The Foods We Do Eat and Why

What "do" we eat?

As I covered in this previous post, my family avoids a lot of different foods, and for good reason. We don't tolerate them and have pretty severe reactions. I had to start reading every single label and start making my own substitutes. Either products weren't available at a store or they are ridiculously expensive.

Here's what we do eat: fresh, frozen, and dried organic (or un-sprayed) produce, pastured eggs, pastured/wild meat, soaked and dehydrated nuts, raw dairy, real fats like butter, coconut oil, and avocado oil, organic seaweed, coconut milk, spices, and herbs. I make our baked goods from blends of coconut flour, tapioca starch, arrowroot starch, and blanched almond flour. We enjoy raw cocoa powder and Enjoy Life Chocolate, and stick mainly to organic maple syrup and local raw honey for sweetening. I do use some Wholesome Sweeteners items for powdered sugar and cane sugar. I incorporate a lot of homemade bone broth and stock as well as grass-fed gelatin. We don't eat many legumes, but when we do, they are properly soaked for 12-24 hours to release the phytic acid, as explained here.

I limit what we eat that comes from a can. Yes, there are many organic options in canned goods, but cans are still lined with other questionable chemicals, as noted here. Because I cannot always source them otherwise, I buy coconut milk, fish, and water chestnuts in cans. For everything else, I opt for jars or skip that item.

The list of what we can and do eat allows for delicious, nourishing food. I work to balance our sugar with protein and fat (like cooking fruit in butter and serving with yogurt, meat, eggs), ferment many items (like vegetables and mayonnaise), and season everything well. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated, just good, real food.

I have found a lot of information and understanding by studying Weston A. Price and reading the benefits of the Paleo diet. Pinterest is a phenomenal resource for finding recipes and inspiration by querying "WAP" and "Paleo."

I will start saving our recipes that we do enjoy in a recipe section on this blog, and link it once it is started.