Tuesday's Table

I've been wanting to write for months and months about some of the things I do around the kitchen to make our cuisine more wholesome. Finally, I'm going to do it. I thought it would be nice to try to post something on Tuesdays. Now, if you know me, you know that doing something consistently every week is a bit of a stretch, so that is why I was less vague by saying "on Tuesdays" not "every Tuesdays." This is just an intro to the way we eat and why. I'll start posting recipes next Tuesday, hopefully.

Over the last several years, I've been trying to eat more healthy realizing that what I eat directly affects my health in many ways. For I while I had developed hypoglycemia, had terrible insomnia, recurring sinus infections and still do struggle with infertility among a few other things. In an effort to try to get rid of these things, I have tried a myriad of different foods and "diets" most of which made me feel worse.

A few years ago I came across an entirely different attitude in what healthy eating means. My friend introduced me the cookbook Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallen and the corresponding website westonaprice.org. In a nutshell, this book and way of eating is based on the research of traditional food ways of groups of people with extraordinary health all over the world. What it boils down to is eating food at its most nutritious in the least processed way possible. It encourages eating whole, natural, real food - no low fat, no fat, low carb, etc - since that would mean it has been highly processed. The idea is that food is more nutrient dense and nutrients are more easily absorbed when eaten as nearly as it is found naturally than any processed food. It encourages eating whole milk (raw is most desirable), whole yogurt, natural cheeses, real eggs, whole soaked grains, real broth and lots of it, soaked and roasted nuts, lots of lactofermented foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, the whole animal - organ meats included, especially the liver, and cutting out all kinds of processed sugar and sugar substitutes.

So, I've been slowly trying to work toward this end. These are the things that I've been incorporating more and more. We drink whole milk (not ultra pasteurized), eat whole fat yogurt, aren't afraid of eggs, I make homemade broth, I sometimes soak my grains, we've been trying to cut out boxed cereal in the morning and most boxed and canned foods. We still buy boxed pasta, canned tuna, salmon, pears, pumpkin, green chilies and tomato products. Getting rid of the cereal has been the hardest so far, because it is so convenient! I'm desperately trying to find an easy solution. We've switched to Rapadura sugar, the most unprocessed sugar available, and we try to use it sparingly. We also use only raw honey and real maple syrup. (This is like gold in our house). We use only butter, olive oil and coconut oil for baking and sauteing. In doing so, I feel much better and we hardly ever get really sick now.

My goal in all this is of course to eat whole, real food and to do so as cheaply, conveniently and as easily as possible. So these posts on Tuesdays will be the result of lots of research and trial and error and experimentation. I hope you find this helpful, tasty and enjoyable.