Top 15 Healthy Eating Tips (More Butter, Please)
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Here are my Top 15 Healthy Eating Tips — based on traditional ways of eating. And yes, it involves eating more butter. (Hooray!)
Nutrition is so confusing these days. Everyone’s telling you to eat low fat, eat soy, eat more fruits and vegetables, go vegan.
And yet these days we are sicker than ever. Just look at the rise in diabetes, heart disease, autism, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, dental decay, gluten intolerance — just to name a few.
If we look back at the way our ancestors ate — they were extremely healthy eating traditional diets. Using traditional fats like lard and butter, soaking their grains, never eating soy, and eating plenty of animal fats (in other words, not subsisting entirely on produce — there were no healthy vegan societies).
And if you read Dr. Weston Price’s book (and I highly recommend that you do) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
You can also read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration for free online. Take a few moments, click on some chapters, and peruse the photographs. You will be amazed. Look at the before photos of the people eating a traditional diet, and then see the after photos of what happened to them after they started eating industrial foods.
This book completely changed my life. Read about how I reversed my arthritis, allergies, chronic fatigue, melasma and tooth decay. I have even eliminated PMS and menstrual cramps with traditional food.
So here’s my list of my Top 15 Healthy Eating Tips. Do what you can — be it a little or a lot. And don’t forget to have that extra pat of butter!
1. Make your own salad dressing and mayonnaise. This is one of the easiest things you can do to start on a path of healthy eating. Salad dressing is a snap. For salad dressing recipes, pick up a copy of Sally Fallon’s cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
Avoid commercial salad dressings and mayonnaise (as well as items that contain these things like storebought potato salad). They are all made with either canola oil or soybean oil. These are things you do not want to digest for a number of reasons (GMOs which cause all sorts of health problems, thyroid disorders, phytic acid which interferes with mineral absorption, just to name a few).
Use real olive oil purchased from a farm or producer that you trust. (I recommend Chaffin Family Orchards. Their oil is very mild and it makes great mayonnaise and dressing.)
2. Buy organic as much as you can — but particularly when it comes to meat, eggs and dairy products. A lot of people think about buying organic only when it comes to fruits and vegetables. But in reality, fruits and vegetables are the least of your concern.
The most important foods to buy organic are meats, eggs and dairy products. This is because animals in factory farms are fed a steady diet of soybeans and corn. Those soybeans and corn are not only heavily sprayed with pesticides, they are also genetically modified. Add to that a ton of hormones and antibiotics.
Not to mention the fact that cows and chickens were never meant to eat a high-grain diet. It makes them sick, and creates pathogens. For more on this, read Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Buy organic meat and dairy products as much as you can. If possible, buy grass-fed or pastured meat and dairy products. When buying cured meats like bacon or sausage, make sure they do not contain nitrates; nitrates are carcinogenic.
3. Avoid packaged and processed foods. Not only are processed foods full of additives (like MSG) and GMOs, and high fructose corn syrup, they also often contain bad fats like soybean oil, vegetable oil and cottonseed oil.
Read labels! If it has suspicious things in it, or things you cannot pronounce, do not buy it! This includes even the seemingly innocent Girl Scout Cookies. Full of hydrogenated oils and GMOs, not to mention white sugar. Oh, and aspartame. Avoid that like the plague. It’s carcinogenic — which means it causes cancer.
4. Avoid refined white flour and sugar. You probably already know about sugar, but guess what, white flour is bad for you too. And we’re eating more of it now than ever. White flour and sugar contribute to tooth decay, crooked teeth, auto-immune disorders, autism, diabetes, etc. etc.
Not only are they empty calories but they actually block mineral absorption in the body.
There are plenty of healthy sweeteners to use in place of refined sugar. Raw honey, molasses, rapadura, sucanat, coconut or palm sugar, maple syrup — just to name a few. When I make ice cream with maple syrup or cake with palm sugar, my family cannot tell the difference.
For flour, try sprouted flour (I recommend To Your Health Sprouted Bread & Flour). You can also soak your flour to minimize phytic acid (that’s what blocks the mineral absorption) and ease digestion. See Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
5. Eat more fat. Healthy traditional fats, that is. Eat more butter, cream, lard, beef tallow, olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, bacon grease, duck, goose and chicken fat. Avoid vegetable oil, canola oil, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil. Avoid all margarines and shortenings.
Also, avoid cheap olive oil (get the good stuff) since most olive oil is cut with cheap oils.
If possible, procure butter and cream and lard from a farm or producer that raises animals on pasture. Grass fed butter and cream is a lot more nutritious than butter and cream from animals in factory farms.
Remember, you get what you pay for. One pastured egg has 5 times more vitamin D than a factory farm egg. And who wants to eat 5 times the eggs to get the same nutrition?
6. Try to eat more fermented foods. Sauerkraut, fermented salsa and relish (I love Zukay brand — you can order relish and salsa online), kombucha, keir, yogurt, creme fraiche or real sour cream, kim chee.
These foods help improve digestion and absorption of nutrients. They also help to populate your digestive tract with good bacteria (or probitiocs), which is essential to good health. There are amazing things right now about kids recovering from autism and other autism spectrum disorder with the help of changes in diet and probiotics.
A good book is Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation. Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
7. Buy wild fish, not farmed. Farmed salmon are fed GMO corn and pumped full of hormones. You only want to buy wild salmon. If it doesn’t say “wild” or “Alaskan”, do not buy it. For detailed information on how to buy fish (and why you should eat more of it), read Nina Planck’s book, Real Food: What to Eat and Why
8. Try to eat at least half of your food raw. Enzymes are the building blocks of nutrition and if we eat everything cooked, we don’t get any enzymes from our food.
I’m not talking so much about raw fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are best served as a vehicle for butter or cream (remember, it’s the fat that contains the fat soluble vitamins) — or fermented in the form of sauerkraut or salsa.
I’m talking about raw milk, raw milk cheese, raw cream, raw butter, and the occasional ceviche or raw oysters or ice cream or smoothies or Hollandaise sauce made with raw egg yolks.
9. Soak or sprout all your grains — not just your flour. Traditionally, all grains were soaked, sprouted, and or naturally leavened or fermented (i.e., sourdough starter). Not only is the phytic acid detrimental to health, but grains are very hard to digest and damaging to the digestive tract.
Oatmeal should be soaked overnight, just like dried beans. Corn should also be fermented — ideally for at least a few days. See Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
10. Try to eat liver or other organ meats — or shellfish — at least once a week. This was something our grandparents did — it was common to eat liver once a week. Liver and other organ meats — and shellfish — are the most nutrient dense foods on the planet.
One great way to eat liver is liverwurst or Braunschweiger. (You can find this at US Wellness Meats.) If you can’t stand the idea of liver, shellfish (particularly mollusks — oysters, mussels, clams — but also shrimp, lobster and crab) is also highly nutritious.
11. Take fermented cod liver oil. This is another thing our grandparents did. Cod liver oil is extremely nutrient dense, full of fat soluble vitamins, and great for immunity building. I think everyone should take cod liver oil — most particularly children, who need the nutrients to grow strong bones and teeth.
However, not all cod liver oils are the same. Carlson’s has the wrong ratio of vitamins A & D. I recommend high vitamin cod liver oil, and particularly fermented cod liver oil. See the Weston A. Price Foundation pages on cod liver oil for more information. The Natural Health Advocates site sells fermented cod liver oil and they offer free shipping on orders over $50.
12. Make homemade chicken, beef or fish stock. Incorporate it into your diet as much as possible. Soups are one thing, but you can also use chicken stock to cook your beans and rice, to make delicious reduction sauces and gravies.
Not only does it boost the mineral content of your meals, but homemade bone broth is extremely healing for the digestive tract and helps the body digest and absorb more of the nutrients you are eating. If you have any kind of digestive disorders or immunity issues, bone broth should be number one on your list of best foods to eat (grains and sugar should be last — and soy should be verboten).
13. Avoid soy. Never before in history have soybeans been eaten unfermented and in large quantities. Soy milk, TVP, tofu, even edamame — all should be avoided. Some soy can be consumed (for example, naturally and traditionally fermented soy sauce) but only if high quantities of iodine are also being consumed (for example, homemade miso soup made from real bonito stock — not the fake MSG kind).
14. If you eat dairy, consume raw dairy, not pasteurized. Raw milk is much more nutritious. Pasteurization deactivates many of the vitamins and all of the enzymes, including lactase, which helps us digest milk (which is why so many people who are lactose-intolerant find that they can drink raw milk).
Raw dairy is also almost always from grass-fed cows (or goats). Dairy from grass-fed animals is not only safer, but much more nutritious.
15. Be easy about all of this. Don’t get crazy with it. Just do the best you can. Let yourself have that chocolate chip cookie every once in a while. You don’t have to be perfect — you just have to do the best you can.
Remember, every small little improvement you make is part of many little things you do that will help you become healthier. It’s the little things that add up over time.
But don’t beat yourself up when you screw up. Just do the best you can and take it day by day.
And enjoy that butter!
Photo credit: Pearlzenith on Flickr
This post is part of two blog carnivals: Works for Me Wednesday and Real Food Wednesday. For more kitchen and nutrition tips, visit Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and for more general tips, see Works for Me Wednesday at We ARE That Family.
(Sorry, Kelly, I guess I’m sleep-deprived and didn’t read your instructions very well… these aren’t exactly “time-saving” tips — just general nutrition tips. I hope it’s OK! It better be… because it took me a long time to write that… 
)
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03/03/2009 at 9:09 pm Permalink
These are GREAT, Ann Marie. Anytime you remind people that butter is GOOD for us, it’s ALL good.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s last blog post..Nourishing Traditions blogs, Lenten/Meatless meals & the next RFW
03/03/2009 at 9:10 pm Permalink
I have been trained to fear butter, beef, oils, whole milk and fats of every kind since childhood when my pediatrician put me on skim milk. Is it a surprise that I’ve been fat all my life? My highest weigh was 400 pounds. I had a gastric bypass (I don’t recommend it). Lost 150 pounds then stopped losing. I was becoming a super vegan. Soy Soy Soy all the time. Cooked nuts. Chicken without the skin. Pretzels and bread with no fat. Non fat yogurt. Artificial sweeteners by the barrel. Little by little my hair lost its luster and fell out in clumps. My skin became dull. I had NO energy. Desperate, I started researching food allergies online. I found Weston A Price, Cheeseslave, Zukay, healthyurbankitchen and all kinds of info on raw dairy. Little by little I’m making changes. No more gluten. No more grains (for now). Grass fed meats and organic, full fat milk and eggs.
It’s only been 2 weeks and my hair is already growing back. My mood is better. And I have more energy! Thanks for helping to make people well and informed!!
Lisa Sargese’s last blog post..acceptable addiction
03/03/2009 at 9:24 pm Permalink
Ann Marie,
This is a perfect “nutshell” version of Traditional Food principles! I’m stumblin’ this one! Way to continue to spread the word of real food!
Organic and Thrifty’s last blog post..Tips for Reheating Food without a Microwave
04/03/2009 at 2:12 am Permalink
Yippee! Brilliant entry! I agree on all 15 comments.
Eat more butter! I probably go through a pound of it a week.
04/03/2009 at 5:56 am Permalink
Lisa -
What an amazing story! Thank you for sharing.
By the way I LOVE your status updates on Facebook. So glad you friended me on there. Love your passion and energy!
Hugs,
Ann Marie
04/03/2009 at 7:44 am Permalink
Fantastic tips!! Love it and it’s such great information to be putting out there for others to read.
Erica’s last blog post..Nutritonal Benefits Of Liver and A Recipe For Liver Burgers
04/03/2009 at 8:21 am Permalink
Love this post. As usual, you are a wealth of information and inspiration!
Annie – Hip Organic Mama’s last blog post..Time-Saving Kitchen & Nutrition Tips – The Healthy Pantry
04/03/2009 at 8:23 am Permalink
That’s a great list! It actually seems more in tune with Harvard’s new Food Pyramid than the old standard USDA pyramid.
I forget about some of those natural sweeteners like maple and coconut sugars. I will have to check those out! Thanks! I seem to get stuck in a routine of using honey, molasses or brown rice syrup…
my year without’s last blog post..Food Pyramid Facts: Part Three
04/03/2009 at 9:53 am Permalink
Hey, Cheeseslave, I have been so curious and trying to find some good research on your point about PMS and muenstral cramps. My periods are a breeze, not at all like when I was younger, and I haven’t been able to figure out if it was due to my change in diet, my age, just because it’s after kids, due to nursing, or some combination. Do you have any good links on any of that or does that book you suggested include info on it? Thank you kindly
Annie – Hip Organic Mama’s last blog post..Time-Saving Kitchen & Nutrition Tips – The Healthy Pantry
04/03/2009 at 10:09 am Permalink
Love your article! I am trying to use more butter, but with a DH who is lactose intolerant, I have a hard time cooking with it and forcing him to take some lactase. He does love raw cheeses.. still trying to find a grassfed raw cheese!
And I love point #15. I’m still in the process of healing, but if I can stick to 90/10 ratio of good to bad eating, I’ve had a good week. Progress, not perfection.
Thanks!
~Erica @realfood2health
Erica @realfood2health’s last blog post..My Top 10 Must-Have Ingredients
04/03/2009 at 10:34 am Permalink
Excellent post – very clear and concise tips that could mean a lot to health.
Jenny’s last blog post..Want Healthy Children? Let them Eat Dirt!
04/03/2009 at 6:20 pm Permalink
Yay! Awesome.
04/03/2009 at 6:40 pm Permalink
Your posts are awesome and I’m learning so much…I just need my Spring Break to get here so I can spend more time really reading them more thoroughly!
NAOmni
NAOmni’s last blog post..How I Feel About Food…In Someone Else’s Words
04/03/2009 at 7:07 pm Permalink
as a nutrition major in college, i gotta tell ya.
most of what they are teaching us, isnt really that traditional and healthy.
its hard to tell my classmates out of class, that what they learn is generally based on faulty studies. you practically get your head eaten when you try to say that eating meat, butter, cheese and bacon is fine.
also, that a vegan diet, lower in animal fat vitamins is harder to digest and genrally not ideal. i know, we as humans are not like carnivores. but i have a feeling that many of our fat soluble vitamins were meant to come from animals. Im certian we can get many vitamins from veggies as well, but not without plenty of easy to digest fat. Also, cooked veggies nutrients are much more bioavailble than raw, depending on the veggie. So cooked carrots with butter is the perfect vessel for vitamin A ..
im a big advocate of Cod liver oil, fish oil and farm raised animal products. But people just dont listen. They still eat thier kashi go lean for breakfast with soy milk and organic berries……….. no fat, no nourishment, tons of soy… big problem.
04/03/2009 at 7:10 pm Permalink
there is a little Abbey run by Nuns who sell thier farm riased cheeses from thier own cows and sheep. you can see them on pasture. They also made a awesome dessert cheese ( which is heated, but it tastes like rice pudding)
Even many in the medical Community who shun saturated fat, still feel its prudent to wait until furthur research on sat fat is done, because at the moment, the facts just dont ” add” up….
dont worry, they will learn the truth soon……
04/03/2009 at 7:13 pm Permalink
LOL Joe I love what you wrote! Sooo true!
Esp loved this part:
“They still eat thier kashi go lean for breakfast with soy milk and organic berries……….. no fat, no nourishment, tons of soy… big problem.”
It’s sad what the mainstream nutrition experts are teaching people. It’s just so wrong and a lot of people are getting sicker and sicker…
05/03/2009 at 5:16 am Permalink
Thanks for all the great nutrition tips in a nutshell. I love the references to the books, a couple I hadn’t heard of. Look forward to getting them
05/03/2009 at 8:50 am Permalink
Thanks for the wonderful post! Could you email me any research you have regarding not eating soy. I’ve been discussing this concept with friends recently and we have people on both ends…advocating for eating soy or not. Any help would be appreciated!
05/03/2009 at 6:24 pm Permalink
I am a lurker, learning lots of new things… and finding out my dad was right years ago when he said “no margarine in my house”.
I just had to comment on the zukay products. My sister works where it is made and packaged. Every now and then she brings me a jar that is not filled properly or the label is crooked. So I get to enjoy it free. She said she loves when they make it because the whole building has a wonderful and fresh smell. It is amazing what a fresh taste it has.
I recomend it highly.
rachel’s last blog post..A Word About The Economy….
06/03/2009 at 5:13 am Permalink
I’m never going to be societies idea of thin, the least I’ll ever weigh on my 5’10″ frame is probably 190 lbs. I’ll always be a size twelve, always. However, I would take a size 12 with my butter (and low cholesterol, blood pressure etc…) any day of the week over a size 6 with no joy in life and no energy!
The only part of the Price regime we don’t follow in our home is soaking/sprouting grains. I don’t believe that is traditional at all, and we prefer freshly milled, as in my study and research is healthier and more traditional
(not trying to change your mind at all! Just a different POV)
Erinthebeekeeper’s last blog post..California’s drought and why we need to prepare here
06/03/2009 at 7:23 am Permalink
Erin, what makes you think soaking and sprouting grains is not traditional? Just curious because I’ve never heard that before.
In fact, yesterday I ate at a luncheon at the conference I’m attending — they had a few corn dishes that I’m guessing were not soaked. I had the worst gastro-intestinal problems all night — gas, constipation, bloating, pain. My guts still hurt from eating that stuff.
I know that corn was traditionally soaked. My former nanny grew up in Guatemala and they always soaked their corn in lime for a week before they made masa.
Sourdough starters are also very traditional. The sourdough naturally ferments the flour and makes it more digestible and reduces the phytic acid.
Freshly milled is important but you also need to sprout, soak or ferment your grains. Otherwise you’re doing a lot of damage to your digestive tract and you are blocking the minerals you are consuming.
06/03/2009 at 7:33 am Permalink
Hi, Rachel
Read The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla Daniel:
http://www.wholesoystory.com/
More info here:
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
And here:
http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/
I haven’t even read Kaayla Daniel’s book yet (it’s on my list) but I think just reading those other two links I sent you will convince you.
Soy is not a traditional food, it’s full of phytic acid (blocks mineral uptake) and phytoestrogens (hormone disruptor), it’s a goitrogen (blocks iodine uptake), and it’s extremely hard to digest.
There is no good reason to eat soy unless you are eating only fermented soy (naturally fermented, like Eden naturally fermented soy sauce) and in small amounts. If you do eat fermented soy, make sure you also eat iodine, as in *real* miso soup (it’s made with bonito, which is fish — full of iodine). Most modern-day miso soup is flavored w/ MSG, not real bonito.
06/03/2009 at 8:00 am Permalink
Yes corn was soaked in lime, but other grains weren’t traditionally soaked. Sourdough was used, but so was traditional leven, brewers yeast has been used to raise bread since the beginning of time. And we DO use sourdough in our house and try to incorporate it a few times a week! I do think it restores powerful enzymes to my gut
Sally Fallon said that soaked sprouted grains were more traditional because that is how they were stored, and they naturally sprouted. Well that is just completely inaccurate. If grains were stored damp they wouldn’t sprout, they would rot. Grain has to be completely and totally dry before it is stored or it will mold and rot. If you look a bit deeper grain was not sprouted or soaked before grinding, but dried and then milled dry, making bread as soon as it was milled using a traditional yeast. Sometimes (in some cultures even most or all of the time) sourdough was used as the rising agent, but by no means was the entire loaf made of soaked grains.
Erinthebeekeeper’s last blog post..California’s drought and why we need to prepare here
06/03/2009 at 12:49 pm Permalink
We were on the same wavelength today. I just posted my homemade mayo and have a post in the works about that problem of what to eat. I read the NY Times Well Blog when it has to do with food and the comment section reveals how varied and conflicting the information is about a good diet. Many people still have a real fear of fats and more and more people are talking about the best diet being mostly from plants. Supposedly better for the environment but corn syrup and GM soy are not exactly cooling the planet. And I’ll believe in a diet of only plants when you can show me my four stomachs.
I love to beat the same drum with you. And absolutely the last part is crucial. Eating is first and foremost about enjoying food and sharing work with loved ones. So the guilt about food needs to disappear.
Sage’s last blog post..One Less Jar
06/03/2009 at 7:06 pm Permalink
Wow! What a list. You said it all! Loved everything. I was wondering about ‘organic chicken’- I noticed my organic chicken says ‘vegetarian diet’- you were saying that was not good on your eggs post- chickens are supposed to eat bugs- I have not found any pastured chicken YET, are the organic chickens I currently buy just evil evil evil? And hey did you know that most ‘sugar’ in food products will soon- if not already- be coming from GMO roundup sugar beets? Nasty, huh?
Vehement Flame’s last blog post..Pull Me a Shot, My Index is Up!
14/03/2009 at 4:48 pm Permalink
Great tips… and with raw dairy, eggs, butter and all the good stuff need — can we get the word out re below??
Educating Congress: Do Not Supress Organic and Small Farmers and Ranchers; Natural Food Products
Farmers Under Attack…
This urgent message is from our correspondent, Linn Cohen-Cole:
We have less than two weeks to stop the take over the farms and ranches.
H.R. 875 and S. 425
We need to rally people immediately.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714&key=0
21/03/2009 at 1:27 pm Permalink
Hi Ann Marie-
Just found your blog and I love it! We already consume raw dairy, organic butter, try to find organic, pastured meat (bought a 1/4 cow last year that we’re still working on) and today I made ww bread made from soaked grains (the kids loved it!). I”m curious about #11 – I take a cod liver oil supplement, and I’m wondering what the “correct ratio” of Vit A to Vit D is? I was recently reading an article saying that most fish oils have way too much Vit A and it negates the positive effects of Vit D. Here’s a quote: “Dr. Cannell and other prominent researchers believe the vitamin A contained in most cod liver oil is excessive, and can reduce the effectiveness of vitamin D by inhibiting the binding of its active form to your DNA, effectively preventing its ability to regulate the expression of your vitamin D-responsive genes.” Thoughts?
22/03/2009 at 12:43 pm Permalink
Hi there, just wanted to thank you for summarizing these tips. This “tip sheet” is has been on my to do list for a while — i was thrilled to find it on your blog — you saved me the trouble!
08/06/2009 at 8:44 pm Permalink
This is a great summary and easy to follow for those just starting out on this path. I love butter and am constantly telling people to eat more of it! Particularly butter from pasture-fed cows. I wrote a piece on the benefits of butter and the detriments of vegetable oils that may be of interest to your readers. It’s titled: “It’s Butter. Believe It.” and can be found by clicking on the link to my site below.
Thanks for all the great recipes and information that you have on your site!
Kristin
Kristin Wartman’s last blog post..Basil Pesto Sauce