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You are here: Home » Health & Nutrition » 6 Ways To Get Started With Traditional Foods & Healthy Eating

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6 Ways To Get Started With Traditional Foods & Healthy Eating

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6 Ways To Get Started With Traditional Foods & Healthy Eating | If switching to traditional foods is part of your new agenda, instead of pledging to ferment, soak, and sprout all the way, consider breaking this goal down into smaller bites. Here are 6 easy tips to get started with traditional foods for beginners! | TraditionalCookingSchool.com

Back in the ’70s, I headed to 1st grade every morning with raw milk in my Betsy Clark thermos…

My mother might not have known what lacto-fermentation was, but she understood the value of raw milk, even in those days!

In fact, although our healthy eating habits wavered from time to time, the underlying principles remained the same:

  1. Food should be fresh and processed as little as possible.
  2. Meals should be cooked from scratch, and eaten together as a family, sitting down.

I carried these convictions into my own home when I got married. Although we couldn’t always afford organic, I baked all of our own bread and we ate fresh salads and legumes.

Then… My husband and I began to experience health issues — and a friend introduced us to “traditional foods”.

Kombucha? Fermented foods? Soaking?

I was fascinated as soon as I cracked the book, Nourishing Traditions! Yet also overwhelmed…

I needed to do sourdough on top of baking my own bread? And soak and dehydrate my nuts? And ferment my veggies?

All of this on top of keeping a home and garden running smoothly! I didn’t even know how to correctly pronounce kombucha! 😉

As the new year begins, many of us want to make a fresh start with our diets. However, plunging headlong into something as multi-faceted and time-consuming as traditional food preparation can lead to overwhelm and burnout. Traditional foods are so worth it, but sometimes we need help.

So let’s break this goal down into smaller bites. Here are 6 ways to get started with traditional foods and healthy eating!

1. Focus on 1 area at a time.

Pick 1 traditional foods skill that excites you. Do you like sourdough? Would your family enjoy water kefir — a natural fermented soda? Or maybe you would like to learn how to sprout your beans to optimize digestion (no more gas and bloating!).

What is 1 skill that you can fit into your busy life — right now?

Learn that new technique and master it, then move onto another!

Need some help mastering those skills? Sourdough baking, pressure cooking, dehydrating, and allergy-free cooking don’t always come easily. That’s why Traditional Cooking School offers eCourses to teach you these skills and more! From the basic fundamentals of traditional cooking (like fermentation, soaking, and sprouting) to more advanced sourdough baking and everything between, check out the eCourses through our membership area.

2. Learn to shop wisely.

Maybe you can’t afford to buy organic foods all the time. That’s okay! Just learn how to be choosy at the grocery store.

If you’re not familiar with the “dirty dozen“, these are the top 12 fruits and veggies most contaminated with pesticides. Even if you can’t buy organic everything, either choose to go organic with these, grow them yourself (see #3), or cut them out of your diet.

Alternatively, check out the “clean fifteen” list to see what produce is generally safe to buy non-organic.

Also educate yourself on the top GMO foods so you can avoid them or buy organic. These foods include corn, soy, sugar from sugar beets, aspartame, papayas, canola oil, cotton oil, dairy, yellow squash, and zucchini. (For more info, check out the Genetic Roulette movie.)

3. Grow some foods yourself.

My life changed the day I planted my first vegetable garden! Is there anything more gratifying than planting seeds, watching them grow, harvesting them, and enjoying the bounty of a homegrown crop for dinner?

Growing your own food can be less expensive than buying it organic at the grocery store. At the very least, you know exactly what’s gone into it.

If this seems overwhelming to you, maybe just pick some herbs to grow on your windowsill. Remember, baby steps!

For a few fun projects, see How to Grow Mint from Cuttings {2 Methods} and How to Grow Your Own Herbs for Tea {even in a small space!}.

4. Outsource.

If you can’t raise or grow it yourself, find someone who can! We have easy access to a dairy that provides raw milk from grass-fed cows. This allows me to focus my time and energy on gardening and learning how to raise chickens.

Maybe you already bake amazing bread — see if you can swap it for eggs or honey from another local farmer!

5. Keep to the 80/20 rule.

Unless you’re dealing with food allergies, focus on making 80% of your food choices at home healthy ones. Then you don’t have to worry about the occasional eating out, or being invited over for dinner.

6. Finally, be gentle on yourself.

If a week comes along and you’re too busy to soak your muffins, or sprout your beans for soup, it’s okay! Cut yourself some slack.

How do you take baby steps to incorporate traditional foods and healthy eating into your diet? How did you get started with traditional foods and healthy eating?

This post was featured in 82 Ways To Heal Your Gut.

We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).

Posted in: Food Preparation Health & Nutrition Healthy Living Kitchen Tips & Organization

About Jenny Cazzola

Tired of the stress of city life and motivated by a desire to be more self-sufficient, Jenny and her husband decided to trade life in the busy suburbs for life on a quiet country homestead. In the fall of 2012, they moved to an acreage in rural Northeastern Oklahoma where they are learning to live off the land and working to establish a small home grown heirloom produce business. On her blog Black Fox Homestead, Jenny writes about their transition from city to country life, offers tips on natural gardening, recipes from her kitchen, and ideas for frugal, simple living. She and her husband currently share their homestead with four shih-tzus and eight growing Rhode Island Red chicks; but she hopes to see ducks, dairy goats, and possibly a cow in her future.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amber says

    January 2, 2014 at 7:54 am

    I especially like tip number one. It’s important to take it slowly. Changing your entire diet can be so difficult if we try to be perfect from the start. Thanks for sharing this article!

    Amber – http://www.herbalacademyofne.com

    Reply
  2. tessa says

    January 2, 2014 at 8:54 am

    Wonderful! Perfect advice for anyone! I shared all over the place with my followers!

    Reply
    • Jenny Cazzola says

      January 2, 2014 at 7:02 pm

      Thank you Tessa!

      Reply
  3. Susan says

    January 2, 2014 at 9:42 am

    Making changes can be so overwhelming. Your advice to take it one step at a time is wise!

    Reply
  4. Teri :: Homestead Honey says

    January 2, 2014 at 10:18 am

    Great tips! We got started on a traditional foods diet about a decade ago, and my husband went hog-wild! Everything in our house, it seemed, was fermented!

    These days, with two young kids, we empahsisze organic and local foods, but still enjoy our lacto-ferments and sourdough.

    Thanks for such a clear, inspirational message!

    Reply
    • Jenny Cazzola says

      January 2, 2014 at 7:04 pm

      Sourdough is next on my list…next week in fact.

      Reply
  5. Patrick says

    January 2, 2014 at 11:05 am

    Wow. Lots of information to absorb. I’ll have to bookmark this to read multiple times. we really want to start eating healthier in the new year. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
    • Jenny Cazzola says

      January 2, 2014 at 7:04 pm

      Good luck Patrick!

      Reply
  6. Mary says

    January 2, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    I love this Jennifer!!! Nourishing Traditions was super overwhelming to me too when I started reading it, but I love your tips to make smaller goals and focusing on one area at a time. I can’t wait to follow along on your journey and hopefully make some changes ourselves. 🙂

    Reply
    • Jenny Cazzola says

      January 2, 2014 at 7:06 pm

      Thank you Mary! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Susie L. says

    January 4, 2014 at 9:53 am

    My question is about kombucha…..if it is made with normal tea bags, it is full of caffeine right?

    I am trying to figure out how drinking sugar (even if it is organic) and caffeine is actually healthy for a person.

    Can diabetic persons drink it safely?

    Thanks and blessings!

    Reply
    • Jenny Cazzola says

      January 5, 2014 at 1:28 pm

      Hi Susie,

      Although I drink kombucha regularly without any problems I can understand your concerns about the caffeine. There are a few ways you can address this. One is to use a different kind of tea that has less caffeine such as white or green tea. If you prefer black tea, you can reportedly pre-steep it to reduce the amount of caffeine. Steep the tea bags in boiling water for 30 seconds and then discard the water. Then, move the tea bags to a fresh batch of boiling water and steep as you would to prepare the kombucha.

      While you do need to use sugar in order to prepare kombucha, the sugar is consumed by the bacteria and the yeast. The longer you allow the kombucha to ferment, the more sugar is consumed. The final result contains a lot less sugar than what was originally used to prepare it.

      As far as it being safe for diabetics to drink: I would not be able to give you any guidance on that. That would be something you would have to address with your health care provider.

      I hope that is helpful to you!

      Reply

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