help me get started on a TF diet!

[BundleFishMama]

OK, so I've been thinking about it for a while and I *really* want to make over my family's diet to a more TF style of eating. But I admit it - I'm overwhelmed! I thought I was doing well just by emphasizing fruits & veggies and organic/"natural" food....but I realized that even though Annie's Chocolate Bunnies are organic and "natural," they're probably not the best snack choice ever

So please, help! If you have any input into any of the following questions, I'd soooo appreciate your sharing

1- OK, we switched to raw milk this week. We have an awesome farm about 15-20 min. away that sells it (so cute, it's the honor system, you take the milk and leave the money/make yourself change out of a tin can since there's usually no one there!) And it's $5 a gallon - I was paying more than that for organic milk at the grocery store! First of all, how long does raw milk last from when you buy it? Does it go bad slower or faster than pasteurized milk? I am used to a sell-by/use-by date printed on it So if I bought the milk yesterday, how long should we be drinking it?

2- How important is it do to ALL raw dairy? I would love to have raw cream, but if I skim the cream off the raw milk, is there anything I can do with the rest of the watery milk or will that be like $3 of the $5 I spent wasted? I would also be interested in raw butter - do you make your own or buy it? And as for cheese....is aged cheese OK as well as raw sometimes? I mean, doesn't aged cheese have some benefits - or no?

3- I guess grains are going to be our biggest challenge. Is it better to eliminate grains as much as possible, or to consume sprouted grain products (I'm hearing different opinions on this)? I tried sprouted bread before and no one in the family liked it - it was so dry and hard. Would making my own be better? We go through so many bread products in our house (bagels, sandwich bread, dinner rolls, pitas, English muffins, etc.) that this is the part that kinda scares me! Any tips for adjusting to this change?

4- Did you really lose weight when you consumed more TF-type fats? I need to lose a good amount of weight and so many friends are telling me about the Eat Fat, Lose Fat philosophy....but I'm still nervous. I just keep doubting that this will work for me, but it all makes sense! Did you gain some weight initially and then lose, or did you start losing right away? How much fat/animal fat do you typically have in a day?

5- What are some of your favorite TF kid-friendly snacks? Obviously fresh produce, but what else? What do you make when your kids want something that resembles "treats"? What about for something like birthday "cupcakes" - what can you make for that?

6- How do you handle going out to eat? We've cut back, but we still tend to eat out some....do you just eat the meat and leave the bread, and get a salad or something? Do you do TF 100% hard-core, or do you aim for that style of eating but sometimes deviate?

7- Coffee is OK, right? What about alcohol, what, if any, types of alcohol are considered TF? (That may be a dumb question, LOL!)

8 - any general tips for a TF newbie would be awesome! Including eating this way with a reasonable budget....I am also a little nervous about the budget impact, since in my area some things (like organic, pastured meats) seem to be quite pricey.

Thanks so much for sharing, mamas....I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what this nutrition makeover will entail and how I'll get DH on board!

[Magelet]

Originally Posted by BundleFishMama

1- OK, we switched to raw milk this week. We have an awesome farm about 15-20 min. away that sells it (so cute, it's the honor system, you take the milk and leave the money/make yourself change out of a tin can since there's usually no one there!) And it's $5 a gallon - I was paying more than that for organic milk at the grocery store! First of all, how long does raw milk last from when you buy it? Does it go bad slower or faster than pasteurized milk? I am used to a sell-by/use-by date printed on it So if I bought the milk yesterday, how long should we be drinking it?

2- How important is it do to ALL raw dairy? I would love to have raw cream, but if I skim the cream off the raw milk, is there anything I can do with the rest of the watery milk or will that be like $3 of the $5 I spent wasted? I would also be interested in raw butter - do you make your own or buy it? And as for cheese....is aged cheese OK as well as raw sometimes? I mean, doesn't aged cheese have some benefits - or no?

3- I guess grains are going to be our biggest challenge. Is it better to eliminate grains as much as possible, or to consume sprouted grain products (I'm hearing different opinions on this)? I tried sprouted bread before and no one in the family liked it - it was so dry and hard. Would making my own be better? We go through so many bread products in our house (bagels, sandwich bread, dinner rolls, pitas, English muffins, etc.) that this is the part that kinda scares me! Any tips for adjusting to this change?

4- Did you really lose weight when you consumed more TF-type fats? I need to lose a good amount of weight and so many friends are telling me about the Eat Fat, Lose Fat philosophy....but I'm still nervous. I just keep doubting that this will work for me, but it all makes sense! Did you gain some weight initially and then lose, or did you start losing right away? How much fat/animal fat do you typically have in a day?

5- What are some of your favorite TF kid-friendly snacks? Obviously fresh produce, but what else? What do you make when your kids want something that resembles "treats"? What about for something like birthday "cupcakes" - what can you make for that?

6- How do you handle going out to eat? We've cut back, but we still tend to eat out some....do you just eat the meat and leave the bread, and get a salad or something? Do you do TF 100% hard-core, or do you aim for that style of eating but sometimes deviate?

7- Coffee is OK, right? What about alcohol, what, if any, types of alcohol are considered TF? (That may be a dumb question, LOL!)

8 - any general tips for a TF newbie would be awesome! Including eating this way with a reasonable budget....I am also a little nervous about the budget impact, since in my area some things (like organic, pastured meats) seem to be quite pricey.

Thanks so much for sharing, mamas....I'm just trying to wrap my mind around what this nutrition makeover will entail and how I'll get DH on board!

1. Raw dairy will keep longer if you keep it cold. so if you forget and leave it to get warm to room temp, it will still be fine to drink, but it will sour faster even back in the fridge. If you keep it cold, I've had it last for over a week. Just smell it, if it smells like buttermilk, it's gone sour. Which doesn't mean it's bad, but if you don't like the taste, then it's good for baked goods and such still.

2. I can't afford all raw dairy. I buy raw milk when I can, low temp pasturized mostly grass-fed non-homogenized milk when I can't, the same dairy's low temp pasturized mostly grass-fed cream and butter (actually, butter I buy whoever's butter is goldenest, which changes through the year). Yogurt, same company, live active cultures. Cheese, I buy whatever tastes good, with raw occasionally. Particularly with cultured dairy, I don't think raw is THAT important. It's awesome, but frankly, raw butter is 12 dollars a pound here. I can barely afford raw milk, and not even raw milk all the time. and that's ok. we eat grass-fed, often cultured butter, and yogurt and homemade buttermilk and stuff.

3. No grains or properly prepared grains really depends on you. Some people don't do well with grains, some do. It's not that hard to make your own. I love this recipe for bagels (you could make it with sprouted flour, which spelt in particular doesn't taste that different, but I've found that in general homemade sprouted flour products are not THAT different than whole wheat) http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/honey-whole-wheat-bagels or you could make sourdough ww bagels. I think in general, sourdough and slow rising (like in the fridge) is easier than sprouted flour (or at least, it's cheaper than pre-sprouted flour, and easier than sprouting the grains yourself and grinding them.)

4. I lost 30+ pounds when I switched from a diet high in processed food and very low in fat to a TF diet. I maintain a healthy weight without thought now. I think I eat 2500 or so calories a day, exercise 1x a week for two+ hours (dancing)(I know, it should be more), and am on my feet three days a week at work for 8 hours. (admitedly, I'm 20. but I didn't used to have a metabolism like this, my metabolism increased in a good way as I stopped eating sugar, reduced drastically white flour, and increased fat) I eat 1/2 lb to 3/4 lb of butter a week by myself (my DP eats the same.) plus... between the two of us we go through a liter of olive oil every 2-3 weeks, a pint of coconut oil a month, plus fattier ground beef sometimes plus all the fat from chickens or ducks we eat, plus more butter and stuff at work, plus sometimes beef fat. plus eggs and whole milk and cream.

An average day for me is start the morning with a smoothie: 1-1.5 c. whole milk, a little whole milk yogurt or buttermilk, sometimes some cream, an egg yolk, and a banana and sometimes another egg and the egg white, or some toast with butter. bread and butter for a morning snack, or sometimes with some cheese, or veggies and peanut butter, or oatmeal and cream or whole wheat. lunch is often stew with lots of fat, or leftovers, or a sandwhich or two, usually either cheese, with buttered bread, and homemade dressing on it, or a little chicken with lots of drippings/gravy and butter (lately we've been eating a lot of roasted chickens, cause they stretch well so lots of gravy). dinner is not always high fat, it could be pitta and hummus and tzatziki with whole milk yogurt, and whole milk feta, and pickles, or stew, or roasted chicken or leftover chicken cooked in various ways cooked with some more fat.

6. we almost never go out to eat, we can't afford it much. when we do, we try to choose restaurants that serve fresh local produce and such, and cook really really yummy food. Honestly, if we're going to eat out, we eat whatever we want. It doesn't make a big part of our diet, and it's not going to ruin our health to eat CAFO chicken fried in vegetable oil (at a local southern restaurant NOT KFC) and fried hush puppies a few times a year. We either go to really more expensive, gourmet places that probably use real butter, and fresh produce though they certainly use white flour, with my parents, or we go to ethnic places that don't use the best ingrediants, but probably use okish ingrediants, and give a lot of taste bang for the money.

7. I think opinions vary on that. I think that small amounts of coffee are fine, but I don't think a cup of coffee every day is super healthy. It's a stimulant, and I don't think having that regularly is healthy, because you become dependent upon it. In terms of alcohol, I think in moderation, it's fine, whatever type, except all those new-fangled sweet drinks, and light drinks. Real beer, wine, hard liquor, in moderation. Particularly unpasturized/bottle conditioned beer, organic wine, etc.

8. with organics, I'd say focus where it matters if your budget is tight. Focus on gmo crops. focus on animal products. focus on the dirty dozen. etc.

[serenbat]

we might not be the hard core you see to be after so I don't know how much help this is to you -

as far as milk goes, ASK and know what you really are getting -all raw is not all organic, to some this is OK-we want to limit our exposure to pesticides
for us we are north of you but buy are milk not far from the burgb of philly- we do not do RAW- we do homogenized grass-feed milk for several reasons-
we drive over an hour one way to get it
the raw near us is NOT grass-feed, some is grain feed and others are not at all organic, so it makes a big difference to us
I don't like to skim off milk and waste (for us)

as far as butter, we only do organic and do "treat" to grass-feed/spring butter

as for cheese, we do have a local farmer that sells grain feed, non-pesticides milk and they make their own cheese, I can get several types so that is what we do and we also do ages Italian cheese as well as some goat when I can find it

we do organic live culture yogurt (grocery store) to us the amount we use it is not cheaper for me to make it

we buy grass feed beef/get bones as well and have a source for local free range eggs and get a big order when we shop at a butcher in Kutztown

bottom line, we buy better stuff, and less of it

our diet is TF (our version) very "traditional" foods (far more ethnic) -we are BIG on non-processed foods, NO additives, coloring, fake, etc - BUT we eat a really rounded diet- we DO grains and lots of them, we do starches and veggies and fruits, we do stocks, we do meats and lots of fish/seafood

we don't eat tons of certain things (lots of meat, eggs, limited grains) that others do in a "TF" diet

we DO coffee, wine and liquors - I don't see how that is not traditional

we don't do ferments, my DH hates them- will eat "pickled" items and that gives lots of room for vinegars

we don't soak everything- so we do, beans in seaweed, just soaked rice and only some grains

we do lots of sourdoughs

we do sugar, nothing fake, nothing that is imo processed (NO stevia, etc) honey is only RAW, not baked or cooked, we do molasses and only a bit of maple sugar

we both kind of grew up this way so we didn't have to loose any weight so that is not an issue for us

we do eat out, we find dinner, mostly Greek in our area, have good products and lots of local fresh foods
we don't just eat meat and salads - we are not militant about it, just mindful of processed mostly

we do have cake- made with organic everything
pop-corn, pretzels, crackers-all come organic so does chocolate



hope this was of some help????

[my_baby_love]

I know I'm not going to answer all your questions, but I will tell you what we did when we were starting out with TF. In addition to all this below, I read a ton about TF and hang out here a lot . I still learn something every time I am online!

First I switched to all full-fat dairy. I had been getting it for the kids anyway, so I just stopped buying any lowfat dairy. We don't do raw, as it is too expensive here, but I do get local non-homogenized, very lightly pasturized milk. I make our yogurt from it too, although I do still buy some yogurt when I don't have time to make it.

I started making stock with bones and then did my best to use it in my cooking, not just for soups as I had been doing.

Then I added eggs for breakfast almost every morning. We went from eating maybe a dozen eggs every two weeks or so to eating at least a half a dozen every day.

I also started making kombucha, kefir (milk and water), and added in some ferments (I LOVE kimchee and the ketchup in NT is really good).

The last thing I did was cut way back on sugar and almost completely eliminate anything that is processed. I started reading labels really closely, and if I can't understand the ingredients then I don't buy it. Also, if it has corn syrup or soy in in I don't buy it, for the most part. Generally, I really focus on making sure our food is made from food .

DH and I don't eat grains, but my kids do sometimes. I try to soak them if I think of it in advance, but honestly it doesn't always happen. Our Costco carries sprouted grain bread that is pretty good and I buy that. Since DH and I gave up grains, I just don't make them at home much. I do still make treats and consider them just that - treats!

We drink coffee, tea, wine, beer, etc. We really enjoy all those things!

We are starting to try to buy more meats in bulk, and are planning on getting a half a cow this fall. Hopefully that will make the price more reasonable for grass-fed cow meat.

We eat out about once a week and sometimes it is TF-oriented and sometimes not. We eat pretty strictly at home but at times we really let it slide away from home. We also have a lot of family in the area and we eat at their houses a lot, so away from home we don't always have much say in what food is being offered.

Anyway, I hope some of that helped. Just start making small changes and pretty soon you will realize you are eating TF!

[krankedyann]

At the bottom of this page is my snack chart. it's a long chart listing ideas for kid's snacks that are TF. http://www.cookingtf.com/children.html It won't cut and paste for me correctly, or I would paste it here.

Grains are a big challenge. I recommend you slowly cut back on the grains as you increase the fat. Those who tend to gain weight on a TF diet are, IME, those who up the fat and don't cut the carbs. Since it's a slow transition, it won't be as difficult and your kids won't notice it as much. Then convert the grains that you are keeping to TF forms- sprouted, soaked or otherwise fermented whole grains.

Weight loss- I know a good number of women who have lost 20-100+ pounds eating TF. The key appears to be not to over-do the carbs and to go slowly so your body accepts the changes. Try not to loose weight too fast or your gut and skin might not be happy with you. Skin brushing can minimize the impact on your skin if you need to loose a lot of weight. I dropped over 100 pounds (mostly from celiac and not the TF diet per se) and my skin did bounce back thanks to good fats and skin brushing.

$5 for a gallon of raw milk is an awesome deal. My raw milk is bottled in a quick-cooling bulk tank and lasts bout 2 weeks if kept carefully cold the whole time (no temp dips during transportation). If he's hand milking or not quick cooking you can expect it to last less time than that.

[BundleFishMama]

Thanks so much for all the advice and ideas, mamas!! You all are amazing, I'm so excited to get more "into" this and see some changes in our health (and perhaps my weight, ugh....)

[BundleFishMama]

Originally Posted by krankedyann

Grains are a big challenge. I recommend you slowly cut back on the grains as you increase the fat. Those who tend to gain weight on a TF diet are, IME, those who up the fat and don't cut the carbs. Since it's a slow transition, it won't be as difficult and your kids won't notice it as much. Then convert the grains that you are keeping to TF forms- sprouted, soaked or otherwise fermented whole grains.

OK, so tell me more about the grains, please, because I'm hearing a lot of different opinions on this....I have some friends who are more "paleo" I guess, doing virtually no grain, but which grains would you say are best for TF, and how much is "too much"? I can get sprouted wheat bread at the grocery store...my family is not crazy about it, but that will have to do until I learn more about sprouting, I guess! Are oats OK? (My kids LOVE my homemade oatmeal - do you have to "do" anything special to oats to make them appropriate to a TF diet?) Rice needs to be soaked, right? What about beans, lentils? (I know they're not grains per se, but YKWIM).

TIA!!

[BundleFishMama]

Oh, one more question - I know I should try to minimize this in the first place, but, if/when you do get "stuck" without packed food from home and you need to buy something fast-foodish (I know, ugh!) what are the best bets? Like, getting a cheeseburger and just not eating the bun, or some sort of chicken...? Or is that a dumb question, is it all so bad that you should just fall off the wagon for that meal and not even bother to try?

[Magelet]

personally, being in a place with lots of good (but not nessicarily TF) food around, I go for "good" food. There is a local pizza place that sells pizza with sourdough (white) crust, and fresh seasonal veggies and real cheese. It's really yummy too, so that's usually my choice.

I try to look for somewhere that uses local produce, that tastes really great and stay away from fried foods. I figure, if they care enough to use local organic produce, they probably aren't using margerine and kraft, though they might be using veggie oil and grain fed cheese, you know?

I'll get fruit, veggies that can be eaten raw, artisan bread, good cheese, nuts, salami, at a grocery store. Sure it's not ideal, but generally, if it looks, smells, tastes like "real" food, it is. It might not be prepared in a TF way, but you know, real almonds that aren't soaked, or real white bread beats jiffy peanut butter or whole wheat bread with 700 ingrediants including HFCS, yk?

[serenbat]

I can get sprouted wheat bread at the grocery store...my family is not crazy about it,

we don't spend money on stuff just because it's healthy, just to end up throwing it out or not enjoying it

as far as bread goes, I don't like a lot of the stuff in store "healthy bread" so I make our own

you also could do-

whole grain homemade bread (can add in lots of stuff to this type)

homemade sourdough (with natural yeast starter)

there are a lot on here that do bread in 5 minutes a day- I don't so I can't help you here, I normally spend about 30 minutes one morning a week on "yeast" type bread and prep time the prior night only takes about 5 minutes - so that is not much for me


the only "sprouted" type of bread we do is a soaked wheatberry type- we don't like "'sprouted" breads per say

there is a thread currently on "soaking"