It really depends on whether you’re looking for moderate carbs or something with the fewest anti-nutrient in case you want a significant amount of carbs, say,on a natural diet: 100-150g per day.

I’d say the best sources are berries for moderate carbs. For full-blown carbage, that’s gotta go to roots / tubers: sweet potato, turnip, parsnip, and so on.

“Q: In the article in today’s email “The Paleo Diet Promotes Greater Vitality in Later Years” by Pedro Bastos he writes about the Okinawan Diet. He writes that they don’t eat potatoes but I understand that they eat lots of Sweet Potatoes.

A: Yes, probably they ate big amounts of sweet potatoes as some hunter-gatherers do in Kitava-Papua New Guinea. Our ancestors didn’t have an universal diet because it depended on climate, season, latitude, culture, etc. This means that the amount of carbohydrates they ate varied substantially. So, for instance in Kitava they eat a lot of carbohydrates and still have no obesity, so it seems as if some bioactive substances of neolithic foods are responsible for hormonal disruption rather than merely carbohydrate content.

However, there’s a big difference between potatoes and sweet potatoes. Potatoes are a good source of some known harmful substances namely saponins. They have the ability to increase intestinal permeability and hence increase the risk of autoimmune diseases (in genetically predisposed individuals), and induce low-grade chronic inflammation which is at the root of many chronic degenerative diseases. On the other hand, there’s some preliminary data suggesting that some bioactive substances, such as lectins and saponins, contained in potatoes, grains, legumes, etc. can bind hormonal receptors impairing their function. This could be the case of leptin receptor leading to leptin resistance and some metabolic disorders.

Potatoes is a very new food for humans as they came from America less than 600 years ago. On the other hand, it seems that sweet potatoes are part of the human diet since a long time ago.”

As a college student I am always looking for economical pastured meats; I’ll keep hanger steak in mind. The subsequent info about potatoes/sweet potatoes in the comments was interesting. Since I’m already young, fit, and into strength/power training I’m not worried about “weight loss” so I like to incorporate a lot of paleo carbs like fruits, squash and sweet potatoes. Just to clarify – sweet potatoes have less anti-nutrients than regular potatoes?

In your opinion Richard, what are the healthiest paleo carb choices?

http://www.food-info.net/uk/products/rt/spotato.htm

Looks like raffinose, which seems harmless except for flatulence (so, matter of opinion, there . There’s also trypsin inhibitor, but looks like cooking dispenses with that.

Seems to work for me, but probably won’t for everyone. Gotta self-experiment.

Thank you for sharing that story. My friend’s father told a similar
one recently. He was in China/Taiwan after the Japanese invaded.
He said his rations were one potato/yam per day. “Good food” is
somewhat relative. Even the “bad foods”, wheat sugar, industrial
meat are good for you IF that is your only source of calories. In the
West, our food choices are many and we can choose to eat what
we want. Most of the people in the West (US) choose to eat foods
that are known to cause an inflammatory process in the body.
Thank goodness we have those choices as many people have no
choice at all. I think the goal of eliminating wheat, potatoes and
sugar is strive for optimal health.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato#Toxicity

Doesn’t mean you can’t eat them, and they’re certainly better than nothing, but they’re not an optimally nutritious food especially considering the high carb content.

I lived through WWII in East Germany through and after the war. If it were not for potatoes, I would not be alive today. When you have nothing to eat but potatoes and weeds you can find in the fields (what cattle eat) and and bones you get out of garbage cans and cook it, and survive that, you might change your mind about the value of potatoes. I am now nearly 72, doing mostly paleo (about 80%) which I thank my son Richard for, and as healthy and strong as a fifty year old. Anybody want to take me on in arm resteling?