Are You Making These Common Paleo Mistakes – Podcast #58

Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Evan Brand share valuable information about not burning fat when insulin is high and other important things to consider when reaching for Paleo treats. They share their favorite treats which are healthier compared to what others are snacking on with the least amount of sugar and the least amount of damaging stuff in them. Find out if you should eat meals before or after eating treats and gain some good knowledge about how you eat, when you eat, and what you should eat it with.. 

Dr. Justin also explains the correlation between healthy skin and healthy gut during this interview. Also he talks about the difference between listening to discussions coming from a clinical foundation versus from a theoretical foundation. Also listen and discover how eating fats can be a good thing.

In this episode, topics include:

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Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Dr. J here.  Evan, what’s going on?

Evan Brand:  Not too much.  Lookin’ at the clouds.  Hopefully these things will break up.  I don’t know–don’t want winter to be here yet.  It’s–it’s freaking me out.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  I hear you.  What’s the weather up in Louisville?

Evan Brand:  Well, it was kinda rainy this morning.  I’d say it’s like mid-70s now.  It’s a little bit too cool to be August when we’re recording this.  So we’ll see what’s going on.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Nice.  Do you live up by that–the plant that makes all that–the baseball bats up there?

Evan Brand:  Yeah, it’s–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Louisville Sluggers?

Evan Brand:  Downtown.  Yeah, it’s maybe a 15-minute drive from here.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s pretty cool.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, it’s a neat place.  It’s something worth seeing at least once.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Very cool.  Next time I come up to see you, I’ll have to check it out.

Evan Brand:  Sounds good.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  So what was your breakfast this morning?

Evan Brand:  Let’s see, I had some chicken.  I had a rotisserie chicken that I got last night and I did that with some broccoli.  So literally a dinner for breakfast and it was amazing though, I feel good.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Nice.  Yeah, I did some coffee, MCT, and grass-fed butter unsalted, all blended up and I did 4 raw eggs, Rocky-style if you will.  They were great.

Evan Brand:  Did you put them in the blender?  And then–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh no!  That would destroy the coffee.

Evan Brand:  No, not in the coffee, no.  Like in a cup?  Or what–how?  What did you do?  You just open the eggs in a cup and then drink ‘em or did you like stir ‘em up or–?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  That’s it.  Put ‘em right in the coffee mug, 4 in there, and just tip it high and drink it dry.  That’s it.

Evan Brand:  That’s great.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, it was good.  So I’m feeling good.  Again, like these are real easy meals to just kinda stabilize my blood sugar, have a good morning, get me ready so my brain’s ready to go.  Good fats, so I’m in a ketogenic type of state, relying on lots of ketones this morning.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, definitely good for the brain to get you not distracted, keep you focused.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Absolutely.  And we talked before the show, that we decided we were gonna talk about common Paleo mistakes, because we see lots of patients and you know, one of the main–one the main kind of approaches that we’re utilizing is a Paleo template.  And you notice how we didn’t say a diet, because diet kind of involves short-term strategy.  It’s kinda dogmatic, a lot of times it may not be sustainable and such.  So we’re really looking at a Paleo template.  So with that template in mind, what’s one of the big mistakes you see with a Paleo template with some of your patients, Evan?

Evan Brand:  Oh, gosh!  It’s the Paleo treats.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh, yeah.

Evan Brand:  All the almond flour, coconut flour, the Paleo pancakes, Paleo waffles, Paleo bagels, Paleo bread.  It’s like that’s still processed refined carbs.  It’s still gonna be doing the same thing if not worse things to your blood sugar, because some of those alternative flour spike your blood sugar even more.  So I think that’s probably the number one starting place for me.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh, that makes sense.  Now I look at Paleo treats, they should be in your 10-20%.  So if you’re gonna be cheating a little bit in your 10-20%, that may be a better treat for you than going and having gluten or having a pizza with cheese and–and a whole bunch of flour in there.  So again depending on how sick you are, some of my severe autoimmune patients where they’re out for a couple of days or they have crazy symptoms, that treat may just may not be worth it.  So when you’re doing a treat, you gotta figure out, you know, like what’s your kryptonite?  And if your kryptonite like puts you on your knees for a couple of days and really affects your mood and how you perform, you may wanna just think about bypassing a treat like that.  But for myself, you know, my 10-20%, I will have like, you know, some coconut macaroons with some almond flour in there, but that’s in my 10-20%.  It’s maybe 2-3 x a week, typically it’s after I’ve eaten a meal so my blood sugar is already stabilized so I’m not creating a blood sugar rollercoaster and I’ve already eaten some really good meals that day.  We just gotta make sure it’s not part of a staple.  We don’t wanna say, “Well, hey, I’m on this Paleo kick, so this is gonna be part of my diet,” and it should not be part of the, kind of the core part of your diet.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, I like how you said you’re blood sugar would be stabilized first because what I’ve seen when I’m looking at food journals is that people will just count the Paleo treat as a meal.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.

Evan Brand:  Like they’ll get the sugar craving or they’ll get this high from the compounds in dark chocolate, say for example–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Hmm.

Evan Brand:  So they’ll just go nosh on dark chocolate and count that as a snack, but there’s nothing else really there to support that blood sugar, and then, you know, I’ve even done that to myself here now my blood sugar’s crashing and I feel worse than I ever did.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Absolutely.  So like some of the things, like not all treats are created equal, right?  So I like the–the Hail Mary tarts, those are my fave.

Evan Brand:  Oh, my gosh.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  I like ‘em, but again if you look at them, right?  The chocolate one has I think 10 grams of carbs or sugar in it versus I think the lemon or the lime or the–the vanilla one has 28.  So just by looking at them, there’s a variation of like 2-3 times of sugar, depending on what flavor you choose.  So sometimes the flavors matter because you can get 2-3 times the amount of sugar.  Also chocolate for instance, I do like the 90% dark chocolate, GMO-free, you know, organic, all that good stuff, gluten-free.  But if you did the 70%, you get twice, maybe even 3 times the amount of sugar.  So you have to look at it from the perspective of, you know, how much sugar are you getting and is there a treat that you could cut down the amount of sugar 60 or 70%?  That may be a better option for you.

Evan Brand:  Yeah, the Miracle tarts.  Those are my–my favorite treats.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Fave.

Evan Brand:  Oh–

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  I heart them.

Evan Brand:  The almond butter one is the greatest one.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Absolutely.

Evan Brand:  It’s got the–it’s the raw almond butter inside.  If people haven’t checked them out, check ‘em out.  They’re at several different grocery stores.  They’re all over Texas because they’re out of Dallas.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Oh, yeah.  Oh, they are, huh!  Yeah, that makes sense.

Evan Brand:  Yup.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, I love ‘em.  But some other treats that I’ll do is I’ll whip up some organic pasture-fed cream and I’ll just have that whipped up, maybe add 1 drop of Stevia in it and have it with some nice organic blueberries.  That’s a real nice treat or I’ll do some of the–

Evan Brand:  That does sound good.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah, it’s really good.  And I’ll do the coconuts ice cream, the one with Stevia.  It’s got the blue top on and not the one with the _____.  So it’s only got a couple grams of sugar and we’ll do that, sometimes with some good organic food on top.  Those could be nice treats that aren’t gonna derail your blood sugar and just give you a whole bunch of extra sugar that may cause you to go to fat.

Evan Brand:  Yup.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Because that sugar just pumps the insulin up which gets drive in to your triglycerides and your fat cells.

Evan Brand:  And you can’t burn fat when that insulin’s high, so if you’re constantly doing these Paleo snacks throughout the day or if it’s a habit, then that could explain why you’re “doing Paleo” and nothing’s changing.  That may be the little hidden piece of the puzzle you forgot to take a closer look at.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yeah.  So like for my dark chocolate, I do the Endangered Species brand with the Cougar on it, the 88%.

Evan Brand:  Uh-hmm.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  And I’ll do the–the Lindt 90%.  Those are some good chocolate bars that I’ll do.  And I’ll do like 2 or 3 rows, you know, maybe a couple nights a week, but–

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