Paleoista Holiday Tip # 16: Keep it Real

This morning, a client shared with me the trials and tribulations she had to deal with over the weekend while staying with in-laws who were ever so slightly less than amicable to her Paleo dietary choices.

Not only did she offer well in advance to help shop, cook paleo friendly side dishes (so as not to appear as though she was trying to ‘take over’ the whole meal) and not be a burden at all in terms of changing what the host was planning on serving for a family dinner, she was happy to help prepare even the non Paleo dishes that the host was planning on.

So, what was she given as a task to bake?  Nothing other than pumpkin cheesecake.  Not just any pumpkin cheesecake, mind you, but ‘diet’ pumpkin cheesecake.  Her sister in law, who is always lecturing others about why one should eat fat free and diet as much as possible, instructed my client that she was to use fat free cream cheese instead of regular, aspartame in place of brown sugar and margarine rather than butter.

Oh.

My.

God.

Really?  That is the type of ‘dessert’ I thought was a good idea when I was 16, back in 1990, when we all thought low fat or fat free was the way to go.

Here’s the thing.  Take Paleo out of the equation for a second.  Is a diet pumpkin pie made of margarine, aspartame and fat free plastic, I mean cheese, even going to taste good?

OK, now bring Paleo back in.  Because we eat more fat than the typical American recommendation, we have the advantage of creating luxurious desserts with an amazing mouth feel which are so tasty, no one misses the lack of added sugar!

Coconut oil combined with almond butter, as in my Paleo truffles, or an avocado raw chocolate mousse are just two examples of mouth-watering goodness we can create which are far from ‘diet’ and completely Paleo.

Even if you don’t believe in Paleo or are making your way to being completely on board, I can’t imagine the combination of aspartame, margarine and fat free cream cheese tasting anywhere close to palatable.  Sounds like something you’d give your worst enemy!

Keep it real, people!