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

by Mary G. Enig and Sally Fallon

Book Overview

This description may be from another edition of this product. A full-spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message--animal fats and cholesterol are vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the...

Customer Reviews

Amazing book

So much information backed up by real history. All about real nutrition for what our body needs great condition for what I needed it for

Maybe the most vitally important and essential nutrition book to exist

It is unfortunate that the Spotlight review, under the heading, "Like the ideas, not the presentation," is the first one readers here see, because the review is written by someone who hasn't a clue as to how vitally important this book is. Such a misinformed review only undermines the astonishing scope of this book; it is evident that this reviewer has not any viable credentials to back up what amounts to a series of laughably feeble reasoning points. Worse, it is evident that the reviewer has not actually read Weston A. Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," which she dismisses in a naively peremptory way. Anyone who has read this eye-opening, exhaustively researched book on primitive versus modern diets, and see the evidence presented, will see why Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig have spearheaded a virtual campaign on the dangers of modern diets. Let's face it - our foods have changed. And not for the better. In the long span of history, the last 100 years has wrought some devastating transformations in how food is handled, prepared, and, most insidiously - processed. Our genes are basically used to food that for millenia, was relatively pure, wholesome, unaltered and uncorrupted. So, since the turn of the century, matters began to shift. As manufacturing and processing became more sophisticated, food began to undergo a drastic change. Not having any longer to butcher our own beef, harvest our own vegetables and grains, make our own fats, we could rely on "companies" to start doing it for us. And what did we get in return? Fats (perhaps most disturbingly) are chemically altered and hydrogenated, turning them into dangerous poisons (just READ how margarine is made - it will incite one big colossal "yuck"); animals are mass produced in inhumane warehouses; are fed poor diets and get injected with god knows what; grains and vegetables are grown in sterile, pesticide-laden soils; refined, devitalized sugar and flour is in everything; we're offered and forced everything from hydrogenated fats to high-fructose corn syrup to MSG to plastic sugars. And guess what? This is the sickest, fattest time Americans live in. Heart disease, cancer, obesity, degenerative diseases, are at an all-time high. We have antibiotics, anti-imflammatories to conquer infectious diseases, but in return, we have heart disease, cancer, degenerative and neurological dysfunctions in its place. As this exhaustively researched and documented book illustrates, the culprits for this state of affairs is definitely tied to the devastating changes wrought in our foods. Though the medical establishment has found a way to treat diseases, it has ignored many of the current causes of those diseases in the first place. This book offers a method, a return, so to speak, to a time when food was consumed in its purest state. Ironically, that's a difficult thing to do; only through specialty stores and farmers can we get naturally raised food. Most of the food - as cheaply and quick

Scientific Support for Traditional Diets. Wonderful

This book by Sally Fallon (with Mary Enig, Ph.D.) is an inspiring polemic against both commercial, prepared food trends and some governmental and research leaders who appear to be making recommendations on nutrition under the influence of commercial interests.My first impression of the book is that it shows exactly how hard nutritional science actually is. The authors are citing hundreds of technical works from both demographic and controlled experiment studies regarding thousands of different food components in their way to painting a complete picture of good nutrition. Their starting point in painting this picture is the common sense assumption that historical, natural diets are invariably more healthy than those laden with commercially processed foods. This assumption is backed up by demographic research done in the first third of the last century. This is the import of the `traditions' in the title.It turns out that the potential allies of the authors' approach come from such different quarters as the Atkins diet advocates who endorse eating meat, eggs, and other proteins in preference to (processed) carbohydrates and the `Raw Food' wing of the vegetarian / vegan movement. The latter camp would wholeheartedly endorse the authors' issues with eating foods that retain their original enzymes to aid in digestion. I'm sure the vegans and the Atkins camp will not join forces any time soon, but their appearance in the same metaphorical room on the side of the authors' position is another indication of how multi-sided complex scientific theories can become.I have no facts to confirm or challenge the authors' claim of corruption on the part of some academics in endorsing a nutritional position to back commercial interests. I will only say that it is irrelevant to the central tenant of the book, which in very simple terms is `Eat the way your great grandparents ate'. Some of the more important details are:1. Avoid processed fats, starches, sugars, and proteins. They are not of no value. They are unhealthy.2. Eat animal protein and their accompanying fats.3. Eat whole grain products.4. Eat foods prepared in such a way that avoids loosing important nutrients.Almost all of the authors' statements on individual nutritional facts are backed up by published scientific research. One or two or even ten percent of their references may be flawed, but the overall weight of their evidence is truly impressive. The only problem I find in their characterization of the way things are today is in not giving full credit to medical science in lengthening our lifespans through the suppression of infectious diseases. This is likely to be the reason behind the increase in the frequency of deaths by degenerative diseases like cancer and heart disease, not a catastrophic loss of nutritional value in our diets. That is not to say their claims about the drop in the quality of our diet are not true. Always remember that these gals are making a case, they are not simply publishin

One of the Best Books Ever Written Period!!

After reading just about every diet book in existence, from Atkins to Eat Right 4 Your Type to vegan and vegetarian diet books, finally I have found a book not based on some polar not found in nature extreme theory, but a book based on the reality of what very healthy people have been eating for a very long time. Finally a book based on facts and science, not wild speculation and wishful thinking.The diet recommended in this book is based on traditional foods used by very healthy people (and very long lived people) all over the world for thousands of years. These people all have one thing in common. They don't used processed, pasteurized, denatured food. Some cultures and lands use unpastuerized milk products as staples, others use raw meat or focus on cooked and raw meat. All peoples consume some form of unprocessed animal product, with fat and enzymes intact. They also use lacto fermented products, from yogurt to fermented fruits, vegetables and meats. The fermentation makes the food very easy to digest, adds friendly intestinla bacteria and preserves the food. The book also explains proper preparation of grains (usually soaking for a period of time) to remove phytates and make the nutrients more available.The book is based on Weston Price's (others have validated his research and have conducted their own) research on "primitive peoples" diets from around the world. He was a dentist who traveled around the world checking the health of these people and then compared their health with the health of these same peoples when they ate processed food diets as they became available.This is a very good book with very valuable information. The information on fats is extremely important.Defintely the best book ever written on diet and nutrition and probably one of the best books ever written period.