Nourishing Traditions and Our Switch to A Whole Foods Diet

My little familia has decided to switch to a whole foods diet a la Sally Fallon and Nourishing Traditions. It's been a rough start....





I went food shopping on Tuesday. We started out the morning by taking a trip to Gramen Farms about 15 minutes from my house in Houston. My 7 year old couldn't believe there is a farm in the middle of the city. When we arrived I realized how Urban my children have become. Olivia had never seen a chicken, and Iris had only seen one at a petting zoo. I had chickens growing up, and goats and a pig and even a duck for a while. We raised rabbits and had a garden. Alex had some livestock around while he was growing up in Mexico, too. I wish we could offer more of those experiences to the kids! Anyway, Olivia caught and petted a chicken. We bought raw milk, raw chocolate milk, eggs, cream and grass fed beef bones for broth. After we took that stuff home we went to HEB and bought the rest of our food. Here is what the diet looks like:

• The diets of healthy primitive and nonindustrialized peoples contain no refined or denatured foods such as refined sugar or corn syrup; white flour; canned foods; pasteurized, homogenized, skim or low-fat milk; refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils; protein powders; artificial vitamins or toxic additives and colorings.

• All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal protein and fat from fish and other seafood; water and land fowl; land animals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects.

• Primitive diets contain at least four times the calcium and other minerals and TEN times the fat soluble vitamins from animal fats (vitamin A, vitamin D and the Price Factor–now believed to be vitamin K2) as the average American diet.

• In all traditional cultures, some animal products are eaten raw.

• Primitive and traditional diets have a high food-enzyme content from raw dairy products, raw meat and fish; raw honey; tropical fruits; cold-pressed oils; wine and unpasteurized beer; and naturally preserved, lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages, meats and condiments.

• Seeds, grains and nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened in order to neutralize naturally occuring antinutrients in these foods, such as phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, tannins and complex carbohydrates.

• Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% but only about 4% of calories come from polyunsaturated oils naturally occurring in grains, pulses, nuts, fish, animal fats and vegetables. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.

• Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.

• All primitive diets contain some salt.

• Traditional cultures consume animal bones, usually in the form of gelatin-rich bone broths.

• Traditional cultures make provisions for the health of future generations by providing special nutrient-rich foods for parents-to-be, pregnant women and growing children; by proper spacing of children; and by teaching the principles of right diet to the young.


This will mean a lot of extra work for me. Right now my fridge is stuffed full of fruit and veggies that I still need to cut and freeze. I did manage to make some fish stock 2 days ago. I will post the pictures tomorrow.

Have you changed your diet recently to include healthier foods or exercising?