The Ethics of Ancestral Eating
I've spent most of my adult life as a Vegetarian of some form or another. At first it was about the ethics of it. I realised that to harm another is to do a similar harm to myself. And then, it became more about health. I had come to believe much of the Vegetarian mythos around the superior nature of plant-based eating.
For me, these beliefs saw me through 4 years of University education in Nutritional Sciences and then on through study in Ayurveda, Massage, Meditation and Breathwork and most recently Herbalism.
The cracks in my belief system began to show when my own health suffered. About 7 years ago now I experienced an extended period of time with anxiety and extreme panic attacks. And then came the migraines. Debilitating pain, distorted vision and even blackouts.
I had been exploring alternatives to my limited diet quite some time ago and then it really took hold more recently when I dove deeper into my Human Design (ps. this is a fascinating system of study - highly recommend it!). I sat with a mentor who pointed to the fact that I was starving my body and mind of essential nourishment. And discovered a unique aspect of my nature that was centred around Ancestral Nutrition.
I had been questioning my own tightly held beliefs for some time already. Looking at what I may have taken on as a correct way of living rather than tuning into my own intuition and learning what is needed for optimal health, vitality and living a life of deeper meaning.
If you’re curious about learning more yourself, I suggest checking out the books The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Kieth, The Carnivore Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health by Returning to Our Ancestral Diet by Paul Saladino MD and my all-time favorite Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon.
As soon as I started challenging my own ‘politically-correct’ beliefs I realised that much of what I had taken to be true were simply beliefs I had adopted from someone else. Or, more realistically, a whole system of someone elses who don’t typically have my health as their top priority.
I think that’s enough of an into to my own personal experience. Now I’d love to really get into the good stuff - exploring why I believe that being a Carnivore and choosing Ancestral Nutrition is one of the most ethical choices you can make when it comes to your food.
What is Ancestral Eating?
“Ancestral Eating, or Ancestral Nutrition, is an approach to food choices and a relationship to both your food and the food systems of raising, growing, caring for, processing and delivery of food that puts wholesome, natural, organic and Indigenous foods at the forefront of healthy choices. ”
Rather than the Western model of a Food Pyramid with focus on fruits, veggies and grains as being the foundational choices, Ancestral Eating offers more of a focus on Animal Products, while limiting the amount of legumes, grains and sugars consumed in the diet.
Now, I’m not just going to trade 1 narrow viewpoint of Nutrition for another by saying that Ancestral Eating means cutting out ALL fruits, veggies and grains. Rather, what I believe to be true is that Ancestral Nutrition offers opportunity for greater exploration and intuitive food choices with a focus on seasonal, nutrient-dense, highly digestible options.
Our Ancestors did not have the ‘convenience’ of pre-packaged foods or even a grocery store filled with options from all over the world. Food was either grown or raised locally or hunted and foraged for. Priority was given to the most nutrient-dense options including meats, fats and other animal products, with secondary focus on fruits and vegetables and very little if not any focus on grains.
I believe that we have a lot to learn from our Ancestors. They enjoyed greater health and vitality than the vast majority of people living in so-called civilized cultures these days. If you’d like to learn more about the adverse effects of modern processed diets, I highly recommend the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.
I also believe that the main reason that we’ve strayed from these traditional choices is because of the money-driven food industry and their politically-correct bedfellows the diet dictocrats (see Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions for more on this). These industries work together to increase profits and and decrease competition. And the greatest competition is the empowered individual who prioritizes local food systems, grows as much food themselves as possible, and knows how to care for their family’s health through traditional food preparation techniques such as culturing, fermentation, preserves and more!
I know that this may sound like a simplistic way of looking at health. And that’s because health is simple. It is dis-ease that is complicated. And the amount of confusion created by the diet and industrial food complex are the real culprits behind this.
Now that we have a better grasp on what Ancestral Eating/Nutrition is, let’s look at what I believe to be the Top 5 Reasons Why Ancestral Eating is an Ethical Choice
1 - Supports Local Food Systems Over Profit-Driven Single Food Corporations
This is the one that I believe to be of foundational importance, so I’ve put it first 😃. I don’t know about you but reliance on corporate food systems, government, and public health sure aren’t on the top of my list of things I value.
Ancestral Eating necessitates that you rethink a lot of the food choices that you may have taken for granted in the past. Sourcing local, ethically-raised meats, eggs and dairy helps you get to know your local farmers and has you going to the grocery store a heck of a lot less.
Not to mention all the incredible fruits and veggies you can find at your local Farmer’s Market. It’s just the start of Spring as I write this and one of the things I’m most excited for is the return of the Market!
Think about the impact that this has on the local economy! When you buy from a Farmer, you are supporting a family, and in a greater way, a community.
Another thing I love about supporting local growers and producers is the relationship building. Who do you think is going to be there for you when you need it? It’s the people in your community who will show up in the biggest and brightest ways. Can the same be said of food corps or government agencies?
I’m going to bring up something that may be a little controversial, but I really believe it needs to be said. If you are choosing a diet with a heavy focus on grains and vegetable oils/fats, you’re inevitably supporting the industrial food complex. It’s impossible not to when mono-producers (those who produce only 1 food item) have taken over the grain and oil industries.
There are many ways to shift this by choosing locally grown grains and stoneground flours, but anything that has been refined, irradiated or pasteurized is most definitely coming from one of these single-food corps.
2 - Intimacy with Your Food
The more that I practice Ancestral Eating, the more I experience intimacy with my food. I am developing a special relationship with every aspect of the process. It is causing me to slow down and really take pleasure in the experience.
When I make a meal for my family now I can feel the love that goes into it. I’m learning how to plan ahead for what I choose to nourish us for the week by keeping a constant supply of bone broths, cultured dairy, fresh local produce (as much as possible!) and ethically raised animal products.
As an example, the meal I made for us last night actually began last week when I picked up a bag of frozen bison bones. These bones simmered for over 24 hours with a few carrots, an onion and some celery to make a delicious broth that I used as a glaze for the free range, grass-fed beef roast I made.
And I also made buttermilk biscuits with locally sourced stoneground spelt flour. The buttermilk was started last week and I mixed up the flour and buttermilk the night before our meal to soak. This is helpful for the leavening process and supports the digestibility of the grains.
On top of these very delicious parts of our meal I made a yummy potato salad with homemade mayo (from eggs I got from a local farmer).
Every piece of the meal was infused with love and appreciation. Connection to the entire cycle of creation to consumption and a knowing that these food choices offer immense nourishment provide a level of satisfaction I’ve never experienced before when it comes to eating.
3 - Your Ancestors Knew Best
It boggle my mind how we can so easily trust the recommendations of the medical establishment and deny the wisdom of our Ancestors. Ancestral knowledge is, in my opinion, far superior to the mechanistic approach to health offered by the modern and research-based systems.
What better research is there than person and collective experience? How can we place our health in the hands of those whose jobs are to maximize profits and to whitewash (ps. this is an intentional word choice) our unique and individual health needs.
It can be helpful to start by looking at your Ancestral origins to begin this journey of exploration. Personally, my Ancestors were primarily Western European and Nordic. This means that the diet of my Ancestors on the Nordic side was primarily oily fish, whole grains, vegetables and berries. From the Scottish and British sides was quite similar, though with an animal food focus on eggs, milk, cheese, beef and venison.
What I have come to find is that our Ancestors all knew how to source local foods and to emphasize meat and dairy products. In addition, they used food preservation techniques that also helped to improve the digestibility (and taste!) of foods including pickling, lacto-fermentation, culturing, salting and more!
I believe that we each have an in-built system that will help us return to the wisdom of our Ancestors when it comes to food choices. An intuitive knowing and a very physical response to what we choose to put in our bodies. And I believe trusting this knowing will help us to shed our reliance on the modern food systems that are plaguing our communal health.
4 - Optimal Health + Vitality
Let’s talk about the health of the Ancestral diet. I’m actually really excited to share on this because the more that I learn, the more I am blown away by both the misinformation we have been fed and just how wise our Ancestors truly are.
Ancestral Eating emphasizes meats, fats, eggs, dairy, fruit, veggies and honey. Most Ancestral diets I’ve seen do not include a large amount of legumes (beans, nuts etc) or grains. And they most definitely did not include refined sugars, flours or vegetable oils.
I can hear the cultural narrative speaking up here saying things like “well, what about cholesterol?” and “isn’t red meat bad for you?”. Ugh. What a disservice these industry-driven beliefs have done to our health and vitality.
First off, cholesterol is actually very good for you. It is necessary for cell membranes and for many enzymatic processes in your body. Butter should not be replaced by margarine in order to lower cholesterol. This is simply a myth called the lipid hypothesis. I’m not going to go further into this right now, but I do urge you to learn more from proponents of healthy fats such as Zach Bush MD and Paul Saladino MD.
And no, red meat isn’t bad for you. Where on earth did we get this one? Red meat is highly nutritious with a wide range of vital nutrients. It provides long-lasting energy and nourishment that just isn’t possible with a Vegetarian or low-meat diet.
Here’s a list of 8 top nutrients that are only found in meats:
D3
B12
Taurine
Creatine
Carnitine
Carnosine
Heme iron
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
I’m going to share a bit of personal experience here and just how messed up my beliefs had been. Part of the reason I stayed on a mostly Vegetarian diet was because I thought that it would help support a healthy weight. I was afraid that if I introduced more meats and fats into my diet and decreased my consumption of veggies that I would gain weight.
Face palm moment 🤦♀️. Honestly, I can’t believe that I was this disillusioned. Without knowing it, I was sacrificing my health for a very superficial desire to remain thin.
First off, on an Ancestral diet I have absolutely NOT gained weight. In fact, I actually have been leaning out. Getting stronger. But beyond this, I am nourished. I feel clear-headed and the migraines I was plagued with for so long have completely disappeared.
Go figure! Feeding my body the nutrients it needs actually works.
As a brief list of the other health benefits of Ancestral Nutrition, it has been found that blood pressure is lowered, circulating LDL cholesterol lowers (not the opposite as the food industry had us believe!), decreased inflammation in the body, reversal of metabolic syndrome, better gut health, improved immunity, reduction of chronic disease, and so much more!
5 - Good Treatment of Animals is Priority
I hold a strong belief in the ethical and compassionate treatment of all living (and non-living) beings. Part of what kelp me a Vegetarian for so long was a desire to do no harm. It took me a very long time to come to terms with what I feel is necessary for the health of my mind, body and spirit - consuming animals and animal products.
Most people who choose Ancestral Eating also choose to source only ethically treated, typically grass-fed, meat. Rather than cause distance between me and the animals I consume, Ancestral Eating has actually brought me closer.
I feel more compassionate towards and more gratitude for every living being. And those who offer nourishment for my body are appreciated in a way that I simply couldn’t understand before.
My desire is to shift to sourcing through hunting and raising our own animals as much as possible. That way I can establish an even closer relationship with this cycle of life.
And with this, I’ll bring our short time together to a close. I am absolutely loving learning more about and actively practicing Ancestral Nutrition. I hope that you choose to join me on this journey and look forward to what new gifts will be revealed.