Ancestral Diets, Weston A. Price, Faith and Healing in Community | Holistic Hilda 🎙️
Born with a heart defect, Hilda has overcome tremendous obstacles to build a body and life that radiates health, joy and love. She shares some of that hard won wisdom with us today on the podcast.
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Dear friends,
Today’s podcast episode represents a full circle moment for me.
You might not know this, but my first foray into the health and healing worlds was to explore diet and nutrition as a possible career path. I have a piece of paper somewhere from the Institute for Integration Nutrition that says I’m a Certified Health Coach.
Although I never did anything with my interest in nutrition, food has always been very important for my own personal healing and health optimization. And I believe the issue of food is central to our modern health crisis.
When I was about 14 years old I started experiencing severe and painful gut issues. Every meal seemed to trigger an inflammatory response.
At age 17 I began reading voraciously, consuming everything from Buddhist texts and native American history to ecology, biomimicry, diet and health. After weeping my way through “Never Cry Wolf” and “Sea of Slaughter” by Farley Mowat, I read “The China Study” by T. Collin Campbell…and became vegetarian. Then vegan.
My gut issues got a lot worse.
One year into my vegetarian/vegan diet I was downstairs in my bedroom and started smelling something so tantalizing that I suddenly felt as if I might be capable of killing whoever was cooking that food in order to take it all for myself.
Running upstairs, I found my brother cooking chicken hot dogs in sizzling butter on the cast iron pan. That’s the day I realized my instincts have something to say about my health, and that - despite my moral inclinations - my body needs meat.
Not long after that I found the Weston A Price foundation website and began reading about his work researching ancestral diets, dentistry and human health; which led me to the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Since then I’ve been a devoted supporter of regenerative farms and an eater of the animal foods they provide, from bone broths to organs.
The question “what should we be eating?” seems to confound and mystify us.
I’m no purist (about anything). I believe we need to start treating individuals instead of labels and symptoms. For example…
No diet cured me of my gut issues. Though I felt a lot better eating meat (and avoiding soy and seed oils), the same underlying issues persisted.
What cured me was learning to listen to my gut wisdom, and acting on my instincts and intuitions; it was giving myself permission to speak my truth even when there was a real risk of rejection or ridicule; it was learning to say “NO” and mean it; to protect my body and my soul from potential threats.
Healthy food choices, however, continue to play a central role in my life. Sometimes, I get intuitions about foods I need to eat to help my body detox. And there is so much wisdom to be gained from ancestral cultures.
In today’s podcast conversation, I’m joined by Hilda Labrada Gore, known as Holistic Hilda.
Hilda is a certified health coach who is known as a kind of Dora the Explorer 2.0. She has traveled extensively as an experiential anthropologist to Mongolia, Peru, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Kenya, Australia, etc., with the objective of exploring traditional practices to improve the energy and vitality of humanity.
Hilda is the host and producer of the Wise Traditions podcast - on behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Hence…full circle moment for me!
Hilda radiates health and has a zest for life that is simply infectious. I hope you enjoy the episode!
Episode highlights (timestamps available on YouTube and Spotify):
Hilda's Mission and Passion for Ancient Health Traditions
Lessons from Hilda's Parents
Hilda's Birth Defect and Spiritual Faith
The Power of Intuition and Hilda’s Podcasting Journey
Embracing Gumption and Letting Go of Outcomes
The Power of Stillness and Detachment
Connecting with Nature and Self-Observation
Stories of Intuition and Unexpected Outcomes
The Wisdom of Ancestral Traditions
The Weston A. Price Foundation and Ancestral Diets
Trusting Nature and Our Bodies
Celebrating Community and Connection
Living Out Ancestral Secrets
Watch on YouTube