Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => Off Topic => Topic started by: majormark on May 24, 2010, 04:37:31 am
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How about we make an official Raw Paleo Food Pyramid.
Any Photoshop artists up for the task?
Of course, we need to decide which foods to include and how many levels should the pyramid have. Maybe we could have more than one version.
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It's an interesting thought experiment. You would definitely need multiple versions as there is disagreement on what foods qualify as "raw Paleo" and different people fare differently on various "raw Paleo" foods.
My triangle would probably range something like this (from the apex--smallest amount--to the base--largest amount). I would put some value on freshness and avoidance of pesticides, preservatives, etc., so the sizes of the tiers would vary depending on what was available locally, organically and in season.
(All foods are assumed to be raw, with the plants being organic, and the meats/fish being wild or pastured)
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OPTIONAL TREATS: Tree nuts, raw comb or hand-packed honey (preferably including grubcomb, if possible)
OPTIONAL: Fruits (with emphasis on those low in fructose and overall sugars)
OPTIONAL: Brassicaceae (except for those that are inedible or nearly inedible without cooking or refining, like maca, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, swede/rutabaga, and rapeseed), roots (those edible without cooking, like carrots, celery and onions), herbs and other plants relatively low in toxins
OPTIONAL (but recommended if diet would otherwise be low in iodine and magnesium): Seaweeds (protists), young leafy greens
Fish, shellfish, sea mammals, seafood, eggs, small mammals, insects, snails and other secondary meats (including organs, eyes and small, chewable bones)
Large land mammals (including fats, organs and blood or sea salt)
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I guess mineral-rich water would be specified outside the pyramid, as beverages other than milk don't tend to be included.
Note: I probably also would include a note with my pyramid that some "cheating" by eating some cooked foods and foods outside this pyramid is probably not going to cause serious harm to most people (though little is known about how little of a toxin from Neolithic or cooked foods it takes to start causing problems in sensitive individuals), but how much one can cheat will vary by individual. I myself sometimes eat cooked Paleo foods (like cooked fish) or even cooked Neolithic foods (like a little bit of rice or french fries at a restaurant).
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Thats what my avatar pic is of.
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I decided to remove fungi from my raw food pyramid. Drying might theoretically sufficiently take care of the toxins in some mushrooms, but I don't know enough about that to give it the green light. Plus, a couple people here have reported having difficulty digesting raw mushrooms and I did a little searching and found this:
On Eating Raw Mushrooms
© David Campbell
Original publication: Mycena News, November 2008
http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html
There seems to be an ongoing temptation amongst mycophagists and chefs to serve mushrooms raw or barely cooked. Generally speaking, this is not the best of ideas.
The mycochitin composition of mushroom cell walls, as opposed to cellulose walls of plant cells, is difficult for humans to digest. Our stomachs resent indigestible items, and often forcibly reject them without further ado. The cooking process helps break down fungal cell walls, rendering mushroom flesh not only more readily digestible, but also releasing significant nutritional value contained within the cells. ...
and
Hepatocarcinogenesis by hydrazine mycotoxins of edible mushrooms
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a916060628&db=all
I don't like mushrooms myself anyway, but being able to incorporate more foods into the RPD would make it more palatable for friends and relatives, so it's disappointing that I'm not able to include them in a raw Paleo food pyramid.
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Heres a rough copy/paste job.
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I love the bottom two tears of the Raw Paleo Pyramid! :)
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heh thanks, its supposed to be a little tongue-and-cheek but I think it encapsulates all the spectrum (other then wai) well.
I was going to make a separate ZC one but it seemed kind of redundant, so I put the those top tiered sections as optional (0-?). It seems like ZC's incorporate some herbs or condiments from the plant or sea kingdom so everything else was basically the same.
The only other mod I thought for a purely ZC was to put things like poultry and fish and game in the top tiers as they seem to be less popular in ZC to raised red meats. But I can make a separate one, it would take 5 minutes. Of course, for a legitimate design for a raw paleo site one would probably want to redraw the stuff in all the same style.
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Actually, KD, I'd love to see a raw zc one.
I would say fatty meat must be at the bottom, as fat is fuel. I would also have fish and then poultry as separate tiers too. Then organ meats. Lean meat can be nearer the top. Then spices/tea/coffee could be an optional top tier.
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I would add some spices to my pyramid too. I should have written "some herbs and spices," instead of just herbs.
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Yeah, in the original it was sort of unspecified what percentage of fat would be of the diet. Just meat and fat as the base.
Although finding representations of fat is not easy. It looks a bit funky also.
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I don't think that last one makes sense. Game meat isn't exclusive from fatty meats first of all.
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I don't think that last one makes sense. Game meat isn't exclusive from fatty meats first of all.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean, sure, one can source fats or organs form any kind of animal, its based more on frequency. Someone's personal approach might be 100% goats they raise or fish they catch, but overall I would say pastured bovine meat is a larger piece of the pie. Poultry and pork actually has alot of fat but is clearly separate and also less popular. I think game and domestic misc. and fats make sense in separate boxes, especially within an animal only pyramid. How would you change it?
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I'm not sure exactly what you mean, sure, one can source fats or organs form any kind of animal, its based more on frequency. Someone's personal approach might be 100% goats they raise or fish they catch, but overall I would say pastured bovine meat is a larger piece of the pie. Poultry and pork actually has alot of fat but is clearly separate and also less popular. I think game and domestic misc. and fats make sense in separate boxes, especially within an animal only pyramid. How would you change it?
I'm confused, is the pyramid just about what people you know on rpd eat out of convenience? Or is it supposed to be what people should eat? I don't think putting wild game on there makes sense if it's just a rough pyramid for people to look at. Also since it's in a relatively small box it makes it look like wild game is less good than domesticated, which also doesn't make any sense.
I would put fatty meat on the bottom, lean meat and organs next, fish fruits and veggies next, then at the top oils/spices and other paleo friendly condiments. I'd probably make the fruit box the smallest of that trio, then veggie, then fish the largest. What I mean by lean meats would be lean cuts and also animals that don't have much fat, like chickens, which I think we can all agree is less sustaining than fatty ruminant meat.
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I see what you are saying but that isn't how typicaly one reads a food pyramid. On the USDA, it doesn't say fruits or vegetables or meats are less healthy then grains, it is just a volume of the diet based on averages of the ideal, not that everyone will eat exactly the same. The whole point of a dietary pyramid (I think) is that every part of the pyramid is an important component, so to me it seems that access to wild meats (largely based on this forum) is not as necessary for it being labeled a RZC diet, but are beneficial like other ruminants, or fish/poultry for some.
I think what you describe is pretty much the original one.Maybe for RZC it could have equally said Wild or Pastured Fat, and another tier for Wild or Pastured Meat, other than that, a A MOST ideal would be pretty hard to settle on, although domesticated would probably be then segregated to the top or even absent.
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What beautiful pyramids!!!! I LOVE visual aids. I love how funky/groovy/far-out "high meats" is! Beautiful.