Our Family Food Journey

Our family has been on an interesting food journey of late. There have been some pretty significant changes in our eating habits in the past couple of weeks, and I thought that now would be the perfect time to share our journey with you. The changes mean that the content of the posts and recipes on my blog is going to be taking a more nourishing turn. So, here goes…

The first major change occurred about 3 weeks ago – I cut refined sugar out of my diet and have virtually cut it out of the rest of the families diet too. Just to clarify – by refined sugar I mean I have stopped cooking with white and brown sugar and have stopped buying products with the word “sugar” in the ingredients list.

My initial reason for this drastic sugar change was for me personally. I have been holding on to my post baby #2 weight for 2 years now and have been “on and off” a number of “healthy” diets. Some have been low fat, some have been low carb, some have been high protein – but all have included sugar in one form or another and I have yet to lose that dreaded baby weight. (yes, in the space of 2 years I have been on a number of diets to help remove my baby weight, but I seem to be in the same place I was 2 years ago!)

I felt I needed a change which would cut all the “rubbish” out of my diet. Cutting sugar would mean no more processed chocolates, no more low fat/high sugar yoghurts and no more high sugar cereals. OK, If I’m going to be totally honest here – my weakness up until the no sugar change had been a bowl of granola, (or more) which was loaded with sugar. Yes, I could have just stopped buying the Granola, but I knew I would just find something else to replace it with and that rather than just following another “diet”, I wanted to make a permanent change for the better.

Ever since Mr (almost) 4 became my super picky eater, I have fed him very little processed food and have avoided artificial flavors and colors in 100% of his (and his brothers) food. I have always believed that if he’s going to be picky, then the food he does eat will have as little processed ingredients and as much “healthy” ingredients as possible. Removing sugar from the kids diet too, is simply a step further on their already mostly unprocessed, virtually all homemade diet.

Leaving refined sugar behind has meant I’ve been on the lookout for other forms of sweetness and so far I’ve been playing alot with coconut in all its varieties, dried fruit, agave nectar, honey and rice malt syrup. Yes, I know that some of these sweeteners would be classified by “hard core” no-sugar eaters as sources of sugar. I am trying different sweet alternatives to find out what works for me and my family rather than being caught up on the technicalities of honey.

I’ve been enjoying experimenting with wholesome sweeteners and am excited to share some of my sweet successes with you soon!

The next change I’m going to share with you is the one I’m most excited about. It’s the one that has been consuming my every waking moment over the past few weeks. (Just ask my poor, neglected Husband!) Learning more and more and searching for every bit of information I’ve been able to get my hands on about Traditional Ways of Preparing Food and Nourishment.

I recently came across the post “Determining the Best Traditional Diet for You” by Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist. I read and absorbed every word of that post. It was the first I learned of the work of Dr Weston A. Price and the importance of truly nourishing foods. The way of eating resonated with me, and I went on to read post after post and watch numerous videos on Sarah’s blog. Wow – talk about life changing!

Reading through all the Traditional Food material, it became clearer and clearer that the direction for me (and my family) moving forward would be to go back to how our grandparents and great grandparents ate. This is the direction I had sort of been moving in, the direction of removing processed foods out of our diets, but taking it a step further.

It so happens that My Husband’s heritage and mine are similar, so our ancestors dined on similar “sacred foods”. I must point out that on reading the post I linked to above, I quickly called out to my Husband to come and read it too, and he sat by my side watching videos and reading the posts together. We shared the sheer joy at finding the answer we had been searching for.

It’s taken a few weeks for the information to absorb and to start taking baby steps in moving our family towards a genuinely traditional diet, one which saw our ancestors thrive. We both have members of our family (and extended family) who have enjoyed great longevity. In fact my Grandmother is 100 years old and aside from her sight and hearing degenerating, she is in surprisingly incredible health. The same was true for her parents, her mother lived well into her 90s and her father 102.

In the past week I got my hands on Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, written by Sally Fallon. This monumental book has taken our journey a step further.I have been reading it and (slowly) absorbing all the enlightening information on the intricacies of preparing truly nourishing food. In the past few days I have made my first batches of Chicken Stock, Sauerkraut and Curds & Whey!

So, in future you can expect to be delighted with recipes containing no refined white/brown sugar, more use of a variety of nourishing ingredients such as grains, (aside from wheat), nuts and seeds and my experience of learning traditional cooking methods.

I am so optimistic for what the future holds for my families health and nourishment. I’m literally learning something new every day. If you have experienced a similar journey I’d love for you to share your top tips for when you were getting started on the nourishing path and what your food philosophy is now. (in a nutshell!)