When you are committing to the paleo diet, you won’t want to overlook anything, including sauces and condiments. If you are a fan of peeping up your sandwiches with a dollop of mayo or ketchup, you’ll need to know whether or not you are sending your diet out of whack.
Mayonnaise is that delicious eggy sauce that we all like to smear on our chicken or salad as a guilty pleasure. A common filling in sandwiches and on burgers, this one has been known to have a high taste as well as very high cholesterol. But the key question is: is it suitable for your paleo diet?
Thankfully, mayo lovers out there can breathe a sigh of relief – it is suitable for your paleo diet. However, this will all depend on which mayo that you decide to buy.
A lot of shop-bought mayo contains ingredients that are full of preservatives. We’ll have a look at some of the ingredients that won’t be suitable later in the article.
So what exactly is in mayonnaise? How can you make it work with your paleo diet? Are there any health benefits to eating mayo? Is there a paleo-friendly mayo that you can get on the market? Is there a way of making your very own paleo mayo? What are the ingredients that you need to make your own paleo mayo?
Well, if you want the answers to all of these paleo questions and a lot more, then we would suggest that you keep on reading. We have everything you need to know about mayo and how to eat it within the strict rules of the paleo manifesto.
Is Mayonnaise Suitable For The Paleo Diet?
The short answer to this is yes, although there is a catch. Most mayo that you can get at your local supermarket comes with ingredients such as soybean oil, which are definitely not in keeping with the paleo mantra of eating as the cavemen do.
This soybean oil has an unhealthy level of unstable PUFA’s which have been said to contribute to very harmful stomach inflammation. This can really stall your progress, especially if you are suffering from stomach inflammation or chronic bowel conditions such as IBS.
Mayo also has an unhealthy balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which means that it will not give you the fluids that you need to keep your joints and your brain healthy. It also has a lot of processed ingredients contained within, with high levels of hydrogenation and oxidation.
If you are going to try mayo with your paleo diet, then we would recommend that you avoid any commercially produced mayo that you can buy in the shops.
Where Can You Buy Paleo Mayonnaise?
There are plenty of companies that can supply you with paleo mayonnaise, but you’ll have to be sure that you are looking at the label carefully before consumption. You can get gluten-free mayo, which will drastically reduce the level of preservatives and not cause you too much stomach inflammation.
You should also get mayo that comes with an alternative to the olive oil that you normally find in this food. We would recommend that you pick up some avocado oil mayonnaise, as this will not cause you too much inflammation in your gut.
This type of paleo mayo really can give you a lot more health benefits than the usual stuff that you can get on the market. This is because a lot of paleo mayo comes without olive or sunflower oil, both of which are very high in monounsaturated fatty acids.
If you opt for avocado oil rather than olive oil, then you can be sure of having a great source of vitamin E that will help protect you against certain auto-immune diseases that flare up when you’re getting too many carbs in your daily diet.
How Can You Make Your Very Own Paleo Mayo?
If you have the right tools at your disposal – such as a food processor, a blender or an immersion blender – then you can whip yourself up some homemade paleo mayonnaise in a relatively quick amount of time.
There are a wide variety of ingredients that you can get for this mayo, including bacon oil and ghee, but we would recommend anything that uses avocado oil or, failing that, the usual olive or sunflower oil.
Another bonus about making your own mayonnaise is that you can mix and match certain ingredients to get that taste and consistency that you want. This is a great recipe for tailor-making your own paleo mayo and sticking to your strict diet.
The Ingredients
Rustling up your own paleo mayo will only require a few different ingredients:
Half a cup of extra virgin olive oil
Half a cup of avocado oil
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 eighth of a teaspoon of fine sea salt
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
The Recipe
Firstly, mix the eggs and the lemon juice and allow it to sit in your bowl for around an hour.
Now mix the avocado oil, the olive oil, the eggs, the mustard and the sea salt in a food processor.
While the blender is still running, drizzle in the remaining olive and avocado oil. This should not take too long, no more than 2 or 3 minutes until you get the right consistency.
Now keep blending the mixture for an additional minute, making sure that the mixture is nice and smooth.
Stir in the lemon juice.
Place your mixture to chill in the refrigerator. You can keep this for up to a week in the fridge.
