Cooking & Gut Health: Basics to Keep in Your Pantry & Fridge
Cooking with whole foods is a great way to take control of your health, understand how to nourish our bodies, and grow an appreciation for the natural food around us.
Whole foods are unprocessed, natural ingredients that have not been contaminated with toxic chemicals, additives, or pesticides. Avoiding such processed foods has major benefits to our health, such as improving gut health, regulating hormone production, and reducing inflammation.
When cooking (or just snacking!) with whole foods, you want to make sure that most, if not all ingredients don’t include any added disruptors, seed oils, or additives. This includes cooking oils and garnishes or toppings. You can find these options at your local grocery store, you just have to know what to look for! You can find more information here about what to look for at your grocery store.
To get you started, I’ve compiled a list of basic whole food ingredients that you should always keep in your fridge and pantry:
Cooking & Gut Health: Basics to Keep in Your Pantry & Fridge
Good quality extra virgin olive oil
Grass-fed butter (I love using Kerrygold Irish Butter)
Good quality sea salt (I use Celtic Sea Salt, shop here)
Pasture-raised eggs & chicken
Natural, 2-ingredient nut butter
Grass-fed milk, raw or low temperature pasteurized
Fresh herbs (if you can get local or grow your own, that is best)
Grass-fed ground beef
Local/Seasonal vegetables and fruits
Keeping good quality basic ingredients such as extra virgin olive oil and sea salt help elevate your cooking while keeping it clean. I like using an organic, cold-pressed 100% extra virgin olive oil to use for cooking vegetables, roasting, and as a garnish. As for sea salt, you want to make sure it is a pure sea salt, such as Aromasong Fine Sea Salt.
High quality animal products from grass-fed cows or pasture chickens such as milk, eggs & chicken, ground beef, and butter are full of healthy nutrients that are essential to our health. See here for more information about why pasture-raised and grass-fed food is better for us!
Having fresh herbs and vegetables available in your kitchen makes it easy to throw meals together, even if you’re in the rush of a 9-5 work day. Herbs stay the most fresh when stored in a glass mason jar filled with water in the fridge, just like you would put together a flower bouquet! This helps them stay hydrated and preserve their freshness for weeks. Or you can try out this grass-fed herb butter, which will preserve your herbs for weeks!
For all my fellow peanut butter lovers out there, this one is for you. I love keeping a container of natural peanut butter in my pantry at ALL times, because why the heck not. It’s a great snack full of nutrients and fiber, and a decent amount of protein. Sometimes I bring it to work and eat a spoonful here and there throughout the day (teachers understand this — we need lots of energy!), and even though my students tease me for it, it gets me through the day. Look for a natural peanut butter with only 2 ingredients — peanuts and salt.
Stock up your kitchen with these items, and you are already on your way to better health, better food, and better quality of life. For more information about cooking with whole foods, check out my other posts about food swaps, shopping local, recipes, and more!