Nourishment meets Modernity
In our modern lives we are often flying through our days with seemingly endless to-do lists to be completed, errands to run, and work deadlines to be met. And yet due to our busy lives the quality of our food preparation and therefor our health is suffering. Here are a couple of suggestions to incorporate the traditional wisdom of our ancestors to not only make your meals more enjoyable but to also to nourish your body and soul.
First, fat is back! For decades we have been led to believe that eating healthy should somehow equate to eating foods that taste surprisingly similar to carboard. Yum! But as science is now catching up with ancestral wisdom there is a growing consensus that healthy fats are not only acceptable but essential for our health. They help facilitate many processes in the body including regulating the production of hormones, lubricating the skin and hair, as well as providing essential vitamins and facilitating the absorption of minerals. What kind of fats are healthy you may ask? There are the usual suspects such as the fats found in olive oil, avocados and nuts and seeds. But also high on the list is the inclusion of fats from properly raised animals. This includes butter, ghee, tallow and the ever-vilified lard! Not only are animal fats ok to include in your diet but they are actually critical to provide the very important fat-soluble vitamins (with the exception of vitamin E). While vitamin A’s precursor beta-carotene is found abundantly in plant food true vitamin A is only found in animal fats. While some can easily convert beta carotene to vitamin A many cannot make that conversion efficiently including infants, children, diabetics and those with poor thyroid function (Fallon and Enig,2001) Additionally fats found in organ meats as well as cod liver oil provide vitamin D3. So add some butter to those veggies! Not only will you kids be more likely to eat their vegetables, but they will also be able to assimilate the nutrients in those vegetable much better.
Next up remember that broth is beautiful! I’m talking about bone broth of course. Traditional peoples did not quickly discard of their leftover bones the way we do today. They used them to create savory rich bone broths that became the base for their nourishing soups as well as tasty sauces. One of the main ways that bone broth provides nutrition is though the conversion of the collagen in the meat to its gelatin form. This is what gives a good broth its jiggle once it has been cooled. This gelatin provides essential nutrition for the production of our hair, skin, nails as well as our joints. Additionally anecdotal evidence suggests that bone broth is very soothing for the digestive system and may provide a helpful tool in the management of many digestive disorders. So, save your bones and make a nourishing broth that everyone will enjoy!
I hope these tips inspire you to exploration in your own kitchen with traditional food preparation! While our modern inventions have provided many advancements that make our lives easier and more expedient, they have not necessarily contributed to good health and longevity. Reconnecting with ancestral ways of eating is a piece of the puzzle in recovering our health and wellbeing.
References
Fallon, S. & Enig, M. (2001). Nourishing Traditions. Washington, DC: New Trends Publishing