Authors: Kellyann Petrucci

Paleo Cookbook For Dummies (52 page)

American Humane Certified:
This certifier allows for both cage confinement and cage-free systems, so you have no way of knowing which environment your eggs came from.

United Egg Producers Certified:
This labeling is extremely misleading. The name sounds authoritative, but this certifier permits routine cruel and inhumane farm practices and caging. The label has no value whatsoever.

If you have an autoimmune or inflammatory condition such as lupus, MS, Parkinson's disease, Crohn's disease, or rheumatoid arthritis, eating eggs may irritate your condition.

Meat and seafood

Food quality is particularly important when you're dealing with protein. Getting the best-quality meats provides you with tons of nutrition. Try to start working higher-quality proteins into your budget whenever you can. If you can't afford the highest quality right now, don't beat yourself up; just remember how much good you're doing your body by getting rid of all the processed and non-Paleo foods.

Table 6-1
establishes some quality guidelines for meats; the “Best Practice” column is the ideal option, but I also provide acceptable choices for other budgets.

Table 6-1 Meat Quality Guidelines

Best Practice	Gold Standard	Okay
Beef: Local, pasture-raised, 100% grass-fed and finished	Beef: Pasture-raised, grass-fed	Beef: Mainstream conventional, lean cuts with the visible fat trimmed
Pork: Local, pasture-raised	Pork: Organic, free-range	Pork: N/A
Poultry: Local, pasture-raised	Poultry: Organic, free-range	Poultry: Mainstream conventional

Commercial pork is simply not healthy. If you can't purchase pasture-raised or organic pork, I recommend choosing another protein.

If you want to ensure that your meat is completely grass-fed, thereby getting all the healthy fats and nutrition, make sure it's
grass-fed, finished
. This designation specifies that the cows are fattened with only grass during the last 90 to 160 days before they're processed. (Some grass-fed cattle are actually finished with grain â usually corn â during this period.) Those few months of finishing are crucial to establishing the levels of important nutrients such as conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) and omega-3 fatty acids in the beef's animal tissues. The grain finishing process decreases those levels, which is why getting beef that's not only grass-fed but also grass-finished is important.

Finding common sense in food labels

The most important part of buying Paleo foods is buying the best quality you can afford and making sure your food is on the Paleo-approved list. Other than the Paleo-approved pantry foods in
Chapter 5
, buying Paleo means you'll probably be avoiding any factory produced foods with labels anyway.

If your food does have a label on it, though, you want to peek at it and make sure the food has only a few ingredients, all of which you can recognize and pronounce. After about five ingredients, really start to scrutinize what's in the food. If it's a bunch of spices, that's fine. But the ingredient list shouldn't read like a scroll.

Beware particularly of flavor enhancers. If you see the terms
artificial and natural flavorings,
understand that these foods can include wheat, gluten, corn, and soy. Tread lightly when you see those terms. Also keep an eye out for sneaky names for foods.
Living Paleo For Dummies
(Wiley) by Melissa Joulwan and yours truly includes extensive lists on sneaky foods.

To get the leanest cuts of meat if you purchase conventional, stick to the following:

Skinless chicken or turkey breast

Eye of round roast or steak

Sirloin tip or steak

Top round roast and steak

Bottom round roast and steak

Top sirloin steak

90 percent lean or higher ground beef