Food

What are Traditional Foods?

Traditional foods ARE the foods that our ancestors ate.

Traditional foods ARE the foods available to our grandparents and great grandparents, before modern processing.

Traditional foods ARE often referred to as ‘real food’ and ‘slow food’.

Traditional foods ARE mostly local in source and regional in cuisine.

Traditional foods ARE delicious, full of diverse and naturally occurring flavors.

Traditional foods promote health and vitality and protect us from disease.

Traditional foods offer nutrients needed for healthy conception, pregnancy, growing infants and children.

These ARE foods grown on small to medium-scale, organic farms or ethically wild-gathered from largely local sources.

Animals ARE cared for with traditional and humane husbandry techniques and fed their natural food diets.

Traditional foods ARE nutrient-dense.

Traditional foods ARE foods prepared in ways that maximize nutrients & digestibility.

They ARE prepared in ways that anyone with home kitchen tools could do.

Traditional prepared foods ARE composed of recognizable food ingredients and generally few.

What They Are Not

Traditional foods ARE NOT new, industrial, machine-made foods that were not available to our ancestors.

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods grown on large scale and industrially managed farms.

Traditional foods ARE NOT grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Traditional foods ARE NOT genetically modified and contain no ‘GMO’s’.

Traditional foods ARE NOT from animals or fish that have been industrially raised in inhumane conditions and fed foods that are not natural to their species.

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods that are transported over long distances when similar foods are available locally.

Traditional foods DO NOT have ’empty’ calories, nor synthetic vitamins added.

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods that are processed in a way to unnaturally alter or preserve foods.

Traditional foods ARE NOT foods that have been processed with solvents, high heat, irradiated or otherwise treated in factory machines. They DO NOT have any chemical additives, flavors or preservatives. They DO NOT have large ingredient lists composed of unfamiliar or chemical items.

Tips on Eating Traditional Food

Basically, these recommendations are geared towards eating foods that your grandparent’s generation ate and avoiding the “displacing foods of modern commerce” (as nutrition researcher Dr. Price described modern foods in the 1930’s). While there may be debates about diet particulars, there is a consensus that modern ailments are linked to many of our modern industrially processed foods.

Basically traditional foods is delicious nutrition, food we often crave if we are not addicted to processed foods – not nutrition in a tasteless, hard to swallow, hard to absorb pill

What is offered here is a basic outline of traditional food suggestions based on common modern and Western preferences. It is not exhaustive, nor geared to particular health concerns.

The hope is these guidelines will feel like good common sense. These foods, properly prepared, have been shown time and time again to restore gut and immune health, along with vitality.

Note: Eating at regular times of the day and ‘fasting’ between meals is also very beneficial for digestive health.

Breakfast

Breakfast is an important meal to have everyday. It is desirable to have protein at breakfast as well. Proteins at breakfast are particularly helpful if you if you work physically with your body or lead a high stress life. It is especially important for children to have a nourishing breakfast before school.

• Eggs: The simplest being, poached or fried eggs. With organic, pastured eggs it is desirable to have the yolk raw. The yolk is the most nutrient dense part of the egg with the vitamins and Om3’s, and some of the nutrients are destroyed in cooking. (Though eggs are also very nutritious when cooked!) The whites of the egg should always be cooked, as they are more difficult to digest.
• Hot oatmeal or grain Preferably soaked overnight with warm water, a pinch of unrefined salt, and a bit of some pro-biotic such as whey or yogurt. Presoaking helps make the grain more digestible, as well as speeding up cooking considerably. ( this is the old-time way to have quick oats!) Add apples, cinnamon, soaked nuts, raw honey/maple syrup or other preferred foods. Avoid precooked oats.
• Whole milk, live-culture Yogurt or Kefir in a bowl with fruit (or no-sugar jam) or as a smoothie (add a organic raw egg yolk for added nutrition). Avoid low-fat yogurt (see info below). If crunchiness of granola is desired seek out a pre-soaked version.
• Animal proteins Organic, no-nitrate bacon/ sausage or other proteins (left-overs are quick option).
• Vegetables Greens (even parsley) and onions are a great accompaniment with and in eggs. Yesterdays leftovers ( see below) can be a quick option
• Yesterday’s leftovers & other foods served at lunch or dinner. Breakfast could be many things according to your tastes. For example, miso soup with seaweed is served for breakfast in Japan. (Yet, cooked food leftover for more than a day tends to loose vital energy)
• Sourdough whole grain breads, Naturally leavened (check labels as many producers claim sourdough but have sourdough flavors added in ) with organic butter (preferably raw and/or cultured) The long slow fermentation of sourdoughs aids digestibility and also lowers the glycemic spie.. Spelt and rye have slightly lower gluten content. Avoid all breakfast cereals except fermented & dried grain cereals

Drinks & Supplements

• Fresh lemon juice in water first thing in the morning is beneficial for liver and digestion. Sipping lemon juice in water with meals is also a good drink and readily available in restaurants.
• Herb tea A day’s infusion of an herb tea can easily be made the evening before. Or just drinking a glass warm (or counter temperature) water in the morning is beneficial. Drink filtered or local spring water. Avoid ice-cold water and drinks as they cool down the warmth of stomach digestion.
• Pro-biotic drinks such as raw milk, kombucha, kvass, beet kvass, kefir & water kefir ‘sodas’
• Fermented Cod-Liver Oil daily If this is unavailable seek out a natural high vitamin cod liver oil. A tablespoon before breakfast (though any time is fine). Seek out quality CLO as many producers add unlabeled synthetic vitamins lost in their processing.
• Bitter herb formulas or other herb digestives The bitter taste stimulates digestive juices and bile and was once common in traditional cuisines in greens/ salads and digestive drinks. A few drops of concentrated herb bitters such as Dandelion root, Yellow Dock, Gentian, Artichoke, and Angelica will aid healthy digestion, and is especially helpful before (or after) large meals. Avoid regular use of bitters with Senna or Casara Sagrada, as they stimulate bowel release rather than tonify natural peristalsis as other bitters do.
• High quality Pro-biotic If there is digestive and immune weakness taking a pro-biotic is very helpful. In traditional diets beneficial probiotics came from the regular consumption of fermented foods and drinks

Lunch

Lunch is traditionally the day’s main meal for most cultures. It is when our digestive fire is at its peak.

• Vegetables – Seek to vary the vegetable colors. Dark leafy greens (having a high mineral content) benefit from cooking with a fat for vitamin absorption and an acid like lemon juice or vinegar to help break down cell walls where much of the minerals are stored. Cooked vegetables are easier to digest and recommended for those with digestive ills, as the fiber can be irritating.
• Animal meats and fish – particularly the organs! Seek out food form pastured animals and wild, sustainably fished fish. Organs are the most nutrient dense part of an animal and traditionally valued over muscle meat. If one is on the run a good quality liverwurst or paté is good way to have organs in your diet. Vegetables assist the digestion of animal proteins.
• Pre-soaked, well cooked grains and legumes – Rice and other grains require soaking as do beans to neutralize the phytic acid and other compounds that are on the surface of all seeds that impede digestion. Cook grains with stock for added nutrition and digestibility. Slow cook beans with Kombu seaweed.
• Lacto-fermented vegetables and fermented foods – A fermented food such as, sauerkraut, pickles, miso, yogurt or kombucha, as a condiment with each meal is a traditional and wonderful way to aid digestion. Live fermented foods are always in the refrigerated sections of stores and shouldn’t be cooked.
• Cook with traditional fats – Ghee (clarified butter) lard (organic) and coconut oil are stable lipids for high heat cooking. Butter, sesame oil and olive oil are best in a light sauté or raw. Avoid modern vegetable oils such as soy, corn and canola oils
• Wild foods – These are loaded with concentrated nutrients and offer us their wild vitality. Some wild foods are cultivated and available from markets such as burdock and dandelion. Nettles and other food herbs are available from many farmers if you ask. Sea Vegetables are also a nutrient-dense and detoxifying food. Herbal teas are other ways to have wild plants in your diet. If you have access to sustainable and humanely hunted wild game and fish, these are most vital foods as well.
• Cook with culinary herbs and roots – Ginger, garlic, mint, rosemary, thyme, oregano, cinnamon, cardamom are common examples. They not only taste great but they stimulate good digestion. Take care to use fresh organic, non-irradiated culinary herbs that retain their color & fragrance.
• Cook with unrefined salt – Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Salt. Unrefined salts are a necessary and beneficial part of nutrition, and are not white! Most sea salts in stores have been bleached white and processed to remove all the minerals naturally in the salt.

Dinner

While this has become the main meal for people to eat together in modern culture, it is best to eat a bit lighter for dinner and not so late. Avoid going to bed with a full stomach.

• See meal recommendations for lunch only eat on the lighter side preferably.
• Soups make from gelatin-rich bone broths – A perfect meal for dinner. One can puree the lunch vegetables in a broth for quick soup. Top soups with créme fresh or yogurt for added live enzymes

Snacks and Quick Foods

These can be good travel foods.

• Seasonal, fresh fruits
• Raw cheese, hard boiled eggs
• Meat & fish spreads & jerkies liver pate, liverwurst and other pate are great ways to include organs into your diet. Pemmican was a travel food of Native Americans
• Nuts – preferably presoaked and dried. Nuts like other seed foods contain phytic acids in their coating that inhibit digestion and the absorption of minerals if consumed in large amounts.

Desserts

Sweets are a natural taste and the first taste we had in our mother’s milk. Traditionally sweets were difficult to come by and a special treat, rather than a regular taste. Avoid processed, overly sweet and devitalized sweets.

• Raw honey, maple syrup, dehydrated natural cane sugar (Rapudra) is OK occasionally. Seek out local raw honey as a great deal of honey from industrially managed honey bees that are fed sugar water. Also much of the honey imported from Asia has the pollen removed which ithe aspect of honey that offers the nutrients.
• Green Stevia (NOT processed white powder), a sweet no-sugar herb, can be used instead of aspartame (a neuro-toxin!). While there is no sugar in stevia it still stimulates the sweet receptors and as with sugar should be avoided in generous amounts
• Fruits Apples and berries are low in on the glycemic index. Stewed fruits are simple and digestible treat and can be topped with fermented cream (see below)
• A quick and delectable desert can be berries with either raw cream, raw cultured creme fresh raw cultured sour cream or yogurt with vanilla and a little maple syrup if desired
• Healthy fats and herbs like cinnamon with sweets slow down the blood-sugar spike
• Dark chocolate or cocoa or carob occasionally. Seek out organic and raw and with a low amount of natural sugar, as other forms of
• Bake with fresh and/or sprouted grains and traditional fats. Many desert baked goods can be made with sourdough started or other innoculant soaked grains. Pastry flour has a slightly lower gluten content.
• Whipped cream, créme fresh or maple syrup yogurt to top dessert rather than ice cream. Seek out raw and grass fed dairy and avoid ultrapasterized. Modern ice cream contains many additives. Also the cold can lower one’s digestive fire. But homemade coconut milk or raw milk ice cream can be a special treat.