Switch to Real Foods, One Step at a Time

I remember when I first read Nourishing Traditions. I had just had my first baby, had no time to even consider cooking, and was breastfeeding literally all of the time.

I devoured every page of that book. And then I felt completely overwhelmed.

I thought “There’s no way!” That book suggested that every thing I ate should either be prepared differently or cut out all together. Not to mention the fact that it involved a lot of work, or so it seemed. How could I possibly do all of this?

The answer is one step at a time. I still have a long way to go, but for anyone else who seems overwhelmed by the thought of preparing real, traditional foods, I thought I’d share what worked for me.

Eat good fats and more of them. Most of us have been influenced by the low-fat mantra and our health has paid for it. Eat butter, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, lard and tallow freely. Preferably organic. Use it for cooking, flavoring your cooked vegetables and making homemade salad dressings.

Change your dairy options. The best dairy products are raw – milk, cheese, cream, etc. If you can’t get those try to find unhomogenized milk and dairy products that are organic or at least free of hormones and antibiotics.

Start buying meat with bones. Buy whole chickens, beef roasts on the bone, etc.

Make stock out of those bones. I thought making stock would be so difficult. Once I did it and realized it require almost no effort, I found a rhythm of cooking a chicken once every week or two and then making 3-4 quarts of delicious stock in my crock pot.

Eat more raw foods. This is pretty easy, as it saves the the time of having to cook something. Raw vegetables and fruits can be eaten at every meal to add valuable enzymes that will aid in digestion.

Start adding fermented foods. Start with familiar things like yogurt and kefir. Then start making your own lacto-fermented vegetables. Eventually you can add in fermented beverages like kombucha.

Choose one of these things to focus on at a time. Once you feel comfortable with the changes you have made, move on to another one. Over the course of a year you can make all of these changes comfortably and easily. And then you will be on the road to better health.