You’ve probably heard of someone “going Paleo”–cutting grains, legumes, and processed foods from their diet to emulate the eating habits of early humans in the Paleolithic era. Sound tough? Danielle Walker, a San Francisco-based mom and New York Times best-selling author of Against all Grain: Meals Made Simple in addition to three other Paleo cookbooks, has seen the health benefits firsthand and believes that the key is really refrraming the way you think about your diet. We asked Danielle to give us the scoop on how to cook paleo in a way that the whole family will love.
What exactly is a paleo diet?
Essentially, it’s grain-free, legume-free, and then everything processed is cut out. I can use any tool; there’s nothing besides non-stick, tough on pans that I don’t use. I use everything: pressure cooker, blender, food processor—all the normal things that most people use.
What are the benefits to going paleo?
I come from a standpoint of telling people to do what works best for their bodies. I personally tried many things for my own diet, trying to help my autoimmune condition, before I found this one. This was the first time I felt that it was working for the symptoms of my autoimmune disease. I think most people…find improvement because by nature it’s an anti-inflammatory diet. People find that the inflammation in their body goes down and [symptoms] they may be having are reduced because of that.
Why is the paleo diet becoming more popular?
I think because people are really seeing success from it. I have a couple million people who come to my site a month, and the majority of those people are looking to find health in one way or another. It’s become a lifestyle change. And I think that’s why you’re seeing it grow. I think once somebody chooses to do this as a new lifestyle, they’re really passionate about it and they really want to tell more people about it, and they want to spread the word about the improvement they’ve seen. It’s not a diet of counting calories or having to buy special premade frozen food that only fit in a parameter of your daily challenge, those types of things. It’s just real food. It’s meats and vegetables and fruits and seeds; it’s things that people are already familiar with and they’re not having to go out and buy a special product. They’re not being pushed for weight loss medications or anything like that, and they’re not being promised anything specific.
What are some misconceptions about the paleo diet?
I think the most popular one is that it’s too hard. Any change is hard for people, and it’s really about making that commitment. Once people start it, they realize that it really is just real food that you can find in the grocery store and it’s just changing the way you think about how your plate looks. Then I think people find that it’s not really difficult. And I think that how it makes them feel makes it worth it. It’s a little bit more of prep work, obviously; you can’t drive through at a restaurant or buy a frozen pizza.
I do think a major misconception is that all everything is just meat, or you get that comment—that caveman sitting down to a huge turkey leg. But most people find that they eat more vegetables than prior to eating this way because they’re replacing things like rice, bread…with salads, or maybe more meat. It’s an even kind of distribution between grass-fed meat and organic protein and vegetables. We do use modern cooking and technology. It’s not like we’re foraging or catching everything we eat and then cooking it, or putting it over a fire pit.
How can families, especially those with younger kids, easily transition into a paleo diet?
I talk a lot about it in Meals Made Simple, my second cookbook, and it’s really important to explain to the kids why you’re doing things. I have a five-year-old and he loves to learn about the foods he’s eating. He loves to go to the grocery store with me and loves to pick out which grain we’re going to have for the night, and he’s still a normal picky five-year-old. He really likes…to be able to eat a finished product and taste something he created with me. The other night we had salmon, and I guess I had never told him that salmon was a fish, and he said, ‘I ate fish!’ He was so proud of himself that he ate a fish. I think that engaging them in this process where the food comes from, the farms, and showing them where the vegetables are grown and how they’re grown, and have them pick things, I think that’s really important for kids and to know healthy food and how it comes to our kitchen.
In terms of the parents, I think utilizing those slow cookers and utilizing making ahead and freezing your meals…take the stress off your mom’s plate, specifically a working mother that takes care of the household. Trying to plan ahead and using those tools that help make [meals] easier are really important in being successful.
So your book has a lot of kid-friendly meals?
Absolutely. Pretty much everything I do in terms of my recipe creations gets passed by my son and my husband first. It’s really important for me to create things that my son will eat. In my first cookbook I have a kids section, and in my second book I have so many different family-friendly recipes. I have grain-free chicken nuggets; I definitely recreate some of those childhood favorites because I also think that kids don’t want to feel different or left out when they’re at school or with their friends that may not eat that way. I’ve created Fruit by the Foot and kids’ cookies and cupcakes and things like that that are still a treat, but don’t have flour or dairy or things like that.
What’s your favorite recipe? And your son’s favorite?
I have a pepperoni pizza that’s in Meals Made Simple that’s just one of my favorites. I love pizza-flavored things. It’s made with squash noodles, so by nature it’s obviously lower in carbs and you’re basically serving your family a bowl of vegetables, which is great, so that’s definitely one of our favorites.
[My son] loves that one. He loves spaghetti and meatballs, which is on my blog. I keep spaghetti in my freezer basically at all times so if I’m running short and I need to throw something together for the family for dinner, then I could defrost some of the meatballs and put my favorite sauce on it. The chicken nuggets are definitely a standard to keep in our fridge for those times we got a babysitter or we were eating something really spicy and I want to give him kind of a treat. And he loves my chocolate chip cookies, of course, which has become a huge fan favorite. He would eat those every day if I let him.
To learn more about Danielle and see some of her recipes, visit againstallgrain.com!
