Shopping at Wholefoods for the Paleo Dieter

As part of the Paleo Diet, I was looking to see how easy it is to shop for the ingredients which I managed to mainly do at the local high street supermarket.  However, there were a few items that were harder to find: almond flour, raw honey, coconut flour, so in the name of research I went for a poke around Wholefoods to see what I could find for the Paleo dieter.

I have to say, I was pleased to see that there was a vast range of different flours for different diets plus snacks.

Range of Nak’d bars – the ginger bread was quite nice

Gluten-free cookies aimed at the Paleo dieter

Equally happy to see that there was a Paleo section in the takeaway salad bar.

Paleo salad bar – hooray!

Faux ‘pasta’ salad

Positives: the gluten-free flour range was extensive and reasonably priced at around £2-£3 for 500g packets.

Good range of flours for all palates

Downsides: the salad bar was expensive, costing nearly £5 for a small salad.

Mixed salad from the takeaway section

In conclusion, this is probably a nice-to-have shopping experience and one that caters for the Paleo dieter, however, not all high streets have a Wholefoods and I’m lucky to be living in London where there are several branches.  I’ve searched online and there are a zillion number of websites that show you how to make your own snacks so I’ll be perusing these to find the best ones.

The first rule of fight club

The first rule of fight club – remember the rules!

I’ve been doing the Paleo diet for around 10 days, which, according to a study quoted in the book that I should have improved blood sugar control, increased sensitivity to insulin and reduced blood pressure and levels of total cholesterol.  Well, as I haven’t been to a doctor pre and post diet, I can’t vouch for that.  Unfortunately I came down with a nasty cold just as I started the diet so it was difficult to tell if I felt better but what I do know is that you really need to be organised and plan your meals ahead.

No almond flour!

Buckwheat pancake mix found at Wholefoods

I went shopping and managed to get most things but even a trip to Wholefoods didn’t come up trumps with the almond flour.  I can’t find it in the main supermarkets, health food shops or even in specialist bakeries.  The only place it is available it seems is online, but it’s also very expensive: anything from £5 to £20 depending on the size. I’ve decided to go without and will probably try gluten-free flour instead.

Regarding the meals themselves, as I mentioned it involves a bit of planning.  In my first week for breakfast, I was actually eating eggs – a lot of eggs –  (eggs with salmon, eggs with spinach, omelette, egg wraps stuffed with ham and peppers etc etc.  I was getting a bit bored of eggs so as I couldn’t find almond flour, decided on trying buckwheat (gluten-free) mix to see if I liked it.  To say the least, the pancakes were pretty tasty but I was allowed to add honey and maple syrup on this diet which I feel is a bit odd as it’s a blatant approval to use sugar but anyway…

Buckwheat pancakes with banana, tropical mix and drizzle of maple syrup

Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with tomato and avocado salsa

Cauliflower and mushroom curry

I tried some of the meals in the book including the Greek style lemon chicken and the cauliflower and mushroom curry.  The lemon chicken was spot on – very tasty.  The curry was ok – I made it a bit spicy and so it was a bit heat intensive but not a bad recipe.  The weird thing was not having carbs with the meals – usually we’d have rice or potatoes here but replaced these with a salad and additional vegetables.

In my first 10 days, I did lose 1kg but no decrease in measurement although my stomach feels flatter but I think it could be due to the fact that I have laid off the booze since New Year’s Day.  By Day 10 I was craving a burger! I’d also missed bread and chocolate so I allowed myself some 70% cocoa dark chocolate.

I’ll post more about progress but my initial thoughts on the diet is that it’s all about elimination of certain foods and groups to aid weight loss.  The Paleo diet is something you need to be mindful of at all times – it’s a way of life and a style of eating. I found that there’s a lot of prep and planning and for busy people or those with families it may be a bit more of a chore to follow.  I think as long as the principles of the diet is followed – meat, nuts, seeds, fruit, veg, no processed food, no dairy etc, then that should be sufficient. It’s definitely more restrictive than the Clean and Lean diet so we’ll see if I can work through a mix of the two.