Essential Recipes for the Natural Diet

While exploring Hubpages, I was very happy to find that there are many people here sharing their traditional, nourishing recipes. When you begin a natural diet, it is very important that you let go of the "calorie cow" mentality, and embrace the idea of nutrient dense foods.

Whether you are thin and struggling way too much to stay that way, or fat and "off feed" wondering why you don't have more energy for all the extra calories, you must face reality. There's a saying that one of the features of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results.

Counting calories will get you nowhere healthwise. It's only useful to fitness professionals who need to purposefully create a calorie deficit *while already eating nourishing nutrient dense foods* in order to optimize their performance or create a particular look. Everyone else needs to focus on nutrition, not body modification.

The first priority for food needs is getting enough food. If you don't get enough food, you can't seriously think about modifying your diet in order to create a calorie deficit on purpose. If you do get enough food, you will very likely create a calorie deficit without even thinking about it because you will have more energy.

So on this page, I'm going to show some love to my fellow Hubbees who are kind enough to share their recipes for easily accessible, inexpensive superfoods. Add this page to your favorites. I'll be updating it as I find more.

Mayonaise usually contains hydrogenated or overheated vegetable oils, and it's difficult to make at home. A better alternative that is just as tasty is tahini.

Elqalatawy shares his recipes for authentic tahini, and a few ways to make it.

Switching to tahini is very easy. You can buy tahini paste in almost any health food or Middle Eastern or specifically Halal or Kosher food store. It is basically the mayonaise of the Middle East. I'm told it's becoming quite popular in Central and South America too, partly because there's already a kind of mole sauce that is made with it.

It will probably be less expensive in a Middle Eastern or Latin store, in which case it'll be much less expensive than mayonaise. 1/2 kg. of tahini paste can make a kilo of tahini "salad" (spread).

Even better, tahini can be used to make sesame halvah, one of the healthiest and tastiest desserts on the planet.

Another great spread that is packed with nutrition is hummus (also called humus or oumus). It's basically a paste of cooked chickpeas. Yolbern shares his recipe here. It is the real deal, made the way that it's made in the Middle East.  It starts with soaking dried chickpeas, not canned ones (which are yucky and have too much refined salt).

 The best soup hub I've found so far belongs to Crazyhorsesghost.  They have a hub on healing soups from around the world that I'd say is a definite must-read.

See, once you get really going on a natural diet, you come to love the wonder that is soup.  It is a great way to get your vegetables in, and quite often, it's the main course of the meal itself.  Once your body's natural calorie intake regulation kicks in, you find yourself eating seasonally, and cravings become very specific.  Soup is good in winter because it's warm, and makes good use of winter vegetables that don't always taste so good raw.  It's also good for the summer because sometimes you want a hot meal, but something light because your appetite is lower.

Next to smoothies, soup is one of the best ways to get in a lot of nutrition in liquid or partially liquid form.

 Christa Dovel's hub on How to Make Soft Hop Yeast just made me say, "Wow....WWOOOOWWWW!".  Not only does she tell you how to make this natural yeast, but she explains how to use it in baking.

Something that needs to be said about the natural diet: it's not "low carb".  It's just realistic efficiently used carbs.  If you're gonna have bread, it should be good bread.  This is good bread.

Sara W. Harding also has an excellent hub on The Art of Sourdough.  She explains why it's good, and goes into a term you're going to get to know well on the natural diet: lactofermentation.

The natural diet is not a "one size fits all" solution.  Individuals are supposed to figure out what works best for them as far as getting enough nutrient dense foods.  Some individuals are vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, and some just don't get into meat because they just don't.  You should never force yourself to eat something that makes you feel bad.

Many vegetarians and vegans have been herded towards soy as a source of protein, but there are more and safer beans in the world.

Livelonger's recipe for non soy vegetarian "meatballs" is the best I've seen.  It uses adzuki beans and bulgur.  Having made a bean loaf or two in my day, I'm very certain that you won't miss the soy.

 Do you have a natural and/or traditional food hub?  If so, you can get on this list by contacting me though my profile.  There are just a few rules though:

1.  Your ingredients must be as close to natural as possible.  No canned or processed foods unless they're generally not available any other way.  Tahini paste or natural unsweetened peanut butter are examples of products that are okay because they're only minimally processed.

2.  No hydrogenated or over heated oils.  These include but are not limited to corn, canola, or soy oils, vegetable shortening (which is not the same thing as non hydrogenated vegetable ghee), or margerine.

3.  White/all purpose wheat flour can be used, but it has to be properly fermented through at least an hour of warm or room temperature, or 3 hours of refrigerated rising or setting.

4.  Your hub has to have actual content.  That means it has to have some actual information or recipes, not just general wordage that says a lot about nothing.

That's about it.  This page will be updated as I find more good hubs.

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