Foods that are part of the Paleo diet, sometimes called the cave man diet, include very few processed items. A few processed foods — olives, canned fish, coconut milk, and curry paste, for example —are included on the Paleo-approved list, but generally, you want to avoid any factory-produced food.
Here's a bit of advice to carry you through your Paleo grocery shopping experience: If you don't recognize the ingredient as food, you shouldn't eat it. That's an oversimplification, of course, but you really can't go wrong following that advice.
Even seemingly innocuous products, such as herbal tea, "all natural" salsas, and instant coffee, can include hidden varieties of wheat, corn, soy, and sugar, so you must be diligent in reading labels even on foods that seem safe.
When reading ingredient labels, you want to look for scientific names and variations on problematic ingredients, like wheat, soy, sugar, and corn. You should also be on the lookout for any ingredients to which you have an allergy — and beware of any ingredients that you can't pronounce, even if they don't appear on the lists in the following sections.
The terms artificial flavorings and natural flavorings are used as a catchall for flavor enhancers, and manufacturers are not required to disclose exactly what they are. Both of those labels can indicate wheat, gluten, corn, and soy, so even if everything else in the product is Paleo approved, steer clear of foods that include those ingredients on their labels.
Sneaky names for wheat and gluten
If the following ingredients appear on a label, it contains wheat and/or gluten:
Artificial flavoring
Bleached flour
Caramel color
Dextrin
Flavorings
Hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP)
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)
Hydrolyzed wheat protein
Hydrolyzed wheat starch
Malt
Maltodextrin
Modified food starch
Natural flavoring
Seasonings
Vegetable protein
Vegetable starch
Wheat germ oil
Wheat grass
Wheat protein
Wheat starch
Sneaky names for soy
If the following ingredients appear on a label, it may contain soy:
Artificial flavoring
Hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP)
Hydrolyzed soy protein
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)
Miso
Natural flavoring
Soy albumin
Soy fiber
Soy flour
Soy lecithin
Soy protein
Soy sauce
Stabilizer
Tamari
Tempeh
Textured soy flour (TSF)
Textured soy protein (TSP)
Textured vegetable protein (TVP)
Tofu
Vegetable broth
Vegetable gum
Vegetable starch
Sneaky names for sugar
If the following ingredients appear on a label, it contains added sugars:
Agave nectar
Barley malt syrup
Cane crystals
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Crystalline fructose
Dehydrated cane juice
Dextrin
Dextrose
Disaccharide
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Galactose
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Malt syrup
Maltose
Monosaccharide
Polysaccharide
Ribose
Rice syrup
Saccharose
Sorghum or sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Treacle
Turbinado sugar
Xylose
Sugar in the form of fruit juice concentrate often appears in high-quality sausages, and some nut butters include dehydrated cane juice. These are minimal amounts of sugar, so after your 30-Day Reset, it's up to you how much of these acceptable sugars you allow in your everyday diet.
Sneaky names for corn
If the following ingredients appear on a label, it contains corn derivatives:
Artificial flavoring
Corn alcohol
Corn flour
Corn meal
Corn oil
Corn starch
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Dextrin
Dextrose
Food starch
High-fructose corn syrup
Maltodextrin
Mazena
Modified gum starch
Sorbitol
MSG
Natural flavorings
Vegetable gum
Vegetable protein
Vegetable starch
Xantham gum
Xylitol