I had this long list of "eat" and "don't eat" foods, but I'm scrapping it. It was stupid, anyway. Instead, I'm providing you with the list of criteria I use to gauge the healthfulness of a meal. It is not representative of all paleo diets. Paleo is more a philosophy of food than an actual diet, so you will undoubtedly see things here that you wouldn't eat, and the omission of things other paleo eaters will.
Rule 1: Could I in theory collect and process this without agriculture?
Grains are a feat of agriculture. Without agriculture, the parts we eat are few and far between, and collecting enough to make a plate of spaghetti or a loaf of bread would be far too tedious! So grains are, generally speaking, out of the picture. I also avoid dairy most of the time for the same reason.
Oils also fall to this rule. Coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and olive oil are pretty easy to process. Soybean oil, however, isn't.
Some foods that are "controversial" in the paleo community pass due to this rule. Honey passes because it is pretty easy to collect, and maple syrup and to a lesser extent maple sugar also pass because they are easy to process. Salt, you can just evaporate seawater and you have that. And I do occasionally eat wild rice and quinoa.
Rule 2: If I eat this raw, is there a good chance it'll make me sick?
Most legumes do not pass this test, nor do potatoes. Peanuts, green beans, edamame, and sugar peas do pass... although I still avoid them out of habit.
It should be mentioned that this rule is due to inherent toxins, not things like bacteria which are often a food quality issue. So although we cook meat by convention, raw meat will not inherently make people sick.
Rule 2 doesn't mean that we should cook everything... in fact, cooking has been central to our dietary evolution and makes much more good stuff available to us. It just means that our food shouldn't have to be cooked to not be toxic.
Rule 3: Is this pretty toxic to me regardless of whether I cook it or not?
I make this a separate rule for the benefit of rule 2... there are people out there who believe processing toxic-when-raw foods to make them less toxic makes them good for you, which I disagree with.
Rule 3 concentrates more on things like allergies. I am allergic to morel mushrooms, for example, and many people are negatively affected by tomatoes. Whole wheat gives me massive stomach cramps. That's what rule 3 is about.
Rule 4: Does this make me want to eat more or gain weight?
One of my personal issues is food addiction. Some foods pass the other tests, but they stimulate my appetite and cause me to overeat, so they aren't worth the trouble. It wouldn't be too much trouble for me to make cane sugar, for example, but it's going to make my insulin spike and probably stimulate my appetite. Fruit juice and certain types of dry fruit also count.
Do I always follow these rules? No. I've even been known to dive into a box of doughnuts every once in a while. But these, generally speaking, are good questions to ask yourself when wondering if something is a good food or not.
