Baby Steps Continued

Yesterday I wrote about the easier things you can do to start switching your family over to a whole foods diet. Today I thought we might discuss some of the harder and sometimes more expensive ones.

1.) Switch your meat (beef, chicken, eggs) to grass fed, free range and if possible organic. Also if you can find it local is best.

Although the meat in the grocery store may be cheaper you have no idea where it is coming from, what it ate, what conditions it was housed in, if it was given antibiotics or steroids, and many other problems.

Here is a great website called Eat Wild that can give you some great ideas for starting to find local meat. If you are willing to search hard enough you can usually find it. If you live near me try Satchel Creek Steaks or Yoder Meats.

2.) If possible try to switch your dairy products over to raw milk or at the very least non homogenized. A lot of us have begun buying milk and cheese that is organic, but unfortunately it has also been ultra pasteurized and homogenized. These 2 processes kill all of the good bacteria and nutrients in the milk. Sometimes people who are lactose intolerant have found that they area able to drink raw milk without any problems.

If you are still a little unsure about raw milk you can check out my post here or this website called Real Milk.

3.) Buy local or organic produce when possible. Often organic produce is much higher in price then conventional. You will notice though that when you are buying produce in season the prices are often comparable. Lately I have noticed that apples and lettuce are only slightly more or the same as conventional.

If you are unable to buy all organic, which most of the time I am not, there are still things you can do to help reduce your pesticide load. Buy from local farmers, remember the dirty dozen, and buy in season.

4.) Start making your own food rather then buying processed food. Rather then trying to do this all at once start with one thing. Make just that one thing until you are comfortable with it and then slowly start adding things one item at a time. You will find that it gets easier. Some great things to start with would be yogurt (I use a yogurt maker, really easy), tortillas, bread, or granola.

Next week I plan to start going over certain food groups in more detail.

Don't let yourself get discouraged. You will get there. It has taken me a long time to get to the point I am and I still have a LONG way to go.

There are still many things you can do to add nutrients to your diet such as sprouting seeds, soaking grains, and making some of your own dairy products (cheese, kefir, buttermilk...), but I think I will save those for separate posts since they are more involved.