Primal Plate Wellness: A Nutrition Blog

Primal Plate Wellness: A Nutrition Blog

What’s in a name? Well, more than I thought when I began my efforts to create one for my company and this blog. Coming up with a name proved quite challenging. First, it had to convey my nutritional approach and philosophy. And just as importantly, its domain name had to be available! No easy feat. I had lots of great ideas for a name and confirmed their greatness when I discovered they were already in use by someone else!

I chose Primal Plate Wellness because it speaks to my belief in an evolutionary primal/paleo-type diet for our ancestors. But with a few significant caveats:

  1. Meat, although elemental in the proliferation of the human race, was a luxury and not a staple that was consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. So in my view, it takes a back seat to the abundance of vegetables available to us today.
  2. Meat was wild, not farmed in mass feeding operations like conventional beef, pork and chicken are today.
  3. While the Paleo perspective does indeed include meat, I believe the traditional diet was still heavily grounded in plant-based foods – nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables.
  4. While a strict primal/paleo approach excludes legumes (beans, lentils, peanuts), I believe that if you tolerate them, they definitely have a place on your plate.

The “plate” in the name and logo is a shared symbol of eating and the social connections we have with each other around mealtimes. And wellness is at the heart of my nutritional undertaking. Nutritional therapy has so much to offer in helping each individual achieve balanced heath, which is not simply the absence of disease symptoms. Nutrition is so much more than what goes into our shopping carts and ultimately ends up on our plates.

Our food gives us the materials we need to make new red blood cells and a healthy vascular system. What we eat contributes to the health and strength of our muscles and bones. Foods help us – or prevent us – from getting a good night’s sleep and allow our bodies to repair the insults of daily living. Our diet contributes greatly to healthy skin, hair and nails. Our diet affects our thinking and memory. In short, what we eat affects nearly every aspect of our bodies and daily life.

A common question people ask me is, “What should I eat?” Ah, here’s where the very individual approach is critical. Take fruit, for example. Which is “better” – raw or cooked? When should fruit be eaten – by itself or at the end of the meal as dessert? Well, that depends. For someone experiencing digestive stress such as gas and bloating, limiting fruit can be helpful while working on rebalancing the gut microbiome. For conditions such as indigestion, loose stools and fatigue, many people benefit from cooked fruits vs raw. And those with blood sugar imbalances would benefit from eating low glycemic fruits, like berries and apples, combined with some protein and fat to slow the conversion of fruit to glucose in the body.

There is no one-size-fits-all dietary approach that benefits everyone. I’m not a fan of fad diets. Yes, they can help people lose weight – the #1 complaint I see in my practice – but they typically do not help people establish balanced, healthy and long-term eating habits that will serve them well in the long run. And you’ll never find me recommending people count calories. It’s been drilled into most of us that a calorie is a calorie no matter the source. But science has proven that this isn’t true on a biochemical level.

It’s true that if you take in more calories than you burn, they will stick around. But there are many other factors that influence weight gain, especially hormone imbalances. And what’s going on specifically with your hormones is different than what going on with your co-worker, neighbor or sister’s hormones. So, there it is again – the individual approach to nutrition.

So, what will I be sharing about here? Lots of fun and cool stuff – Interesting food facts, the pros and cons of detoxes, tips to make meals easier, recipes, reviews of new food-related products and services and whatever else comes up!

Thanks for following Primal Plate Wellness.

Food is medicine. Eat well. Be well.

Dianne