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12 Practical Steps for Improving Your Nutrition

Do one step a month and in a year you will be eating a nutrient-rich, easy-to-digest whole foods diet!

1. Use unrefined salt and get rid of refined salt. Salt generally should be grayish or pink, showing that it contains diverse minerals. Sources: Celtic or other sea salt, Real Salt at health food stores, often found in bulk.

2. Focus on Fats:a. Eliminate: all hydrogenated oils, trans fats, margarines, and processed oils

such as soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed and canola.b. Use more: butter (ideally cultured, raw, or grass fed organic), ghee, lard,

tallow, nitrate-free bacon grease, unrefined coconut and palm oil, extra virgin olive oil, expeller pressed sesame, peanut and flax oil, and cod liver oil (as a supplement).

c. Make your own salad dressing with olive oil and raw apple cider vinegar.

3. Improve the quality of your animal protein foods; best is pastured from local farms, second best is free range/ organic.

a. Dairy: ideal is raw, full-fat organic dairy, but if using pasteurized, look for non-homogenized; use real cream, plain whole yogurt and kefir (try making your own!) Avoid: powdered milk, non- or low fat milk products, milk substitutes, non-dairy creamer (which is flammable!)

b. Eggs: best: from pastured chickens such as those from Marin Sun Farms and Clark Summit Farm (at Rainbow, Bi-Rite and the Farmer’s market), 2nd best: organic or omega-3

c. Meat: pastured or organic free range, locally produced bacon or sausage without added nitrates

d. Fish/seafood: wild is best, check Seafood Watch guide for sustainable choices. Lowest in mercury: crab, flounder, haddock, trout, wild salmon, shrimp, scallops, sole, canned wild salmon and sardines are inexpensive. Avoid: most canned tuna, which is high in mercury and may contain lots of MSG.

4. Bone Broth: save the all bones and carcasses in your freezer, and when you enough, make soup stock. Use for soups, cooking grains or beans, and to make sauces for extra nutrition, minerals and gut-healing gelatin.

5. Eat fresh local organic and seasonal produce. Grow your own, shop at the farmer’s markets, look into joining a CSA* and getting a box of veggies from a local farm every week. Eating produce both raw and cooked will ensure a variety of enzymes and nutrients.

* CSA – Community Supported Agriculture

6. Carbs: Choose slow carbs over fast carbs.a. Minimize: “white” foods such as refined sugar and white flour, starchy

potatoes, white rice.b. Eat more: whole grains (ideally sprouted or soaked overnight with lemon

juice, vinegar or whey), sourdough or sprouted breads, whole grain crackers without unhealthy or damaged oils

c. Eliminate: most processed cereals especially puffed cereals. Choose: oatmeal or other whole grain cereals that you soak overnight before cooking

d. Avoid fiber supplements and foods that have fiber added.

7. Reduce or eliminate processed foods—if they sell it at 7-11, it is not good for you!

8. Sugar: Choose raw honey, maple syrup, stevia or evaporated cane juice (sold as Sucanat or Rapadura in bulk) instead of white sugar, brown sugar, ‘sugar in the raw’, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.

9. Minimize caffeinated drinks. Eliminate sweet drinks such as soda, diet soda and most juice; instead drink water, herbal tea, mineral water, organic wine and beer, fresh squeezed juice. Make or buy lacto-fermented or fermented drinks such as kombucha.

10. Eat fermented foods with each meal. Raw sauerkraut and live pickles are potent sources of probiotics, which support digestion. Making your own is inexpensive and easy to do!

11. Supplements: Save money by eliminating most supplements—food is generally a good synergetic way to get what your body needs.

12. Toxins: Avoid aluminum and Teflon cookware, microwaves, MSG, artificial flavors and colors, additives, and be wary of unfermented soy.

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