When I read the Old Testament of the Bible, one of the most fascinating things to me is how OLD people seemed to live. Many far over 100, and without degenerative disease—they weren't crippled or losing their minds. I think this is due to their real food diet (as well as their slower pace of life, and their lack of environmental toxins like pesticides and pharmaceuticals).

You read all kinds of stories where the Israelites were healthier than those around them. Hebrew women in Egpyt (even before God gave out his dietary guidelines!) were able to give birth speedily!

The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” - Exodus 1:9

Real food then was milk (and fermented milk products like cheese) and meat from herding animals—the Israelites were shepherds and nomads, who milked their roaming animals, and ate the meat of those animals—and honey which you could get from the wild in small amounts, and seafood, olives, flax, vegetables, grapes. Bread happened when they put down roots, but it was sprouted, fermented, and carefully prepared.

They had some very high-quality (mostly animal) fats in their diets! We have so much to learn from ancient people groups like these.

They didn't see autism, diabetes, widespread allergies, developmental delays, and the wide range of cancers we see today. I believe diet is the number one way to prevent and treat these chronic diseases.

Poverty and hunger on the entire planet is decreasing, with improvements in the standards of living everywhere. Sustainable pesticide-free farming is now accessible, and organic, local food is getting cheaper as more farmers join the movement! Between our access to excellent emergency surgical care, and the availability of quality food, our current civilization has the potential to become some of the healthiest people ever! I'm so encouraged!

It's outlandishly FUN to research food and provide health (as best as I can) to my family. Over the years, we've discovered the foods that we enjoy and that make us feel healthiest, and we buy these most frequently. So I've put them into one big list and you can peek into our pantry and fridge and maybe get some ideas!

The pink words are links, so you can see what brands we buy online — mostly from Amazon, but also from Thrive Market.

I've ended the post with a sample meal plan for one week on real food :)

What I almost always keep stocked in my home

Pantry

Dry Goods:

Coconut Flour
Coconut Flakes
Almond Flour
Arrowroot Starch
Tapioca Flour
White rice
Wild rice
Rice pasta
Red Lentils
Brown Lentils
Quinoa
Oats
Grits
almonds
pecans (Wegman’s has best deals on these organic)
cashews (Wegman’s)
peanuts (I find them organic at Whole Foods)
pine nuts
Brazil nuts
pumpkin seeds
himalayan salt
celtic sea salt
baking soda
Pamela’s GF baking mix
stevia-sweetened chocolate chips
unsweetened baking cocoa
collagen powder
gelatin powder
teas: matcha, black, peppermint, nettles
sometimes: raisins, dried berries, Mary’s crackers , brown sugar, organic salami

Some things in the photo not on the above list are dried mulberries (short jar in foreground), dried garbanzoes (back big jar), spirulina (green container), and sodium ascorbate (below the green container)

Jarred/Canned:

Diced Tomatoes
Pureed Tomatoes
Tomato paste
sun-dried tomatoes
pumpkin
artichokes
Hearts of palm
water chestnuts
green chiles
white beans
black beans
kidney beans
garbanzo beans
wild-caught salmon

Some things shown here not on the list: my prenatals, my magnesium supplement, vitamin C supplement drink (it's yummy!!), molasses, and some beef bone broth.

Oils/Liquids:

avocado oil
olive oil
sesame oil
coconut oil
coconut milk (no guar gum!)
coconut butter
raw apple cider vinegar
balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce (make sure to get gluten free!)
yellow mustard
avocado mayonaise
rice vinegar
red wine vinegar
coconut aminos
soy sauce
raw honey
maple syrup

Vegetables:

Onions (lots)
red onion
Heads of Garlic
Butternut Squashes
Spaghetti Squashes
potatoes
sweet potatoes
purple sweet potatoes
Seasonally: produce from the garden like tomatoes and pumpkins

Fruit:

Bananas
Apples
Mangoes
Seasonally: Pears, Peaches, Clementines, etc.

Fridge:

local raw milk
local pastured GMO-free eggs
broccoli
cauliflower (2)
cabbage
beets
radishes
curly kale
box of baby romaine
huge bag of whole carrots
ginger root
lemons
oranges
strawberries
blueberries
limes
cucumber
peppers
butter (7 cups a week)
raw cheddar
mozzarella
parmesan
sour cream
organic deli meat (carrageenan-free): roast turkey, ham, chicken
Applegate organic hot dogs
chicken sausages in different varieties: apple, caprese, etc.
3 pounds ground beef
pesto
kimchi
sauerkraut
homemade yogurt
homemade bone broth
turkey bacon
pork bacon
natural peanut butter (only peanuts and salt)
Seasonal veggies and fruit: grapes, arugula/zucchini from garden, asparagus, green beans, etc.

Can you tell I am obsessed with cruciferous vegetables?! Cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, and cabbage are my favorite vegetables on the planet.

Freezer:

whole local pastured chickens and chicken feet
local pastured plain ground pork
local pastured pork shoulder
beef or chicken livers, heart
wild-caught salmon
wild-caught haddock
wild-caught cod
plain hash browns
raspberries
strawberries
cranberries
blueberries
blackberries
cauliflower, carrot, broccoli mixture

A week of meals

Here's a realistic sample of a week of real-food meals in our house. All organic. Local when possible. Super simple—nothing that takes me hours of toil to make. In the past, we have cut out grains (oats, rice, corn, etc) from our diet, and I would also make absolutely everything from scratch, including ketchup, mayonnaise, all salad dressings, kombucha, barbecue sauce, and I would even sprout our lentils. But with a young infant, and with awesome quality store-bought options like avocado mayo, I don't stand in the kitchen QUITE as much. The one thing that is unrealistic about this list is that at some point in there should be an eat-out meal or two, which just pushes some of these dishes to the next week. I'm a big fan of True Food Kitchen as my break-from-cooking outing. Bonus that it's near Anthropologie ;)

Monday

Breakfast: Pork sausage, sautéed kale, hash browns, glasses of raw milk, bananas.
Lunch: Lentil soup, grain-free cheddar biscuits
Dinner: Salmon cakes & sour cream sauce, baked sweet potatoes, romaine salad w/ pumpkin seeds, flax oil & ACV dressing

Tuesday

Breakfast: beet/carrot/ginger/lemon/apple juice, Chicken sausage, fried cinnamon apples
Lunch: meatballs, homemade tomato-onion sauce, rice rotini
Dinner: Spaghetti Squash and Cabbage Chow Mein

Wednesday

Breakfast: Grain-free Pumpkin Muffins, fried eggs, fresh blueberries, glasses of raw milk (and I will usually add some sort of leafy green to my own breakfast)
Lunch: cauliflower soup, bacon, green onion.
Dinner: honey glazed carrots, cod fingers, strawberry Kevita

Thursday

Breakfast: homemade yogurt, flaked coconut, nuts, frozen blueberries
Lunch: chicken/white bean soup, ginger kombucha
Dinner: Roasted Maple Brussels Sprouts/Pecans, burgers with melted cheddar and avocado mayo.

Friday

Breakfast: pork sausage, black beans, tomatoes, kale sauté, w/ melted cheddar on top
Lunch: grass-fed beef hot dogs, sauerkraut, buttered corn, apple slices
Dinner: chicken vegetable (pepper/onion/garlic/broccoli/carrot/ginger/scallions/water-chestnut) cashew stir fry

Saturday

Breakfast: turkey bacon, roasted sweet potatoes, fresh strawberries
Lunch: kale salad (lemon, carrot, radish, avocado mayo, ACV, parmesan), deli-meat roll-ups and raw cheese cubes
Dinner: broiled steaks, roasted garlic cauliflower, homemade peanut butter raw-milk ice cream

Sunday