At one point in my life, for eight months, I went vegan. Even before that though, when I was a vegetarian who eschewed all meats and seafood but still indulged in honey, eggs, and cheese, I was pretty intolerant of vegetarians who weren’t as devoted as me. Call it snobbery or elitism, but I refused to recognize that cutting red meat out of a diet but still eating chicken, turkey, and fish counted as being a vegetarian. Or, my favorite, a coworker who told anyone who would listen how much better she felt since she had switched to a vegetarian diet, but who could be counted on to order a hamburger every time we went out to lunch. (When I finally asked her about it, she explained to me that she was a vegetarian except for the times she ate meat. Swear to God.)
Even as I was looking down my nose at others, I recognized the hypocrisy of my actions. I personally came to vegetarianism in stages. For the first five years, the only foods I gave up were red meat and pork. Then—against the pleas and wishes of my then husband—I ditched chicken and turkey. After eight years of that, I gave up fish, sometimes wavering on whether or not shellfish counted.5 I finally abandoned all fish and, for a brief time, made the jump to vegan.
Vegan was hard for me. I simply didn’t have the moral boundaries with eggs and honey as I had with thighs and wings. Chickens were going to lay eggs and bees were going to make honey whether I partook of them or not. I did stand behind the moral argument that the manner in which most consumer eggs and honey are collected from animals are, in a word, appalling. But when our neighbors up the street offered us fresh eggs from their chickens, Trudy and Lunch,6 and I could pick up honey at our local farmer’s market from a man who, stating it mildly, LOVED his bees, I found my interest in being vegan waning.
These days, I’m much more of the mindset that everyone is doing the best they can. It’s none of my business if someone is religious about sticking to their no-meat pledge or if they use it as a fluctuating guideline. Just as it’s no one’s concern if I still enjoy the occasional wheat- and sugar-laden bagel as a treat. (And for the record, oh yeah, I do.) My life, my rules.
Of course, reasonable people will disagree. I’m all in favor of educating people on the atrocious conditions animals in this country endure, but my hard-earned experience over the years is that in-your-face preaching and condemning does little to change people’s actions. What does get people’s attention is looking healthy, having energy, and enjoying an active life. Combine that with being willing to engage in reasonable, nonaccusatory conversations about diet choices and the reasons you chose to eat the way you do, and you have the makings of the type of conversations that can change minds and change lives.7
With that being said, just as there are different types of vegetarians, so too are there different levels or types of Paleo eaters. Where do you fall on the ladder? To help you decide, let’s do a quick, cursory overview of the variations found in both camps. We’ll start hardcore and work our way back to the more flexible options.
Different Types of Vegetarians
VEGAN: The bane of chefs everywhere, vegans are nonetheless the badasses of the vegetarian world. Aside from no meat, fish, or fowl, most (but not all) vegans also forgo the use of animal products such as leather or silk.8
LACTO VEGETARIAN: No meat, fish, fowl, or eggs, but cheese and dairy are acceptable.
OVO VEGETARIAN: I could never be an ovo vegetarian just because I think of the word “ovulation” every time I see the term and erupt in a disheartening array of elementary-school giggles. Ovo (hee-hee-hee) vegetarians are the ying to the lacto yang. They do not eat meat, fish, fowl, or dairy. They do, however, consume eggs.
LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN: This is what most people mean when they say they’re a vegetarian. No meat, fish, or fowl, but dairy, eggs, and cheese are okay.
PESCATARIAN: Considered by some to be “pseudo” or “semi” vegetarians, pescatarians do not eat red or white meat or fowl but live to dine out at Red Lobster. Kidding. But this group is okay with eating fish and shellfish.
POLLOTARIAN: Again considered by some to be “semi” vegetarians (but not us, because we’re not here to judge people, right?) the pollotarian does not eat red meat, fish, or seafood. Instead, they consume only poultry and fowl.
There are, of course, people who don’t fit easily into any group. For example, there was a brief time period when I didn’t eat red or white meat or fish or cheese, but I did eat shellfish and eggs. Or there are people who for the most part stick with a plant-based diet but occasionally see nothing wrong with eating a hamburger if they’re craving one. Some people refer to these mixed plant-based diets as “flexitarian,” some don’t consider them vegetarians, and some people who follow these mixed-vegetarian diets consider themselves full-fledged vegetarians.
As long as you have your own reasons straight in your head for choosing whichever path you’re on, it really shouldn’t matter if you fit directly into a single group or not.
Different Types of Paleoists
You may be surprised (or not) to learn there’s a similar scale for people who practice a Paleo diet. The classifications aren’t as defined or accepted as the vegetarian ones, but the trend is moving in that direction. For the purposes of this book, I’ve commissioned my own classification system.
HARDCORE: The vegans of the Paleo world, these are the people that follow a Paleo diet to the letter, including giving up all alcohol. All meat is grass-fed. All seafood is wild-caught. They buy their food in-season and do their best to live as our ancestors did on a true Paleo “caveman” diet. Would they go so far as to club their own meat and bring it back to their man cave (if that were an option)? Quite possibly, maybe.
PRIMAL: Mark’s Daily Apple (www.marksdailyapple.com) is the bible of the Primal world and well worth reading even for those following a PV versus a traditional Primal diet. (The level of medical physiology on the site behind how what we eat affects our bodies is as well researched and impressive as I’ve found anywhere.) Primal differs from Paleo in that it allows for limited dairy, including small amounts of goat cheeses and full-fat products such as butter and heavy cream (good news for coffee drinkers!). Limited alcohol with a preference for red wine is also tolerated and even encouraged. Primal is also more relaxed about eating saturated fats from things like coconut oil and eggs. The biggest difference is that the Paleo diet is almost 100 percent about diet while Primal followers consider the guidelines they follow more of a comprehensive plan for living that includes getting enough sleep, small movements throughout the day, stress management, etc.
MODIFIED PALEO: Some people modify a Paleo diet to reach certain goals. For example, people looking to get lean will often rule out Paleo-approved starches such as sweet potatoes or squash due to the higher carbohydrate count of these foods. Some Paleoists avoid fruits for the same reason: high sugar count that works against weight loss. Some eat a hardcore Paleo diet but make an exception for wine or beer.
THE “MORE OR LESS” PALEOIST: This group eats a primarily Paleo or primal diet but leaves the door open for hedging. Some people follow an “80/20” principle (which we’ll discuss in Chapter 8) where they eat Paleo or Primal 80 percent of the time but don’t lose sleep if they eat a piece of Mom’s apple pie or pancakes every now and again.
As you can see, just as there is no “right” or “wrong” way to be vegetarian, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to be Paleo. The hardcore Paleoists will, of course, argue that point, but I’m going to go back to the “my life, my rules” options. A diet won’t work for you unless it works for you. If you demand sheer perfection of yourself but find you’re slipping off the diet every day by 3 p.m. because it’s just too hard, then that’s not the right diet for you.
What Kind of Paleo Vegetarian Do You Want to Be?
So now we get to it. What kind of Paleo Vegetarian diet will you follow? The answer is probably already predetermined by where you are now with your level of vegetarianism, but it’s worth taking a moment to consider your answer for this reason: You’re going to be cutting out a lot of your regular protein sources on a PV diet. Successfully sustaining a PV lifestyle will be immensely easier if you eat eggs and fish or seafood of some kind. That being said, I don’t want or expect anyone to give up on firmly held principles. If you’re a lacto vegetarian, then chances are you’ll be a Paleo-lacto vegetarian or a Primal-lacto-ovo vegetarian. That’s a little cumbersome, however, so for the intents and purposes of this book, we’ll stick with the PV title for everyone.
WHY MEAT-EATING PALEO PEOPLE AREN’T THE ENEMY
I almost titled this sidebar, “Can’t we all just get along?”
For the life of me, I can’t understand why Paleo folks and vegetarians position themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum. I mean, okay, I get it, as meat is a big deal to both groups, for opposing reasons. But it turns out that we really aren’t that far apart. We might not be ready for the group hug, but we’re getting there…
Ask people what sort of person they think of when they hear the word “vegetarian,” and most likely what will come is the image of…the hippie. Granola-loving, bell-bottomed, long-haired, peace sign–waving, carrying-spiders-out-of-the-house-instead-of-smooshing-them-with-their-shoe-like-normal-people hippies.
Would you say that’s an accurate description of you and your vegetarian friends? I know for a fact that the “live and let live” vegetarian stereotype doesn’t apply to me. I have a deal with all spiders, crickets, cockroaches, and ants: If I’m in their territory, out in nature, they have free rein to live long and prosper. The minute they cross the threshold of my condo, game on. I will squish a spider with the best of them. It’s called survival of the fittest and I won’t apologize. (I also wouldn’t be able to sleep if I knew I let a big hairy spider scurry away in my bathroom when it was in my power to stop him.) Does this make me a lesser person? Maybe. But it also means I’ve never conformed to the “hippie” version of a vegetarian so many uninformed people carry.
By the same token, Paleoists do not fit the stereotype of chest-thumping, meat-worshipping carnivores. When I started investigating Paleo, I was amazed by how much Paleoists and vegetarians have in common. That’s right, I said it.
The truth is, most true Paleoists, while obviously not eschewing meat, care a great deal about how the animals their meat comes from are treated and raised. They are as appalled by McDonald’s burgers and Oscar Mayer deli slices (full of nitrates and preservatives) as any card-wielding vegetarian. Many of them refuse to eat any meat that doesn’t come from grass-fed, humanely raised animals. Yes, there’s still a seemingly irreconcilable difference between the two factions, but as a whole, I’ve found the Paleo world to be filled with people who express sincere concern and dismay for the current treatment of animals for commercial-meat purposes, and who refuse to participate in the buying chain.
Bean-Eating PV?
While I leave it up to you to choose the level of vegetarianism you’ll engage in, I strongly suggest you abandon the hardcore Paleo plan, specifically for the reason that allowing some properly prepared beans into your diet will help form a non-animal protein base. Beans can go a long way in helping you find a quick and simple way to ingest some protein. It’s not textbook, but you know what? Neither is not eating meat on a Paleo diet, and we’re already breaking that rule so why not push the envelope? Besides, I’m willing to bet money the Paleo police don’t show up at your door.
To wrap up, you’ll notice in the recipe section that there are options for various levels of PV. Some of the recipes call for eggs or include fish or dairy, and several include beans. There are also recipes that are more stringently in line with a full Paleo Vegetarian hard-line diet. Modify as necessary to meet your PV needs. Remember, the reason you picked up this book is most likely because you want to lose weight in a healthy way, and there is nothing healthy about a lack of protein in a diet.
5I pretty much decided it counted unless someone set a big ol’ platter of lobster or crab legs with a side of hot butter in front of me. Then it didn’t count. Hmm. Maybe I have more in common with my old coworker than I realize…
6Trudy and Lunch were much-loved pets and pampered, to boot, with a chicken crib that would not have been out of place on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. They also loved to be held and petted. Nothing cracked me up more than seeing my neighbor go into his yard and call out, “Here Lunch, here Lunch!” and watch this affectionate chicken come running.
7As an aside, I’ll share that the more I try to withhold information, the more people want to know. When asked why I didn’t eat meat, I’d answer, “Oh, you don’t want to hear me get on my bandwagon about that,” and people who were standing with arms crossed would drop them and say, “No, I really would like to know.” Or I’d say, “I won’t go into details because it’s pretty bad, but once I found out what laying chickens in this country go through, I just couldn’t buy regular eggs,” and they’d say, “Really? Like what?” Let the education begin.
8So maybe I was never a real vegan. We owned leather couches and at the time I was vegan I recall I had a smokin’ hot pair of leather high-heeled boots.