Implementing Good Nutrition
Right now I am taking a break from the kitchen to sit here and blog a bit. I am feeling pretty good about what I have going on in that room. I have 3 loaves of sourdough bread rising, I just fed my sourdough starter (I told Tobin I feel like I have a 9th child now that needs feeding and tending.. LOL.. ), I have chicken broth simmering on the stove and I am using one of our own farm grown roosters for this, and I have 2qts of my own goats milk sitting on the counter being cultured into buttermilk to be used for making muffins, biscuits, pancakes and more buttermilk!
Lately I have been spending a lot of time reading and working to implement some of the nutritional information and recipes of the book Nourishing Traditions. I am enjoying some of the health benefits from doing this.
Her book does not necessarily have the easiest recipes to tackle. But she has so much health related information that it is easy to see why she recommends cooking and baking like she does. So I am trying new things, and working to learn how to figure how these foods can be worked out in my family’s daily diet.
I have always had a “Good, Better, Best†philosophy when it comes to improving ones diet. You start by making good food choices, then soon you try and make better food choices and then as you are able you strive to make the best choices.
I don’t think it is ever a wise idea to radically change a family’s diet overnight. The family WILL rebel! When I started looking at nutrition and my family’s diet I started making small changes (these would be my good changes ). Like moving from white flour to wheat, white rice to brown, butter instead of margarine, less refined sugar, more honey and organic sugars (while working to reduce the overall amount of these things in general) more whole grains, less breakfast cereal, more fresh fruit and veggies, etc..
Later on I started making better choices. I started reading labels and staying away from foods that I had been studying and learning were bad for us. Things like MSG and all their forms, hydrogenated oils, chemicals and so on. I started buying less packed foods and learned to make more convenience foods myself. I started grinding my own wheat and I tried to buy organic foods as often as I could.
Always with each change I saw improvements. I saw lots of healthy good things happen. I have not had a child into the doctor’s office for some sickness in over 10 years. Some of my children have never been on antibiotics, which in this day and age is unheard of. This had not always been the case. We rarely ever get sick and when we do, it is mild and lasts only a short time. In fact when a friend heard that one of my children was sick this last winter she commented that it surprised her because we were ‘never’ sick. Of course we do get sick, but it is not the norm for us.
Nowadays I am still looking at ways to improve my diet and am learning to implement some best choices. I have found some of those ways in Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions and have learned a lot by reading the Weston Price Foundation website too.
Once again I am seeing good things happen. One of my daughters was joking with me and said, “but mom we will all die someday anyway!â€.. I said yes that is true and I am not looking to live a longer life I am looking to be able to live the healthiest and most active life I can possibly have. I want to be a productive person for many, many years to come!
So you may be hearing more here on my blog about my discovery of what I believe is good, basic nutrition and improved health!
I like the good, better, best idea. I think I'll try to implement that in our everyday life. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy that book to. I'm hoping to keep working on a better diet also. We have slacked off a lot this week trying to get the garden in. :-(
ReplyDeleteWe just started a Nourishing Traditions diet last summer, and I can't believe how healthy we were all winter! The few colds we did get were very mild, and it was always the week after we had eaten something with refined sugar in it. In a house with young children (including one that constantly has her fingers in her mouth :-), this is incredible!
ReplyDeleteas usual...I love reading your updates and changes....THanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteYou will just never know how much I have learned from you....I don't have the time (or the energy!!) to research this stuff and you so unselfishly share it with all of us!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much - you are my HERO!!!!
Love ya...
Donna
Your blog is one of my favorites and very frequent stop! Bless you for sharing your wealth of information and your life experiences - what has AND hasn't worked. Thank your for keeping a sane head in a time when so many people can become so "do it this way or no way."
ReplyDeleteWe, too, have started implimenting healthier eating/living in about the last 2 years. I have to admit that I'm disappointed that there hasn't been for weight loss from it, but we are all healthier. Every Christmas and b-day I hint around for a good grain grinder - still waiting. :-) But, using white whole wheat has helped in the mean time.
Blessings, Kim Wolf<><
ReplyDeleteCrystal I just had to write and thank you for all of your wonderful information. I purchased the Sally Fallon book and a few others! My I have enjoyed it! I also purchased a nutrimill grinder to grind my grains and have ordered organic whole grains from the health food store. We have a milk cow and I plan on making buttermilk too. Thank you for the website to order the culture. Wish we could sit together, in the early morning hours, with a cup of coffee and chat awhile. Thanks for you Crystal! Have a blessed day...~Sandy