Movementum
Traditional Ways of Eating

 

What is a traditional diet?

At Movementum we are passionate about food and it plays a central role in our daily lives. We loosely follow the traditional model of eating, based on Weston A. Price's work, Sally Fallon's book 'Nourishing Traditions' and the Hemsley sisters' book 'The Art of Eating Well'.

Our meals are based on natural ingredients, including quality meat, fish, dairy, seasonal veg, and we use traditional techniques for making cultured and fermented food. For a brief, general overview of the differences between the traditional and modern diets please see the list at the bottom of the page.

Modern diets are radically different from what our forebears would recognise - food eaten out of season, sprayed with a myriad of chemicals, pesticides and fertilisers and then refined and processed.

 

The culture of convenience combined with our sedentary lifestyle has contributed to our poor physical state; our bodies adapt to what we do most and we don't do much of anything any more. Both the industrial and technological revolutions have brought many benefits but there are also downsides, such as the so-called diseases of affluence (diabetes, coronary heart disease, depression) and diseases of behaviour (back pain, flat feet, poor posture).

A common perception is that modern technology and medicine allows us to live longer than ever before, yet research shows that it was not uncommon for even the earliest humans to live into their 70s; once a person passed the first year of life, chances were relatively good that they would live to a similar age as that of people in the Western world today.

Longevity among Hunter-Gathers: A Cross-Cultural Examination is a study that puts forward the hypothesis that there is a normal human lifespan that can be seen across many cultures and levels of pre-industrial development:

'We hypothesize that human bodies are designed to function well for about seven decades in the environment in which our species evolved. Mortality rates differ among populations and among periods, especially in risks of violent death. However, those differences are small in a comparative cross-species perspective, and the similarity in mortality profiles of traditional peoples living in varying environments is impressive'

 
Traditional Ways of Eating
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Traditional Ways of Eating

 Diet as revolution

Modern commercial agriculture seeks to increase yield – and so profits – by cultivating a single type of plant. Mono-cropping has significant negative environmental impacts including soil depletion and groundwater pollution through the use of large quantities of synthetic herbicides, insecticides, bactericides and fertilisers, intensive irrigation and dependency on fossil fuels. 
This type of land management strips vital nutrients from the soil and consequently our food, unlike the traditional mixed farming approach which prioritises soil health and promotes biodiversity with the goal of maintaining a sustainable agricultural system.

If we invest in our health then we should strive to buy the best quality and highest welfare standards our budget can afford which can include shopping at farmers markets, local farm shops or even signing up to a Community Supported Agriculture box scheme. We can affect positive change through our choices which support small businesses and our local economy.

 
 

TRADITIONAL DIET

  • Foods from fertile soil

  • Organ meats valued over muscle meat

  • Natural animal fats

  • Animals on pasture

  • Dairy products raw and/or fermented

  • Grains soaked and/or fermented

  • Bone Broth

  • Unrefined sweeteners

  • Unrefined salt

  • Lacto-fermented drinks

  • Traditional seeds, open pollinated

  • Lacto-fermented vegetables

  • Soy - fermented, consumed in small amounts

MODERN DIET

  • Foods from depleted soil

  • Muscle meat preferred, no organ meat

  • Processed vegetable oils

  • Animals in confinement

  • Dairy products pasteurised or homogenised

  • Grains refined and/or extruded

  • MSG, artificial flavourings

  • Refined sweeteners

  • Refined salt

  • Soft drinks and soda

  • GMO and hybridised seeds

  • Processed pickles

  • Soy - industrially processed, consumed in large amounts

 
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In the end, what we believe to be true—our conventional wisdom—is really nothing more than sixty years of misconceived nutrition research. Before 1961, there were our ancestors, with their recipes. And before them, there were their ancestors, with their hunting bows or traps or livestock—but like lost languages, lost skills, and lost songs, it takes only a few generations to forget.
— Nina Teicholz
 
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