The popular Paleo diet consists largely of meat fish and some fruit and vegetables but new archeological research from plaques scraped off teeth of skeletal remains from as far back as 6,000 600 BC suggests the hunter-gatherers may have also consumed grains and starches definite no nose on today's Paleo diet certified nutritional consultant Dian Sanfilippo has an updated and expanded version of her popular first book practical paleo and she joins us now to discuss all of this plus why she believes eating real. Whole Foods and not processed ones are the key to health. Is that right absolutely. It's all about fresh natural. Whole Foods that's right and I think most people kind of get that. That's what we should be eating but it gets really complicated because we do have a lot of research coming out. People get confused sure so the Paleo diet as you said naturally is a gluten-free diet. So obviously that's a pretty big popular thing right now and lots of folks don't digest grains well so you're saying that there's research out that maybe paleo man ate it which is interesting but what we're looking at today and myself as a holistic nutrition consultant is what works in our bodies today and that's really what. I'm interested in right more about what works in our bodies today softly so calling it the Paleo diet. It's not gonna change anything about the way you look at this diet. Research knowing that the actual hunter-gatherers may have eaten other things um it may and it may open up our eyes to how can we take this from perhaps a 30-day intervention which. I have different meal plans in the book for 30 days for different health conditions. Often someone leaves the doctor's office with the diagnosis and not a lot of hope and what I'm giving people is that empowerment through food but really what we're looking at today is. How can we adjust what we're eating perhaps for 30 days. Something that's very strictly paleo and then can we reintroduce some of those foods so perhaps there are some grains that we feel okay eating and then some that we don't is the Paleo diet itself evolving since it was first a stout 95 right.

It was first it first came out so yeah is it sort of adding a little bit more or maybe. I know that sometimes it gets criticized for having a little bit too much sort of red meat or meat proteins. Is it moving away from that a little bit so. I think we can look at it two ways one way is you know the Paleo diet of what paleo man ate. Perhaps there's new research but what paleo man ate is what paleo many what we do with it today is we do evolve it you know funny enough but we do evolve it because we look at. How does it work in real people because if we see that eliminating all of these grains works really great fine but if we see that reintroducing something perhaps like white rice which is something that a lot of us who've been eating paleo for maybe five or six years we're reintroducing it we're seeing how we feel and I think part of that is we've healed our bodies we're learning how to build a plate filled with much more nutrient-dense food we're not filling it with mostly rice reeling it with mostly as you're seeing here vegetables healthy meats fruits nuts and seeds those things so beautiful things here so so tell us one of the cornerstones at the Paleo diet what for someone who is not familiar and curious what should they know so it is real Whole Foods who are not looking at freaking people out you know what we're not eating I love to focus on what we are eating and most people have eaten a paleo diet one day in their life just maybe not every single day so we want to string that together we are looking as you said it meats seafood eggs nuts and seeds tons of vegetables the common myth that it's meat heavy we can eat as much or as little animal protein as we want we do include animal protein for optimal human nutrition but tons of vegetables. You see we've got lots of color here these are a zucchini beautiful - yeah tell us about these amazing recipes that you put together yeah so and these are all in the book these are all in practical paleo.

This is the second edition of the book but we've got zucchini pancakes here so. I have a lot of different pancake recipes in the book but these are based on shredded zucchini egg and a little bit of coconut flour. Some seasonings and that's it really simple. We love for people to get vegetables at breakfast and it can be intimidating but putting it in a pancake makes it really easier. There's no wheat flour. There's no wheat flour in that and I like to pair it with smoked salmon something rich in omega-3s. It's great for fighting stress and inflammation in the body but you could pair it with bacon any other type of protein if you want and maybe some berries would be great with that as well. That looks fantastic. That's a good on-the-go breakfast too. You can actually grab it. I think I might and what do we have here. That looks beautiful so these are a really simple taco. It's a skirt steak taco and a lettuce. Wrap you get that really great crunch we're not obviously doing a taco wrap here right which. I think you were so kind enough to make me. I don't worry little buddy err which I can't wait to try. This looks delicious. Yeah so that's just a little bit of steak is that right have you don't using dip. Yep this is a skirt steak it's seasoned with fresh lime juice fresh garlic which gives you tons of flavor and nutrition as well as chilli powder salt and pepper so yeah that was delicious there you go mmm and. I'm really very good and the last thing we have here are some tahini truffles so a lot of people think we're never doing anything that's a bit of a treat but I like to do things that are just less sweet still nutrient dense. We're getting great nutrition. From the sesame seeds it's a source of calcium and these are just lightly sweetened with maple syrups look at the base of it or what iswhat's holds the tahini is ground sesame seeds and for those of us like myself.

I'm actually allergic to most nuts but I can do tahini. Oh that's a great option for folks who might try one of yeah. This looks like delicious so that's ground tahini in the middle there. That's getting it together so can either some coconut. There's maple syrup vanilla mm-hmm it's creamy. Oh my gosh. Those are so good and what about the banana chips so these are actually plantain chips and these are great. We have some extra salsa on the side you would have the plantain chips with and they're just cooked in coconut oil so coconut oil is okay. Oil is allowed excellent. Okay no no. Oil is a great source of medium chain triglycerides. It's a great fat fantastic a fat burn so for those who are fans of your first book. How does the second book move it forward. What's it what's new yeah so the second book most of what I included that's updated besides visually updating. It is to address a lot of the questions that have come up in the last four years. So as you're saying a lot of things have changed so there's been a lot of new questions and I'm addressing how people can take things from a diet into a lifestyle how people can talk to friends and family if they're objecting about things and also new meal plans so I'm talking about stress management and adrenal health. We could all use that we can all use that myself included all types of new topics. Yeah fantastic. Diane thank you so much for coming to see us in bringing these great treats thank you.