percent-plus dark chocolate or an aged cheese. Two, carte
blanche snacking would be allowed. Our counters host a large
basket stocked with fruit and sweet potatoes, which the kids
microwave and eat like bananas, and jars with a selection of
nosh (including roasted seaweed, dried fruit and other treats).
The refrigerator holds boiled eggs, carrots, celery, pickles and
olives. Homemade pemmican and wild-caught salmon jerky
appear occasionally. It’s a cornucopia that the kids can tap
when they crave something sweet, salty, crunchy or satiating.
So how long does it take to
march a kid backward through
culinary time to the Paleolithic? In
our experience, it took two
months for ours to notice the
difference and start making better
choices on their own.
DIETARY
TIME
TRAVEL
AND THE That first month
END RESULT
can seem long—and it is, when
you think about what you’re trying
to achieve. Sure, the body you’re
working with is less than two
decades old, but you’re unwinding societal eating habits, food
science, and marketing wizardry. Be patient and approach this,
especially the first few weeks, like dealing with the recovery of
a substance abuse addict. There will be withdrawal symptoms,
including mood shifts. Encourage your kids to consider and
communicate how they feel and what they observe regarding
their bodies and behavior, and to compare it with what they
see in friends, family and the world around them.
Month two is easier.
The kids are getting
used to the new program and delighting in their newfound
freedom in snacking. You’ll be making more produce runs as
that fruit basket empties faster than before. Most remarkably,
though, you’ll see real, amazing results. Our kids got lean,
they asked to go to bed before bedtime and they slept deeply
until their bodies told them to wake (often pre alarm). We saw
them refuse opportunities to make unhealthy choices when
we weren’t around, or stop eating something when they found
it “too sweet.” We even heard them occasionally declare that
celery or raw cabbage now tasted sweet to them.
CAVE BEARS,
RIVAL CLANS,
BRUSH
FIRE: YOU
WILL FACE
CHALLENGES
The main challenge is
reprogramming taste buds
desensitized by years of
exposure to unnatural levels
of refined carbohydrates, as
well as the food industry’s use
of additives, such as “artificial
flavors,” that manipulate taste
perceptions. At the outset,
our kids’ “sweet registers”
were skewed: they couldn’t
appreciate the depth of
sweetness in a piece of fruit or
perceive the sweetness in a
carrot, mild pepper or squash.
Subscribe at: www.paleomagonline.com/subscribe
A close second is resetting kids’ expectations about
mouthfeel and saltiness. Our kids’ taste buds had had come to
expect something crispy or crunchy any time they craved salt.
Salty and crunchy is a difficult combination to find in nature.
Lightly salted freeze-dried or freeze-fried vegetables, tubers
and mushrooms, and homemade crispy-baked kale chips can
help until kids begin to appreciate the crunch of a bell pepper
or an almond.
Related to these two challenges is a mindset hurdle, best
tackled in our experience through education. When kids
understand the need for change and experience how much
better they feel, desired behaviors will follow. Our son literally
begged to be fed Paleo-friendly meals after a week visiting
a family with a diet heavy on refined carbs and processed
snacks. Our youngest daughter correlated feeling lousy at a
friend’s sleepover with her consumption of the only foods she
was presented—donuts, muffins, cereal and the like.
Peer-related challenges are compounded by marketing
pressures. At school, beyond the obstacle of low-nutrition
provided lunches and snack machines, the kids constantly
interact with students whose families have the very eating
practices you are trying to undo. Watching friends in the
cafeteria break out the latest plastic-wrapped, highly
processed, TV-touted invention of food science can inspire
covetousness. We found the best defense to be packed
lunches that overflow with a variety of flavor and mouthfeel.
And keeping the kids flush with small bags of seeds, nuts,
dried fruit and jerky can help during visits to friends’ or
relatives’ houses.
Some families may have lifestyle challenges. A convenience
mentality and busy schedules can make non-ideal foods an
easy fallback. Solution? Plan ahead, cook ahead, stay well
stocked. We use Sunday afternoons and evenings to prepare
for the week (cooking up batches of stew, marinating meats,
grocery shopping and filling the snack jars and fruit basket).
Making extra food for dinner each night gives you leftovers to
pack in lunches the next day. If you need something healthy
in a pinch, grab a rotisserie chicken and cooked vegetables
from the grocery deli; many places now offer lettuce-wrapped
burgers or sandwiches.
Traveling with kids and teens on a Paleo food plan need
not be a huge challenge. We carry a small canvas messenger
bag from a military surplus store that I call “The Satchel of
Sustenance.” Nuts, seeds, dry fruits, jerky or dried sausages
and roasted seaweed are standard cargo, along with fresh
produce that travels well, and boiled eggs as travel conditions
allow. Grocery stores (stock up on snacks and cook your own
meals if you can), sit-down family restaurants and diners are
also your friends.
On a plane, if you’re offered a meal, focus on selections
that contain the most whole foods, or bring your own food.
Going abroad? It doesn’t take much scratching to find the
healthy remnants of pre-agricultural eating practices in any
mom-and-pop restaurant (such as sashimi in Tokyo, wild
boar