Going as raw paleo as possible while in the (US) Army.

[infinitenexus]

My wife and I are both big health nuts, and always ready to look into the opposing-the-norm viewpoint.  So of course, we found paleo, then raw paleo.  Fortunately we both enjoy raw meat - she absolutely loves it.  We're both young (I'm 28, she's 33) and in good shape, but we want to live a long time and be healthy for all those years.  We both believe raw paleo is the way to go.

We want to go as raw paleo as possible, but with me being in the Army, I simply cannot go fully raw paleo.  If I were to do that now, then whenever I get deployed, I would be eating lots of processed foods, and I would feel like shit.  So for lack of a better term, I need to keep my body accustomed to just enough crap (or maybe just carbs) that when I have to eat Army food, I won't end up with negative side effects.  Fortunately I'm young, so that will make dietary fluctuations easier to deal with for now.  I read through Lex's log and noted that he really suffered after eating processed food for just a week, because his body was used to raw paleo.  That's kinda what I'm trying to avoid.

So what I was basically thinking of is eating at the Army dining facility for breakfast (scrambled eggs with a little ham and maybe cheese, a few pieces of bacon and some fruit, usually cantelope/honeydew/watermelon) and maybe some pemmican for lunch with an apple, then a raw chunk of grass-fed beef for dinner, maybe with a small spinach salad along with.  Some nights we have a glass or two of red wine with dinner.  When possible, we would substitute some grass-fed bison or wild game, maybe some raw fatty fish like wild-caught salmon, which I love.

My thoughts are that the small amounts of carbs in the few pieces of fruit I have for breakfast and with the apple for lunch and small salad for dinner would keep me out of ketosis, which would make it easier to switch over to a crap-filled processed diet if I had to (for example, while deployed).  And I figure there's enough salt in the 2-3 pieces of cheapo bacon to do the same thing.  However overall, I (hopefully) would still be able to reap at least most of the benefits of the raw paleo diet, as long as I could eat that way.  It's an unfortunate reality, I will simply have to eat crappy food eventually.  I just want to minimize any potential side effects, I don't want to be sick and slow at a time that my squad may be depending on me.  Am I on the right track?

[majormark]

Well, if you're in the army I recommend you check out Stefan Molyneux's channel on youtube. If you understand some of the concepts there you will quit. 

As for the diet, you are in a tough situation. I'm not sure if they would let you bring your own food but maybe pemmican could work.

You can at least go cooked paleo and say you are allergic to carbs or other junk foods. Most people tend to understand the "allergy" excuse and not question it.

[djr_81]

So long as you handle it I'd advocate a WAP-ish diet while the possibility of a deployment looms.
Most of your meat being as lightly cooked as possible and raw once a day like you mention. As much carbs as you're comfortable with; mostly raw but tubers could be cooked. As much of your fat raw as possible.
I feel the most damaging thing you could be eating this way would be fats subjected to high temps so I personally would avoid really fatty cooked foods (pasteurized butter, pasteurized cheese, well done fatty meats). This is just my thinking though from my own personal experience but everyone has different reactions to things.

[TylerDurden]

I agree with the above idea re not eating very fatty cooked foods, go for cooked lean meats instead. Raw animal fat is the most affected by cooking re producing heat-created toxins. And the allergy excuse and cooked-palaeo notion should work. Mind you, the way I see it, now that Muslims and Jews are given more leeway re kosher/halal meals in some countries' prisons(Vermont, apparently, even giving its prisoners grassfed meats, according to the WAPF), I don't see why one can't request specific foods as a soldier.

[Savage]

You can eat cooked Paleo if you're eating in the Mess hall, the only time I would think it's not possible is if you're deployed in a red zone and living off MREs, if you're not a combat MOS you should be fine.

Avoid grains at all cost, stick to potatoes, eggs, meat, fruit and nothing else, try carb cycling also to keep glycogen stores while reaping the benefits of increased epinephrine, catchelomines, etc..... on your zero carb days.

I would eat now, as you will when you deploy, since you don't wanna get that transition period when performance might be critical. Just because you have to eat cooked paleo, doesn't mean you have to eat shit, make the best choices with what you have.

"My brother-in law by marriage, Jason, is a Master Chief in the United States Navy and has been a SEAL for the last 19 years. He is 39 years old, has been with the teams for about 20 years now, and is currently deployed to Iraq on his second tour in that theater.

Jason has been an avid cross-fitter for about 3 years and eats a PaNu style lacto-paleo diet with about 10% of calories form carbohydrate."

http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/12/25/panu-eating-and-high-intensity-training.html

[infinitenexus]

The fortunate thing is that I could go completely raw paleo right now.  With my rank, I don't live in the barracks and I don't have to eat at the DFAC, I just choose to eat breakfast there because it's cheap, fast, and tasty.  And with my choices, decently healthy.  My only real concern is that I won't be able to do anything like raw paleo during a deployment, and so I want to eat as raw paleo as I can while keeping my body able to switch over to a cooked diet in the event of a deployment.  Fortunately, I don't even have the possibility of a deployment for at least a year, possibly longer.  So that's plenty of time to eat nice and healthy.

Savage - I know I can eat cooked paleo at DFACs, but, at least in the ones I've been in, you only get one main dish, most often a meat, and then a few sides, which are often things like corn, cooked carrots, mashed potatoes, things I don't want to eat.  And of course, TONS of processed grains.  That seems to be primarily what they feed soldiers.  That was why I put it as I did, eating shit food.  I'm still going to raw paleo now, with just a little cooked foods in the morning, which I think will greatly lessen any transition period back to a total cooked food diet if I have to.  Oh, and I'm a big fan of crossfit, too.  Thanks for the link.  My only issue with cooked paleo from the DFACs is that I may not get enough food/calories.  I tend to burn through food pretty quickly and I eat a lot, even if I'm eating paleo.  I'll have to go back for seconds and thirds I guess, haha.  No potatoes for me, though.

djr_81 and TylerDurden, thanks for the comment on grain allergies.  I think that's a great idea, and I do believe I have an actual wheat allergy.  I'll have to find a way to get a doctor to document it so I'll have some form of proof when I use a wheat allergy as my excuse for a slightly different diet.  Hopefully that will work, hopefully they won't just pile rice on me, hahaha.

majormark, I appreciate the concern, but his videos really did nothing for me.  I am fully aware that the military is far from perfect, but I enjoy my job very much.  No job is perfect.  Well, unless I was a rock star, THAT would be a perfect job        

Thank you for the replies, everyone.