[g_podcast id="10445492"]
In this episode, I talk to Paleo coach SaschaRöhler about the following points, among others:
This is a very substantial episode with lots of useful information and content. The following text is just a summary and if you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend listening to the whole episode!
Your blog is the Paleo Lounge.I'll start with a rather provocative question that I'm often asked: if the Paleo diet was so healthy, why didn't people grow older back then?
Sascha: If a person broke a leg back then, it became infected and they died. There were no antibiotics, no anti-inflammatories, no modern medicine. A little something was enough.
It was only when people became sedentary - when they began to deal with water and were able to drink clean water and sit in warm and dry conditions every day - that they no longer died from trivial things like fever.
Many women and children died in childbirth back then. This lowered the average life expectancy or average age very quickly.
Life expectancy was lower overall. Today, people like to say that people back then also had cancer and nobody could help them, etc. I always have to smile because nature didn't intend for people to die of diseases.
You have to look at where they actually come from. It's always easy to claim that Stone Age people also had the diseases but couldn't be diagnosed back then. There is no way of investigating it. We can no longer understand it.
One thing is certain: frost mummies with osteoarthritis are found from time to time. But we're not talking about Stone Age people, but people who lived 8000-9000 years ago, like Ötzi.
What is Paleo anyway? What is the philosophy behind the Paleo diet?
Sascha: Paleo is a period in human history that began 2.5 thousand years ago. The human race began millions of years ago and ended around the last ice age. Humans began to establish villages and settlements and became what we understand by being human. This happened almost 10,000 years ago and the period before that is called the Paleolithic.
During this time, we ate what nature gave us. Logically, this was usually completely unprocessed. They ate roots and berries, hunted animals, ate fruit and vegetables that were available in the wild. They didn't eat as much meat as is always claimed. Man was actually a fisherman and a gatherer, because he actually always settled by the water because he knew that he could harvest the fruits of the sea there and had access to them through the water. There are different paleo regions. In China, people ate more seafood and relied more on seaweed. Over time, the Japanese have developed an enzyme that allows them to metabolize algae and its contents better. That's why Europeans don't enjoy eating large quantities of it. In the South American countries, people ate other animals and in Europe and North America, where the native Indians lived, they hunted much more and ate more bison.
Why is it relevant for us?
Sascha: In the last 200 years, food has changed more than in the 2.5 million years before that. We're talking about things like food processing and the inappropriate handling of food. Grain is valuable and has done a lot for world hunger, but the way we consume and process it today is no longer good. If we look at what our ancestors from the Neolithic Age did, we see again and again that they ate and processed grain, but in their original way. They let it ferment, they (unintentionally) fermented it. These are all things that we no longer know today.
Today, everything has to be quick and versatile. A certain dependency on food has developed and we have to pay more attention to it. That's the problem. When I buy something packaged, I have to ask myself 'Do I really need this now? It's 10 times better to eat a conventional salad and conventional vegetables that you wash properly than to eat industrially processed cereals all day long.
To summarize: Paleo nutrition actually means eating food that is as natural as possible. Lots of vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, eggs, nuts?
Sascha: Exactly. You can eat all grains except cereals (because they have a lot of starch). But that's an individual decision.
You're not completely against grains now? It depends on what kind of grain it is and how it's prepared?
Sascha: Sure. If someone suffers from gluten intolerance (coeliac disease), you should stay away from it. That's logical. As coeliac disease is currently considered incurable, it means for life. People can fall back on gluten-free cereals if they like. You can also resort to so-called 'pseudo-grains', which are not sweet grasses (amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat). I would therefore demonize wheat, but really look at all other grains individually.
As you just said, people ate grains in the Stone Age, but probably just wild grains and then they ate them accordingly. 'treated'.
Sascha: People chewed on it and found that it gave them stomach ache if they ate it unprocessed. People reacted very sensitively to this. They only perceived their environment through pain or symptoms of poisoning, etc.
Then they evaluated it and passed it on. At some point in the Neolithic Age, people discovered what happens when you crush and grind grain. And so people learned more and more through trial and error. At some point they realized, oh, you can eat this, it fills your stomach, it fills you up.
But back then they knew that in order to make the grain digestible, you had to soak it, leave it lying around and so on. And that's what they did.
What do you think about pulses?
Sascha: Pulses are actually taboo in a paleo diet because they also contain a lot of antinutrients. Plants produce antinutrients to protect themselves from being eaten, so it's a survival mechanism.
These harmful substances, or antinutrients, can be broken down just as easily as in grains. And our ancestors knew this too. Back then, they were soaked and left to stand. A brown broth formed and when you poured this away, you no longer had any problems with digestion - but you only had a filling side dish because many minerals were lost as a result. I get protein, of course, but you can't expect legumes to provide an incredible amount of nutrients.
The amino acids are where I would say it's worth including legumes in your diet. Especially for vegans or vegetarians who don't eat meat.
Would you say that if someone wants to follow a vegetarian Paleo diet, it makes sense to include pulses?
Sascha: Yes! Especially the high-quality ones that come from organic farming and can be easily prepared by soaking them. However, as someone who tries to live a very vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, I always say that I find a diet without eggs really difficult. They contain an incredible amount of vitamins and nutrients. You can also buy very good quality eggs.
And always listen to your body. As you said, there's not just one good diet, you have to find the one that suits your body. I think you also have to be flexible and rethink your diet. Nutrition is something that you might go through different phases. Depending on our age, we have different needs, depending on our lifestyle. Many people make the wrong assumption, I suspect.
Sascha: That's right. You have to learn to listen to your body signals individually.
I would like to ask you about intermittent fasting. This is something where I don't necessarily see my expertise, but I can see that it's a popular topic and I keep getting questions about it. Can you briefly explain what it is?
Sascha: Back in the Stone Age, people were forced (because they didn't have fridges and couldn't build up stocks) to eat what they could get. They hunted, gathered, ate and then it was gone. And they never knew when they would get something to eat again. In the nice warm periods when there were lots of bees, they devoured the honey in large quantities. They knew exactly that you get fat from it. They needed the fat to get through the winter - the time when no fruit, fruit and vegetables were growing. This led to the development of intermittent fasting.
We call it that today, but people really did live this way. They had to get up in the morning and set off on an empty stomach to go hunting. In other words, they had to give up energy first and then take it in, not the other way round!
To summarize, intermittent fasting is a form of food restriction without cutting calories.
The bottom line is that I know many people who do very well with it and lose weight, maintain their weight and manage their energy levels.
You can easily reach your daily requirement with two or even one meal.
The difference is: if I fast for 16 or more hours, I have the advantage that the body has time to regenerate. That is the important point! Our organs need to recover. Humans are not digestive machines, the gut needs its rest. Intestinal time starts at 7 pm and overnight the intestines start to detoxify. If I'm constantly snacking and eating all day, I have constant insulin spikes and my gut is constantly working.
In the Stone Age, people couldn't help but fast every now and then. And today, thanks to the modern Paleo movement, it has become a trend, a lifestyle.
There are now various strategies for getting into intermittent fasting.
I always recommend that people start by reducing the meal frequency that is common today. First of all, three meals a day. You've already taken a big first step if you cut out snacking and drinking cola.
And if people do well with this, I recommend skipping breakfast or pushing it further and further back so that you get to 12 hours without food. For example, if you eat at 7 p.m. in the evening, then you don't have breakfast until 7 a.m.. And then maybe not until 9 a.m. It's also the case that digestion doesn't really start working until 9 a.m., and many people feel much better if they eat breakfast later.
However, the ultimate goal is to let your bowels rest for 16 hours and only eat during the remaining 8 hours. This is the classic 16/8 model of intermittent fasting. This would mean that if you eat at 7 pm in the evening, you could eat again at 11 am the next morning.
But you can also push this back further and further. It's just important to pay attention to what suits you, what fits into your daily routine.
Why would you want to do something like this in the first place? You said the digestive organs get a break. What other benefits would you get from it?
Sascha: You can give your metabolism a massive boost! You can stay full much longer from your meals as you naturally reduce the amount of carbohydrates, so it doesn't matter if you don't eat for a few hours. There are people who then start to shake, but if your metabolism is adapted, this doesn't happen.
This means that you can make better food choices thanks to this flexibility. When you simply don't have time to eat, you don't reach for unfavorable foods like you used to, but simply postpone your next meal without having to starve yourself.
Losing weight is a welcome side effect, but it shouldn't be the main motivation for fasting. There are other things you can tweak if you "only" want to lose weight. But if you want to achieve more, if you are constantly tired, have digestive problems and so on, then intermittent fasting is definitely worthwhile.
And the body can heal! This is important for people who have inflammatory diseases, for example, because the tendency to inflammation in the gut and throughout the body decreases. The body finds time again to repair and replace cells. And thanks to these regenerative processes, people often sleep better spontaneously.
Many people are afraid that they won't have any energy. That's why we were always told that we have to eat breakfast - so that we have more energy and can concentrate.
Sascha: That's a superstition. Then our ancestors wouldn't have survived, because then they wouldn't have been able to concentrate and hunt either!
The lack of energy is usually not because we haven't eaten enough, but because we don't have the metabolic flexibility, because the body can't switch from burning sugar to burning fat. After all, that's what our fat stores are actually there for, as an energy reserve. But if the body can't tap into them, then they are of no use.
I was told that if you fast intermittently, you can eat anything you want and still lose weight.
Sascha: That's nonsense! You can commit significantly more sins without gaining weight. There's a difference.
It's difficult to lose weight. If you eat potatoes, or rice, or pasta every day and just sit in the office, intermittent fasting won't help - you won't lose any weight because you won't boost your metabolism.
If you add more fat and more cholesterol (eggs, good oils, etc.) and thus provide the body with more energy in the form of fat, the body starts to burn fat because it realizes that there's enough of it. The problem is that people combine fat with carbohydrates. That was already a bad idea in the food combining diet. It's like when I put sugar with fat in a pan - it caramelizes. Do I want caramel candy in my arteries? Not really.
So you should keep these two components strictly separate. If you combine vegetables, salad and meat, you should leave out the filling side dish. Then I should rather choose a low-fat carbohydrate option, for example by eating mashed potatoes. This gives me energy, but I don't add milk or butter so that the two things are not combined.
You know the principle of resistant starch. You can go and let the potatoes cool down and then reheat them. Then you have much less complex metabolizable carbohydrates than if you eat the potatoes straight away. These are little things that you can do and allow yourself a lot with intermittent fasting. In principle, we are designed for fat metabolism, which is how we can live the longest, which is why the body invented ketosis.
You have already done several episodes about intermittent fastingin your podcast . I will definitely Link it in the episode notes! You also made an episode about who shouldn't fast.
I have another question: would you say you can eat a carbohydrate-conscious diet while breastfeeding?
Sascha: You can even eat a ketogenic diet! But everyone has to decide for themselves. It definitely needs to be rich in nutrients. The baby needs a lot of vitamin D, a lot of omega 3 and if I don't give myself that, I have a problem. As a (expectant) mother, you should bear that in mind.
Finally, I have a question about children. You are a father yourself, how old are your children?
Sascha: My daughter is 7 and my son is 8.
How do you do it with the children?
Sascha: With children it's something completely different. Children are allowed to eat 5 times a day and in my opinion they should, because they have a much smaller stomach and can store less energy. If the child tends to be overweight, meals should be reduced.
Lemonade should always be taboo for children because of the sugar. They should also not eat so much salad and vegetables because children are very carbohydrate-heavy. This means that the brain is still growing and in this growth phase it needs more sugar and the organs need more energy because they are much more stimulated by the metabolism. That's why a child can eat more sugar, but of course you have to pay attention to the source. They should eat more fresh fruit, smoothies, home-baked bread and much more.
And as I said: if they are overweight, reduce the number of meals. Eat a snack again in between meals, or fruit as a snack. If you then encourage the child to exercise, the metabolism will respond very quickly! Fat children usually become slim again within 3 months, whereas we as adults need up to 12 months.
I think it's a bad idea to keep children away from carbohydrates. It makes them frustrated. They need this readily available energy more than we do. As long as the children are metabolically active, do sport and enjoy exercise, you can't really go far wrong.
You can take them shopping with you, get them involved and let them try things. My children love raw food, but I'm a bit cautious about that. You shouldn't give them raw food all day because it can cause digestive problems. It's ok until 4 pm and then you should stop so that the child's intestines can recover until dinner. And very important: you can't proselytize children!
Exactly, eating should be fun. My tip is always to set an example for the children. The more likely the children are to imitate this, as they look very closely at their parents. I've had customers who have switched to a healthy diet and still served their children the 'other' diet. At some point, the children complained because they wanted to eat like their parents.
Sascha: And many parents underestimate this! If I sit down on the couch with potato chips and take the children with me, I can't expect them to eat snack sticks. So you have to be a good role model. And if the children are keen to try new things, there's a chance that they'll get used to them.
It was so nice and totally exciting to do this interview with you! Please tell us where people can find you.
Sascha: I have 2 podcasts, one of which has been discontinued because it was only a 100-episode series. There's a lot on the subject of ketogenic nutrition, intermittent fasting and I dispel common myths (you need carbohydrates to survive, breakfast is the most important meal, etc.).
It's called 'healthy snacks' and can be found at https://paleo-lounge.de/podcast
There are then 2 podcasts: the'healthy snacks'or the'Paleo Lounge'.
This is the interview podcast. And I also have a group on Facebook called 'Paleo Lounge'.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I'd be really happy to receive a rating on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people to find the podcast so that we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
In this episode, I talk to Paleo coach SaschaRöhler about the following points, among others:
- What is the Paleo diet and what are its benefits?
- Are grains and legumes really taboo?
- How does intermittent fasting work?
- Should children also avoid sugar and fast carbohydrates?
- And: How you can positively influence your children's eating habits
This is a very substantial episode with lots of useful information and content. The following text is just a summary and if you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend listening to the whole episode!
Is Paleo healthy at all if people didn't get particularly old in the past?
Your blog is the Paleo Lounge.I'll start with a rather provocative question that I'm often asked: if the Paleo diet was so healthy, why didn't people grow older back then?
Sascha: If a person broke a leg back then, it became infected and they died. There were no antibiotics, no anti-inflammatories, no modern medicine. A little something was enough.
It was only when people became sedentary - when they began to deal with water and were able to drink clean water and sit in warm and dry conditions every day - that they no longer died from trivial things like fever.
Many women and children died in childbirth back then. This lowered the average life expectancy or average age very quickly.
Life expectancy was lower overall. Today, people like to say that people back then also had cancer and nobody could help them, etc. I always have to smile because nature didn't intend for people to die of diseases.
You have to look at where they actually come from. It's always easy to claim that Stone Age people also had the diseases but couldn't be diagnosed back then. There is no way of investigating it. We can no longer understand it.
One thing is certain: frost mummies with osteoarthritis are found from time to time. But we're not talking about Stone Age people, but people who lived 8000-9000 years ago, like Ötzi.
What is Paleo anyway? What is the philosophy behind the Paleo diet?
Sascha: Paleo is a period in human history that began 2.5 thousand years ago. The human race began millions of years ago and ended around the last ice age. Humans began to establish villages and settlements and became what we understand by being human. This happened almost 10,000 years ago and the period before that is called the Paleolithic.
For many millennia, humans lived as hunter-gatherers
During this time, we ate what nature gave us. Logically, this was usually completely unprocessed. They ate roots and berries, hunted animals, ate fruit and vegetables that were available in the wild. They didn't eat as much meat as is always claimed. Man was actually a fisherman and a gatherer, because he actually always settled by the water because he knew that he could harvest the fruits of the sea there and had access to them through the water. There are different paleo regions. In China, people ate more seafood and relied more on seaweed. Over time, the Japanese have developed an enzyme that allows them to metabolize algae and its contents better. That's why Europeans don't enjoy eating large quantities of it. In the South American countries, people ate other animals and in Europe and North America, where the native Indians lived, they hunted much more and ate more bison.
Why is it relevant for us?
Sascha: In the last 200 years, food has changed more than in the 2.5 million years before that. We're talking about things like food processing and the inappropriate handling of food. Grain is valuable and has done a lot for world hunger, but the way we consume and process it today is no longer good. If we look at what our ancestors from the Neolithic Age did, we see again and again that they ate and processed grain, but in their original way. They let it ferment, they (unintentionally) fermented it. These are all things that we no longer know today.
What paleo nutrition means
Today, everything has to be quick and versatile. A certain dependency on food has developed and we have to pay more attention to it. That's the problem. When I buy something packaged, I have to ask myself 'Do I really need this now? It's 10 times better to eat a conventional salad and conventional vegetables that you wash properly than to eat industrially processed cereals all day long.
To summarize: Paleo nutrition actually means eating food that is as natural as possible. Lots of vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, eggs, nuts?
Sascha: Exactly. You can eat all grains except cereals (because they have a lot of starch). But that's an individual decision.
You're not completely against grains now? It depends on what kind of grain it is and how it's prepared?
Sascha: Sure. If someone suffers from gluten intolerance (coeliac disease), you should stay away from it. That's logical. As coeliac disease is currently considered incurable, it means for life. People can fall back on gluten-free cereals if they like. You can also resort to so-called 'pseudo-grains', which are not sweet grasses (amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat). I would therefore demonize wheat, but really look at all other grains individually.
As you just said, people ate grains in the Stone Age, but probably just wild grains and then they ate them accordingly. 'treated'.
Sascha: People chewed on it and found that it gave them stomach ache if they ate it unprocessed. People reacted very sensitively to this. They only perceived their environment through pain or symptoms of poisoning, etc.
Then they evaluated it and passed it on. At some point in the Neolithic Age, people discovered what happens when you crush and grind grain. And so people learned more and more through trial and error. At some point they realized, oh, you can eat this, it fills your stomach, it fills you up.
But back then they knew that in order to make the grain digestible, you had to soak it, leave it lying around and so on. And that's what they did.
Tips for a vegetarian paleo diet
What do you think about pulses?
Sascha: Pulses are actually taboo in a paleo diet because they also contain a lot of antinutrients. Plants produce antinutrients to protect themselves from being eaten, so it's a survival mechanism.
These harmful substances, or antinutrients, can be broken down just as easily as in grains. And our ancestors knew this too. Back then, they were soaked and left to stand. A brown broth formed and when you poured this away, you no longer had any problems with digestion - but you only had a filling side dish because many minerals were lost as a result. I get protein, of course, but you can't expect legumes to provide an incredible amount of nutrients.
The amino acids are where I would say it's worth including legumes in your diet. Especially for vegans or vegetarians who don't eat meat.
Would you say that if someone wants to follow a vegetarian Paleo diet, it makes sense to include pulses?
Sascha: Yes! Especially the high-quality ones that come from organic farming and can be easily prepared by soaking them. However, as someone who tries to live a very vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, I always say that I find a diet without eggs really difficult. They contain an incredible amount of vitamins and nutrients. You can also buy very good quality eggs.
It's also important to always pay attention to your body's signals when eating!
And always listen to your body. As you said, there's not just one good diet, you have to find the one that suits your body. I think you also have to be flexible and rethink your diet. Nutrition is something that you might go through different phases. Depending on our age, we have different needs, depending on our lifestyle. Many people make the wrong assumption, I suspect.
Sascha: That's right. You have to learn to listen to your body signals individually.
What is intermittent fasting actually?
I would like to ask you about intermittent fasting. This is something where I don't necessarily see my expertise, but I can see that it's a popular topic and I keep getting questions about it. Can you briefly explain what it is?
Sascha: Back in the Stone Age, people were forced (because they didn't have fridges and couldn't build up stocks) to eat what they could get. They hunted, gathered, ate and then it was gone. And they never knew when they would get something to eat again. In the nice warm periods when there were lots of bees, they devoured the honey in large quantities. They knew exactly that you get fat from it. They needed the fat to get through the winter - the time when no fruit, fruit and vegetables were growing. This led to the development of intermittent fasting.
We call it that today, but people really did live this way. They had to get up in the morning and set off on an empty stomach to go hunting. In other words, they had to give up energy first and then take it in, not the other way round!
To summarize, intermittent fasting is a form of food restriction without cutting calories.
The bottom line is that I know many people who do very well with it and lose weight, maintain their weight and manage their energy levels.
You can easily reach your daily requirement with two or even one meal.
A big advantage of intermittent fasting: relief for the gut and digestion
The difference is: if I fast for 16 or more hours, I have the advantage that the body has time to regenerate. That is the important point! Our organs need to recover. Humans are not digestive machines, the gut needs its rest. Intestinal time starts at 7 pm and overnight the intestines start to detoxify. If I'm constantly snacking and eating all day, I have constant insulin spikes and my gut is constantly working.
In the Stone Age, people couldn't help but fast every now and then. And today, thanks to the modern Paleo movement, it has become a trend, a lifestyle.
How do you get started with intermittent fasting?
There are now various strategies for getting into intermittent fasting.
I always recommend that people start by reducing the meal frequency that is common today. First of all, three meals a day. You've already taken a big first step if you cut out snacking and drinking cola.
And if people do well with this, I recommend skipping breakfast or pushing it further and further back so that you get to 12 hours without food. For example, if you eat at 7 p.m. in the evening, then you don't have breakfast until 7 a.m.. And then maybe not until 9 a.m. It's also the case that digestion doesn't really start working until 9 a.m., and many people feel much better if they eat breakfast later.
However, the ultimate goal is to let your bowels rest for 16 hours and only eat during the remaining 8 hours. This is the classic 16/8 model of intermittent fasting. This would mean that if you eat at 7 pm in the evening, you could eat again at 11 am the next morning.
But you can also push this back further and further. It's just important to pay attention to what suits you, what fits into your daily routine.
Other benefits of intermittent fasting can include boosting your metabolism and reducing inflammation
Why would you want to do something like this in the first place? You said the digestive organs get a break. What other benefits would you get from it?
Sascha: You can give your metabolism a massive boost! You can stay full much longer from your meals as you naturally reduce the amount of carbohydrates, so it doesn't matter if you don't eat for a few hours. There are people who then start to shake, but if your metabolism is adapted, this doesn't happen.
This means that you can make better food choices thanks to this flexibility. When you simply don't have time to eat, you don't reach for unfavorable foods like you used to, but simply postpone your next meal without having to starve yourself.
Losing weight is a welcome side effect, but it shouldn't be the main motivation for fasting. There are other things you can tweak if you "only" want to lose weight. But if you want to achieve more, if you are constantly tired, have digestive problems and so on, then intermittent fasting is definitely worthwhile.
And the body can heal! This is important for people who have inflammatory diseases, for example, because the tendency to inflammation in the gut and throughout the body decreases. The body finds time again to repair and replace cells. And thanks to these regenerative processes, people often sleep better spontaneously.
Fears and misconceptions about intermittent fasting
Many people are afraid that they won't have any energy. That's why we were always told that we have to eat breakfast - so that we have more energy and can concentrate.
Sascha: That's a superstition. Then our ancestors wouldn't have survived, because then they wouldn't have been able to concentrate and hunt either!
The lack of energy is usually not because we haven't eaten enough, but because we don't have the metabolic flexibility, because the body can't switch from burning sugar to burning fat. After all, that's what our fat stores are actually there for, as an energy reserve. But if the body can't tap into them, then they are of no use.
I was told that if you fast intermittently, you can eat anything you want and still lose weight.
Sascha: That's nonsense! You can commit significantly more sins without gaining weight. There's a difference.
It's difficult to lose weight. If you eat potatoes, or rice, or pasta every day and just sit in the office, intermittent fasting won't help - you won't lose any weight because you won't boost your metabolism.
If you add more fat and more cholesterol (eggs, good oils, etc.) and thus provide the body with more energy in the form of fat, the body starts to burn fat because it realizes that there's enough of it. The problem is that people combine fat with carbohydrates. That was already a bad idea in the food combining diet. It's like when I put sugar with fat in a pan - it caramelizes. Do I want caramel candy in my arteries? Not really.
So you should keep these two components strictly separate. If you combine vegetables, salad and meat, you should leave out the filling side dish. Then I should rather choose a low-fat carbohydrate option, for example by eating mashed potatoes. This gives me energy, but I don't add milk or butter so that the two things are not combined.
You know the principle of resistant starch. You can go and let the potatoes cool down and then reheat them. Then you have much less complex metabolizable carbohydrates than if you eat the potatoes straight away. These are little things that you can do and allow yourself a lot with intermittent fasting. In principle, we are designed for fat metabolism, which is how we can live the longest, which is why the body invented ketosis.
You have already done several episodes about intermittent fastingin your podcast . I will definitely Link it in the episode notes! You also made an episode about who shouldn't fast.
I have another question: would you say you can eat a carbohydrate-conscious diet while breastfeeding?
Sascha: You can even eat a ketogenic diet! But everyone has to decide for themselves. It definitely needs to be rich in nutrients. The baby needs a lot of vitamin D, a lot of omega 3 and if I don't give myself that, I have a problem. As a (expectant) mother, you should bear that in mind.
Sascha's nutrition tips for children
Finally, I have a question about children. You are a father yourself, how old are your children?
Sascha: My daughter is 7 and my son is 8.
How do you do it with the children?
Sascha: With children it's something completely different. Children are allowed to eat 5 times a day and in my opinion they should, because they have a much smaller stomach and can store less energy. If the child tends to be overweight, meals should be reduced.
Lemonade should always be taboo for children because of the sugar. They should also not eat so much salad and vegetables because children are very carbohydrate-heavy. This means that the brain is still growing and in this growth phase it needs more sugar and the organs need more energy because they are much more stimulated by the metabolism. That's why a child can eat more sugar, but of course you have to pay attention to the source. They should eat more fresh fruit, smoothies, home-baked bread and much more.
And as I said: if they are overweight, reduce the number of meals. Eat a snack again in between meals, or fruit as a snack. If you then encourage the child to exercise, the metabolism will respond very quickly! Fat children usually become slim again within 3 months, whereas we as adults need up to 12 months.
I think it's a bad idea to keep children away from carbohydrates. It makes them frustrated. They need this readily available energy more than we do. As long as the children are metabolically active, do sport and enjoy exercise, you can't really go far wrong.
You can take them shopping with you, get them involved and let them try things. My children love raw food, but I'm a bit cautious about that. You shouldn't give them raw food all day because it can cause digestive problems. It's ok until 4 pm and then you should stop so that the child's intestines can recover until dinner. And very important: you can't proselytize children!
Exactly, eating should be fun. My tip is always to set an example for the children. The more likely the children are to imitate this, as they look very closely at their parents. I've had customers who have switched to a healthy diet and still served their children the 'other' diet. At some point, the children complained because they wanted to eat like their parents.
Sascha: And many parents underestimate this! If I sit down on the couch with potato chips and take the children with me, I can't expect them to eat snack sticks. So you have to be a good role model. And if the children are keen to try new things, there's a chance that they'll get used to them.
It was so nice and totally exciting to do this interview with you! Please tell us where people can find you.
Sascha: I have 2 podcasts, one of which has been discontinued because it was only a 100-episode series. There's a lot on the subject of ketogenic nutrition, intermittent fasting and I dispel common myths (you need carbohydrates to survive, breakfast is the most important meal, etc.).
It's called 'healthy snacks' and can be found at https://paleo-lounge.de/podcast
There are then 2 podcasts: the'healthy snacks'or the'Paleo Lounge'.
This is the interview podcast. And I also have a group on Facebook called 'Paleo Lounge'.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I'd be really happy to receive a rating on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people to find the podcast so that we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
