Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

There is no need to if you feel that way. However, if you have had trouble with your health, teeth, or wellbeing and are trying to find answers, this cookbook is one hell of a place to start!Nourishing Traditions is based on the work and travels of Weston A. Price, a dentist in the early 1930's who wondered why teeth on his young patients were getting so bad, (among other things) but not of their parents. The dichotomy of this was so relevant, it inspired Dr. Price to find out why.What Dr. Price learned was astonishing! He wrote a book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration based on what he had learned seeking cultures that had little or no contact with white men, or their modern foods. To have a better (or bitter, depending on how you look at it) understanding of the "why" of Nourishing Traditions it is highly recommended you read Dr. Price's book first.Sally Fallon expands on what Dr. Price learned. (It's not necessarily what you are eating as much as what you AVOID eating). You will learn why modern foods really aren't foods at all. They are just highly-processed-eviscerated-commodity profit items for their makers, and a vacuous nutritional wasteland for the rest of us! We have been deceived and cheated! That is their principle - this is her warning.That said, here is my impression of Sally's cookbook.First, there is a bit too much of dairy products involved that it could easily be called the Midwesterner's Diary Handbook. A lot of the recipes (recipes I am mostly interested in anyway) call for cultured diary stuff, etc., especially whey. She gives some alternatives for whey (especially for soaking) to use lemon or vinegar. Whey must be created by buying or making yogurt then draining it through a cheese cloth. That takes a lot of yogurt. I don't own a cow you know.She also has some contradictory info, like white flour is bad, but not unbleached white flour, duh! Well, I guess some recipes just need white flour (modern ones anyway). She does give some alternatives, like using crushed nuts for pie shells. For those of you wondering why such contradictions, this book was written for broad appeal and for such things we now consider standard fare, such as sweets and pastries, etc. She tries to cover all bases and I think succeeds pretty good. There is a substitute recipe for just about anything modern in here, based on Dr. Price's findings.However, there is no substitute for corn syrup in her book. I like pecan pie (before I read her book), but there is no mention of what might be a good substitute for the ubiquitous corn syrup. What about using honey, or maple syrup or a dilution of some kind to make pecan pie, would that work? As long as were going to "treat" ourselves once in awhile, I wish she found a great substitute for that modern poison.Be forewarned, this book is not Bible based nutrition. It is based on empirical evidence. I still don't approve the eating of these non-biblical approved foods or fats, empirical or otherwise. I agree on everything else, though. I note, however, that this is a cookbook and not a religion book. Thankfully, there are many other biblically approved type fats and food recipes to choose from.There is also no mention in her book of animal intestines, like tripe etc., even though it is mentioned by Dr. Price in his travels and on the Weston Price website (run by Mrs. Fallon) of natives relishing this organ. It is a shame because it may be the "pasta" (without the grains) of an all meat/fat diet generally advocated by their research.Don't get me wrong, I like this cookbook and refer to it 95% of the time. I try to even "Fallonize" recipes I find outside of the book. It is my main recipe reference now. The sidebars of information and anecdotes (complete with references) make it more than a cookbook! It helps to reinforce and inspire the WHY you are doing this! AND, it is the only cookbook that I know of based entirely on Weston A. Price's principles!Recipe taste? I have tried several of her recipes and am very satisfied with everyone I have tried. My mother thought the liver recipe was the best she has ever tasted! She can't get enough of it! Our family leaves no "seconds" on the waffle recipe. For the waffle recipe I use half of whole spelt (freshly ground) and organic white flour for the remainder. I expect all the recipes to be very good because I expect them to be the "pick of the crop" when nearly any cookbook is made. This is not always true, of course.Conclusion: Take her cookbook in moderation (natives probably ate seasonal too) but keep practicing it. Shun the "displacing foods of modern commerce", and I think you'll make a big dent in whatever ails you. Remember, things take time, (we never really ate this way before) and "seek and ye shall find".Note: there are some things that are too late and can never be changed. As adults our teeth and bones are permanently malformed by modern foods, but our children and unborn may still have a chance. Buy this cookbook for them!Another excellent nutritionist is Rebecca Woods. She has a website filled with practical tips, advice, and recipes and can compliment this book.

I found this book through the book "The Maker's Diet" which was given to me when I was 18 and sat on a shelf to be picked up 2 years later after the birth of my first child. I was struggling to breastfeed after having a major loss of blood (OBGYN's mistake led to this and a major birth trauma). I had virtually no milk supply. Tried everything! Persevered for 6 horrible long exhausting weeks before I finally gave up. I did not even become engorged upon stopping, that's how low my supply was. Looking back now i was very malnourished from a terrible diet of fast food and soda during pregnancy, plus the major loss of blood after birth- there's no way my body could produce anything. My teeth were crumbling, horrible cavities everywhere. I was very much against infant formula but I had no other choice, so i started my son of Enfamil. He was colicky, constipated, constant projectile spit up, not sleeping well, and I was DEPRESSED. I was even having to use infant suppositories for him. This is NOT NORMAL!! No matter how common it is, it's not normal...I began reading a lot to try and help keep my mind off of the deep depression I was experiencing (Lack of sleep, stress of being a young new wife and mother, no family in the area, plus my very unhealthy and hormone depleted body). Then, one day I came across the book that I had placed on a shelf two years prior (The Maker's Diet- a great book). When I started reading through some of the recipes, I noticed many of them were referencing this book called "Nourishing Traditions". I went to Barnes and Noble and bought this book the same week. Instantly saw how informative it was and how packed with recipes! I love it!! It opened my life to a completely new way of thinking/eating/ living. One of the first recipes i came across was the infant formula recipe. I thanked God because I knew he led me there, as I had PRAYED and cried out to God to help me find some way to feed my baby, and in the midst of feeling like such a massive failure for not being able to nurse my son, I realized that God had used my dad to give me The Maker's Diet, which I would pick up two years later out of desperation, which would in turn lead me to Nourishing Traditions... Long story short, I used the website provided in the book to scout out a source of raw milk locally, and within that week I found a raw milk cow share and signed up, and ordered all of the ingredients that I needed and started making my son's formula. From the first feeding, he was a much happier baby! He stopped fussing so much, he started SLEEPING through the night, AND he was NEVER AGAIN constipated! His bowel movements turned to mustard yellow, seedy, soft just as they were when I was nursing him.Fast forward to two years later and having completely embraced the Nourishing Traditions lifestyle, my husband and I decided to try for a second child. This pregnancy went much differently. I took care of myself, the nourishing traditions way. I drank superfood green smoothies every single day with home made raw milk kefir, ate healthy (not 100%, but I tried to give my body everything it needed!), plenty of butter and coconut oil and eggs, took whole food supplements and herbs instead of synthetic pharmaceutical prenatals, and never once saw a doctor- only my midwives who I had a home birth with. Gave birth to my 9lb 4oz 23" long baby girl, ELEVEN days late (hey, she knew when she was ready!), at home with no medication, in an inflatable birthing pool. It was awesome. My milk came in within 2 days (holy heck did it come in!!), she never lost weight, she slept much better, was very alert and nursed very well, had no digestion issues and has always been SO HEALTHY! My son is very healthy too (thanks to being able to start making his formula at 6/7 weeks of age), but he did catch and still does tend to catch more illnesses than she ever has. I really do attribute this to the type of diet i ate while pregnant with her, versus the SAD (standard american diet) i ate while pregnant with him, as well as the first 6 weeks of powdered formula and the drug exposure he had during birth in the hospital....ONE THING I have noticed that is astounding to me is the difference in their facial structures and teeth/jaw formation. After reading Weston Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration", as well as Francis Pottenger's "Pottenger's Cats", it makes sense to me why this is so. My little girl has such a beautiful and wide jaw, with perfectly straight and spaced teeth which i know will allow for her permanents to grow in without crowding, while my son has very crowded teeth and a more narrow jaw and has already had cavities while my daughter has had ZERO. (SEE PICS!)It really does make a difference what you eat before conception, during pregnancy, and what you feed your child.. (Btw, I supplemented with WAP homemade formula and eventually switched her to it completely when I decided to quit nursing- don't judge me)I'm not saying everything in this book is completely 100% for everyone, but it worked for me and my babies. All of the information also led me into a completely different life as far as nutrition and eating. I try to stay away from grains completely these days as I have some long standing digestive issues, but if I do have them I believe they are best soaked or sprouted like this book says. Also, try sprouted nuts- SO DELICIOUS and so much better for you than roasted or even raw. Lots of good recipes in the book, and you'll get a ton of practice in the cooking and preparing of different foos. If nothing else, get it for the baby formula recipe and information pertaining to childhood nutrition. My favorite and most used part of the recipes in this book are the fermented foods and dairy.