Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => Welcoming Committee => Topic started by: fishercat on May 27, 2009, 07:26:23 pm
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Hej! I've been lurking here occasionally for some time, so I thought I'd finally join and introduce myself. I'm a twenty-something agronomy student. I've worked in agroecology and for some food policy organizations for some time, but I'm still a little bit in the "closet" about my diet. I certainly didn't adopt it for fun. I had some severe health problems (IBS, GERD, ulcers, asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue) some years back probably caused by a ridiculously horrible diet of things like hot dogs and ice cream, which I cured with a paleo diet. Also lost a bunch of weight, cleared up my skin, and became converted to the fat=good camp.
Then I moved to Europe and I was really great, so I started eating crap again, drinking coffee...and vodka. Got sick, took ibuprofen, stomach got bad again...not as bad as before, but clearly in bad condition. When I tried to go back to paleo I found that the cooked meats made me feel quite bad. So I'm now into raw, esp. raw fish, which I love, but I didn't grow up eating fish (I was picky) so I am constantly discovering new fish to eat. I'd like to phase out salmon, which is delicious, but hard to find wild here in Sweden. I think having a good omega-3:omega-6 ratio has been instrumental in fighting my illnesses.
I guess my main obstacle is that I'm quite poor (mostly by choice since I've been working in low-paying volunteerist sort of things in sustainable ag, though of course sometimes I have access to the best things like freshly slaughtered meat). I have learned to ID many wild plants, which is great since Sweden is a place that cherishes foraging, but I'm moving to a big US city soon. I will miss the reindeer and moose too, but I can't wait to eat buffalo again. I've done a little hunting and fishing and would love to do more. I'm currently only about 80% raw, but it has increased rapidly and probably will go highly as my health continues to improve. It's amazing that I've recovered pretty well because in my line of work I encounter some pretty tasty, but unhealthy food, and I do cheat. I guess my dietary goals these days are to exercise more, eat less sugar (hard because I'm beekeeeeeeeping, but it does not make me feel so great), and stop drinking so much caffeinated tea.
I'm also very interested in anthropology, partially because of my paleo diet and also because of working with Native Americans who suffer from the horrifying effects of modern food. I guess when I am more established I would like to "come out of the closet" as paleo and write a book. I work with lots of people who are vegetarians, vegans, dairy-farmers, and everything else, so I'm not sure I want to take down these things just yet :)
I've been on some raw vegan forums, but I'm clearly not a raw vegan and I get tired of dealing with the constant barrage of pseudoscience ala "OMG animals R cute and fruit iz g8, meat rots ur intestinz." I'm glad forums like this exist!
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Welcome to the forum! Interesting background. One thing you'll find in the US is that food there is remarkably cheaper than most food found in Europe(no doubt due to larger economies of scale).
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Hi, good to have you here! :)
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Greetings!
Bjorn Borg, ABBA...
Ah Sweden... haven't been there. And I thought you had a lot of wild salmon. Where is wild salmon abundant?
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Greetings!
Bjorn Borg, ABBA...
Ah Sweden... haven't been there. And I thought you had a lot of wild salmon. Where is wild salmon abundant?
Me too! I guess the Swedes, as eco-sensitive as they are now, haven't always been so. The fish stocks in the Baltic are pretty bad...it's almost impossible to find true wild salmon. It's not sold in stores because of high levels of dioxins. The North Sea has big salmon megafarms. The Swedish diet traditionally had lots of fish: raw, cooked, salted, pickled, smoked, fermented...and everything in between, but that has changed. I went to both the fall fermented herring (smells worse then it tastes) parties and the spring raw herring parties and they still go strong, but fewer and fewer people are eating these things. I guess they are working on bringing the stocks back now.
My roommates are Swedish women and most of them are very beautiful. They eat lots of fermented dairy, blood pudding, some cured meats, coffee, sugary buns, and whole grains. Not terrible like SAD, but when you look at their mothers, that diet looks less desirable. It's interesting because I have many friends and my boyfriend who are ethnically Finish, and they really struggle with the standard Swedish diet. Acne, obesity, heart disease are much higher in Finland, just going to Helsinki it's such a dramatic difference even though they are eating almost the exact same things...genetically I guess they are closer to the Sami reindeer herders and less well adapted to the high-carb modern Swedish diet.