Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (Paperback)

Nourishing Traditions was first published in 1995 and caused quite a stir in the nutritional world. Here was a cookbook authored by two noted nutrition writers that condemned margarine, low-fat diets, skim milk, and the Lipid Hypothesis of heart disease. Here was a book that said excessive carbohydrate intake, even complex, was bad for you. Here was a book that told its readers to eat butter, cook with coconut oil, and drink raw milk. Here was a book that said meat and fish were healthy foods. Here was a book that said tofu and soy milk were unhealthy. Here was a book that extolled the nutritional virtues of organ meats and urged a return to liver with bacon and onions once a week.

What heresy was this?

Fallon, who holds a Masters degree in Literature, studied French cooking while living in France. She is also a self-taught nutrition and food science whiz who learned what a healthy diet was by studying the pioneering work of Dr. Weston Price, DDS, author of the classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Enig received her doctoral degree in Nutrition Science from the University of Maryland and is a world renowned expert on lipid biochemistry, particularly trans-fatty acids. Enig provides the appropriate scientific background for Fallon's varied and plentiful recipes.

Fallon and Enig are a formidable writing team who have co-authored numerous ground breaking articles on soy and the political machinations of the edible oil industry. This second edition of Nourishing Traditions is their latest delectable offering.

Nourishing Traditions is as much a nutritional handbook as it is a cookbook. Indeed, the book opens with a 70+ page section on nutritional basics, discussing the biochemistry of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. This section takes special aim at "politically correct" nutrition, pointing out its shortcomings and blatant fallacies. One particularly interesting tidbit is Harvard University's Dr. Frederick Stare's endorsement of Coca-Cola as a healthy, between-meal snack!

The most telling part of this section is Fallon's spirited nutritional defense of saturated fats, especially butter and coconut oil. Drawing on research from Price and Enig (who is an expert on coconut oil and lauric acid, the medium-chain triglyceride found in coconut), Fallon shows her readers why these shunned foods are health promoting and why people need to add them back into their diets. By contrast, however, Fallon includes considerable scientific rhetoric against margarine, vegetable shortening, refined sugar, and vegetable oils: the stepchildren of modern "food technology" and the "Diet Dictocrats."

The revealing nutrition section is followed by the recipes. Fallon has everything covered, from soup to nuts. Different chapters on appetizers, sauces, fermented vegetables, soups, organ meats, traditional meats, fish, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, snack and finger foods, and healthy desserts demonstrate the depth of Fallon's culinary talents and knowledge. They also give the reader hundreds of suggestions for nutrient-dense, good tasting food. Fallon even has a chapter on how to make one's own beverages to replace soda pop and coffee.

The unique thing about this book, however, is the marginal notes that are on every page of the recipe section. Lining the sides of each page are nutritional and scientific tidbits on various foods; nutritional anthropology; nutrition studies; book excerpts from Linus Pauling, H. Leon Abrams, Dr. Price, and other authors; and myths/truths about nutrition with full references to assorted scientific journals. While some of these features were in the first edition, the second edition expands them considerably. They provide an excellent and interesting compliment to the wealth of recipes.

Nourishing Traditions is above all a cookbook that respects and promotes the culinary traditions of our ancestors, ancestors virtually untouched by cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, etc. It is by following these traditions, says Fallon, that we will find true and lasting health for ourselves and our children. In my public lectures, I always recommend this book to my audiences as an absolutely essential guide to healthy living and eating. Find out why. Buy this book.

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This book offers a method, a return, so to speak, to a time when food was consumed in its purest state. Ironically, that's a difficult thing to do; only through specialty stores and suppliers can we get naturally raised food. Someone once said: "If God made it, then it's good; if man made it, beware." Most of the food - as cheaply and quickly made as possible - offered in supermarkets is nutritionally worthless, being as it is, refined, processed, laden with questionable chemicals and riddled with substances that have no place in our bodies. The sobering fact remains: most food conglomerates simply don't care about consumers' health.

Sally Fallon, along with Mary G. Enig, have done an astonishing, thorough and painstaking job in spelling out all that one needs to know regarding all manner of information about food. The writing is clear, easy to understand, and concise. The passion and near-missionary fervor with which they have pursued their topic is inspiring and infectious. The breadth of their research and work cannot be overestimated. The scope, level of information, exposés and hardcore truths these women offer is mesmerizing: one is fixated by what they know and the surprising, irrefutable facts that are detailed (by the way, the sidebars in the recipe sections of anecdotes, information and lore are fascinating). Fallon and Enig take on some of the most powerful and ruthless institutions in existence, and effectively challenge claims and biased studies. They even sniff out evidence of lies and corruption. It may in fact be the singular most important body of work on food contained in a single volume. In particular, one needs to pay attention to the information regarding the matter of fats. Enig, a PhD in lipid chemistry, plainly details how fats in today's food supply has wrought health havoc, what to avoid (polyunsaturates and hydrogenated fats are a menace), what is good, and how to go about using them correctly.

Many reviewers in this forum have complained of how complicated it is to take the time to properly prepare many of the foods and recipes Fallon offers. That may be so, but the time invested is worth it. As we as consumers are made more aware of how things must be done, it may be that we simply have no choice ~~ if we are to achieve the best of health ~~ to make the proper preparation of food a top priority once again. Some of the suggestions regarding raw foods is controversial, and not everyone will be convinced, but they make a strong case, nevertheless.

Some of the advice, as well is a bit too severe: Fallon encourages the total elimination of all caffeines, and that includes teas and coffees. No proof has been made that tea and coffee are harmful (unless of course, like anything, it is consumed in excess). Sometimes the book makes absolutely no allowances for an alternate method; some of the advice is eye-opening (like not cooking garlic in oil; sure it will burn if fried in high heat, but it can be sauteed gently. And, everyone KNOWS that refrigeration spoils the taste of tomatoes) In addition, not everyone will welcome the urging of a total abdication from anything even remotely bad for you - why not a white flour, white sugar cake once, twice a year? Despite this, it WAS necessary for Fallon and Enig to overcompensate in the manner they did, for this kind of information is sorely needed; one simply should read it thoroughly, then make their own choices to suit individual needs.

This book will not please vegans and vegetarians, who will be doing a virtual "foul" howl at the convincing scientific argument that we need animal fats and animal based foods. I will never consider vegetarianism after reading this book. Fallon makes a most eloquent plea for the bounty of animals we have been offered.

It is so easy to get carried away by the nutritional information, that it may be easy to overlook the marvelous, inventive and tantalizing recipes. Again, the scope, selection and research on these recipes is amazing...they are numerous, varied, and appetizing. Nearly every cultural cuisine is covered in some small or large part, and are clearly detailed. Most of all, if one relishes culinary challenges, there are some intriguing one as such offered here.

This marvelous volome may be the most valuable nutritional guide one should own. Most of all, it may be the most comprehensive, ground-breaking cookbook ever written ~~ as well as the most nutritionally crucial.

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Anyway, as far as the time involved, mostly you have to plan ahead. Soaking your grains does not require extra work so much as extra time. It demands a new way of life, which for me has been more of a gradual process of adding one new thing at a time instead of becoming overwhelmed with trying to change everything at once. Add what works for you and live a better life even if it's not perfect. I can't tell you how much better real food tastes and how much better you feel when you cut out processes and refined foods. this is "health" food that pleases the pickiest of eaters and never looks scary!

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