• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Paleo Leap
  • Recipes
    • Beef and Red Meat
    • Chicken and Poultry
    • Pork
    • Fish and Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Soups
    • Salads
    • Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
    • Sauces, Dips & Vinaigrettes
    • Drinks
    • Sweets and Snacks
    • Cooking Tips
  • Learn
  • Your Starting Point
    • Topic Index
    • Paleo 101
    • Paleo Meal Plan
    • Paleo Food List
    • Transitioning to Paleo
    • Am I Doing it Right? - Checklist
    • Mini-Course for Beginners
  • Popular Topics
    • Recipes for Beginners
    • Breakfast Ideas
    • Homemade Condiments
    • Legumes
    • Wheat & Gluten
    • Dairy
    • Nightshades
  • More
    • Compilations
    • Foods
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Chicken
  • Pork
  • Snacks
  • Salads
  • Learn Paleo
  • Paleo Cooking Tips
  • Paleo Diet Foods
  • Paleo Recipe Compilations
  • Keto Diet Recipes
  • Paleo Beef and Red Meat Recipes
  • Paleo Drink Recipes
  • Paleo Egg Recipes
  • Paleo Fish and Seafood Recipes
  • Paleo Sauces and Dips
  • Paleo Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
  • Paleo Soup Recipes
  • Paleo Tips & Tricks
  • Paleo Topic Index
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Chicken
    • Pork
    • Snacks
    • Salads
    • Learn Paleo
    • Paleo Cooking Tips
    • Paleo Diet Foods
    • Paleo Recipe Compilations
    • Keto Diet Recipes
    • Paleo Beef and Red Meat Recipes
    • Paleo Drink Recipes
    • Paleo Egg Recipes
    • Paleo Fish and Seafood Recipes
    • Paleo Sauces and Dips
    • Paleo Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
    • Paleo Soup Recipes
    • Paleo Tips & Tricks
    • Paleo Topic Index
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ร—
    Home ยป Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    How to Evaluate โ€œPaleo Cookies,โ€ โ€œPaleo Bacon,โ€ and other Paleo-Labeled Foods in the Grocery Store: Learning from the Low-Fat Craze

    Last Modified: Feb 20, 2023 by Paleo Leaper ยท This post may contain affiliate links ยท Leave a Comment

    Sharing is caring!

    33 shares
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Reddit
    Paleo Cookies

    Even Paleo eaters can learn a thing or two from the low-fat craze. In this case, itโ€™s a lesson about foods in the grocery store that are labeled โ€œPaleo-friendlyโ€ or โ€œgluten-free.โ€ Thereโ€™s been an explosion of Paleo-branded foods lately: some are great, but others are total duds. Hereโ€™s how to tell the good from the bad.

    Learning From Low-Fat Mania

    The peak of the low-fat craze has passed, but even today, you can still walk into any grocery store and buy low-fat cookies, low-fat salad dressing, low-fat โ€œcooking spray,โ€ and low-fat dairy products of every kind, from yogurt to cheese to coffee creamer. People have obviously been buying this stuff: if it didnโ€™t sell, it would be off the shelves.

    But despite our apparently popular low-fat options, people in the US have kept right on gaining weight - because in most of these products, fat is just replaced with sugar. Swapping fat with sugar doesnโ€™t magically make cookies into health food. Some low-fat foods are perfectly healthy (spinach, vinegar, and spices are all naturally low in fat!). But just taking the fat out of a food doesnโ€™t make it good for you. Or, put more bluntly, low-fat junk is still junk..

    To put that in a more general form:

    Food companies can engineer junk food to technically follow any set of diet rules (low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free, Paleo, etc.) - that doesnโ€™t make it good for you.

    That concept is a good starting point for thinking about the increasing number of Paleo-branded foods that have been popping up at grocery stores lately. Even foods that technically fall within Paleo guidelines can still be really high in sugar, or just not quite right for you personally. Donโ€™t fall into the trap of just seeing the โ€œPaleo approvedโ€ sticker and assuming it must be healthy: hereโ€™s what to do instead.

    The Rise of Paleo-Branded Foods

    As Paleo has been getting more and more popular lately, โ€œPaleo-friendlyโ€ or โ€œPaleo approvedโ€ products from bacon to granola to cookie dough have started appearing in the grocery aisles. On one level, thatโ€™s great: more choices and convenience for you, the shopper!

    But on the other hand, there are some real stinkers out there. Some foods are branded as โ€œPaleoโ€ when they really shouldnโ€™t be. And thereโ€™s a whole other group of products that follow all the Paleo rules but just donโ€™t work for everyone. Just because itโ€™s technically Paleo doesnโ€™t mean itโ€™s right for you!

    In that spirit, hereโ€™s a guide to evaluating those products to find the ones that work for you. This isnโ€™t a list of which meals or products are โ€œgoodโ€ or โ€œbad.โ€ There are way too many products out there to fit in one list, and more coming out every day. But hopefully, after reading this, it should be easy to look at whatever you have available and make an informed decision about eating it.

    "Paleoโ€ doesnโ€™t mean โ€œhealthyโ€ or โ€œright for you.โ€

    Thereโ€™s no regulation for how companies are allowed to use the term โ€œPaleo.โ€ Itโ€™s not like โ€œUSDA organic,โ€ where there are specific rules (and regular inspections to make sure theyโ€™re followed). Itโ€™s up to you to figure out whether โ€œPaleoโ€-branded products are (a) actually Paleo, or (b) right for you personally.

    Step 1: Read the ingredients.

    OK, sure, they're not very exciting. But if everyone in the world took 30 seconds to skim an ingredients list instead of making assumptions based on packaging or branding, weโ€™d all collectively save ourselves a lot of unnecessary weight gain and health problems.

    What you see on that list can tell you a lot about whether the food is Paleo at all, and if so, whether itโ€™s right for you. โ€œPaleoโ€ on the whole has a lot of gray areas and debated foods (white potatoes, dairy, bean sproutsโ€ฆ), but you personally should have a decent idea of what does or doesnโ€™t work for you. Check the ingredients to make sure everything is OK: watch out forโ€ฆ

    • Sweeteners. Some people do best without any kind of sugar in their diet, whether itโ€™s sugar from honey, maple syrup, or table sugar (all of which are basically the same, metabolically speaking). Other people are happy to eat honey and maple syrup, but not sugar alcohols. Then there's another group of people who will only eat Stevia and nothing else. You know which camp youโ€™re in: does the type of sugar or sweetener in the product fall into your personal limits?
    • Nut flours. They can be gut-irritating and inflammatory in big doses, and some people do better without them.
    • Additives and preservatives. Everyone has a different case for which preservatives they will or wonโ€™t accept - check the list and see how it stacks up against your personal preference

    Step 2: Read the Nutrition Facts.

    checklist

    The ingredients list tells you what is in a product, but not how much. In some cases, the โ€œhow muchโ€ matters.

    For example, maybe honey is on the ingredients list. Honey is high in carbs. If you care about restricting carbs, then a tiny amount of honey per serving would be fine because it barely adds to the carb count. So if the Nutrition Facts says โ€œ5 grams of carbs per serving,โ€ youโ€™re good to go, even with a high-carb food like honey on the list. But on the other hand, if there are 100 grams of carbs per serving, that might be too much honey for you.

    Step 3: Decide how the food will fit into your diet.

    Based on your reading of the ingredients and the Nutrition Facts, is this an all-the-time food, a special treat, or something to put back on the shelf immediately and forget about forever?

    This isnโ€™t about purity judgement and being More Paleo Than Thou. Weโ€™re all humans, and sometimes humans eat for pleasure. Thatโ€™s totally normal and fine. Thereโ€™s a time and a place for โ€œless-badโ€ versions of candy and pizza - so long as you know thatโ€™s what youโ€™re eating. Maybe a particular food clears your bar for โ€œless-bad replacementโ€ but doesnโ€™t make the cut for โ€œregular diet staple.โ€

    The Price Tag: Reducing the Paleo-Label Premium

    Not always, but often, the โ€œPaleoโ€ label comes with a premium price tag. You can sometimes save money by asking โ€œwhy am I paying a premium for the Paleo version of this product, and is there a non-Paleo-branded version that would be equally good?โ€

    For example, with Paleo cookies, the cookies could be Paleo because they use almond flour (or similar) instead of wheat flour. You canโ€™t just get that from a regular old package of Chips Ahoy. But with Paleo-branded bacon or sausages, you might find โ€œaccidentally Paleoโ€ versions of the food without the markup. After all, itโ€™s not the โ€œPaleoโ€ sticker on the front you care about; itโ€™s the food inside.

    Paleo-Branded Foods: Are they Right for You?

    To repeat from above:

    Food companies can engineer junk food to technically follow any set of diet rules (low-fat, low-carb, gluten-free, Paleo, etc.) - that doesnโ€™t make it good for you.

    When you spot some new product with a โ€œPaleo approvedโ€ sticker, it might be a really awesome find, but it might also not be. Read the ingredients, read the nutrition facts, and then decide whether the food is right for you and how itโ€™s going to fit into your diet.

    More Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    • closeup of a white bowl filled with Garlic & Roasted Onion Salsa
      Garlic & Roasted Onion Salsa
    • plate filled with blackened tilapia and sliced lemon
      Blackened Tilapia
    • Crab Stuffed Salmon served on a cutting board
      Crab Stuffed Salmon
    • 17 paleo bars & bites to snack on featured
      17 Paleo Bars & Bites To Snack On

    Sharing is caring!

    33 shares
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Reddit

    Filed Under: Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    paleo leap square logo

    Hi, I'm Rick! Paleo Leap is the oldest and biggest resource online, covering everything about the paleo diet. We have over 1500 recipes categorized and plenty of meal plans for you to try.

    More about me โ†’

    Popular

    • Bacon-Wrapped Salmon Featured
      Bacon-Wrapped Salmon Recipe
    • Almond Milk Custard
      Almond Milk Custard Recipe
    • Flourless Banana Pancakes Featured
      Flourless Banana Pancakes Recipe
    • Turban Squash Soup Featured
      Turban Squash Soup Recipe

    Recent Recipes:

    • closeup of a glass of Almond banana cinnamon smoothie on a wood table
      Almond Banana Cinnamon Smoothie
    • glass of Peach and chocolate green smoothie on a wood table with peaches in the background
      Peach and Chocolate Green Smoothie
    • closeup of two glasses of cinnamon and Coconut vanilla milkshake
      Coconut Vanilla Milkshake
    • Pumpkin smoothie in a glass on a wood table with cinnamon sticks in the background
      Pumpkin Smoothie

    Footer

    โ†‘ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Cookie Policy

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Contact

    • Contact

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    For your information only. The statements on this website are merely opinions. Paleo Leap does not provide medical or nutritional advice, treatment, or diagnosis. Read the full disclaimer.

    Copyright ยฉ 2023 Paleo Leap