FYJ Challenge Crew – answers to a few questions received this morning…

1. Is lettuce OK?  Arugula?
Yes. and Yes.

2. Is balsamic vinegar ok?
Yes, as long as it is not sweetened or flavored with something that adds more sugar.

3. The “Sleep hours” on food log — would it be when we wake up THAT day that is listed on top of page we record hours, or how much we slept when we went to bed and woke up next day?
Put the hours of sleep you got for the night prior.
 
4. Been reading about “refined avocado oil”.  Seems bit expensive, but really good all around as far as cooking smoke point and health benefits. Do you feel that is true?
We don’t have a specific stance on avocado oil.  It is allowed in the challenge and avocados are a great source of fat.  If you would like to use it in your cooking, please do.
 
5. If our veggies are sauteed in a little oil, that counts as our fat, yes?
Not necessarily.  It goes back to everything in moderation.  If you cook with oil to grease the pan and saute vegetables, then that would not be a significant source of fat.  If you douse the veggies in oil that’s a different story.  In other words, if you saute vegetables in fat you can absolutely still put salad dressing on your salad with that meal (salad dressing = another fat source).

6. In original paleo book he talks about lean meat all the time. And white poultry meat, no legs, no marbled meats, etc. Do you feel same way? It does not seem to ever come up in the print material I’m looking at.

We do not feel the same way and when Cordain came to Roots a few years back he elaborated on this.  A lot of the reasoning behind the lean meats was that the quality of the meats available to most people were crap and had a higher fat content than in past history.   Conventionally processed/raised meats have a fat content drastically higher than grass fed/pasture fed meats.  As a point of reference, the average feed lot cattle weighs 100lbs more than the average grass fed/grass finished cattle at the time of slaughter – and it’s all fat weight, not lean muscle.  

Yes, you should not go out of your way to eat fatty meats but eating good quality meat of any variety is OK for this challenge.  
 
7. Mushrooms are okay, yes? 
Yes, they are ok.

I pretty significantly changed my eating habits after the May 2010 Paleo Challenge.  My blood values, weight, body fat, etc. all really, really improved in just 6 weeks, while my energy for workouts, cycling, etc. did not suffer at all (even improved a bit).   As a result, I am pretty strictly Paleo now except for planned cheats, which are infrequent and tied to big events with others.  Oh, and honey.  Which is the nectar of the gods, and as a result is EXEMPT from all Paleo and nutrition challenges.  So if you are one of the 30 FYJ Challengees, go ahead and have as much honey as you can possibly shove in your mouth.