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Whole30 vs. Paleo


mrepoli

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Paleo is sort of a loose term that is interpreted differently by many people. Many of the core principles are similar, that foods we've introduced in recent centuries have been deleterious to our health. The whole30 is a specific set of rules around food (and a very intuitive set I find) to help you do more than define what you eat but help you understand your relationship with food and how various foods effect you.

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Until you read the book, there are resources at the top of this page. Look at Start Here and Whole 30. Your question is a little hard to answer because there are so many highly respected versions of Paleo (and some not so highly respected versions) but Whole 30 is specific with clear do's and don'ts. Welcome. You will love it! :)

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I had the same questions when I started on my first Whole30 (having never even looked into Paleo/Primal/Whole30 before, like, the DAY I started my first Whole30). In reading about it, it has seemed to me that Whole30 works within Paleo - in other words, everything that is Whole30 approved is also Paleo approved. But there are a few things that are Paleo approved that are not Whole30 approved.

I've figured out a bit more about how that works out practically for me as I've gone on with the program (doing my third Whole30 right now). Looking at cookbooks for recipes that are Whole30 compliant, I keep away from anything that uses, say, maple syrup as a sweetener (or I would make the recipe but leave that out); I also don't make any sort of desserts, a few of which do appear in my new cookbooks. Note: I like having the option to use these items and still eat Paleo/Whole30-leaning once I'm done with a Whole30; but it seems to me, the more I read and the more I do this, that the basic point of Whole30 is to alter one's entire relationship with food. So there is an added component of not just overlaying a Paleo-type list of approved foods on top of your former eating habits - instead, Whole30 addresses underlying issues that we have with food and how we eat it.

So on the one hand, you COULD say that it is a more restrictive form of Paleo, and that would be true. But on the other hand, there is a bit more in that Whole30 asks us to examine how we eat and how we relate to food generally, in a way that I haven't seen on the (still limited) examination I've given the broader Paleo/Primal world.

Now, all of that said, I think that folks who have been eating Paleo for a while might disagree with me and say that Whole30 just sort of tightens up what they are already doing. So, ya know, YMMV.

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Until you read the book, there are resources at the top of this page. Look at Start Here and Whole 30. Your question is a little hard to answer because there are so many highly respected versions of Paleo (and some not so highly respected versions) but Whole 30 is specific with clear do's and don'ts. Welcome. You will love it! :)

To add to this, Paleo is sort of "what you make it". Whole30 is very defined.

I'm Whole for 30+ days at a time a few months out of the year and the rest of the time I am "my version of Paleo" which is mostly grain free (occasionally have rice at Ghengis Grill), mostly dairy free (I don't freak out if my salad ends up with some cheese on it at a restaurant, but I don't keep dairy in my house), and occasional "paleo treats" (grain-free, sweetened with raw honey or maple syrup).

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