In a world dominated by processed foods and fast-paced lifestyles, many are turning to the wisdom of their ancestors for guidance on optimal health. The ancestral diet, rooted in the eating habits of our forebears, emphasizes whole, nutrient-dense foods that have sustained human populations for generations. This article delves into the principles of ancestral eating, explores its potential benefits, and provides practical recipes to incorporate this approach into your modern life.
Understanding the Ancestral Diet
The ancestral diet isn't a single, rigid set of rules, but rather a philosophy centered around consuming foods that were readily available to our ancestors. The specific foods included depend largely on the geographical location where your ancestors lived. If you lived near the sea, for example, then your ancestral diet would contain lots of seafood. An ancestral diet is based on wholesome, nutrient-dense foods from natural sources and completely free from industrialized processes. These foods should have been easy for our direct ancestors and paleolithic ancestors to access in the past.
It's about slowing down, reconnecting with traditional ways of cooking, and choosing whole, nutrient-dense foods that our bodies instinctively recognise. Before supermarkets and ingredient labels, food came directly from the earth and the sea. It was hunted, gathered, or grown. It was soaked, sprouted, fermented, roasted over fire, or simmered slowly. Harvests were celebrated with ceremony. Songs, dances, and gratitude were offered to the land, the waters, and the animals who gave of themselves.
What Makes a Food Ancestral?
- Local and Seasonal: Emphasizing foods that are grown or harvested in your region and during the current season.
- Minimally Processed: Avoiding foods with excessive additives, preservatives, or artificial ingredients.
- Nutrient-Dense: Prioritizing foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients.
- Traditional Preparation: Utilizing cooking methods like fermentation, soaking, and slow cooking to enhance digestibility and nutrient availability.
Ancestral foods are simple: fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, and fermented foods. If it’s in a package, it should have no more than 4-5 whole ingredients - no additives, no artificial anything, no sugar or strange fillers.
Potential Benefits of Ancestral Eating
The increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses like obesity, metabolic syndrome, autoimmune diseases, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease (cardiovascular disease) has prompted many to explore ancestral eating as a potential solution. Here are some of the possible benefits of switching to an ancestral diet based on organic, locally sourced ingredients:
Read also: Is the Ancestral Diet Right for You?
- Improved Gut Health: Many probiotic-rich foods are ones that our ancestors would have eaten. This includes yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, and more.
- Reduced Inflammation: The key is to concentrate on local and seasonal foods that haven’t been overly-processed.
- Increased Nutrient Intake: It is likely that eating more real food and ancestral foods will include more essential nutrients and will benefit overall health.
Adapting the Ancestral Diet to Modern Life
While the concept of ancestral eating is appealing, it's important to adapt it to the realities of modern life. The role of a woman has changed dramatically over the centuries and many women now are not only homemakers but are also balancing a career, raising children, and often studying. In this modern day, most women do not have endless time to prepare foods from scratch and spend all day gardening, preserving, cooking and homemaking. How do we eat a whole foods diet containing traditional nutrient dense foods on our current schedules? Let’s simplify it and focus on a balanced and realistic approach.
Practical Tips for Transitioning
- Start Small: Gradually replace packaged, processed foods with natural alternatives.
- Plan Ahead: Give yourself time to track down the appropriate foods.
- Focus on Local and Seasonal Foods: For example, you may regularly eat certain fruits that are not compatible with an ancestral diet, maybe because they are imported from overseas.
- Prioritize Whole Foods: Choose foods with minimal ingredients and processing.
- Embrace Traditional Cooking Methods: Experiment with fermentation, soaking, and slow cooking.
Ancestral Foods to Incorporate
- Meat and full-fat raw dairy from grass-fed, wild animals. The whole animal is consumed, with the organ meats and fats preferred
- Wild seafood
- Pastured chickens and eggs
- Organic fruits and vegetables
- Healthy, traditional fats like olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, lard, butter etc.
- Fermented foods
Another voice in this space is Weston Price who was a dentist and travelled extensively throughout the globe and found that many of the indigenous peoples had straight teeth free from cavities and deformities. He concluded that after seeing what these people ate, that their diet had a lot to do with their excellent oral health as they included many of the traditional, cultural and nutrient dense foods of their region into their diets. His research led to creating these principles around what foods we should eat from an oral health point of view:
Weston Price Principles:
- Animal Foods: meat and organ meats, poultry and eggs from pastured animals, fish, whole cheese, milk and dairy products from pastured animals, bone broth made from animal bones.
- Grains, legumes and nuts: wholegrain baked goods, porridges, wholegrain rice, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds. The grains were prepared properly by being soaked and/or fermented before use.
- Vegetables and fruit: preferably locally grown and seasonal, both raw and cooked and lacto-fermented.
- Fats & oils: unrefined saturated and monounsaturated fats and oils: olive oil, butter, ghee, cod liver oil, avocado, coconut oil.
Ancestral Diet Recipes: A Taste of the Past
While a strict "ancestral diet" might be difficult to define, we can draw inspiration from traditional eating patterns and create recipes that honor the principles of whole, unprocessed foods. Here are a few examples:
Anissa Armet's Gut-Healthy Recipes
Anissa Armet, a registered dietitian and researcher at the University of Alberta, Canada, and her colleague Jens Walter, studied whether eating a pre-industrial, or "ancestral," diet could improve the gut microbiome. The resulting NiMe diet (non-industrialized microbiome restore) is plant-based, high in fiber, and low in ultra-processed foods, dairy, and wheat products. Armet has followed a diet similar to NiMe - one very high in fiber, minimally processed, and plant-based - for 10 years to manage her ulcerative colitis symptoms.
Sautéed Vegetables and Grains
One of Armet's go-to easy dinners is sautéed vegetables with some grains, which she said comes together in 15 minutes. She chops up onions, bell peppers, garlic, and frozen leafy greens such as kale, and sautés them with olive oil, along with any other vegetables she has on hand.
Read also: Principles of the Ancestral Diet
Overnight Oats
"I'm a creature of habit, so I have the same thing every single morning, which is overnight oats," Armet said. She makes five portions on Sunday, which she keeps in the fridge for a quick, easy breakfast on weekdays. "I just mix rolled oats with things like hemp hearts, chia seeds, or flax seeds. I mix that with milk and then keep that in the fridge," she said. She loves how customizable the oats are. "You can add protein powder or yogurt for an extra boost of protein, or whatever additions you like - peanut butter, frozen berries, shredded coconut, nuts, a tablespoon of coffee if you need a little stimulant in the morning," she said.
Sweet Potato Black Bean Hash
This sweet potato black bean hash recipe was labeled a breakfast in the NiMe study, but Armet said that it is "versatile and customizable enough to meal prep and pull out whenever you need." To make it, chop a sweet potato, bell peppers, and an onion, and season with olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Roast the vegetables until they are soft but not fully cooked.
Other Recipe Ideas
Here are my top foods to make from scratch (that take little preparation) include:
- Stocks & broths
- Sauerkraut (so easy and much cheaper than store bought)
- Homemade snacks for children (plus some good quality ones from the Supermarket for convenience).
If you have more time:
- Butter & ghee
- Sourdough bread
- Fermented dairy products
- Liver pate
- Soaked and activated nuts and seeds
To avoid overwhelm, why not just choose one of these foods and start making it regularly, then begin to add more and more as it seems achievable to your schedule.
Read also: Comprehensive Guide to Ancestral Eating
Nourishing Chicken Soup Recipe
The basic healing chicken soup recipe our family uses regularly and loves, full of gut healing nutrients! Call me simple, I don’t care. But chicken soup is one of my favorite meals. Just a good ol’ basic soup.
Raw Milk Yogurt Recipe
How I make my raw milk yogurt in my instant pot with no heating to keep it raw & probiotic rich! We love our raw dairy around these parts.
Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
How I have converted a starter to gluten free and how I use and manage it! Y’all, I am no expert at all. At all! I kinda have just fumbled through having a sourdough starter over the years.
Considerations and Potential Challenges
- Vegetarianism and Veganism: Following the Ancestral Diet can be challenging for vegetarians or vegans because it relies heavily on meat and fish. However, with some adjustments, such as increasing the intake of plant-based proteins like nuts and seeds, it’s possible to adapt the diet to some extent. But it’s important to ensure all nutritional needs are met, especially for protein and certain vitamins and minerals that are typically found in animal products.
- Accessibility and Cost: Access to high-quality, locally sourced foods can be a challenge for some individuals.
- Individual Needs: It's essential to consider individual dietary needs and consult with a healthcare professional or registered dietitian before making significant changes to your diet.