30 Day Paleo: Day Sixteen – Know Why Source of Food Matters

Looking to make healthier choices? Perfect! This is Day 16 of 30 of my 30 Day Paleo Plan. For more information on 30 Day Paleo as well as 30 Minute Paleo, check out the get started page. Post each day on your 30 Day Paleo journey to Twitter or Instagram and show me by tagging me with @dranthonygustin — get after it! 

Now that you’re into the habit of eating food that spoils, it is time to try to make sure things are also sourced properly and mind the source of food. You are what you eat. If you eat sick animals, you’ll probably become sick. Try to choose the best options when purchasing meat and seafood.

If you’re on a budget, there are definitely ways around this. The general rule of thumb is if you can get the animal from a good source, then go for the fattiest cuts possible. If you can’t, then go for the leanest cuts.

Both the good and bad lie within the fats of an animal. This is where all of the nutrients and all the toxins concentrate. You can even see the difference between properly sourced and conventionally raised animals in the color of the fats. Pastured chicken eggs usually have a deep orange yolk while yolks from conventional chicken eggs are bland yellow. Fat from grass fed beef is a deep yellow whereas it becomes waxy and white in conventional beef.

Here is a quick rundown:

For beef or other ruminants (lamb, goat, bison, elk), go for grass-fed and grass-finished. The grass-finished part is imperative.

For poultry and eggs, choose pastured. Cage-free and free-range mean essentially nothing.

For fish, stick to wild caught fattier cuts. Shellfish are good to go from any source so go wild on those. Seafood can be complicated – check out our guide here.

For produce, if you are eating the outside (leafy greens) go organic, and if you are tossing it (avocado) then you can skip organic.

For protein powder, go with grass fed beef isolate. Always eat real food if you can.

For coffee, look for freshly roasted, high altitude beans from Central America.

For dairy, first decide if you can tolerate it or not. Remove for 30 days, then reintroduce with raw milk, grass-fed dairy.

Check out EatWild as a resource for finding local farms that sell properly sourced animals in bulk. Otherwise, it should clearly say on the label. If it is expensive to make, then the company selling will make sure that they market to that point. Make sure you’re sourcing your food properly and it will pay dividends many times over on your health!

Mind the source of food you eat. Source can make or break your health.