[ExI] Gaining weight on paleo, and fat balance

[lists1 at evil-genius.com]

> Natasha asked:
>
>> >Max, after you respond to Amara, would you please advise me how I
>> >can maintain and even gain weight on the paleo diet?

I'm not Max, but I can offer some insight:

-Few foods remain unimproved by the addition of avocado slices, a fried 
egg, or both.

-Root vegetables (particularly yams and sweet potatoes) are not 
impermissible.  The most recent research (based on isotopic data) I've 
seen indicates that Late Pleistocene hunter-forager diets were 
approximately 1/3 hunted meat (antelope, other big game), 1/3 non-hunted 
meat (fish, insects, etc.), and 1/3 vegetables and roots.  Since the 
calorie content of vegetables is low, roots likely accounted for a 
significant portion of the 1/3.

"In this review we have analyzed the 13 known quantitative dietary 
studies of hunter-gatherers and demonstrate that animal food actually 
provided the dominant (65%) energy source, while gathered plant foods 
comprised the remainder (35%)."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11965522

Fair warning: you will get into big arguments over this amongst paleo 
purists.  However, since your objective is to gain weight, not to lose 
it, some root starches will help you maintain that objective while still 
staying away from gluten/gliadin.

In other words, the old-school American breakfast of steak or bacon, 
eggs, and potatoes is basically paleo -- so long as the potatoes are 
fried in the steak fat or in butter, and not in an industrial product 
like 'vegetable oil' (a misnomer: actually 'grain oil')


And for those of you who aren't ready to go full paleo but want as many 
of the health, energy, and attitude benefits as possible, removing 
anything containing 'vegetable oil' from your diet is a great start. 
Corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed/sunflower/safflower/canola oil == 
extremely high in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.  Even olive oil 
should be used lightly and in moderation due to n-6 content.

I can expand on this if people are interested: altering the n-3/n-6 
balance accounts for many of the beneficial effects of a paleo/primal diet.