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Being from the south (I’m a Texas girl), I was born and raised on comfort food. We Southerners have fried chicken and mashed potatoes in our veins, and the waistlines to prove it. It wasn’t always that way. Cowboys ate the same diet, but I guess the average person doesn’t consider the fact that cowboys and farmers always worked 15 hours a day in the heat and sun worked that cornbread off. As our lifestyles have changed and become more sedentary, our diets have stayed the same, so the old saying “Everything’s bigger in Texas” now mostly applies to our posteriors. Of course that mentality isn’t limited to south. Comfort food has migrated to all parts of the country (because it’s delicious!) and when the word “diet” is thrown around, comfort food’s very existance is threatened. The idea that it could ever be considered healthy and actually taste good, is a hard one to wrap your head around.

And as we all know, people in general tend to buck at the idea of switching to any diet or lifestyle that requires them to give up those things that they love. We cling to our unhealthy favorite foods like a childhood saftey blanket. The great thing about “Paleo Comfort Foods” is that it eliminates that barrier. It introduces the paleo diet (one that usually intimidates people) in a way that is familiar, by tweaking typical comfort food dishes to make them conform to paleo and gluten-free rules (similar to “Make it Paleo” by with a tighter niche audience). 

The recipes in the book are delicious and photos are mouth-watering, like you’d expect from any good cookbook. You also won’t find ingredient lists that are miles long, which a big bonus. Cooking tasty meals shouldn’t break the bank. 

The only complaint that I’ve heard so far is that the index isn’t the most navigatable. Each recipe is listed by the name of the dish, so if you don’t know that the guacamole is called “Chunky Guacamole”, you’d have to thumb through the whole book, and it’s a pretty large book. Other than that, everyone agrees that it’s a top-notch cookbook for anyone on a paleo/primal/gluten-free diet.

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Dr. Loren Cordain’s book, “The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat” is one of the best-selling paleo books on the market, and it’s definitely the go-to guide for a beginner to the diet. In it, Dr. Cordain explains the fundamental concepts behind the paleo diet, how the diet is based upon the diets of our paleolithic ancestors. He explains how the cavemen found food, their physical activity and how their lifestyles differed from the way we live now. He also explains the corrolation between our current lifestyles and the increase in disease prevelance.

When it comes to breaking down the paleo diet, as far as what is and is not allowed and why, there’s not better point-of-reference than “The Paleo Diet”. Even one of the most affluential people in the paleo world today, Robb Wolf, began as a student of Dr. Cordain. This book not only contains a long list of approved and unapproved paleo foods, but tips for how to prepare them, recipes and even a bit about caveman exercise. 

One thing that you should keep in mind with this book is that a lot of the things that Dr. Cordain has to say are controversial in the diet world, and like any diet info, you should take it with a grain of salt (there’s a chapter about salt consumption). Nothing is gospel truth and if something sounds fishy to you, then do your own research and make your own decision. 

While I don’t personally agree with everything that Dr. Cordain has to say in his book, I would still recommend it to someone looking for a well-rounded reference guide for the way food and exercise affect the body. After reading this book, whether you believe everything he says or not, you’ll still be pretty highly informed in the health and nutrition arena. 

Technorati Tags: caveman diet, paleo book, paleo diet, the paleo diet