The Primal Parent

My dad and I hitchhiking from Mexico down to Belize City. He was 67. I was 24.

Two years ago I packed up my apartment in California, said goodbye to my friends and my boyfriend, Julian, and drove out to Colorado with my daughter and a car full of our belongings.

My dad had been diagnosed with vascular dementia a few months before and my mom, who had just had a hip replacement, needed help taking care of him. The disease had come on slowly and, in his confusion, my dad had squandered their life’s savings. There was a lot to be done.

I stayed in the house for three months and then my brothers, a nephew, a niece, and a family friend took turns helping out after that.

It wasn’t easy, though, for any of us. My mom was a wreck. Who could blame her, I suppose – taking care of one husband that saw herds of elephants trampling through his bedroom, and one daughter, my sister, who had her own massive set of problems.

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Paralyzed with morning sickness

It’s hard to believe that the very diet which every doctor and internet pregnancy-help-page recommends for morning sickness actually contributes to or even worsens the problem.

But it’s true.

Diets high in refined carbohydrates actually make morning sickness worse.

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My daughter, Evelyn, is going to be with her dad all weekend for Easter.

I don’t care much for holidays but I do care for the absolute cuteness of kids running around in the grass searching for hidden eggs, so I’m sad. Oh well. Such is life.

So, while she’s out with her somewhat less health conscious side of the family, we are working to empower her with the tools she needs to make it through the weekend feeling great.

Since figuring out that she has fructose malabsorption she is really careful about what she eats and so the thought of being stuffed with fructose all weekend made her cry. She’s really excited to hunt for eggs in her grandma’s backyard, but she has mixed feelings about the holiday.

“Mommy,” she sniffled, “I don’t want to be bloated again. Can’t you tell them where to buy me better candy?”

“I have told them, honey, but they’re going to buy what they’re going to buy. But I know what you mean. It’s your belly and you want it to feel good. I have an idea.” I said. “I will teach you to read the ingredients.”

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There is one problem with the Paleo diet for oh, about 30-50% of Europeans and maybe 15-20% of Americans – the low starch approach that encourages eating more fruit and sweet potatoes exacerbates many digestive, mood, and skin problems.

You hear about it often. “I’ve made all these positive dietary changes and suddenly I’m more sensitive to everything.” After years of wondering about the same thing, I may have slowly stumbled upon one, of maybe many, possible reasons for this.

What Is Fructose Malabsorption?

According to Wikipedia “Fructose malabsorption, formerly named “dietary fructose intolerance,” is a digestive disorder in which absorption of fructose is impaired by deficient fructose carriers in the small intestine’s enterocytes.”

This means that our ability to break down fructose is impaired and so fructose molecules travel down to the colon undigested. When anything makes its way down to the large intestine without first being broken down, the situation can get pretty ugly.

Many people with fructose malabsorption experience digestive troubles such as diarrhea or constipation, rashes, melancholy or anger, among others. I myself started to see a connection to fruit and my skin as well as my mood and digestion. This led me to some pretty strict elimination diets. If only I had known years ago that there were just some specific foods I needed to avoid…
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From the Paleo Parent's new book Eat Like a Dinosaur

What gives with all this awesome Paleo stuff coming out all over the place? Just a few years ago you couldn’t find any more than Cordain’s and Sisson’s books and websites, a few years before that even less, and now there are hundreds of Paleo websites, books, and other cool junk all over the place.

I’m going to turn you on to just a few of them today.
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