Brazil's Food Guidelines beat ours in the US to HELL!

1.    Make natural or minimally processed foods the basis of your diet
2.    Use oils, fats, salt, and sugar in small amounts when seasoning and cooking natural or minimally processed foods and to create culinary preparations
3.    Limit consumption of processed foods
4.    Avoid consumption of ultra-processed products
5.    Eat regularly and carefully in appropriate environments and, whenever possible, in company
6.    Shop in places that offer a variety of natural or minimally processed foods
7.    Develop, exercise and share culinary skills
8.    Plan your time to make food and eating important in your life
9.    Out of home, prefer places that serve freshly made meals
10.   Be wary of food advertising and marketing

Those are the Brazilian food guidelines.  Simple, understandable, supported by current science, not outdated, 1970’s science as is our “Food Plate” nonsense.  Anyone  following such commonsense advice would do very well dietary-wise, even if they did include grains, since if your eliminated processed foods, and ate real foods, prepared in the home, you would be more the one half of the way there!
But let me add a few more guidelines to this already inspired direction:

11. Eliminate grains, especially wheat- Use other grains sparsely
12. Use natural fat like butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and animal fats instead of any sort of vegetable, or industrial seed oil
13. Avoid artificial sweeteners from chemicals like Sunett, Sweet One, Aspartame, Saccharin, and Sucralose
14. Use Natural Sweeteners like sugar, honey, molasses, and maple syrup sparingly
15. Sugar alcohols like Erythritol and Xylitol are preferable

I know, grasshopper: that seems confusing, a little… it also seems a bit- daunting!  Everyone seems to have the knee jerk reflex- “I can’t give up bread!” And pasta, and packaged breakfast cereals, etc. etc. etc….

But you can, and in my opinion, admittedly from someone who has done it for many years, is that you can, and rather easily too!  You just resolve to:
1. Make most of your meals at home- this alone will save you big money!
2. Only use real foods in the preparation- this means no processed bread rolls or oils, only REAL FOODS like meat, seafood, real fats, fruits and vegetables!
3. You need to plan ahead.  Have your fridge loaded with good foods- throw out your flour, your processed crap- ONLY have good stuff in your house!  Have lots of mixed nuts, jerky, cut up celery and almond butter (no peanut butter, or at least very little)- and, for those emergencies when you might be tempted- have a couple of gluten free frozen pizzas on hand!  I love to “upgrade” these little numbers with shredded cheese, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ham, and whatever else I have on hand- turn a nutritional nightmare into a nutritional goldmine when you are tempted!
4. My parting advice?  Golden words from PaleoJay?  Get a stock of really good sardines.  And some gluten free crackers.  AND some almond butter!  If you chow down on a bunch of this, you will be NOT hungry in short order, since they are so filling, and so good for you.  Herring is good as well; I love it in little glass jars…
5. Bottom line?  Drink a green, paleo smoothie each and every day- nothing else gives you total nutrition like that, nothing!  Just do it.  Once you get in a schedule of drinking a really great, nutritional powerhouse on a daily basis, you are not troubled by deficiencies that cause cravings that eventually make you fat and sick- you are immune.  You are Paleo- a golden child of the dawn of humanity!  You will gradually become Slim, Fit, and Abundantly Healthy!
It really is that easy.


PaleoJay Plays On- SOON!