Raise your hand if you have a soda within arms reach (that's Pop to you northerners)?  I used to be right there with you.  I was drinking a 2 liter about every 2 days along with hitting up drink machines through the day.  I was a Pepsi-aholic.  I drank Pepsi for the better part of my life which was the greater part of my nearly 37 years on the planet.  That's a LOT of soda.  I remembered in the 80's that Pepsi had a very distinct difference in flavor and it wasn't until the Throwbacks came out did I come to understand the difference in sugars.  I won't lie.  I loved the taste and the carbonation and I still have the urge to grab one every once in a while but for the most part my addiction is curbed.  Addiction.  Yeah that's exactly what it is and studies are now showing that sugar has a higher addiction rate than cocaine (at least according to some rats that the tests were run on).

I won't be one of those ex-people that tells you that it's a bad habit and you need to quit but I will expose the potential harm, why I stopped, and what exactly you're consuming.

If this is your first approach at a Paleo or Primal diet after years of living on the SAD (Sandard American Diet) it is likely you will have detox symptoms. This isn't so different than that of a drug addict but less severe. You will have insatiable cravings for foods, you may have flu like symptoms, and you may just have lethargy and general fatigue. This may be referred to as a Herxheimer reaction. This is typically relegated to those taking antibacterials and resembles bacterial sepsis but I use the term for detoxing, while maybe not clinically correct in its usage it does apply here.

Detox reactions are occurring due to the fact that you're eliminating the diet of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract. The die-off of critters in your gut happens at such a rate that the liver cannot handle the load and the result is a feeling of malaise. There's really little that one can do during this period which, depending on your state of health, may be a couple days or even weeks. Don't let this discourage you from taking on the change in diet though. You may go in feeling awful but on the other side it is worth the trouble and the elimination of the bad bacteria floating around the body. A lot of Paleo websites fail to mention this portion of things since there may be trepidation of those looking to change their diet and lifestyle. All I can say is to stay the course with it.

Things that can help during Detox:

• Epson Salt baths
• Magnesium Supplements
• Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
• L-Glutamine (which helps rebuild the gut lining)
• Plenty of fluids to help flush
• Milk Thistle to aid the liver
• Relaxation and Patience

I'm sure the first few questions in mind are: What is the Paleo diet? Why should I pursue such a thing? The USDA outlines a solid diet, why should I change that?

The Paleo diet is eating as closely to what paleolithic man consumed but taking into consideration modern life. This includes the removal of the following items from your daily life:

• All Processed Foods
• All Grains (gluten especially)
• Legumes (including peanuts)
• Most dairy products (ghee, clarified butter, and some hard cheese are ok in moderation)
• Processed sweeteners (refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup etc.)
• Soy (it is a neurotoxin)
• Unsafe Oils (canola, peanut, or most plant based refined oils)

You would replace those items with whole foods (fresh vegetables), quality meats (grass fed and finished and/or pastured), animal fats, limited fruit and nuts.

The USDA pyramid should be banished and drawn up from scratch according to what our body needs and not mostly derived from grains and cereals or dairy.  Grains have been shown over and over to cause numerous issues within the body so why should that be the major category from which we get nutrients?  It shouldn't.  Any doctor that tells you that whole grains are highly nutritious should be ignored.  They obviously know little about how our body handles grains or the bio-availability of these nutrients.  Food should be our gateway to health and most doctors only have about 6 months of their entire time in medical school dedicated to nutrition.  Even so, the nutrition that they're given is the same tripe we've been handed for the past 50+ years.  We need to re-program not only ourselves but our medical professionals.

I am often confronted (yes nearly confrontational at times) with questions regarding the way I eat or why I choose to disregard a fluffy sugar-laden piece of cake or some fabulous crusty bread that is offered to me. I simply smile and say I don't eat that. It's not that I can not or would not; I just do not. I have chosen to only take in what I deem as beneficial to my system. People over the years have neglected the purpose of food. It is a fuel and only items worthy of being fuel should be acceptable for your body to run optimally.

I didn't begin this way magically, nor was I raised to consider this thinking toward food. I ate because I was hungry and I tended to eat what tasted good to me. I cared not what was actually going in me as long as that little nagging notion in my belly was satisfied with what I put in there and my mouth was happy for that nanosecond of pleasure for tasting good! This is where we all go downhill and quite quickly I might add.