If you like the Weston A. Price Website, then you should definitely check out their cookbook, Nourishing Traditions. Far more than the combined words ‘cook’ and ‘book’ would suggest, Nourishing Traditions covers topics such as vitamins, minerals, fats, and the current nutritional fallacies touted by the ‘Diet Dictocrats.’ You’ll learn all about short, medium, and long-chain fatty acids. Carbohydrates, proteins, food allergies, salt and spices are all discussed as well. And that’s just in the introduction, which is seventy pages long and is followed by seven pages of references. The list of topics includes:

• fermented vegetables and fruits
• cultured dairy products (kefir, viili, piima, yogurt, etc)
• sprouted grains, nuts, and seeds
• snack foods
• salad dressings
• hors d’oeuvres (includes raw meat recipes like kibbeh, gravlax, steak
• tartare, and carpaccio, among others)
• fish
• meat
• poultry
• game
• organ meats
• vegetable dishes from soups to salads
• grains and legumes
• desserts
• beverages (including tonics and superfoods)
• baby food

Then, there are 6 appendices, includingguidelines for limited budgets, sources (US and web-based), and a suggested reading list.

One would normally consider the recipes the heart of a cookbook, and indeed, this is true of Nourishing Traditions, but the similarities end there. The recipes in Nourishing Traditions are supplemented by sidebars on every page. Want details of what MSG can do to living things? Then check out the sidebar on page 278. Want to know why a long-term macrobiotic diet is bad for you? Read page 343. Want to know what Almanzo ate for dinner in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy? Try page 110. Numerous scientific studies are quoted. So many, in fact, that I can’t decide which one to mention here. And then there are the personal observations by travelers in and around the turn of the twentieth century. The sidebars are absolutely fascinating, occasionally so much so that they were of more interest than the recipes!

All in all, I believe this book should be on everyone’s bookshelf, not just those of us who are low-carbers. Finally, if you take a gander at Nourishing Traditions and decide it’s not for you, at least check out how to make crispy nuts, on page 510. Trust me, you won’t be able to stop eating them.

BUY IT NOW: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats