What version of paleo can I recommend for my friend?

[Josh]

My friend has been trying a cooked paleoish diet, and wants to keep going a bit more seriously. He's not gonna go raw, but I want to try and help him stay on something relatively healthy.

He has basically been avoiding a lot of carbs in the week apart from a bit of sugar in coffee, eating cooked meat and veggies, getting some extra fat from eggs - without measuring calories. He loses weight from cutting carbs, but has lapses at the weekend when he drinks beer and gets takeaways.

So really two questions: I have suggested to him that it's a bad idea to randomly cut carbs in the week, then lapse as it's making his body go in and out of ketosis, trying to adapt but always breaking it with a carb hit. My feeling is that he should eat more carbs in the week to keep ability to deal with it...something like 1/3 calories from protein, 1/3 from fat and 1/3 from carbs which some bodybuilders favour. Maybe getting carbs from fruit and cooked tubers.

What do you think he can do about macronutrient ratio, given that he will continue with the occasional beers and takeaway?

The other question is given that he's not eating raw, how much green veg etc do you think is a good idea to eat. He won't be getting so many micronutrients from raw meat, so is the best compromise to eat veg and salad, or something else?

Oh yes, I would have thought omega 3's from fish like tuna would be a good compromise as well.??

Welcome your thoughts.

[ForTheHunt]

Lots and lots of fruit with some raw fish here and there is easy to begin with

[Josh]

He's not going raw. I want to find him something that fits somewhat with normality.

[TylerDurden]

Get him to buy the raw fermented cod liver oil from Green Pastures. People unwilling to try raw as a food are often happy to take it as a supplement.

As for carbs, some bodybuilders go without carbs during weekdays and then splurge on carbs at the weekends. Doesn't seem to harm them.

The green veg is a good idea, especially if you can persuade him to eat some of them raw(eg:- avocadoes are usually eaten raw). Cooked veg contains fewer amounts of heat-created toxins than cooked animal foods, so that helps.

You could also try to persuade him to eat and drink healthier(ie for alcohol, he should drink only transparent spirits like vodka or real ale as those contain far fewer preservatives than other kinds). For takeaways he could get sushi(much of the fish in sushi is generally cooked not raw, judging from what I've seen).

[Josh]

Nice one Tyler. Sounds solid.

[William]

Steak and salad has worked for many.
That's providing that there is enough fat in the steak, it's cooked no more than medium, and the salad is raw.