Do the non-primal/paleo among you still avoid oats/rice/potatoes?

robocode

I love oats, I wouldn't eat many but some mornings chuck a few into my protein shake with some almond butter. Reading up about paleo/primal eating and although it's interesting, I don't like the idea of ditching oats (or rice or potatoes for that matter!). I know the healthy ones here probably avoid pasta but do you minimise oats/rice/potatoes? If so, why? Thanks!

El_Dangeroso

I'm pretty sure it's just a low carb thing to avoid potatoes.

I've always taken issue with the primal thing of sweet potatoes being fine and white potatoes not. Sweet potatoes are a 'new world food' just as much as white and they are about the same in nutrition. I think the only good reason is that sweet potatoes don't taste as nice so you are less likely to overeat them.

GorillaRising

I tried paleo/primal, but it just didn't work for me. I was left sick (literally) and tired. My stomach was in an awful heap. Happened the two times I tried it.

I eat 30g or oats per days usually and max two slices of wholegrain bread. All macros accounted for.

I eat brown rice and if I have potato it's usually sweet potato (I prefer them), but I'd happily eat a small portion or regular potatoes.

With these types of carbs I usually have no more than 100g (of the food type) per serving.

robocode

Thanks for the replies. Would both of you consider yourselves in good shape?

GorillaRising

I really wasn't! But it was more down to how much junk I ate. I never really took note of what I ate until I saw a photo and thought 'Jaysus'! Having said that I wasn't huge or anything, but noticeably overweight.

On the right track these days and eating a bit of bread or potatoes really doesn't hinder my weight loss and I look and feel better than ever (still a way to go).

I'm a firm believer that you should dictate your diet as opposed to the other way around. Eating a way you're not entirely happy with is a recipe (pun intended) for disaster.*


*obviously within reason!

robocode

That's why I'm reluctant to really give primal a good go, I really enjoy some of the forbidden fruits! I imagine that once everything else is in place, i.e. no processed crap, then some oats/potatoes/rice during the week isn't going to be a disaster.

Katgurl

i eat potatoes about once a week. I used to eat organic porridge oats but I don't bother anymore, I sort of adopted changes gradually. I don't eat rice or pasta at all anymore. I also don't understand the ethos of white potatoes not being ok while sweet potatoes are. I still eat fruit too but only once a day & its usually a dark apple or some berries.

Regarding what sort of shape I'm in - certainly a lot better than this time last year!

j@utis

I used to eat porridge for breakfast every day. I thought it was healthy way to start my day. It gave me heartburn half an hour later and after two hours I was hungry again. I can't remember now when was the last time I had porridge, probably over a year ago... Now I have egg omelette, greek yogurt, cottage cheese with cream or just yesterdays dinner leftovers for my breakfast - I feel full till late lunchtime and never get heartburn anymore... But if it agrees with you - why not.
I don't eat rice or potatoes - I choose other vegetables because they have much more flavor in them and I don't need all those carbs either. Plain rice and plain potatoes are quite tasteless imo. When people say potatoes are fattening it makes me laugh because it's never the case that they eat say plain boiled potato - it's mostly likely be in form of chips and dipped in garlic sauce.
I still use couple of new potatoes in my omelettes for the texture but that's about it.

GorillaRising

There's a million things you can do with rice and potatoes to give them more flavour.

They don't have to be deep fried chips.

Also, you can make healthy chips! Sweet potato chips baked in a bit of olive oil and hot paprika is great.

I reckon it's most people who can't really cook that think potatoes are either plain and boring or deep fried in vegetable oil. There's a multitude of options at the healthier end of the scale.

Transform

robocode wrote: »

I love oats, I wouldn't eat many but some mornings chuck a few into my protein shake with some almond butter. Reading up about paleo/primal eating and although it's interesting, I don't like the idea of ditching oats (or rice or potatoes for that matter!). I know the healthy ones here probably avoid pasta but do you minimise oats/rice/potatoes? If so, why? Thanks!

carb levels are dictated on your current level of leaness and current activity levels so yup i eat most of the above daily

GorillaRising

Transform wrote: »

carb levels are dictated on your current level of leaness and current activity levels so yup i eat most of the above daily

I've no clue how many grams of carbs I should be eating (always seems too high on macro calculators) so I just stick to no more than 150g per day. Seems a safe enough bet.

Transform

GorillaRising wrote: »

I've no clue how many grams of carbs I should be eating (always seems too high on macro calculators) so I just stick to no more than 150g per day. Seems a safe enough bet.

yup and aim to get in a good load of them in the post workout window if possible