Reversing Direction

Just before I graduated from college, I decided to stop eating beef.

I decided that beef, along with its saturated fat load, questionable production methods, as well as emerging health risks (Mad Cow disease) was a good thing to remove from my diet.  It was pretty easy to do, and I didn’t miss it.

A few years later pork followed suit.  I decided pork was at least as questionable – and probably equally easy to eliminate.  Probably the only meal I missed in pork was Southern Pulled Pork Barbecue.

Since my adoption of Paleo, my food attitudes have adjusted.  Back in October, real Bacon returned to my diet regularly for the first time in probably 15 or 20 years.  The world didn’t end – and in fact, my good cholesterol rose versus last year.  I’ve also mixed in a few high quality Pork shoulders, slowly smoked to my diet occasionally.  My pork source: Thompson Farms in Dixie, Georgia.  They use pastured animals, raised from infants to slaughter in the same location and have earned one of Whole Foods highest certifications for animal welfare.

It’s great to see family run farms being rewarded for raising animals well and allowing them to live as naturally as possible.  They also were quick to respond to a question I sent via e-mail.

I’m now on the verge of reversing direction on my first food exclusion – and mixing some grass-fed beef back into my diet.  I’m thinking about a large cut – like a brisket or a tri-tip for smoking.  Again, it’s another Whole Foods-certified local farm – either White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia or Brasstown Beef in Brasstown, North Carolina as the source.

Grass-fed has a lot of advantages – all originating because it’s how the animal was intended to eat.

Have you reversed direction on a specific food because of Paleo?