Where do I start?

[Nillarilla]

I want to convert! Where do I start? What are the most nutritious readily available foods? Can anyone tell me what the most healing foods would be for someone just switching to a more traditional foods diet?
I bake my own bread often sourdough's.
I can and preserve as best as possible.
I live in a northern community so fresh, live whole foods can be hard to come by in the winter.
I am attempting kimchee right now. I've tried to make coconut milk yogurt with no luck. I'm going to try again.
I want to start sprouting.
I have an almost 4 yo and and 11mo old. My son has a severe allergy to soy and maybe more allergies. My dd seems to be sensitive to wheat and dairy. I don't want to go the elimination route I would rather try to fix our deficiencies by eating better.

[mbravebird]

I would think about BOTH what's easiest, and what small steps you can do, in addition to what's "healthiest". The reason is that if you try to do too much too fast, you'll get burned out by the transition and stop entirely.

For me, when I transitioned I was already eating a whole foods diet, but without good fats or pastured meats. So the first thing I did was add coconut oil, Cod Liver Oil, and grassfed beef. I saw improved immune response and just felt better in general.

Then I added liver and nettle infusion, both of which made me feel SO radically better that I was hooked.

Then I added raw milk, then I started culturing milk and fermenting veggies, then I started making my own slow-rise bread, soaking grains and beans, etc etc. This is not necessarily the order that you should go, but it's just an example of what doing things incrementally looked like for me.

Oh, I forgot to mention bone broth. That was one of the things I added a few steps in, and I wish I had added it earlier. It is powerful stuff, especially for gut healing.

Meal planning can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you're trying to figure out how to use "new" things, so also consider just converting meals you already like to a more TF-style. The biggest thing to get used to is soaking things ahead of time, etc. I am so bad at remembering to soak things ahead of time that I just soak big batches of beans, etc, cook them, and freeze them -- then I can use them last-minute in a meal. I also have a few go-to meals that don't need any planning but are still TF. You will figure out your own rhythm and needs and solutions, though, by just starting with the meals that you normally eat, and convert them one at a time to TF until you're comfortable. Go slow, and don't stress.

If you don't usually make or use chicken broth in soup, you can just drink mugs of it, salted, until you find recipe uses for it. A mug of homemade chicken broth, salted with sea salt, is so incredibly wonderful and nourishing. Yum. You can get chicken backs for a very affordable price from your local farmer, keep them in the freezer, and then they're always available for making a pot of broth.

If you don't like liver, consider freezing it raw, then cutting off little pill-size pieces of it and swallowing them whole, like pills. You'll feel a difference with just a few "pills" per day.

You'll get lots of good suggestions here. Have fun!!

[Magelet]

Kimchee is a great start, and you can make pickled carrots or beets or many veggies.

I did so many sprouted mungbeans this summer because they are very easy to sprout. (I'm not so much craving them right now in winter). I pop about an inch in a mason jar, cover with 4 inches water, let sit 8 hours, drain and rinse every 12 hours for a couple days (until they turn into plump green/white veggies but don't have a tail yet) and eat them as salad.

If you cook oatmeal, you could try soaking it.

Broth is so nutritious, affordable and easy.

Personally I find yogurt hard. BUT I find buttermilk really easy: put 2 TBS cultured buttermilk from the store into a quart of milk (or less, but same proportions), pop it on the back of the stove with pilot light that's warm for 18-24 hours until its a bit set and smells sour. keeps a couple weeks. creme fraiche can be made the same way but with cream.

The truth is, you can start anywhere you want. Pick 1 or 2 things, work on that for a while, and when it no longer feels hard or difficult, pick something else to add.

I was resistant to cod liver oil for a long time, but it really does help me a lot.

Truely, there are so many many things. I would say pick what interests you most, and start with that, then try something else.

[tngirl11]

I think one of the very first truly healthy things I got into was kefir. A friend gave me some grains and I started making my own and making smoothies with it (plus frozen fruit and a little raw honey). My kids really, really like the smoothies, so it was great to be able to start giving them those almost every day. After that, I got a cow share and started getting raw milk every week. Soon after that I bought a grain mill and some giant buckets of wheat. At first, I just ground my own and baked with it, but later on I started sprouting and drying it first. Everything sounded really difficult when my friends would describe it, but generally when I actually tried it myself, I found it wasn't that hard! I'm definitely not 100% TF, but I just try to do the best I can, and I think I get more consistent little by little.

[Nillarilla]

I'm starting the sprouting and soaking so I'll try and get used to that first. I already make slow rise sourdough and broth. I'm going to give up on the yogurt for a while but I am ISO a source for raw milk and cream so I can make my own butter and yogurt. I buy local organic farm fresh eggs from a friend. I am attempting the kimchee. Sounds like I am on the right track. I'm still really hesitant about liver.... So that may be last or not at all.

[Magelet]

with liver, are you hesitant because you aren't convinced it is healthy or because you don't like the idea/taste of it?

For taste, my two big tips are, use pureed ground liver in every dish you use ground meat. a spoonful or two (you can freeze it in an icecube container) won't be tasted but will add a lot of nutrition. You can also learn to like fryed or chopped chicken liver. By making tiny amounts and keeping to eat a bite even though I didn't like it, I learned to like it a lot.

The pill method (little tiny frozen "pills" of liver) is popular with many mamas here as well.

However, I would definitely wait and start with what you are comfortable with.

[Nillarilla]

the thing about the liver is the fact that all the toxins of the body get passed through it so in ingesting it would I be ingesting the toxins the animal has? I know the labeling and licensing laws with chickens and eggs are pretty lax.
I was thinking of going the raw milk route but I have a friend who works for food and safety and she said there has been a major outbreak of bovine TB recently near me. I have also heard quite a few horror stories about kids getting sick and some people getting chronically ill from it. Now just rumours but I also haven't read any hard evidence on its benefits either. Just logical arguments.