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NUTRIENT-DENSE KITCHEN CLEAN OUT & RESTOCK


You’ve done the research about WHAT to eat, and now you need the steps to take some action and turn your modern day kitchen, into a holistic, nutrient-dense hub for cooking, eating, and enjoying every minute of it.

The process below will guide you as you walk (or run) through this exciting change. First, take a minute to consider, are you a “big change, all-at-once” kinda-guy? Or are you a “small-chunks, take-it-slow” kinda gal? In the past, what changes stuck for you, and how did you approach those?

Now that you’ve got that down, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of your nutrient-dense kitchen clean-out & restock!

Stage 0 – Use it or Lose it

Check the expiration date for everything in your kitchen. If it is expired, toss it. If it is close to expiration, use it! Make sure to check your cabinets, pantry, refrigerator, oils, spices, dried goods, etc.

Stage 1 – Examine Your Fats


Choosing to cook with nutrient-dense fats/oils has a colossal effect on your health at a cellular level. Also, taking care to cook using high heat with only the appropriate fats/oils will prevent the release of free radicals into your foods. Rachel Link, a registered dietician, defines free radicals as “compounds that can damage cells and cause chronic disease.” (Link, 2020) Your body naturally produces some free-radicals, but having extra floating around can cause oxidative stress, which negatively affects both female and male fertility. (Meletis, 2019)

Remove the following oils:

  • canola, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, soybean, corn, peanut, rice bran, margarine, vegetable.

Keep (or add in):

  • High-heat cooking fats (oils):tallow, lard, ghee (clarified butter), duck fat, coconut oil

  • Low-heat cooking, or finishing: olive oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter

Check Packages / Labels

  • Any packages that list the oils from our “remove” section in their ingredients, need to be tossed out.

  • Remove anything that includes hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated (these are trans fats, which cause harmful free radical damage)

  • When replacing these packages, shop for packaged foods without these ingredients if you must, but it is best to replace them with real, whole food.

If this is overwhelming, start by removing only 3 of your most used items, and as time passes, you can dig deeper into the changes.

Most Budget-Friendly Changes: Swap your vegetable oils for organic coconut oil or avocado oil. Trade your canned legumes, for dry legumes with no additional ingredients, and try your hand at soaking them overnight. Soaking your legumes will remove anti-nutrients (phytic acid & lectins) which can wreak on your body. Grab some frozen fruits and veggies instead of canned. Finally, swap your margarine for grass-fed butter, or clarified butter (ghee).

Healthier (no preservatives or additives) Packaged Options, not so budget-friendly: Good Health Chips

Stage 2 – Ditch the Chemicals

Added chemicals benefit only the food suppliers and distributors who use them; They certainly are no benefit to you. The Nutritional Therapy Association states “that these fake ingredients can cause direct damage to our endocrine, digestive, cardiovascular, immune, and neurological systems and offer no nutritional benefit —so they have no place in our homes or on our plates.” (Nutritional Therapy Association, 2021)

Remove the following chemicals from your kitchen:

  • Any words you have difficulty pronouncing (for example, caseinate)

  • Words with a number or acronym (for example, yellow #5, Glutamate [E 620], BHT)

  • any processing words (for example, Autolyzed yeast)

Unsure about something? If it doesn’t sound like food, it’s probably not.

Stage 3 – Search out the Sugar

Reducing or removing sugar from your life can be easy for some, and unthinkable for others. The best way to know where you are is to recognize how reading the title “Search out the Sugar” made you feel. Did you think “Oh no…” or “eh, ok.” ? If you turn to sugar for an energy boost and comfort, we will take a slower process of trading out those super market candy bars for dark chocolate sweetened with a natural flavor like organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, or honey. If you’re not too crazy about sugars and they aren’t a part of your everyday rituals, go ahead and try quitting cold turkey. Either way, you can find a list of ingredients that should be removed from your kitchen. You’ll see many code names, and start to notice them in strange places at home – like your ketchup and your bread. We want to get rid of these “hidden” sugars, so that when we do have cake at a party, or hot cocoa with our family, we are consciously choosing to enjoy a treat, not being tricked into it on a daily basis.

Remove these sugars:

  • high fructose corn syrup

  • artificial sweeteners (Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K, Saccharin, Xylitol, Sorbitol)

  • other chemically altered sugars (dextrose, maltose, maltodextrin, invert sugar, glucose solids, etc.)

  • bleached cane sugar

After removing all of the above, you may want to consider cutting back or removing more unprocessed forms of cane sugar (demerara, sucanat, turbinado), coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, date sugar, etc. Again, it’s about growth, not perfection. If you use sugar to manage stress and enjoy it daily, do not try removing these unprocessed forms, until you feel ready for that (which could be months, or even years, down the road).

I personally struggle with cutting back on sugar, so instead of my mystery-sugar latte, I am currently enjoying a peppermint tea with honey. I feel proud of that choice and am noticing the positive effects when I make this healthy swap. It’ snot perfection, but it is major growth.

Stage 4 – Replace Refined Grains

Similarly to sugar, you have individual needs when it comes to grains. If you tolerate grains well, you should still be taking bleached white flour and wheat flour pumped with synthetic vitamins/minerals out of your diet. It is best to use a sprouted grain to make your own flour and flour products, but you can also buy sprouted flour and other traditional grains like einkorn, spelt, kamut, sorghum or pseudo-cereals like amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat. (NTA CW, 2021) In summary…

Remove these grains:

  • bleached

  • processed

  • white

  • those with synthetic additives

If you’re good with grains, keep or add in these grains:

  • sprouted

  • traditional grains: einkorn, spelt, kamut, sorghum or pseudo-cereals like amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat

If you suspect you don’t tolerate grains well, try these instead:

  • Flours: coconut, cassava, tigernut, arrowroot, tapioca

  • Swap tradition burger buns for sweet potatoes

  • Swap regular potato chips for kale chips

When you’re out and about, avoiding these grains can be difficult. Don’t be afraid to have a pizza at a restaurant with your family every once in a while. Enjoy that time and know when you get back home you’ll be going back to a place stocked with nutrient-dense choices.

Stage 5 – Get Active in the Kitchen

If you’ve made your way through stages 0-4, and still want to keep moving in the right direction, it’s time for a creative challenge. Your next step is to try to recreate some of those packaged favorites you’re missing, but with nutrient-dense whole foods. If you’re pinched for time, and feel that this would only add stress to your busy life, then leave this stage for another season of life; instead check-out Thrive Market, Primal Kitchen, or your local whole foods grocer for some healthy pre-made and packaged foods.

When I began eating a “real food”diet, my first recreation was the Pecan Pie Lara Bar. It’s the simplest recipe I’ve ever tried, and loved! This makes about 18 golf-ball sized, chewy, delicious, nutritious snacks. I leave them out on the counter and don’t tell anyone what they’re made of and my family eats ’em up.

  • one dozen dates (pitted is easiest to work with)

  • almonds (1 cup)

  • pecans (1 cup)

Throw these together in a blender or food processor until well blended. Add a touch of water if you feel they’re too dry. Then clump them up into balls, throw them in the fridge to set for an hour or so, and you’re done!

What will your first recreation be?

CITATIONS

 
 
 

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©2021 by Emily Seider

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