Traditional Foods in a Nutshell

The last few days, Nourished Kitchen has experienced a spike in readership, and I want to welcome all those new readers to the site with a back-to-basics approach to Traditional Foods.   This is a print it out and pin it to your fridge kind of post, and even those readers who’ve been with the site a long time may find benefit in the overview.

What are Traditional Foods?

Traditional foods are those foods which nourished our ancestors throughout history and prehistory prior to the advent of the industrialization of food. The industrialization of food largely began in the 19th century and entrenched itself in standard diets of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Deeply nourishing, traditional foods as our ancestors knew them were unprocessed, naturally raised, largely raw and decidedly unrefined. These foods represent the natural diet of humankind and, as such, nourished the natural growth and evolution of the human species for thousands of years prior to the industrialization of food.

Why choose Traditional Foods?

Anthropological data suggest that those cultures subsisting entirely or largely on native, unrefined foods prepared according to time-honored traditions enjoy better health than peoples consuming a largely refined diet of modern foods. Infertility, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, mental illness, obesity, dental cavities and other diseases were largely absent in cultures subsisting on a native diet of unrefined foods. Whole foods lead to whole health.

What are the basics behind the Traditional Foods movement?

In the simplest explanation, traditional foods focused on four basic principles: 1) avoidance of modern, refined foods; 2) celebration of unrefined, whole and natural foods; 3) respecting the importance of nutrient-density in our food and 4) preparing and eating foods in the same manner that nourished our ancestors and kept them well. In essence, if your great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, don’t put it in your mouth.

Traditional Foods in Greater Detail

• A Glossary of Real food Terms
• Reasons to Drink Raw Milk
• Eat Your Beef & Butter: CLA Disease and Diet
• 10 Reasons NOT to Give Up Red Meat
• Fermented Food: Benefits of Lactic Acid Fermentation
• A Guide to Natural Sweeteners and How to Use Them
• Modern Sweeteners: What They Are and What They Do
• When Natural Foods Aren’t Natural: Agave Nectar
• Sprouted Grain: The How and Why
• The Benefits of Bone Broth

Traditional Food: Meat, Fish and Fowl

Animal foods held a time-honored place throughout the world prior to the saturated fat scare of the mid to late 20th century. Native Americans celebrated the hunt. The Inuit subsisted almost entirely on raw animal meat and fat during the long, dark, arctic winters. The Irish traditionally made heavy use of seafood and mutton. Pork and fish held a special place in the native diet of Okinawa. In every culture, the whole animal was traditionally used. Bones became broth. Lard, tallow and suet helped to preserve and cook other foods. Kidneys, hearts, liver and other nutrient-dense organ meats were prized most of all.

It’s important to note that, cross-globally, animals traditionally raised for food subsisted on their natural diets in open pasture for land animals or in clean streams and oceans for fish. This natural practice translates to improved micronutrient content in the meat and fat of animal foods. Clean food for the animals means clean animal food for you.

Wise Choices: Choose grass-finished beef, lamb, bison, elk, venison and goat meat. Choose wild-caught, but sustainable fish including liberal inclusion of mollusks like clams, oysters and mussels as well as cold-water fish like salmon. Choose pasture-raised poultry, eggs and pork. Don’t eschew the other parts of the animal: fish roe, liver and other foods are important too. Bone broth and nourishing stocks. Don’t shy away from raw animal food, either. Incorporate sashimi, raw egg yolk, cured ham, carpaccio and steak tartare into your diet. (View sources for grass-finished and pasture-raised animal foods.)

Skip: Conventional, factory farmed meats and animal foods.

Traditional Food: Fat and Oil

Natural fats, including animal fats and unrefined oils, are an excellent source of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. While advocating the consumption of dietary fat – particularly animal fat – may seem counterintuitive in a fat-phobic nation, dietary fat is an important and neglected nutrient. And while the ADA and other organizations recommend a diet of comprised of no more than 30% fat by calorie, that recommendation does not jive with the diet human beings naturally enjoyed for thousands of years prior to the latter part of the 20th century. Indeed, research conducted on the macronutrient profile of traditional diets indicates that most pre-industrial societies consumed much more than 30% of their calories from fat. Some cultures even consumed upwards of 80% of their calories as fat – and thrived free from heart disease, diabetes and other ills.

Keep in mind, however, they consumed natural dietary fats not fats and oiled derived through intense manufacture. Moreover, much of their natural fat intake came from saturated and monounsaturated sources; very little derived from polyunsaturated fats.

Wise Choices: Ghee, raw butter and raw cream from grass-fed cows. Tallow and suet from grass-finished cows, bison, elk and other ruminant animals. Lard from pasture-raised pigs. Fat from pasture-raised ducks and geese as well as schmaltz from pasture-raised chickens. Unrefined coconut oil. Palm kernel oil. Unrefined, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil. (View sources for wholesome fats.)

Skip: Refined oils and solvent-extracted oils. Soybean oil. Canola oil. Corn oil. Vegetable oil. Margarine. Shortening. Manufactured trans-fats.

Traditional Foods: Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables, like animal foods, were consumed by all preindustrial societies; however, as with meat, the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed relative to other foods varied from culture to culture and season to season based on regional and local availability. Vegetables and fruit were grown in mineral-rich soil, not soil depleted by over-farming and industrial agriculture practices. Vegetables and fruit were always organically grown because synthetic inputs like chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides simply didn’t yet exist.

Like animal foods, many plant foods were eaten in their raw state or preserved through lactic acid fermentation. Take care to consume the bulk of your vegetables raw or naturally fermented through traditional techniques.

Wise Choices: All organic or certified naturally grown fruits and vegetables – preferably from small farms that practice good soil management techniques. Mostly raw, and largely fermented when raw produce is not (or would not naturally be) seasonally available. (View sources of traditionally fermented vegetables.)

Skip: The “dirty dozen” or most contaminated fruits and vegetables. (View contamination by crop at What’s in Your Food.) Cooking all of your vegetables.

Nuts, Seeds, Grains and Legumes

Grains and legumes were not regularly consumed cross-globally in pre-industrial societies; however, many cultures have a rich heritage that celebrates grain and bread. Prior to industrialization, grains were consumed in their whole, unrefined form. Refined, white rice was not widely available until the middle of the 20th century. Grains and legumes were customarily fermented, soaked, partially germinated or sprouted prior to cooking. These traditional practices neutralized antinutrients naturally present in whole grains and legumes thus increasing overall digestibility and the ability to more fully absorb the minerals and vitamins naturally present in these foods.

Similarly, nuts and seeds – though often eaten raw – were also soaked in a salty solution prior to serving or roasted. This practice activated food enzymes which neutralized enzyme inhibitors that make nuts difficult to digest for many people.

Wise Choice: Soaked and dried organic nuts and seeds. And, if you tolerate them, grains: whole grain sourdough breads and sourdough noodles, sprouted grain and sprouted grain flours, slow-rise breads and recipes calling for soaking. Tempeh, miso and natto. (View sources for sprouted grain flour.)

Skip: Quick breads. Refined flour and grains. White rice. White flour. Muffins, cookies, pastries, breads, noodles and other grain products made with non-sprouted grains. Non-soaked or non-roasted nuts and seeds. Soy-based meat- and dairy-alternatives.

Milk and Dairy Products

While dairy products were not consumed cross-globally, in those cultures that did consume dairy products one thing remained fairly constant: dairy was consumed raw or fermented. Pasteurization as a practice wasn’t invented until the middle of the 19th century and wasn’t routinely applied to dairy products until the 20th century. Prior to that, dairy was almost always consumed in its raw state with boiled milk being an anomaly, not the norm.

As with other animals raised for food, dairy cows were, until the late 19th century, raised on pasture with access to nutrient-dense grasses that optimized the herd’s health. Healthy milk, you see, comes from healthy animals fed their natural diet. Of course consumption of dairy wasn’t restricted to cow’s milk; rather, yaks, goats, sheep, camels and other animals were raised for their milk.

Wise Choices: Raw whole milk, raw cream and raw butter from grass-fed animals. Raw whole milk yogurt, kefir, sour cream and cheese. (View sources for yogurts.)

Skip: Skimmed milk. Dairy substitutes. Milk from conventional, industrial dairies including industrial Organic dairies. Ultra-high temperature pasteurized milks and creams.

Sweeteners

Sweeteners never comprised a substantial part of diet until the middle of the 20th century. Sweeteners were difficult to find and rarely available – especially among the poor. Of those cultures with access to sweetener, sweeteners were rarely refined. White sugar, agave nectar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, liquid stevia, white stevia and artificial sweeteners simply did not exist. Due to lack of access more than lack of interest, sweeteners were rarely used – a sort of forced moderation, if you will.

Wise Choices: Unrefined, raw honey. Molasses. Unrefined cane sugar including sucanat and rapadura. Sorghum syrup. Maple syrup. Maple sugar. Green stevia. Coconut and palm sugar. Raw sugar cane. Date sugar. All in very limited quantities, if at all.

Skip: White, brown, demerara, turbinado sugars and sugar in the raw (it’s really not raw, folks). High fructose corn syrup. Corn syrup. Beet sugar. Aspartame, sucralose and other non-caloric artificial sweeteners. Liquid stevia, white stevia powder, xylitol, sugar alcohols and agave nectar are all modern, manufactured and intensely processed though they still sit on your health food store shelves.

Lastly, take care to sleep fully, exercise gently, get plenty of natural sunlight and enjoy your life and family. Social connections, family and even faith play a critically important role in both wellness and longevity.

Cross-posted at Fight Back Friday.

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