10 Steps to “Primalize” Your Pantry
The freezer has ice cream and frozen pizzas, but it’s the pantry that harbors the usual carb suspects – chips, cookies, crackers, pasta, cereal and bread galore. If you’re not careful this cool and dark space could derail your best efforts to eat Primally. So follow these 10 easy steps and you’ll be well on your way to having a truly Primal pantry. And be sure to share what’s in your pantry in the comment boards! Are we missing any major Primal staples?
1. Junk Food Extermination
The first step toward Primalizing your pantry is purging it of the wrong foods. You need to approach the contents of your pantry as if you’re a medieval cleric purging the church of heathens. Think dogmatic. Think Spanish Inquisition. As Primal Blueprinters we pride ourselves on being flexible. After all, we got into this lifestyle because we were willing to buck conventional wisdom and consider a vastly different viewpoint to nutrition. Forget all that. Today, if you truly want to Primalize your pantry, you need to toss out every thing that might tempt you to stray from the pure and noble path as ordained by evolution itself. Okay – lofty language aside, going purely Primal means completely avoiding the foods that mar that purity.
Toss your processed foods and prepackaged meals. No more baked beans, bland soups, or loaves of bread collecting mold alongside dry pastas. Get rid of the cookies, crackers, and chips standing in your way. No holds barred, people.
2. Donate
When I say toss out, I mean “toss out of the pantry and in the general direction of a plastic bin or paper bag perfect for delivering to a food bank.” You may be going purely Primal, but tons of needy people don’t have that luxury. You’re worrying about insulin spikes and tallying glycemic indexes while scores of others are worrying about more important things… like hunger. Take a big box, fill it up, and donate it. Try Feeding America to find a local food bank.
3. Nuts/Seeds/Nut Flour
Pantries are the perfect spots for instant snacks. It’s just that most snacks aren’t all that Primal – except for nuts and seeds. Raw almonds, walnuts, macadamias are some fantastic options that will stay fresh for at least a couple months, but they probably won’t last that long. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds are some other great options. As with anything, just be sure to watch the flavored varieties. If you’re eating toffee-encrusted chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, you’re not really going Primal.
Nut butter and flours are good to have on hand, too. Almond butter makes a great alternative to peanut butter, and both butters and flours are great Primal sauce thickeners. Nut flour also introduces the possibility of Primal baking – it’s not a perfect replacement for traditional baked goods, but there are unique benefits to cooking with nut flours, like increased heartiness and a different flavor profile.
Links:
4. Healthy Fats
Keep your pantry well-stocked with olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, and various nut oils – all healthy, Primal fats that you’ll be using on a daily basis (assuming you’re cooking every day). Sauteeing meat, frying eggs, making salad dressing mean good, healthy fats are absolutely integral in the Primal Blueprint, and the pantry is the best place to store them. Fat does go rancid, though, so be sure to buy only as much oil as you’ll finish in a month.
Links:
10 Delicious DIY Salad Dressings
5. Sweet Tooth Suppression
We all have a sweet tooth. Sweet stuff tastes good to us because it gets us eating fruit, which in turn spreads the seeds around and profligates the fruits’ reproduction. So it’s normal for us to keep some sweets in the pantry – just don’t go crazy with it and stick to acceptable sources. Honey is good to have on hand, as is semi-sweet dark chocolate (go for a good quality, mostly-cacao chocolate bar, which isn’t all that high in sugar and is decidedly more Primal than, say, a Hershey’s bar).
Links:
How to Eat More Chocolate and Drink More Wine Every Day
Is All Chocolate Created Equal?
Sensible Vices: Round 1 and Round 2
6. Tea Time
We should limit our caffeine intake, but teas are excellent members of any healthy Primal pantry. Try to stick to the “true” teas: white (best), green (good), oolong (still good), or black (good, but not great). All come from the same plant, but the white and green teas are simply less processed. You know how we feel about over-processing, and the less a tea is processed, the more antioxidant properties are retained. Enjoy tea time, but avoid the cakes and scones you might have enjoyed on your last trip to England.
Links:
Dear Mark: To Tea or Not to Tea?
7. The Spice of Primal Life
Primal eating often gets the bad rap of being bland and tasteless. While Grok may not have had cumin, coriander, cinnamon, or curry at his disposal, spices are still Primal friendly (and, I would argue, absolutely essential to enjoying life – Primal or otherwise). If you can spare it, devote a shelf in your pantry to your spice collection. It’ll be an expensive initial purchase, but once you’ve gathered a nice arsenal of spices you’ll be set for a long time. There’s nothing worse than getting the urge to make some complex dish and having to run out to the grocery store each time for ingredients.
Links:
Top 10 Ingredients that Will Make Your Meals Pop
8. Jerky
Again, the key to avoiding temptation is stocking your pantry with instant Primal foods. Keep some jerky on hand – beef, buffalo, salmon, turkey, deer, moose. Even better, make your own jerky so that you get to choose what goes into your body. Keep in mind that most homemade jerky (or quality jerky purchased in a store) is less processed and will therefore go rancid much faster than the stuff you get at the truck stop. I somehow doubt, however, that eating your jerky on time will be a problem.
Links:
Top 10 Meat Questions Meet Answers
9. Dried Fruits
We’ve told you to take caution when eating dried fruits before (on account of the high sugar content), but they can’t be ignored when stocking your pantry. Instead of wolfing down an entire bag of dried apricots, though, try making your own trail mix. You’ve got nuts, semi-sweet dark chocolate, and dried fruits all in the same place – mix it all together! That way, you won’t just be eating dried fruit, which is delicious and healthy, but never really fills you up (meaning you’ll just keep eating and eating).
Links:
Snack Solution: Primal Alternatives for Non-Primal Snacks
10. Canned Goods
You’ve ditched the canned beans and cherry pie filling, but don’t eschew the can altogether. It’s a good format for vegetables, and its convenience simply cannot be ignored. Canned tomatoes are just as good as most fresh tomatoes (sadly, it’s tough to find a good tomato nowadays), and even better for making sauces (don’t forget to keep some tomato paste on hand, too). Canned artichoke hearts, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) and canned coconut milk are also staples to have on hand. We can’t expect to always have the time or inclination to go stock up on fresh produce, and canned vegetables give us the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of vegetables while saving time and money (canned is always cheaper).
Links:
Is Canned Soup Really that Bad for You?
Healthy Tastes Great: The Great Pumpkin
3 More Budget Friendly Healthy Food Tips
What about you, readers? What do you keep in your pantries?
Incase Designs, brykmantra, casch52, he@rt, tim7423, Claudecf, alau2, storem, sniffette Flickr Photos (CC)
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds
Posted By: Aaron
I really need to go food shopping and you just made it so much easier to create my grocery list! As always, good timing and thanks Mark.
Wow… this sounds scarily like our pantry. We went through and donated all of our “bad” pantry items like pastas and rice to our less fortunate, less dicerning and more hungry extended family members.
Our pantry now:
Nuts
Shredded coconut
Bulk Almond flour
Bulk powdered egg whites
Canned veggetables (tomato paste included)
Bulk containers of EVO and Coconut oils
Unsweetened 100% coco (powdered and organic)
A plethora of canned fish (kippers, sardines, oysters)
Dried currents
Homeade Sweet Potato Chips (baked. My wife does this wonderfullly!)
I can’t help but feel like I am forgetting something but I think that is mostly it.
That sounds like our pantry too, but a word of caution of the “bulk powdered egg whites”.
Please be aware that dried/powdered eggs (and powdered milk) are very processed foods that have been treated under very high heat which oxidizes the cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol is extremely damaging to the arteries and organs (unlike healthy cholesterol). This is why, among other reasons, skim milk is such a problem- dried milk powder is added in to bulk it up. Liquid eggs are the same. Processed food contains a lot of these dried food ingredients and thus oxidized cholesterol.
Just FYI…
Homeade Sweet Potato Chips (baked. My wife does this wonderfullly!) This sounds great. Can you share the recipe? Thanks.
How do you feel about Yerba Mate tea? Where does it stand in relation to white, green, and black in your opinion?
Emily, I’m a big fan of yerba mate. I had a cup of it this morning, in fact. I drink it unsweetened, or amargo, as our friends down south would say. Adding a bunch of sugar to it defeats the purpose of drinking it in the first place. It’ll be interesting what Mark can dig up on it.
Here’s an overview of yerba mate from Consumer Reports for those who are interested: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/beverages/names-and-claims-yerba-mate-8-07/overview/0708_names_and_claims_yerbamate.htm
So I’m wondering when you are going to get going on that primal cook book. Please tell me there is one in the works.
What a helpful post! Thanks for the practical tips! I’ve been meaning to “take it to the next step,” so to speak. This is great motivation.
How about condiments? My cabinet includes steak rubs, steak sauces, horseradish, some more steak sauce, and old bay. Which I put on my steak.
Sakkis –
The Primal Cookbook is in the works, but it is taking a back seat at the moment to The Primal Blueprint. I hope to have both out soon!
Mark Sisson
(P.S. I’m working on a companion workbook to the PB, too.)
Mark,
Amen to the beef jerky and dried fruit!! I’m a big on these two as they are portable, they don’t need to be refrigerated and, well, they’re just awesome!
Thanks for the post
All the Best,
Andrew R
OMG I just bought the best dried organic, totally unsweetened, pineapple today!!
Sarena, I totally dig dried pineapple…but be careful because 3 1/2 ounces (which is easy to eat in a short time) has about 65 grams of carbs, mostly as fruit sugar. That’s why we like mixing dried fruit up with nuts etc.
Mark, thank you so much for this ten-step program. I’ve been half-heartedly moving towards Primal living for a few months, now (actually prior to discovering your blog, after reading _Ishmael_), but I’ve been unwilling to commit to it completely (and I admit it’s at least partly because I’m an endurance sports blogger, and I don’t plan to give that up).
But this list makes it seem practical, achievable, and tasty. Great post.
Also linking to this article to go along with my eating as “part of the world” series
My pantry here @ home goes like this: almond oil, red pepper, sea salt, mustard, pure ground cinnamon, green tea, almonds, pecans, cashews, cashew butter, almond butter, raisins, plain oatmeal, honey, V-8, i love dark chocolate, but don’t keep it on hand, i just eat it once in a while. I love macadamia nuts but that’s toxic to dogs, and i don’t want to chance my ShihTzu getting into it so i choose not to buy that. And last but not least (always save the best for last ya know) Damage Control Master Formula!!!
Chocolate…really?
Fantastic shopping advice!
I love the idea of improving my spice collection. Due to the expense, I am wondering if there are certain spices, brands, methods of storage etc. that will help me maximize the benefits? I suspect many spices lose their flavor intensity over time. A local small grocer stocks many spices already ground, in small containers, MUCH cheaper than the traditional brands in other stores. Is there a catch? Quality or otherwise??? If I get this down, THEN I can worry about learning to actually use the spices effectively. Thanks for a great post!
Great article.
I think a lot of people would be much better off if they cleaned out their pantry and went to a more primal form of eating.
Keep up the good posts!
-Justin
GymJunkies.com
Thanks for the list Mark. I’m still quite a way off a full on primal pantry but I am doing a few of the things on your list.
SO INTERESTING TO ME as I often think ‘Im not really primal’ but in reading this I am.
farfar more than Id thought.
even after my weekend
Mark, boy do I know that about the pineapple and sugar. Thats why I ate it with almonds. And I far overdid it too!!
sarena,
I can’t eat dried pineapple. It is TOO sweet for me.
I absolutely love pineapple, fresh and dried. Mixing it up with other stuff i won’t eat as much. Fresh-i like it w/a little non-sweet coconut and 1/2 small banana. Dried-I mix it with a little raisins and nuts. I also like dried apricots, but i eat “very little” of that-gotta watch it.
Dr. Dan,
Oh yes, 70% dark chocolate is O.K. to have, so little sugar, try some!
Lindt 90%… even better!
Rodney,
For spices hit your local farmers market.
You’ll find great deals and great selection.
The downside of the empty pantry…..it makes it hard to hide the yummy chocolate from the rest of the household
Great post as always Mark.
Marc
Emily – Great question about Yerba Mate. I’ll see if we can devote a post to it in the near future. Thanks for reading!
Son of Grok: if you could post the recipe for the sweet potato chips your wife makes, I’d be eternally grateful!
Son of Grok… you need to just start your own blog bro! The people have spoken, they want your recipes!! And I for one would definitely tune in daily to read it.
All the Best,
Andrew R
Nice article Mark. A couple years back (after having already been a Personal Trainer/Health Coach for many years at the time) I realised that I was not leading a very good example. While I ate well for my ‘main’ meals, my pantry was just about junk-filled enough for me to open some kind of chocolate store out of it. If any of my clients had have seen it they would have been horrified!
These days one of my rules (for clients as well as self!) is to pretty much avoid supermarket shopping, but if you’re in a really hurry and can’t get to a farmers market, then at least avoid the inside aisles of the supermarket … there lies temptation!
Kat
* Love the recipe for making your own jerky, have not seen that before. Thank-you!
Andrew,
I know.. I have been putting it off for too long. Fulltime professional career, full time student and building another business from the ground up. All while staying on top of my health and fitness and still entertaining my family. I am just so busy. But I will hunker down and try to get started on a personal blog this week for recipes and what have you.
Kelley,
I will make the sweet potato chips one of my first recipes once the blog is up!
This is fantastic! I already do almost everything you have listed. Amazing. I always felt pretty good about the way I treat my body, but this confirms it.