Friday, December 10, 2010

Where do I begin? Getting started with nutrient-dense foods.


  1. Start where you are. This will be different for each of us.

  1. Don’t bring anything into the house that you don’t want to consume

  1. Take small steps, rather than clearing out your cupboards in a dramatic gesture

  1. Educate yourself. Read NOURISHING TRADITIONS. Poke around on the westonaprice.org website.

  1. On the web site, use the search function and put in the words “Making it Practical” to find an excellent series to help you get started.

  1. Take some high-vitamin cod liver oil every day.

  1. Make your own salad dressing.

  1. Eat a good breakfast every day.

  1. Whenever you make roast chicken, make bone broth with all the bones.

  1. Buy the best eggs you can afford.

  1. Try some fermented foods – they are meant to be eaten often, in small quantities, as a condiment.

  1. Forgive yourself for not being perfect.






What does "Traditional Foods" mean?


Foods that your great-grandmother would recognize as food

Foods that are not processed (foods that do not have a nutrition label)

Foods which have been prepared to enhance digestion and nutrition

Foods eaten in season and grown locally


Some examples of a few types of traditional foods:

Whole grain foods

For example, whole grain bread or breakfast porridge made with whole grains and properly soaked before using

Grass-fed beef, pork from pastured pigs, lamb from pastured lambs; pastured chickens and other good meats

Cows evolved to be healthy when eating a diet of grass; most meat in the US is raised in feedlots, where the animals are fed corn and other grains, which causes the animals to get sick a lot (thus needing antibiotics). They are also crowded together in unclean conditions that are hard on the animals and toxic to the environment.

Unpasteurized dairy products

Raw milk cheeses, yogurt, kefir, butter, cream

Eggs from pastured hens

Hens that actually scratch around in the dirt. These eggs are demonstrably more nutritious.

Fish – wild caught

Vegetables – local are best, organic whenever possible

Fermented foods

Sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh, shoyu, are some examples of these enzyme-rich foods. Our ancestors fermented foods to preserve them; we evolved to flourish eating these probiotic-rich foods, but they have largely dropped out of modern diets since refrigeration. Meant to be eaten in small amounts and often.

Nuts and seeds

Soaking and dehydrating makes the nutrients a lot more available to our digestive systems.

Good fats

Butter, lard - pastured animals, coconut, palm, and olive oils



Avoid these:

Low-fat” food-like products, like fat-free coffee creamer, non-fat sour cream etc.

Processed vegetable oils

Hydrogenated oils, margarine

Cold breakfast cereals

Packaged cookies, cakes, baked products

Genetically modified foods

Farm-raised fish

Non-fermented soy products (including soy milk, tofu, soy formula)

Sugar substitutes and food additives

Store-bought baked goods