Books About Paleo
At the end of July 2012, I was heading down the stairs in our townhouse to have breakfast and go to work. My high heel caught in the carpet and I took a header from about eight feet up. It could have been worse, but I severely dislocated my left elbow and shattered by left wrist. After an ambulance ride and surgery on both my elbow and wrist, my mobility was limited as movement made my arm ache for weeks.
I have always been a voracious reader so, while on my Kobo one day, I started looking for interesting books to read. I came across some Paleo books and got interested, so I Googled Paleo and started reading. I recognized a lot of the health issues I had in what I read, and I've known for a very long time that I feel better if I stay away from wheat products. My grandson, who has Type 1 diabetes, also has Celiac disease, so I already knew quite a bit about gluten-free cooking.
I decided at this point that if I didn't want to weigh 200 lbs. by the time I was mobile again, I would give the Paleo diet a try. I thought Paleo Grandad, who does not cook, would also be able to make meals as most of the recipes only used a few ingredients.
This is the first information book I bought on my Kobo.
The Paleo Solution Diet is full of easy to read information about the beginnings of the Paleo diet and practical information to get you started. He has fun with the information - "Our modern life may not involve the risk of being eaten by a bear (generally), but it does come with a host of its own stressors."
More information books I have on my Kobo:
This one gives you some ideas for lifestyle that you may work for you.
Juli Bauer has an interesting style and a great sense of humour, so her recipes in OMG that's Paleo are fun to read. She creates lots of new recipes that you can get from her website and a lot of them are in here. The pictures aren't very good, but the recipes are great.
This is my absolute favourite information/planning/cooking/understanding book on the Paleo lifestyle - It Starts with Food - in fact I am going to read it again as soon as I finish this page. I recommend this book to anyone who asks me about Paleo. The authors, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, introduce you to the Whole 30 challenge (I recommend you Google it or read the book!)
The 4-Hour Body - I got this book after I saw Tim Ferriss make the One-Minute Muffin on Dr. Oz. That's a good reason for buying a book, isn't it? Tim is really (really) into exercise, so if that's you...
I found this book on the clearance table at Chapters (lucky me!). It is packed with information on Paleo. Nell Stephenson is a nutritionist so she has very definite ideas about what works and what doesn't - but everything you read adds to the information you have to make your own (hopefully better) choices.
This is the science behind the Paleo diet, so if you like that stuff (I do!) or you need it to convince yourself to try the Paleo diet, this is the book for you.
Paleo Cookbooks
At the beginning, I sent Paleo Grandad to Chapters for two cookbooks to start, as I love paging through a paper cookbook - reading recipes is just not the same on an e-book. For one thing, you don't get the great pictures.
I got these two cookbooks - Practical Paleo and Make it Paleo. Practical Paleo is full of Paleo information, explaining health issues really well, and providing menus to address those specific issues. I started off by following the menu for Fat Loss, but it cost $300 for the food for two people for a week and it was pretty rigid. I never did that again. (Our food budget is now about $100 per week.)
I really like the recipes in Make it Paleo - few ingredients and easy to make. Paleo Grandad has actually cooked from this one.
Well Fed - A small cookbook, but big information. This is another of my favourite books. Melissa Joulwan has a blog called Clothes Make the Girl (read her blog to find out what a Paleo blog has to do with clothes!) - there is a link on my home page. Melissa (and other Paleo bloggers) suggest setting aside an afternoon to prep/cook for the week. I do this and it takes me less than 30 minutes to prepare dinner when I get home from work during the week. Melissa has a lot of simple and yummy recipes in her book. She is also coming out with Well Fed 2 soon (it's on my wish list already!).
Well Fed 2 - almost twice as big as Well Fed, which means twice as many simple, tasty recipes. I highly recommend this cookbook. You are likely to have most of the ingredients for any of the recipes in this book in your pantry for a quick, easy dinner.
My latest cookbook purchase - Gather - the art of Paleo Entertaining. It makes a beautiful coffee table book! It has some great entertaining recipes and beautiful pictures of the food.
Paleo Comfort Food by Julie and Charles Mayfield. This is a great cookbook - Paleo biscuits, gravy, ketchup - a lot of the foods you think you will miss. I had it on my Kobo and the eventually bought the paper version of this cookbook I used it so much.
Hayley Mason and Bill Staley have just come out with a new 30 Day Paleo plan/cookbook called, appropriately, The 30 Day Guide to Paleo Cooking. One of my first Paleo cookbooks was Make it Paleo which I used a lot at the beginning of my Paleo experiencing. This new book is also great - in fact I can think of several family and friends that I would like gift with this great book. As usual they have great pictures but, what I really liked about this book is that they lay the whole 30 day eating plan for you - what to eat (and what not to eat), menu plans with shopping lists for each week and all the recipes you need. The recipes are all easy and use only a few basic ingredients. Paleo Pad, Thai, Kale Salad with Bacon and Fig Vinagrette, Shepard's Pie are just a few of the recipes on the menus. Don't expect any sweet treats - after all we are doing a month of clean eating. If you want a great book to guide you through 30 days of clean Paleo eating this is a great book for you.
Elana Amsterdam has just come out with a new cookbook - Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry. It is a small cookbook (size-wise) but it has 127 pages of really easy, simple ingredient recipes. Not a lot of pictures, so you will just have to make the recipes yourself. Elana also has issues with autoimmune disease, so a lot of recipes are good for the autoimmune protocol. Really good value for the price.
I really like this book. Each recipe has a picture so you can see how the finished dish will look. I have tried two recipes so far and they are both pretty good. This book has an interesting index - small thumbnail pictures of most of the recipes, which helps in finding recipes. The regular index is not useful at all. Try to find the Cinnamon Coffee Cake using it (it's not in a thumbnail either). Other than that, easy recipes with not very many ingredients, so lot's of dinner ideas.
This cookbook is getting rave reviews in the Paleo community and it has beautiful pictures. The index is not very good in this book either, and the one recipe I have tried so far, came out nothing like the picture. If you are a really big pork fan, this is the Paleo cookbook for you.
I bought this cookbook, thinking it would have more insight into why I still have carb cravings and some new suggestions on what to do about it other than follow the Paleo rules and do another Whole 30. It didn't. Also, the recipes in the book don't appeal to me at all. For me, this was not a good buy.
I was really looking forward to getting this cookbook and pre-ordered it when it was first announced. It finally arrived and I was not disappointed. Whether you are a beginner or experienced cook, I think you will enjoy this book. It is a both a great read and a great cookbook. It even passes my index test - easy to find recipes as they are listed under more than one category.
Choc full of information on the science behind the Paleo diet - a serious read.
This book has a plan - I need a plan.
Cookbooks on My Kobo
Primal Blueprint Cookbook - Mark Sisson and his Daily Apple blog are full of information, and different takes on what is Paleo/Primal. A good read and reference book.
If you really miss desserts (you should find that decreases as you eat better food), or for special occasions, this has lots of treats in it.
When I first discovered Dana Carpender and her low carb cookbooks, I got them all. Great recipes, simple ingredients - my 1001 Low Carb Recipes is well-used. So, when I found out she was switching to Paleo, I pre-ordered her book. She has lots of interesting simple recipes in here, but in others she uses some hard to find ingredients and time-consuming cooking. I wouldn't recommend this book - there are many more Paleo cookbooks with less complicated, easy to make recipes.
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