Welcome to my Nourishing Traditions © blog!
I am looking forward to this opportunity to write about my favorite subject: healthy food! I’ll be doing lots of updates on the science of nutrition, traditional diets, raw milk, meal planning and interesting recipes. I’ll be discussing the need for healthy animal fats in the diet–for everything from cellular energy, to protection against cancer, to an upbeat, happy mood. My new blog also gives me the opportunity to write about other subjects that interest me, including farming and gardening, children, science, music, language and literature (especially Shakespeare). I am looking forward to this new venture, and especially getting your comments and feedback. Coming soon: a series on genuine Southern cooking and a series on fermented foods from around the world–plus my heretical thoughts on feeding babies. Stay tuned!
Sincerely,
Sally Fallon Morell
Bringing Up Baby, Part II
In my last blog I began a discussion of infant feeding practices, addressing the question of when to begin solid food. In this instance, my views are in accord with those of conventional organizations, namely that for the majority of babies, four to six months is the right age for beginning foods other than breast milk or formula (that’s homemade baby formula, based on raw milk).
As for what to feed baby, here I am mostly in disagreement with conventional advice.
Bringing Up Baby, Part I
A recent online discussion that took place at NourishingOurChildren.org has made me realize the need to reiterate our (mine and those of the Weston A. Price Foundation) recommendations for infant feeding.
Human Heart, Cosmic Heart: New Book by Tom Cowan, MD
Shortly after my book Nourishing Traditions came out, I participated in an interview with Roger Windsor, editor of Spectrum Magazine. The journal had a vegetarian, macrobiotic bent, but Roger was kind enough (and intrigued enough) to introduce Nourishing Traditions to the public through the pages of his journal.
(By the way, Roger began eating meat, including liver, after the interview; he saw his health improve, sold his magazine, and for many years kindly donated his services as copyeditor for Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.)
An Open Letter To Donald Trump
Dear Mr. Trump,
Congratulations on your election to the U.S. presidency. You campaigned on a slogan of “Make America Great Again,” proposing to create more jobs for ordinary Americans.
This is a laudable goal but unfortunately, it is not enough to make America great again.
Nourishing Fats: Why We Need Animal Fats For Health And Happiness
I’m happy to report that my new book, Nourishing Fats, will be out this coming January (2017). The book began as a few notes and a hasty table of contents jotted down over a dozen years ago, after many conversations with my mentor, Mary G. Enig, PhD. We agreed on the need for a popular book addressing the subject of saturated fats, one that would do more than acknowledge the notion that they “might not be so bad,” but explain why they are essential to life. Needless to say, the inspiration for this book, and the basic knowledge on fats and oils, came from her. Nourishing Fats is dedicated to the memory of this courageous biochemist, who sacrificed research grants and a prestigious career in order to warn the public about the dangers of trans fats.
Wise Traditions 2016
The highlight of the year for myself and for the Weston A. Price Foundation is the annual Wise Traditions conference, now in its 17th year.
In the early days, we held the conference in a church basement, with just a few speakers and one meal—no longer! Now it is a 4-day event, with almost 40 speakers, several tracks, up to 100 exhibitors and 5 nutrient-dense meals, including the awards banquet on Saturday evening—I like to call it our big annual party, with great food, great company and the sharing of great information.
Bitter Pills
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Glennon Doyle Melton, an author who shares her struggles on coping as a mother at momastery.com. I got a bit of flack for making the connection of the typical American “healthy” diet with her difficulties, but in fact the Internet is teaming with moms sharing their heartaches dealing with depression and lack of energy as they try to care for children (often very sick children)—and with far fewer resources than Doyle Melton enjoys. These problems—in both the moms and the children—could be greatly alleviated by embracing a nutrient-dense diet that contains lots of butter, cream, whole raw milk, egg yolks and old-fashioned foods like liver and cod liver oil, and getting rid of processed foods, even so-called healthy processed foods like granola and almond milk. My remarks were not meant to be critical in any way, but to indicate a solution—the right diet really can help kids and their parents to be healthy and happy.
All Those Baseball Injuries
An article in the Washington Post (July 14, 2016) discusses the punishing major league baseball schedules, noting that players believe there is a relationship between “consecutive days played, game times, travel—and injuries.” They point to the one hundred sixty-two-day schedule, instituted in the early 1960s, as a factor in the greater number of injuries in recent times.
Why Is Glennon Doyle Melton So Unhappy?
I had never heard of Glennon Doyle Melton until the Washington Post published an article about her, September 8, 2016. Ms. Doyle Melton is attractive and slender, lives in an upper middle class neighborhood, has a husband (although they are now separated), three good-looking children and more-than-adequate finances. She is the author of an extremely successful blog, momastery.com, which gets seven million readers per week, and two best-selling books, Love Warrior (Flatiron, 2016) and Carry On, Warrior (Scribner, 2012).
Feeling Tired All The Time? Chronic Fatigue
I learned a very interesting fact recently, one that can give us guidance on how to overcome the modern phenomenon of chronic fatigue: about 70 percent (!) of the body’s energy goes toward digesting our food. So the obvious first step in treating a condition of constant tiredness would be to consume food that is easy to digest.
Why Do Baby Calves Get Animal Fats in Their Formula, But Not Baby Humans?
We were in the local feed store recently and I happened to look at the ingredient list for milk replacer for calves. Imagine my surprise to find “animal fat” listed as the third ingredient!
How Do Animals Feel About Being Killed for Meat?
One of the arguments for vegetarianism holds that killing animals for meat is just like killing human beings—that killing animals is "murder of the innocents."
Kombucha Like Fine Champagne
Kombucha is an artisan product, and like all hand-crafted foods, the best results require patience and time. A good hand-brewed kombucha is like a fine champagne, fizzy with tiny bubbles, a delightful combination of sweet and sour, and even slightly viscous on the tongue.
How To Squander Your Testosterone
Chinese medicine considers virility as closely aligned with overall vitality, specifically associated with life or "fire" in the kidney area. The kidney area of course includes the adrenal glands, which produce a variety of hormones that help us deal with stress; the adrenals also provide a backup to the testicles by producing small amounts of testosterone.
U.S. Can’t Figure Out What to Do with Excess Cheese
U.S. commodity cheese prices are at a five-year low.
The Weston A. Price Foundation is dedicated to teaching Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts. The Foundation depends on memberships for its educational activities. You can become a member by visiting westonaprice.org and clicking on Join Now.