Replacing Your Comfort Foods With Paleo-Friendly Alternatives
Adapting to a Paleo Lifestyle will make you feel better and healthier, but getting to an all-Paleo diet can have its challenges. It’s not called comfort food for just any reason, comfort foods are the go-to snacks that we’ve hardwired our brains to eat at specific times, as a reward, or if we’re sad.
Unless your comfort foods are fruit and vegetables, when you're on a Paleo Diet, it’s safe to assume some of your favorite foods aren’t Paleo-friendly and when you want to eat clean, you need to have satisfying options to keep you committed to your food and health goals.
What is a Paleo Diet?
If you’re just learning about what a Paleo Diet is, you’ve more than likely heard the short answer, the caveman diet.
Paleo Diets are based on this type of eating simpler food choices based on the type of diet that cavemen and cavewomen would have eaten during the Paleolithic Era and consists of eating foods only found during this time.
Most of the packaged food choices we encounter daily have artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives.
Frozen dinners and snacks, candy, canned items, pasta, and bread, unless you're eating raw vegetables, fruits, meats, and foods that are prepared and consumed without preservatives, processing, or additives, your food is known as processed food.
These harsh preparation processes rob the food of its nutrients and minerals and create an unhealthy mix of artificial ingredients and extreme processing to make food that no one should put in their bodies.
What's the Biggest Benefit of a Paleo Diet?
The biggest benefit of being on a Paleo Diet is eating natural, preservative-free unprocessed foods & ingredients.
Many people who've been on a Paleo Diet have reduced inflammation and chronic issues that for them, have been indirectly been by the long-term consumption of processed foods and artificial ingredients.
What Are Processed Foods?
Processed foods are any foods that have been modified before consumption. For countless people, this accounts for nearly everything they eat.
What Are the Potential Health Effects of Processed Foods?
The addition of ingredients including salts, fats, sugars, artificial sweeteners, colors, and preservatives that make food more appealing and ‘tasty’ can come at a cost to your health. This is not to say that all-natural preservatives and additives in every instance can have a negative effect. However, being actively aware of what ingredients are in everything you eat is the first step to being a better gatekeeper to your health.
Changing Your Eating Habits on a Paleo Diet
There are 3 meals a day, 7 days a week which equates to 21 meals you have to plan for every week, not including snack choices. This means planning your food choices in advance and if you’re about to make the transition to clean, Paleo-friendly food choices, you need to think about some of your common comfort food habits.
What's your comfort food?
Realizing What Your Comfort Foods Are
Do you stop and get a milkshake after dinner, a cheeseburger after your workout, or a tall Latte after you drop the kids off at school?
Before starting your Paleo Diet, you need to learn the key times your body is expecting a boost and what you’re giving it. In every case, there’s a Paleo substitute, and staying in tune with your cravings and what you give your body only compounds the benefits.
Bread, Buns & Pasta
Bread and pasta encompass a whole range of comfort foods and while it’s recommended that you eat 6 to 10 servings of grains and pasta according to the USDA’s food guide, this is one of the more challenging aspects of a Paleo Diet because we all have our favorite.
Pasta, Pizza, BREAD, out of all of the ‘engrained’ foods and eating habits this is the biggest group of foods that can sway you from breaking your Paleo goals.
What’s Wrong with Grains & Pasta?
Grains by themselves alongside bleaching and other harsh processing can lead to long-term consequences when continually consumed.
Alternatives to Pasta
How do you get pasta texture and taste without having pasta noodles? You make them yourself!
You’ll find that when you make your own using paleo-friendly ingredients, not only will the taste be unmatched by typical and store-bought pasta, you can make masterful combinations that you’ll love and replicate over and over again. You can make your own Paleo Pasta with:
Zucchini
Beets
Mushrooms
Cucumbers
Carrots
Yams
Squash
Radish
Kohlrabi
While zucchinis, carrots, and sweet potatoes are often a staple of many Paleo Diets, because of their versatility, they make great pasta along with these other vegetables that are not only delicious on their own, as a delicious side, or garnish, but amazing ingredients to make your pasta with. Below are some great resources for making your Paleo noodles, pasta Egg Noodle Recipe, Egg Noodle Recipe, and awesome Veggie noodles!
Adapting to Your Snack Cravings
Combining a Paleo Diet with an increased focus on activity plays an additional key role in staying successful, but more activity comes with an increased need to snack, have something to munch on, and need the right Paleo Snacks when the cravings hit.
Even if you're not highly active and start becoming active with a walking routine, your food and hunger needs will begin to change, which is why having the right things to snack on, when you need them is important.
Finding an Alternative to Bread
There's nothing like a delicious hamburger, sandwich, or brat, but on a Paleo Diet, you need to find creative and flavorful bread alternatives that still provide a filling complement to your sandwich, burger, and other favorite bread-based snacks.
Flavorful Paleo Bun Alternatives
Using lettuce, cucumbers, mushrooms, and even zucchini in place of your bread adds a new dimension of flavor to your meal choices.
Soon, you'll even stop craving bread because your creating a new routine of food that your body will begin to crave.
Baking Your Bread Alternatives
As far as making your bread, and grain replacements, Paleo Grubs has put together some great insights into finding cooking and baking alternatives including using Coconut Flour instead of All-Purpose Flour and more great food alternatives in their article here.
Did You Know?
Did you know that people get full by the amount of food they eat, not the number of calories they take in, and that you can cut calories in your favorite foods by lowering the amount of fat and unhealthy ingredients?
Finding Better Paleo Snack Alternatives
In some cases, you could have already started eating healthier, cut out some junk food, or started eating healthier foods and when it comes to your snacks, they seem like healthier choices, but are they?
While all diet snacks tout their flavor, you need to take a good look at what the ingredients are. From diet bars that have harmful additives and artificial flavors to beef and protein snacks that are made from animals that have been fed hormones and steroids, you need to find the right alternatives with plenty of flavors.
Paleo Diet Bars
Fruits and vegetables should be at the top of everyone's list for a natural snack but sometimes whether you need something quick that's filling and flavorful that will keep you satisfied until dinner or as a perfect meal replacement when your shift runs long.
Paleo Diet Bars give you the versatility of having a Paleo Snack that's not only convenient to carry but PALEO RANCH Skinny and Mega Paleo Bars are made with only the best, all-natural eggs with Hormone-Free, Steroid-Free, and Cage-Free egg white protein for a snack that will make a dent on hunger, and perfect for the Paleo Lifestyle.
Our Paleo Bars have different formulas based on your health and dieting goals. Skinny Bars give you all-natural flavors in a protein-packed bar that helps you fight your hunger without any fillers, additives, or preservatives. MEGA BARS are Paleo Diet Bars made for bigger appetites and activity levels but are great to cut in half or eat a little bit at a time.
If you're adding PALEO RANCH Paleo Bars to your diet, we recommend trying out different flavors and options to find the flavors that you love. MEGA BARS & Skinny Bars are variations of our Paleo Bars and have different formulas based on your health and dieting goals.
Paleo Jerky
With Beef & Bacon Paleo Jerky to choose from, our unprocessed, additive, and Hormone-Free Jerky flavors will have you hooked!
From sweet to spicy, we'll always have your Paleo fix!
Paleo Jerky
Paleo Bites
Paleo Chicken Bites are the perfect bite-sized Paleo Snack you've been looking for!
With recycled packaging and flavors that satisfy you throughout the day, add the perfect mix of flavors to your next break!
Chicken Bites
Finding BETTER Paleo Snack Options
From simple to spicy, the flavors you love are all your own. Staying prepared with a great meal and recipe choices, snack ideas, and fitness and activity tips gives your body the best preparation for living out your Paleo Journey.
Be sure to check back with the PALEO RANCH Blog for more great information on health and Paleo!
With PALEO RANCH, you get the best, better-for-you Paleo snack options made with no additives, preservatives, and only the best ingredients and made with recyclable materials
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PALEO SNACK OPTIONS
With a wide variety of Paleo Diet snack options to choose from including Paleo Diet Bars, Beef Jerky, Paleo Chicken Protein Bites, Bacon Jerky & Protein Sticks, you'll always have the perfect balance of flavor and goodness for your next snack or meal replacement.
PALEO JERKY, SNACKS & MEAL REPLACEMENTS THAT HELP YOU LIVE BETTER
At PALEO RANCH, we’re committed to sourcing the best ingredients we can from responsible farmers who care and meat from animals that are treated compassionately. We all live on the same planet.
The things we eat and do affect things beyond what we can see and how we choose to eat and live has an unseen impact on where we live.
THE DEDICATION TO SUSTAINABILITY AT PALEO RANCH
In our sustainable ranching and farming articles, we’ll explore ideas and topics promoting sustainability and environmentally friendly practices.
OUR COMMITMENT TO THE COMPASSIONATE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS
The compassionate treatment of farm animals is incredibly important to us and we believe we can do more, which is why for all of our products, we are committing to pursuing a certification recognized by the ASPCA® Shop With Your Heart program by 2024.
Blueberry & Banana
Skinny Bars
This Skinny Bar blends Bananas, Blueberries & the best ingredients into a morning protein bar you'll love!
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Jalapeño BBQ
Paleo Protein Sticks
In our Jalapeno BBQ Protein Sticks, Jalapeno & BBQ flavor blends to give you a snack with a snap!
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Cranberry Paleo Chicken Protein Bites
Cage-Free & Hormone Free chicken combine with cranberry & apple to make the perfect protein snack!
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Sweet Barbeque
Paleo Bacon Jerky
If you're looking for the perfect Paleo snack that satisfies with none of the guilt, you can stop your search!
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Sweet & Spicy
Paleo Beef Jerky
Get the perfect blend of sweet & heat for after your workout with our Honey Sriracha Paleo Beef Jerky
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Coconut Chocolate
Almond MEGA BARS
keep a few Coconut Chocolate Almond MEGA BARS handy for when the hankerin' comes a-knockin'!
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