Nourishing Traditions Book Review

Nourishing Traditions is a cookbook with a mission to educate modern man about the way we were created to eat, the way man has been eating for thousands of years. Before science started creating food in a laboratory God created food that would nourish our bodies, not just feed us. He also provided us ways to prepare it that would even further nourish us. But when man thought he could find a better way of providing food he lost his way to his own good health and the health of his progeny.

Nourishing Traditions is a guide to eating the old way. Based on the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist who traveled the world studying “primitive” tribes in search of healthy people and what they ate, Sally Fallon seeks to bring his discoveries and those of many other researchers to your dinner table. The way in which we provide our food today is radically different from our forefathers; dairy, meat, eggs, produce, bread, fats, and processed foods are all produced in new ways that are robbing us of the nourishment our bodies need to sustain ourselves. This book brings us back to food and educates us in the foundations of good nutrition. Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, dairy, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes each are explained and expounded on to equip us with the truth about nutrition so we can make wise decisions in our diet. After giving us the preliminary information for good nutrition she goes on to give many recipes for old favorites and new cuisine prepared in traditional ways that retain and release important nutrients, and aid in digestion. At the beginning of each section there is a commentary to further explain the concepts behind the recipes, then on the side margins of all the recipes there are quotes from many sources on proper nutrition.

I have put off writing this review for some time because I am still studying the book and rereading important parts. If is full of valuable information that you aren’t going to hear many other places. I am convinced that much of what taught in this book is just the way we were created to eat and prepare our food. Of course I do not agree with everything (especially the raw meat eating) but I have learned so much about how to nourish my family from this book. As I have done further research on the traditional ways of eating it has led me to realize that the main reason we are where we are in our food production is not because big corporations were greedy for our money, but because women left home (and consequently the food preparation of the family) for “higher work”. This is what has led us to seek for someone else to prepare our food and the large corporations were just all to willing to bring the industrial revolution to food preparation. Our health crisis is not the fault of big business; it is the fault of woman who thought their work could be done by anybody. Well, now we know it can’t, and that is why it has mainly been the wives and mothers returning from the workforce who are rethinking their family’s diets. Out of love they are preparing foods that don’t just keep their family from being hungry, but nourishes and strengthens them for the task that are before them.I truly hope that you will obtain your own copy of this wonderful book and start taking the steps necessary to nourishing your families. At first it may seem overwhelming to implement everything you learn, but you have to see it as a journey to good nutrition that you can begin today by taking one step at a time. In the future I hope to share more with you about what I have been doing to change our diet. In many ways we are restricted because of budgetary reason but I have been able to implement many of the principles presented in this book nonetheless. In fact I found many to be cheaper than what we have been doing. So don’t give up hope; catch the vision for better health for you and your family!



For more information and lots of online reading visit the Weston A. Price Foundation.


To purchase for $16.50 click here.

Good websites with information on eating the "Nourishing way":

Traditional Bread

Fermenting

Dairy

Finding Food

Sustainable Food