Do you love to eat? Do you love your gut? Your viscera? Think about where your food comes from and how that affects you? How it affects your physical performance, your emotional balance, your cognitive ability? Do you feed your gut things that not only nourish your entire body but keep your gut specifically healthy as well?
The more we learn about digestion, nutrition, alkalinity, food sourcing, food preparation and gut bacteria, the more we want to know. We love to read about this aspect of our health! Like movement we don't subscribe to the idea that one approach works for every individual body. We believe we are as unique in our needs for nourishment as we are in our ways of moving. Also our viscera, internal body and digestion change just like the rest of our body. What used to make you feel great might not work so well anymore. Bottom line -- everyone has the right to make well informed, nourishing food choices that make them feel wonderful! There are two different discussions going on right now- one about food industry and sourcing and another about microflora. In our eyes, taking in all this information, they belong in the same room as they affect our internal balance and gut health. None of these are provided to turn you into an internet doctor about your gut!
Here's a list of books, podcasts and articles we've been influenced by in understanding what we eat, why we eat it and how it affects both worlds -the one inside us and the one that holds us.
Books:
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell a cookbook that is so much more than just recipes! Based on the research of Dr. Weston Price Morell gives the science of why we need nutrient dense food, what that means and how to cook with nutrient density as the leading principle.
Omnivore's Delimma by Michael Pollan. Couple this with the Podcast from Joel Salatin below to consider your food sourcing.
The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates. This book is geared towards candida sufferers. The guidelines are a hard transition from a traditional American diet and not for everyone. What enjoy using it for reference for things like alkalinity, expanding vs. contracting foods and how to incorporate fermented foods into your diet.
Articles:
There are tons of reads available. Two key starting points are learning about the existence of your enteric nervous system and the many affects of your gut flora. Both of which science is still understanding. From there it makes sense to think deeper about how food affects not only your physical performance but endless aspects of your internal landscape.
Here is a starter on understanding your enteric nervous system.
The microflora that live in your gut do things like affect your mood.
Michael Pollan has a slew of articles on his site.
Breaking Muscle interviews Sally Fallon Morell about her dietary recommendations and how they work for athletes.
Websites:
Check out Megan Kimble's site and her book. She took a challenge to eat totally unprocessed for a year and quickly found that definition is a slippery slope. Processed food is also deeply woven into our social interactions and culture. Making choices for your gut can be isolating.
The Weston A. Price Foundation, a non profit organization for nutrient dense foods. Set aside a weekend to dig into this site and realize you only skimmed the surface.
Some recipe inspirations from The Body Ecology website.
Podcasts:
This Bulletproof Executive podcast with Joel Salatin deeply affected how we think about pasture raised and why it matters to your internal balance and physical performance.
Here is an interview with Sally Fallon Morell discussing Paleo and traditional culture diets. Get ready to hear about organ meats, liver consumption and vitamin sources. When you are ready to expand your tastes for nutrition and not just what tastes good- this could be a stepping stone.
Movies:
King Corn. Understand corn subsidy and how corn makes it's way into a syrup form as well as almost every food processed food you dare to eat.
Fed Up unpacks the development of the food industry, how processed food affects your body and how that manifests in childhood obesity, food addiction and the changing landscape of disease in our country.
Want to get in a step further? Take a butchery or sustainable cooking class. We had a great experience at Craft Butchery in Westport. We navigated through some of the confusing language found in food labeling today while we learned how to appreciate the art of butchery. Slow U. from Slow Food New York City has a ton of events from lectures to classes.
Things on our to check out next list!
Excited to read this book by Giulia Enders cataloging her personal experiences with healing and her gut.
That Sugar Film with Damon Gameau. Damon investigates sugar "Super Size Me" style
The Art of Fermentation by Sando Elix Katz
The Weston A. Price Foundation's resource list is a gold mine of options.
The Heal Your Gut Cookbook: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS Diet By Hilary Boynton and Mary Brackett
Nourishing Broth: An Old Fashioned Remedy for a Modern World by Sally Fallon Morrell and Kaayla T. Daniel
Polyface Farms has a reading list we are dying to get deeper into posted here.