat a larger quantity of organ meats vs muscle meats (i.e. beef and bison), in a ratio of about 2:1. Also, I believe fat from fish eaten occasionally (25% of meat consumption) should help. And I plan to include in my diet, daily avocado salads with lots of organic olive oil. What do you think of this combination? Do you have a better one to suggest until I can (maybe) get hold of bone marrow?
If I ever do get access to bone marrow, it will probably be prefrozen. So I have a couple of questions:
1) once thawed, how long does bone marrow last, if refrigerated after consumption?
2) about how much should I take (in lbs or kgs) with my main meal of the day?
3) would I still need to include avocado and olive oil in my diet?
I am on a fast today as I plan to do intermittent fasting. One day consisting of a large meal and a few fruits, the other, nothing. Tomorrow, I plan to start eating raw right away (cold turkey). I have some minced beef, sirloin and tongue, all from bison. I plan on starting with minced. My dilemna with tongue is that it's huge (i.e. bison). I doubt I will be able to eat all of it in one day and 2 days later, it will probably be rotten and I'm not ready for that...yet!
Thanks for all of your help, Geoff.
ANSWER: Re diet-routine:- The current diet-combination you've suggested seems fine, for now. Marrow isn't the only option for fat. Raw suet, tongue, brains, muscle-meat-fat/hide-fat are also great sources of fats, as are some of the other organ-meats. I should add, though, that a few RPDers have noticed minor absorption problems(eg:- runny stools) if they overdid consumption of raw liver - this only seems to happen to a minority of people, but it's worth mentioning.
Re marrow questions:-
1) It all depends on how used you are to raw meats. For example, when I first started on a rawpalaeo diet, I couldn't handle the taste of any raw meats/organ-meats that were left in the fridge for more than 2-3 days. Now, though, I keep the refrigerator at a high setting, and store marrow in there for several weeks(up to 8), with no problems whatsoever re taste. And the marrow doesn't change much in texture, during this time. Of course, if I leave marrow out of the fridge for ages, at room-temperature, then I pretty much have to eat it within the next 24 hours, or it'll deteriorate pretty quickly, often becoming liquid in the process.
2) I can't give exact figures re daily consumption of any food. Everyone has a different type of metabolism/metabolic-rate, different needs re quantities of fat required, all dependent on size of body/weight etc. If it's any help,I tend to make a rough guideline for myself, in that I usually have anywhere from 2-4 heaped tablespoonfuls of raw marrow with my one meal of the day. However, I'll, on some days, go without any marrow or suet if I've eaten something very high in fat such as some pieces of raw ox tongue - at other times, I might just eat 6-8 tablesponfuls of marrow, and nothing else at all - it all depends on my whim and my instincts.
3) I don't personally include olive-oil or avocado in my diet as I tend to get diarrhea from the former and slight stomach-pains from the latter. However, everyone is different, in their needs, so you may well thrive quite well on those two foods, without any side-effects.
The key thing to remember is that this kind of diet is very new in modern Western culture, so that, with such little data available, it's best to listen to your body and to constantly experiment as much as possible with different varieties of food, different ratios of carbs/fats and foods in general. You may find, for example, that you do better on a diet with a higher or lower percentage of carbs or fats or proteins, than my own personal diet-combination etc..
Re Intermittent Fasting:- There are 2 different kinds of Intermittent Fasting. The first is where you eat only once every 20-28 hours within a 4-hour period, the second involves eating as much as you want on one day(throughout the day), and then fasting the whole of the next day, before repeating the cycle. Technically, I suppose there could be a 3rd variation with eating just one large meal a day, on one day, and then fasting the whole of the second day, and then having one large meal on the 3rd day within a 4-hour period, and so on.
In my own case, I've only been easily able to do the first version, long-term. I first tried a quasi-Warrior-Diet combination, where I had a small meal at noon(usually some organic fruit), and then had that one large meal late in the evening - after a certain time, I switched over to just the one large meal a day, with the occasional whole-fast-day here and there, which I've stuck to with no problems. I have tried the alternate-day fasting routine you mention, but, to be honest, I was so ravenously hungry on the fast-days, after several weeks of this practice, that I had to go back to my usual (IF) routine. Of course, you may well find the alternate-day fasting approach a lot easier than I did.
Re getting used to raw meat:- Not everyone can get used to raw animal food quickly. I was able to do so because I had a rather powerful incentive, in that I'd developed very painful stomach-aches after eating any cooked-animal-food. A number of people have adopted a strategy whereby they lightly cook their meats/organ-meats and add processed sauces - then, every so often, when they've got used to each stage, they lower the cooking-temperature by one degree and reduce the amounts of sauces, until, after some weeks/months they can easily handle eating the raw meat at room-temperature without any added sauces at all. I just mention this option in case you have any trouble.
Re tongue:- I wouldn't recommend eating a whole bison tongue at one sitting. Even I will sometimes eat only a third or a half of the ox-tongue I get, at one time.
If the bison tongue is at all similiar in texture to ox-tongue, you may find that it gets sold with a large amount of darker, purplish stringy parts on the underside of it . Most newbies don't like that part and find it rather inedible(I was no exception, when I first started), so it might be an option to cut that part away and go for the pinker/lighter part of the fatty tongue. You could, of course, just put the rest of the bison tongue back in the freezer, rather than the fridge, for later consumption.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you for your answer.
If I took out avocado and olive oil from my diet at this moment, not having access to bone marrow, suet or brain, would that be alright or would I be lacking too much fat from my diet as I would be only eating muscle meats (including fish) and organs with a little fruit? Would I need to increase my consumption of organ meats (including tongue) and lower muscle meats? Eat fish more frequently? Favor certain cuts of muscle meats over others?
I just want to be sure I don't end up "rabbit starving" and wouldn't want to experience those symptoms.
If I do need to include avocado and olive oil, would eating it at the same time as meat be ok, as it is usually not advised to combine carbs with proteins due to digestion?
AnswerRe avocado and olive-oil:- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" - in other words, if the avocado and olive-oil isn't doing you any harm, by all means stick with them, for now, as an alterantive to marrow.
Re food-combining:- It all depends. If you're currently suffering from relatively serious digestive disorders(eg:- stomach-aches etc.), it's probably a good idea to leave c. 30 minutes or more between eating a carb or protein meal, for the moment, until your gut heals. If your digestive system is OK, then it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Re meats:- You don't have to worry too much about muscle-meats. It's probably best not to greatly overdo really lean muscle-meats such as rabbit or chicken, but otherwise, with all the tongue, kidney etc. you're eating, everything should be fine. If you're still concerned, you could, perhaps, up your intake of ox-tongue, as it's so full of fat( an amazing 50%+ fat in terms of weight, not calories).
Often butchers and supermarkets will automatically cut off the fat from some muscle-meats, but since you're buying direct from the farmer, you have more control over this issue, so I presume it's not a problem getting hold of the white fat from most muscle-meats.
RPG
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