Nourishing Diets: How Paleo, Ancestral and Traditional Peoples Really Ate by Sally Fallon Morell

Nourishing Diets: How Paleo, Ancestral and Traditional Peoples Really Ate Reviews

• 
  Uroš Mikolič

  Some hefty arguments of why being vegan or vegetarian is not as healthy as it is claimed.
• 
  Madison Rasak Thomas

  This book really helped refine my perspective on why indigenous food ways and lifestyle was so beautiful and nourishing. This book was very heady and researchy but she never lost me once. As someone who is very interested in the science of food and food culture as it relates to history and patterns of humanity- this book had me glued. The title might also be deceiving as this is not a diet book but an exploration of indigenous ways of living and eating and its positive impacts on health and the environment and how this differs from modern life/changed with the introduction of foods of modern commerce.
• 
  Mary Cokenour

  I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. It took me a long time to get through it as it is mainly a detailed historical venture through cooking styles and cuisines around the world. Not really my cup of tea; was also hoping for recipes to follow each chapter, but not till the end and very few that were of interest.
  
  I gave it 4 stars for the historical data which others may appreciate more than I.
• 
  Erica

  Much better than I thought it would be. I was ready for a hippie/new-agey kind of thing. Instead, I found it very informative and surprisingly practical.
• 
  Sandy D.

  This book is basically an update of dentist and amateur anthropologist Weston A. Price’s 1939 book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects” by the president and co-founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Sally Fallon Morell. Like Price, Fallon Morell surveys traditional foods in several areas (Australia, Native North America, the Pacific, Africa, and Switzerland). Unlike Price, Fallon Morell did not do her own research. Instead, she relies on cherry-picked snippets of research by other researchers, both historic and modern, adding select information on cuisines in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
  
  The information on traditional diets presented in Nourishing Diets is not wrong, per se, but it is ridiculously incomplete. Whole continents with hundreds of different groups with wildly disparate diets (both geographically and historically) are summed up with a handful of anecdotes in her chapters, with some weird slights towards anthropologists, nutritionists, and government officials sprinkled along the way. The latter are called “diet dictocrats” with a penchant for “political correctness” in their food recommendations. “Archeological authorities in America” are blithely assigned attitudes about traditional diets with nary a look at decades of plentiful literature on indigenous diet and cuisine.
  
  In all her sketches on cuisine, Fallon Morell elevates stories about specific foods recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation since 1999 (meats, especially organ meats, raw milk, fermented foods and sprouted seeds) and ignores the reams of writing about fruits, vegetables, tubers, and grains in many traditional peoples’ diets – except when this data contributes to her agenda, as with the description of nixtamalization of corn. Her few attempts at quantification like “Sources of Fat for the American Indian” are downright bizarre, and leave out major parts of many Native peoples’ diets (including fish, shellfish, oily seeds like sunflower and sumpweed, and nuts like hickories and walnuts).
  
  There are some interesting recipes in the final chapter, including cricket flour pancakes, headcheese, blood pancakes, spicy blood meatloaf, scrapple, and raw liver pills. And a recipe for liver biscuits - "a way to get liver into your children without them even knowing!". Please note said liver is raw and desiccated.
  
  Many of the Price Foundation’s buzzwords are found in this book, and it’s worth noting them so you can recognize the underlying agenda in websites, podcasts, books, or recipes from acolytes: the terms nourishing, nutrient-dense, wise traditions, and ancient wisdom all should ring a bell. Please note that some good recipes and food advice can come from their collections (except for raw, desiccated liver capsules, I have to draw the line there), but it’s good to know where they’re coming from when they start harping on the need for fat, and the evils of phytic acids or non-sprouted or fermented grains.
  
  All in all, this book is a fine for casual browsing if you’re interested in somewhat skewed and rambling narratives about some foodways of the past, but it should not be used as any kind of authoritative work on traditional diets for any group, nor as any kind of guidance for modern diets. Because despite the subtitle, it is not a good look at “How Paleo, Ancestral and Traditional People Really Ate.”
  
• 
  Shanti

  Animal fats are the most important part of all cultures around the world. The reason modern people are sick is their ironic omission of them. Though Morell’s book isn’t completely flawless, it’s abundantly clear the basic principles of a good diet. A wide variety of Animal foods, especially organ meats and fats, are essential. Plant foods, if included, must be properly prepared (fermented, sprouted, soaked, and/or cooked thoroughly) to reduce anti-nutrients and ease digestion. Bottom line, dramatically increase your intake of animal foods and watch your health increase with it.
• 
  Sharon

  I believe in this ancestral way of eating. This book underlined the reasons why it is appropriate and powerfully nutritious. Animal foods, especially fats are so important to optimal nutrition. Foods are meant to be eaten whole: chicken with skin, organs as well as muscle meat, and raw milk with cream. Fermented foods are more important than I realized and I will strive to eat more and learn how to make sauerkraut, etc. My health has certainly gotten better since I started eating the way she recommends.
• 
  Trang

  The book successfully provided examples of ancient diets with evidence from the current tribes. It has answered many of my questions about the myths in dieting. There will be no more industrialized vegetable oils in my house except for high quality olive oil, coconut oil and homemade lard. Eating cultured food will be the next trait of my family. There are many more learnings from this book that I would recommend anyone to take a look.
• 
  Sally

  What I liked about this book was that is gave accurate information about traditional diets around the world instead of vague or speculative information. How one evaluates what if anything these diets mean for one’s own diet is another question. It seems likely to me that in modern diets what you exclude may be more critical than what you include. Still working on these issues.
• 
  Barbara

  A good debunking of some of the premises of the paleo diet, although some of Morell's examples are from modern or nearly modern times. Interesting exploration of humanity's diet over the centuries and in very different parts of the planet.
• 
  Bobbiann Markle

  When I started reading this book, it was not what I expected; I guess I expected more of a cookbook, like Nourishing Traditions. But it was so fascinating! I learned so much about food in historical culture and what are the most essential and nutritious foods.
• 
  N

  Oddest food book ever. Not that is bad. Loads of data on traditional diets throughout history. I think I was bogged down with the overwhelming amount of detail. But really as with all books on nutrition, the same message: Eat real food, not processed.
• 
  Stacey Raymond

  This book makes me feel sick. I don’t like meat, and this book goes into details of drinking blood, eating raw meat, and eating maggot covered meat. Not sure what the point of this book is. But it isn’t a good read.
• 
  Karyn

  Very interesting read.
• 
  Kelly

  Not at all what I expected. Boring!
• 
  Amy

  I liked this book and find the content fascinating. It’s just a bit repetitive so after a while the chapters start blending together.