“Can you give me a simple, step-by-step plan for getting started with traditional foods in 2016?” That’s the question on today’s #AskWardee. I’m sharing my answer below!
I broadcast #AskWardee live each Wednesday at 10am Pacific (1pm Eastern) on Periscope and Facebook Live. Both the podcast and video replay of this week’s show are below. Enjoy!
Subscribe to #AskWardee on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, or the Podcasts app.
The Question
Brenda L. asks,
“I have received your eBook on sourdough baking, and I have listened to the podcast and have been receiving your email for several months. I haven’t actually started the Traditional Foods diet yet, but I really want to start it in 2016. For the past couple of years, I have been using my own kefir in baking and sometimes drinking. 🙂 My husband isn’t a huge fan of drinking it. I want to do more. It still all seems a little overwhelming. Can you tell me what is the best way to start? I would love to break it down into very simple steps. Step 1: do this. Step 2: do that, and so on. Can you help me please? I love your web site, blog, podcasts, etc. And, thank you so much for sharing everything, especially the resources, with us.”
My Advice:
This is general advice for traditional foods.
If you need to go on a gut-healing diet, the steps may be different or vary slightly.
1. Clean up your ingredients.
Kickstart all your from-scratch cooking by switching from conventional products and ingredients to the best, quality ingredients you can afford.
- Pastured and wild meats instead of factory farmed or feedlot meats.
- Organic, pastured eggs instead of regular.
- Raw or low-temp pasteurized grass-fed dairy instead of grocery store milk.
- Traditional fats like butter, tallow, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and even some expeller pressed veggie oils like avocado instead of trans fats, margarine, or chemically or high heat processed veggie oils or GMO oils like corn and soy.
- Unrefined sweeteners like maple syrup and raw honey.
- Real salt that has color and minerals instead of chemical table salt that poisons your body.
It’s just switching — and most of the time, the new stuff tastes way better than the old.
Want to save money while upgrading your ingredients?
Check out my podcast, 8 Tips To Help You Rein In Your Real Food Budget.
2. Replace processed foods with homemade, healthy equivalents.
Salad dressings, mayonnaise, “cream of” soups, breads, crackers, mac and cheese, hot chocolate, and more can all be made at home and are much healthier than the processed versions found at the store.
Check our Recipe Database or your Traditional Cooking School membership for all kinds of recipes and tutorials.
Side benefit: You’ll automatically reduce your sugar consumption!
3. Start using traditional methods for grain preparation.
Grains contain anti-nutrients that interfere with nutrient absorption and digestion. Yet, soaking, sprouting, or fermenting not only improve the texture and taste of these foods, and shorten cooking time, the nutrition and digestibility are also improved.
Learn all about this in my free traditional cooking video series.
Look at our Recipe Database or your Traditional Cooking School membership for more.
4. Start fermenting.
Fermented foods feed and heal the gut, and the gut is the pinnacle of your health and immune system. If you’re not healthy, it’s likely your gut isn’t healthy.
Fermented foods contain increased vitamins and enzymes, minerals, probiotics, and beneficial acids. Your gut and nutrition need these. You should eat some every day.
Simple recipes to try:
- sauerkraut
- apple chutney
- ginger carrots
- yogurt
- kefir
- Kombucha
I have a Free Fermenting Cheat Sheet for you that gives you safe and easy formulas for all kinds of ferments.
Don’t have a large family, and are concerned that you won’t be able to consume your ferments quickly enough? Learn how to avoid this in 5 Tips — Traditional Cooking For One (Or Two!) #AskWardee 115.
5. Incorporate other healing and nutrient-dense foods into your daily diet.
Bone broth is soothing to the digestive tract, contains gelatin that our bodies need, and helps us better assimilate protein. Plus, it’s just delicious. Imagine soup without broth?!
Organ meats supply fat-soluble vitamins like A and D, which we are often deficient in.
6. Reduce your overall sugar consumption.
Sugar … we eat too much of it, and it shows.
It shows in the obesity epidemic. It shows in our poor nutrition and poor gut health. Not to mention, our mood swings, cravings, irritability, depression, fatigue, and more.
Switching to natural sweeteners helps, but it’s often not enough. We need to cut back overall.
If you need to lose weight or improve gut health, you may need to restrict even breads and starchy foods.
Now What?
It goes without saying, yet I’m going to say this anyway… 😉
Knowing these 6 simple steps to getting started with traditional foods is one thing, but actually learning how to do them simply, easily, and well is quite another.
If the latter is the issue for you (or you need support or accountability), I can show you how to do all of them simply, easily, and well inside Traditional Cooking School’s premium membership.
Your premium membership includes literally hundreds of videos and step-by-step print tutorials, plus personal support in our private members-only Facebook group.
You’ll find more info about Traditional Cooking School’s premium service here.
I would be honored to work with you and help you on your journey!
Links Mentioned:
- Free Traditional Cooking Video Series
- Information on Traditional Cooking School Premium Membership
- Free Sourdough Starter Instructions
- 8 Ways to Rein In Your Real Food Budget
- Free Fermenting Formulas Cheat Sheet
- Free “Heal Your Gut” Summit
- Traditional Cooking School Recipes
What Is The #AskWardee Show?
The #AskWardee is the live weekly show devoted to answering your niggling questions about traditional cooking: whether it’s your sourdough starter, your sauerkraut, preserving foods, broth, superfoods or anything else to do with Traditional Cooking or your GNOWFGLINS lifestyle.
I share tips and resources, plus answer your questions about Traditional Cooking!
The Details
When: Wednesdays at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern
Where: @TradCookSchool on Periscope or Traditional Cooking School on Facebook
What If You Can’t Make It?
Don’t worry. You can catch the replays or listen to the podcast!
- Come back here to AskWardee.TV; all replays will be up within hours of airing live; the print notes are always posted at the same time I go live.
- Follow @TradCookSchool on Periscope or Traditional Cooking School on Facebook to view the replay.
- Subscribe to the #AskWardee podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, or the Podcasts app. While you’re there, be sure to leave a rating and review!
Want To Get YOUR Question Answered?
Here’s how to submit your question. If we answer it on #AskWardee, you’ll get a gift!
Or, you can…
- Tweet your question to @TradCookSchool on Twitter; use hashtag #AskWardee
- Send an email to wardee at AskWardee dot tv — add #AskWardee to your email so I know it’s for the show
Please do NOT add future questions for #AskWardee to the comments of this post because they might get missed!
Will you share YOUR tips to getting started with traditional foods?
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