I've been reading up on the paleo diet, and also the Japanese diet, for a few weeks now and I'm thinking I might want to make a switch. Even if I don't remove all the grains, I could at least remove the fatty meats, and eat more vegetables.

I was vegetarian for a few years as a teenager, but I never really took it seriously. I didn't eat meat but also didn't eat that many veggies either, so it was mostly a copout. Nowadays I don't eat anything that doesn't come out of a box and especially if it can't be eaten straight from the microwave.

I'd like to change that but I'd like to make it count, so it will be a slow process. One of the goals for me is to eat fish at least 2 or 3 times a week and start cutting out beans and bread. I've gotten rid of my morning cereal and replaced it with vegetable soup, however it's still just canned soup that includes beans and probably a high sodium level, although I haven't checked.

Now as for the fish, I've always hated fish as a kid. It was typical that when my family went to go out to a fancy restaurant that my mother would always exclude the seafood ones since I would refuse to eat it. I think it was just the horrible smell that set me off, but from what I understand the smell is actually caused by improper storage (i.e. the bacteria growing on it) and not from the fish itself.

So my question is, how can I break this aversion? I want to go with a slow gradual change. I was thinking I could start eating tuna on a semi-regular basis, which would only be temporary. After a month or so I could get used to the taste and incorporate other types of canned fish. After a few more months I might work my way up to eating a healthier variety from a market, and then at some point, say around this time next year I could learn how to cook fish.

Suggestions?

Fatty meats are probably okay. As I said, I've only been reading about this for a few weeks. But personally I'd like to switch to mostly fish and sometimes chicken but little if any beef or pork. I haven't done as much reading about this, so I could just be talking out my ass but fish is said by many to be a "brain food" and my current goal is to be as mentally productive as possible. And also, I think the Japanese have it way more on target than us since they have a longer life expectancy than us, with their main meat being fish.

That's interesting.. I'll keep that in mind. I did some searching to find out exactly how much omega-3's are contained in fish vs. grass fed beef. I found this link: (http://www.tufts.edu/med/nutrition-infection/hiv/health_omega3.html) which includes fish, nuts and seeds, and greens but not any other meats. I'm curious to know how they compare.

Why the hell would you remove fatty meats?

It's not so much removing fatty meats but trying to find meats that are better for cognitive performance.

I was under the impression that certain oils in fish and meat were necessary for proper brain development. This is different to eating fish for a week and expecting your brain to work better the following week.

So my question is, how can I break this aversion? I want to go with a slow gradual change.

I don't think there's any way around it. You just have to do it. About two years ago, I had a handful of vegetarian friends who said it was "so hard" to be vegetarian. I proved them wrong by going vegan for 30 days (to shut them up). Before this time, I didn't really eat a lot of veggies. Peppers were gross, I hated anything tomato-y, broccoli was terrible, peas were blegh... etc. So I dove into it. It was only 30 days, I could eat gross food for 30 days.

But something happened. I realized that what you "like" is more of a learned behavior than anything else. Day 1 I ate some peas and corn - gross. Day 2 I ate the same thing and put soy sauce on it - it was ok. Day 3 I left off the soy sauce - it was ok. Day 4 it was better than ok. This is just the way these things work. Want to eat fish? Then eat fish. Tough it out for a few days, knowing that it will get better.

Also, sauces are your friend. And don't start with the "fishy" fish, like mackrel. Stick with salmon, maybe tilapia or cod...

Ya, there was another article on neurology.org that seems to support it..
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/62/2/275

But regardless of all that, I think I'm at a forum of mostly red meat eaters, so it seems any questions about fish are going to cause some strange looks.. Thanks anyways, though.

I am a big follower of imminst.org.

I always find it interesting how immortality and longevity organizations always ignore caloric restriction, which is a proven mechanism for life extension.  I searched for it on the imminst.org site and only got two hits, both of which were peripheral mentions.

If you want to live a long time, you may want to look into caloric restriction and CRON (calorie restriction with optimal nutrition).