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heart disease and other illnesses. Wine in particular, when consumed in moderation, has been shown to have many beneficial health effects. A glass of wine before or during dinner may help improve your insulin sensitivity and reduce your appetite. Wine is also an appetizing, salt-free ingredient that adds flavor to many meat and vegetable dishes. Note: If you have an autoimmune disease, you should avoid alcoholic beverages and other yeast-containing foods. (For more information, see chapter 6.)

Oils

• Olive, avocado, walnut, and flaxseed oils (use in moderation—4 tablespoons or less a day when weight loss is of primary importance)

Beverages

• Diet sodas (These often contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine, which may be harmful; you’re better off drinking bottled and mineral waters.)

• Coffee

• Tea

• Wine (two 4-ounce glasses. Note: Don’t buy “cooking wine,” which is loaded with salt.)

• Beer (one 12-ounce serving)

• Spirits (4 ounces)

Paleo Sweets

• Dried fruits (no more than 2 ounces a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight)

• Nuts mixed with dried and fresh fruits (no more than 4 ounces of nuts and 2 ounces of dried fruit a day, particularly if you are trying to lose weight)

Foods You Should Avoid

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about why the foods in this next category should not be part of your diet. (You don’t have to stop cold turkey, though; you can gradually wean them from your diet, as I’ll discuss below.) Except for honey, refined sugars were nonexistent in Paleo diets; so were dairy products and excess salt. Almost all processed food is a mix of three or four of the following: sugar, some form of starch (wheat, potatoes, corn, rice), fat or oil, dairy products, salt, and flavorings. Because most processed foods are made with refined grains, starches, and sugars, they are high-glycemic items and can cause large swings in blood sugar levels. Most modern cereal- and sugar-based processed foods adversely affect insulin metabolism and are associated with a greater risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic health problems.

Just because these foods are not part of the diet, you don’t have to banish them from your life forever. But you should try to avoid them most of the time.

Dairy Foods

• All processed foods made with any dairy products

• Butter

• Cheese

• Cream

• Dairy spreads

• Frozen yogurt

• Ice cream

• Ice milk

• Low-fat milk

• Nonfat dairy creamer

• Powdered milk

• Skim milk

• Whole milk

• Yogurt

Cereal Grains

• Barley (barley soup, barley bread, and all processed foods made with barley)

• Corn (corn on the cob, corn tortillas, corn chips, cornstarch, corn syrup)

• Millet

• Oats (steel-cut oats, rolled oats, and all processed foods made with oats)

• Rice (brown rice, white rice, ramen, rice noodles, basmati rice, rice cakes, rice flour, and all processed foods made with rice)

• Rye (rye bread, rye crackers, and all processed foods made with rye)

• Sorghum

• Wheat (bread, rolls, muffins, noodles, crackers, cookies, cake, doughnuts, pancakes, waffles, pasta, spaghetti, lasagna, wheat tortillas, pizza, pita bread, flat bread, and all processed foods made with wheat or wheat flour)

• Wild rice

Cereal-Grainlike Seeds

• Amaranth

• Buckwheat

• Quinoa

Legumes

• All beans (adzuki beans, black beans, broad beans, fava beans, field beans, garbanzo beans, horse beans, kidney beans, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, pinto beans, red beans, string beans, white beans)

• Black-eyed peas

• Chickpeas

• Lentils

• Peas

• Peanut butter

• Peanuts

• Snow peas

• Sugar snap peas

• Soybeans and all soybean products, including tofu

Starchy Vegetables

• Starchy tubers

• Cassava root

• Manioc

• Potatoes and all potato products (French fries, potato chips, etc.)

• Sweet potatoes

• Tapioca pudding

• Yams

Salt-Containing Foods

• Almost all commercial salad dressings and condiments

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