I have been reading the book Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan and in it she suggests that there are four nutritional habits that have been observed all around the world that have historically produced health and longevity. These nutritional strategies or pillars as she calls them are:
- Fresh food (as in unprocessed fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc)
- Fermented and sprouted foods
- Meat cooked on the bone
- Organ meats
She also emphasizes the importance of limiting sugar and vegetable oils. I have been mildly obsessed with nutrition and diet most of my adult life and this is the diet that I have landed on that feels the best in my body. It just makes sense and seems like what my ancestors would have eaten.
My friend Jocelyn Rylee over at CrossFit posted this little video clip on Instagram the other day and I shared it to my story because it resonates with my views on nutrition and the stance of this book I’m reading. But I noticed that the story had waaaaaay less views than all my other stories usually do and Instagram even put a little note on my story icon saying “unpopular opinion”! I’ve noticed that social media has a bias towards diets that limit meat but I was still surprised to see it outright messing with my post like that and I can’t believe that support for a diet that upholds unprocessed, traditional foods is considered an “unpopular opinion”. I’m so glad I have others ways to reach you like through this blog and my newsletter!
On a side note, I had done a podcast with Jocelyn a while back and if you feel like listening to it you can do so here.
So one of the pillars was organ meats and I know many of you truly enjoy them but many more struggle to incorporate them into your diet. Did you know that organ meats were traditionally the most prized part of the animal, often eaten first and reserved for those with the greatest nutritional needs? They deliver nutrients that are difficult to obtain anywhere else like vitamin A, B12, folate, choline, iron, zinc, and CoQ10—nutrients that support energy, resilience, and overall vitality. They are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet; so high in vitamins, that some of my customers that don’t overly like the taste of them will just cut them up into tiny pieces the size of a vitamin and swallow raw and whole! The benefit here is that your body will recognize and know what to do with it as opposed to taking a formulated capsule version that your body may or may not actually take up.
I realize modern day kitchens don’t use a lot of organ meats, which is why we created this enriched ground beef product. It is 50% regular beef trim and 50% organ meats (liver, kidney, heart and tongue). It’s easy to incorporate it into your usual recipes that call for ground beef. You don’t even have to tell your kids! 😉