Before I get into the body of this post, I want to disclaim a few things. First of all, I think Weston A. Price was a genius! What we can learn from his studies is profound indeed. I believe that all dentist and doctors alike should have to study his work prior to going into practice. He is a hero in my world and always will be. Additionally, I absolute 100% support the work of the Weston A. Price Foundation, without it, I would not be where I am today, both in my health, writing this blog and on a path to becoming a Nutritional Therapist. I adore Sally Fallon and her ever so popular book, ‘Nourishing Traditions‘. She is one of my heros as well 
and she is just as pleasant and kind in person as she is on video.
That all said, I have to point out that though you may follow a Weston A. Price ‘diet’ or properly prepare your foods as taught in Nourishing Traditions, you still may not experience perfect health. I have noticed this time and time again through various circles, through people writing to me, and my own experience. Often people find that they gain weight and are more tired by following Nourishing Traditions. My experience was similar initially, until I wised up. Let me explain a bit by sharing my own story.
In the winter of 2007, a friend told me about the book ‘Nourishing Traditions.’ After balking at the price initially (my copy was $30), I went ahead and bought it. Initially, it was rather overwhelming, but everything in it resonated with me. I had already been sprouting my own flour, soaking my nuts and trying to buy organic, I was all for butter and olive oil, and various other components of the protocol were in place in my life. However, after reading through how to properly prepare and soak for baking purposes, I got a little carried away with baking. I quickly realized it was rather a pain in the neck to always have to soak my baked goods and got fed up. So, I searched out some true sourdough bread and ate it with gusto daily. It definitely was easier on my body than regular bread, but I still wasn’t getting the health results I had hoped for. My gut was always off, somewhat distended and I knew things still weren’t right as rain. Eventually, I came to the point in life that I needed to go gluten free, then I learned that starches were very hard on my already agitated gut, so I cut them out for the most part. I adopted a modified GAPS type diet, with the understanding that consuming starch would not help me heal my leaky gut. I then began to learn how important regulating my blood sugar was, and that made it easier to see that too much starch in my diet was not a good thing period.
So here’s what I see happening across the board. Folks learn of Weston A. Price, Nourishing Traditions and the whole properly prepared foods realm and begin to implement dietary changes usually starting with the baked goods. Most people are already consuming lots of homemade baked goods, especially families, namely as a budget stretcher. Not to mention, we are just sugar/starch/carb happy in this country and it’s just kind of how it goes. So people think, well it’s healthier this way, so surely it’s okay to consume lots of it, or at the very least consume it regularly. Am I onto something here? What ends up happening though is that you are keeping yourself in a state of blood sugar disregulation. Our bodies really can only handle very little added sugars, and any starch consumed converts to sugar in the blood stream. So, one the one hand you may be avoiding phyto-nutrients, and actually getting nutrients since you have switched from refined foods to whole foods, but you are still essentially eating sugar. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s true.
Now, before you start getting upset with me for sharing this, hopefully this news will become freedom to you instead. I am not here to tell you how much starch or sugar you personally can eat. That’s something that you need to decide for you. Nor am I gonna tell you that you have to give up grains and go gluten free like I did, again that’s your call. BUT, what I will say, is this, if you want to lose weight and maintain your blood sugar you’ll have to majorally reduce your intake of baked goods (sugars, starches, grains, etc) even if they are NT style. You’ll have to cut starches back and not eat them at every meal, maybe just dinner. Why? When you regulate your blood sugar, you can heal so many other health problems, not just your weight. Endocrine issues are directly related to blood sugar disregulation, as are immune issues. You can’t fix hormonal imbalances without first getting your sugar under control. It’s a simple fact.
Also, just because raw milk is amazingly healthful, doesn’t mean everyone can drink it and do well. Again, we have to look at the big picture here. Many people have unhealthy guts. Not all guts can tolerate the lactose in milk even if the enzymes are still present in the milk. Also, not everyone comes from a heritage that consumed dairy products to begin with and therefore it may not be a food that is healthful for their bodies. Something to consider. I say try it, it’s a great source of nutrition, but if you don’t feel excellent consuming milk or dairy you may need to cut it out and do some gut healing first.
Now I don’t want anyone to feel any sense of guilt over doing what they thought was healthier, I did the same thing for awhile. Nor do I want you to feel overwhelmed that if you don’t use a lot of starches you won’t be able to feed your family on your budget. If I can make it work, as a single mom with a small budget so can you. It’s just a shift in thinking and planning, and it can work. What I tell people is to try and get only 15-20% of your daily intake in starches. Make sure they are properly prepared. Make sure you don’t have a leaky gut, cause if you do, you need to avoid a lot of starches until it heals. In that case I recommend checking out the GAPS protocol. Try to save your starchier foods for the dinner time meal as much as possible. This way you can avoid spiking your blood sugar too much during the day which will lead you to crave more sugar/starch. It will also keep you from getting tired, and if you have it at dinner, getting a little tired is actually okay at that point.
Truly, we can learn a lot from the studies of Dr. Price. His work was profound, a gift to us in this modern day where we have forgone the principles of our ancestors. However, just because he learned of certain preparations doesn’t mean we should necessarily assume that they are good in excess. Namely, the practices of soaking grains and consuming them too much. Everything in moderation, we often hear quoted. The thing is, we don’t know what moderation really looks like anymore. So hopefully, I have give you at least a small perspective as to why consuming too much of a ‘good thing’ is not necessarily a good thing!
For further reading, check out these posts;
Gut and Psychology/Physiology Syndrome with Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride
Taming the Carb Craving Monster with Nora Gedguadas
Being Gluten Free, Isn’t Just About Being Gluten Free
What are your thoughts? Have you cut back on grains/starches and seen major improvement in your overall health? How about sugar? Do you find that you need to eat sweets daily? Or can you manage to eat a lower starch diet with ease? Share your own experiences in the comments.
This post contributed to Monday Mania.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree. I love the book and work of Dr Price and Mrs Fallon. However, I have come to find I cannot eat the things that cause my blood to spike without breaking out with cystic acne on my face. I take it back out of my diet and I clear up. I’ve made sourdough, soaked grains, but nothing changes this reaction. I have to modify and listen to my body. I think the whole point is that people from different places have different native diets that work for them. I learned this when I learned that Asian people deal better with rice than westerners. I’m sure there are many other exceptions as well.
This article is 100% spot on! However, I think the title is misleading. People misunderstand NT. They think that because it tells you how to properly prepare grains and gives recipes for sweets that it is ok to eat as much of it as they want. I have actually found that if I prepare my sweets grain free (with coconut flour) and eat a couple times a week – that is enough to satisfy. The first 6 months on the NT diet I neither gained nor lost weight. I even felt lethargic – but I was also recovering from major surgery. But then, like a switch came on, I one day realized I was no longer tired and I dropped a ton of inches (mass or whatever – don’t like to say weight). My body was detoxing, I’m sure.
Now, I drink raw milk, but it is only occasionally. And I would agree with you that most adults do not need to drink it everyday. My body actually tells me when I need it. Isn’t that weird? Love that I can read my body’s signs now and fix ailments with my food.
I don’t think I went overboard with the grains. Honestly, it was just too time consuming for me. I did/do often have two slices of either Ezekiel bread or Sourdough bread with my dippy eggs in the morning. Would that be enough to screw everything up? That seems crazy to me.
Jen, I guess the title is my way to focus on Weston Price findings as found in NT. I spent a lot of time on the WAPF yahoo group – a great group of folks. But that was a major complaint/realization. Too much of one category of food that we don’t actually need, not to mention in Weston PRice’s time, they didn’t have to first undo the health problems we’ve incurred from a lifetime of eating inferior processed starches and bastardized wheat. then add to that that sugar has only been around as a product for thepast 400 years (minus honey and fruits etc) and we are now just seeing the major degenerative effects of it. So when we learn that there are healthier alternatives to refined sugars, starches we must also learn that too much of those things are not in any way optimal. Nor are they needed. Anyway, I do think people can be much healthier on a typical NT diet, I certainly was. It just didn’t fix my deeper issues. It’s great place to start and a foundation for sure, but due to all the issues we face to go deeper in healing we need more than just NT. That’s why I love GAPS so much!
For me, it’s just easier to eat less grains overall than to spend large amounts of time preparing them properly. Multiple garden veggies per meal help stretch the protein and fat farther.
Lydia — I agree with you on all of that. And I think that GAPS has a lot to offer that NT can not address. Thanks for the post. I did share this on my FB page.
Thanks for saying these things. My daughter and I have celiac diesease, therefore gluten grains are out. We have actually given up all grains. Dairy too. Then I started reading NT and feeling confused about the dairy. I think I will try fermented dairy instead of thinking about milk. I do miss icecream, I will admit. I am looking forward to trying fermented veggies and all of the other wonderful recipes. I have looked into GAPS and now I may look further. Thanks so much.
This is such a great post! Wish I’d read it several years ago!
We’ve been doing NT-style cooking for the most part for several years, but it wasn’t until I really started limiting wheat and other cereal grains that our more stubborn health problems started easing.
I had that same panicky mindset about eliminating “cheap starches” from the family food budget, but then I read on a Primal website somewhere that although grains can be good sources of nutrition if properly prepared, they can be such a pain to prepare that it makes more sense to focus on veggies instead for “cheaper filler foods.” That perspective was really helpful for us to make the switch.
Hi Lydia,
My family’s experience resonates with this post.
I find that we do much better eating more paleo style – meats, poultry, and fish, rounded out with a ton of vegetables. My kids do fine with raw milk and fermented dairy, but I finally removed it from my diet – except for some ghee and occasionally butter – and am amazed how much stronger my immune system is. I usually get a ton of colds/sore throats in the winter and this year I am doing much better. It took me a long time to give it up though, I somehow refused to believe that raw kefir could be bad for me.
Blood glucose regulation is huge – a topic I’m educating myself more on.
I’m grateful for NT/WAPF for teaching me about fermented foods aside from dairy (sauerkraut), soaking nuts, bone broths, FCLO, fish roe, and the importance of animal fats. But it’s been great not spending so much time having to bake sourdough bread and soak grains and beans – we do much better without them.
Debbie – I think GAPS would be great for you and your daughter. On GAPS you start with fermented dairy, from raw milk yogurt and slowly add in more such as sour cream or kefir, then some cheeses etc. Fermented veggies carry so much good bacteria it’s amazing. that is very helpful in healing your gut. By the way, look at my recipes page, I some recipes for coconut milk ice cream that is TO DIE FOR! You don’t have to go without!
Danielle – thanks for your comment! I think that is a great perspective and that is what I do in our home. Veggies also hold more nutrients and minerals, just think of the array of colors! Plus they naturally taste better!
Hi Lisa,
I do better with a paleo/primal approach and lots of fresh veggies. I learned that from my days of being a vegetarian
I can’t tolerate a whole lot of dairy either. Though I let myself have it around the holidays, I know I am better off with minimal. I do hope this will shift as I continue to heal my gut. I too am grateful for all I have learned from NT – there are so many amazing recipes to work with that aren’t loaded with grains/starch or sugar too!
Kudos to you. We WAPFers are so into the food thing that when we hear of someone NOT drinking raw milk, we are like “what?” or those of us that are grain-free are always in constant battle with those of the soaked grains camp. We HAVE to to do what’s right for our own bodies!! Not one thing works for everyone.
Wonderful words of wisdom! I have never had the chance to read the book myself but I took the advice of those who did and began to soak and ferment. I have made sourdough and coconut flour sweets on occasion, but I don’t like baking enough to go overboard at all. My issue has been an overload on starches since going gluten free. I eat way too much rice and rice products! lol What are some other starches that would be good to avoid to keep sugar out of the diet?