Diet Branding – Goodbye Paleo :(

Writing by the river today.
Writing by the river today.
Always a nutritional enthusiast since Primary school influenced by two health conscious parents, I was made to eat the weirdest things. Bone broth,chicken feet, vegetable water, kidneys, liver, brains, garlic, garlic and more garlic.. Our milk was fresh from the cow, our meat from the paddock and there were rarely any packaged food in our house.We grew our own fruit and vegetables and swapped the surplus with our friends to get more variety. (Sounds great right? To be honest, I really hated it as a teenager!)

Finishing at the top of my class in Home Science every year and finishing a Human Nutrition qualification in 1996, I continuously followed this field of study. The Internet these days can provide solid information on good health., but in the last few years I have realised that personal experience and experimentation is really the ultimate way to study nutrition. Cooking for four people everyday inspired me to research nutrition and the latest trends almost on a daily business. One could say, I took this house-wife role seriously.

A recent discovery of diet branding, it’s marketing and business potential has been keeping me very busy.
Why do we have to name the way we eat.
My husband and I, started to eat the Paleo way about 5 years ago.
He lost a lot of weight and felt really good. I also felt more energetic and increased confidence in my body and its movements. I even started selling Paleo retreats with some success. However after a while I felt it’s dogma and I do not entirely agree with all things Paleo.

The community saturated the market with all kinds of packaged products and books. Kind of defeating the whole purpose. I was one of them I guess, but my product was a holiday based on what I thought the Paleo Ethos was.

Then a well-known Paleo figure, said that my product in Chiang Mai was too relaxed and that Paleo eaters would prefer Bangkok as a destination. In the smog and traffic? That got me thinking. I was offering a relaxed atmosphere, beautiful, amongst organic gardens, yoga, massages, Chinese medicine, ambiance, serenity. I was told this is not my what my target market wants..I had to take this journey, to get a little bit closer to who my real tribe is.

I continued on for another year, only to begin thinking that maybe he was right.Or my marketing skills are really bad – also a possibility…

I started to see Paleo as a brand like anything else, Coke, Nivea, Wholefoods. Anything that has to be marketed that hard, starts to lose it’s authenticity in my eyes.
Or was it my own lack of authenticity? Whilst my husband thrived on the Paleo diet, I did not. I felt spiritually challenged eating so many animal products. I felt uncomfortable at social gatherings and I lacked the discipline. I am happy to eat and serve Paleo meals at my home, but for now I just want to say we eat healthily. We eat non packaged foods, locally grown and locally made.
I think if we eat the way we really want to eat, that weight will simply fall off on its own. Food and emotional stability is connected on so many levels.
Observe mothers who give children food when they cry, offer them ice cream and chocolate when they do the right thing.
It comes from our upbringing, but that is a whole other post.

So my Paleo packages will not be around for much longer. One, because I didn’t sell enough and two, I think I want to rename them.

Less names and brands in my life the better. This gives us all freedom to change our minds and live our life from day to day.