I talk about traditional foods a lot!
All of my family has heard me say “raw milk is a traditional food” or “Cod liver oil is a traditional food”.
My friends might hear me say in conversation “I like those crackers but I’m looking for a more traditional food option”.
What do I mean? Am I referring to foods that I eat for special occasions like a Christmas tradition?
Close, but not quite.
Traditional foods are healthy foods that have stood the test of time and have proved to nourish families and cultures for centuries.
That means that Oreos, Fritos, pop tarts, and Gatorade are not traditional foods. They are modern foods. They are not long-standing building blocks in a healthy diet that our ancestors thrived on.
In the early 1900s, there was a dentist by the name of Weston A. Price. He traveled to cultures that were untouched by modern society and investigated why these native people had minimal cases of tooth decay and well-built broad faces with no need for glasses, or braces.
What he found was that these people ate their culture’s traditional foods and did not eat “the foods of commerce” as he called modern foods like white bread, sugary jellies, refined white rice, pasteurized milk, and cereals.
When these native cultures started trading with more modernized groups of people and brought these foods of commerce into their tribes they started having tooth decay, sickness, and disease, and children born with all sorts of health issues like deformities, and cleft palates. Some families realized the correlation between the modern foods and their decline in health so they returned to eating their culture’s traditional foods. Their health was restored and they were able to continue to produce healthy children.
Some examples of foods that Weston Price found to be prized in these traditional diets are:
Raw Milk
Butter made from milk in the summer
Seafood
Meat from animals raised on grass
Poultry and fish eggs
Sourdough bread from freshly milled grains
Animal fats
Sprouted legumes
Soaked grains
These traditional foods are a valuable source of vitamins and minerals. They can be a great asset, especially for young people who are growing our next generation. Follow along as I start my blog series talking about each of these traditional foods with a special focus on fertility and the childbearing years.
Click here to read more about the finding of Dr. Price.
Check out my post “The foundation of fertility” more a more in-depth look at how nutrition affects your fertility.
Check out my first post in the series here, Eggs- Traditional Food.
