by Frank Tufano
Cod Liver/Cod Liver Oil (Similar to liver but has high omega 3 and iodine)
Shellfish (All Vitamins and Minerals, Oysters high B Vitamins, varies depending on item)
Wild-Caught Fish (complete nutrition if guts are eaten)
Raw Summer/Fall Dairy (All Fat Soluble Vitamins, Minerals besides Iron)
Eggs (Complete Balanced Nutrition)
Meat: Beef, Poultry, Pork, and More
The Ancestral Indigenous Diet is a carnivore diet. Fat and meat will be your primary focus after the nutrient-dense organs, roe, and other prized items. What you should always be looking for are low Omega-6 meats. Grass-fed and pastured animals are always better in this regard and should be your top choice. If you want to be strict and eat optimally, they should be your only choice.
But if you do have to buy conventionally raised meat — due to price or local availability — it is better to stick to beef or lamb. Even when raised on soy and corn feed, they will have a better Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio.
As for specific cuts that should be praised, fattier cuts like belly, brisket, and short-rib don't require additional fat to be added to the meal. Then, as the cuts get leaner, they would have been less conducive to survival and nutrient density. The classic ribeye and New York strip are always good options for us today, especially if you can get the butcher to include a generous fat cap.
Pork and chicken unfortunately are drastically higher in Omega-6 because of how their digestive system is affected by grain feeding. For this reason, most people who eat a carnivore diet stick mostly to beef. Unfortunately, soy-free pasture-raised chicken is much more expensive than grass-fed beef. Not only that, it’s incredibly difficult to find without buying whole animals from local farms.
And remember: Just because it’s labeled “pasture raised” doesn’t mean it wasn’t fed 70% corn. If you’re finding it in your local grocery, chances are it isn’t what it says on the package. Governmental regulation for all these terms are shockingly loose. Be wary of what you are buying, and know that color is a great indicator of meat quality, especially pork or chicken. Pork should be red like beef, and pasture-raised chicken will be much darker than the glowing white meat you’re used to seeing.
Ancestral Indigenous Diet Meats
Fatty Cuts (Belly, Shortribs, Brisket, Chuck Roast) of Grass-fed/Pastured Animals (general nutrition, protein, calories)
Other Cuts of Grass-fed/Pastured Animals (general nutrition, protein, calories)
Eggs and Dairy
Eggs and dairy are double-edged swords. At the highest level of quality, they are incredible sources of nutrition. On the other hand, the typical stuff you find in the store is usually very poor and there are overarching allergy concerns for many people. Honestly, it’s bad enough that the typical versions are generally not fit to consume.
Eggs, in particular, suffer the same high Omega-6 problem that pork and chicken do, although all eggs do have substantial Vitamin K2 and Omega-3 content not found in grocery store pigs and poultry. But as with chicken and pork, the “pasture raised” or “free range” label is not an indicator of quality. You honestly never know what you’re really getting from brand-name eggs. When I purchase eggs, I make sure to buy them from a local farmer that I can guarantee does not use soy in the feed. It’s the only way to know what is actually in the box and ensures you get a lower Omega-6 intake and a higher nutrient content.
Supermarket dairy is even worse than supermarket eggs. It is pasteurized, homogenized, rancid (oxidized), and devoid of almost all the nutrition it should have. Even the “grass-fed” butter in stores, like Kerrygold, is far from what we should be consuming. Kerrygold products may be better than conventional — and an option for some people — but they are not ideal.
Real, raw, grass-fed dairy products, on the other hand, are nutritionally complete and provide some amount of all the nutrients you need. Whether it’s milk, butter, cream, or cheese, it will have every single vitamin and mineral — plus it’s just a delicious, approachable food. It even has other beneficial compounds, including bacteria for our microbiome and enzymes that aid in digestion.
One downside is that allergies and intolerances are abundant. Switching from A1 protein milk to A2 protein milk may help some people. Goat and sheep milk are naturally A2 varieties (which have smaller fat molecules and are easier to digest). But they can be prohibitively expensive for day-to-day use. Raw goat milk may be manageable at around $15 per gallon (compared to $10 for raw cow milk). But raw sheep milk can cost upwards of $30-$40 per gallon and it comes with more than double the calories.
Unlike eggs, you can’t really go for the conventional variety at all. Grocery-store, pasteurized milk gives you next to no benefits. If dairy is consumed, it’s hard to justify anything outside of raw, grass-fed. Cheese can be a decent option if you can’t find a local farm with raw products. Various imported varieties, like Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, are protected products and always made from unpasteurized milk. This means it will always have some good nutrients, and Whole Foods also often carries aged, raw, grass-fed cheese from local products that are priced reasonably. Even many supermarkets have raw cheese if you know what to look for.
Top Ancestral Indigenous Diet Egg & Dairy Options
Farm, Soy-Free Eggs (All Fat Soluble Vitamins, Minerals, Fatty Acids)
Raw Summer Dairy (All Fat Soluble Vitamins, Minerals besides Iron)
Fish and Seafood
Fish is in the same boat as eggs and dairy. The good stuff is great. The bad is very bad. In fact, most farmed fish could arguably be considered one of the least healthy foods we can consume because of the crazy levels of toxins and pollutants introduced by certain fishing practices.
On the other hand, wild-caught fish — especially shellfish, mollusks, and fatty fish — are literally the healthiest foods we can eat. High-quality fish can replace meat, eggs, and dairy in your diet. There are many indigenous and native peoples who consumed fish as virtually their only source of protein — (although they usually needed another source of energy from plant foods because most fish isn’t abundant in fat and calories). First Nation Alaskans, for example, would dip their fish in seal oil to increase the caloric content.
In all cases, live fish is best (especially shellfish), followed by fresh fatty fish (like Pacific salmon), then frozen (like salmon or mackerel), and then canned (various). But no matter the state it’s in when you buy it, it always has to be wild-caught. There are a few acceptable exceptions of farmed fish that are fed a wild diet (like oysters and mussels) but you should still always be careful.
Top Ancestral Indigenous Diet Seafood Options
Oysters (All Vitamins and Minerals, High B12 and Omega 3)
Fatty Shellfish Crab/Lobster (All Vitamins and Minerals)
Other Shellfish / Mussels (All Vitamins and Minerals, may be low if lean)
Wild-Caught Fatty Fish (All Vitamins and Minerals, High Omega 3)
Fermented Foods
Fermented foods — or rotten foods — have been a staple of human civilization since time immemorial. Even people today often eat old food all day without even realizing it. Yogurt for breakfast, ham and cheese on sourdough for lunch, and an aged steak for dinner.
These are all months old and seen as delicious. But tell someone you’re eating certain other fermented foods in cultures and watch them get grossed out immediately. This is mostly because it’s not what we’ve grown up with — although the smell can certainly be a turn off.
Every indigenous group ate fermented food in a variety of ways. Some let meat rot in the African sun for a week. People in Alaska might leave it under a log in near-freezing temperatures for a year. Whether they knew what they were doing or not, letting the food rot gave it beneficial bacteria and altered its vitamin content.
There are beneficial microbes that grow when meat ferments in a certain way, and these bacteria also increase the Vitamin K2 content of the food, something that is very important for skeletal development. This Vitam
in K2 content is the main nutrient we are looking for when it comes to fermented foods, although the bacteria has its own benefits for our gut and immune system.
These days, we call this “high meat,” a term taken from certain native people. And this stuff reeks. I mean it. I’ve made jars of high meat, and it is putrid. It doesn’t really belong in a house.
When looking at the bacteria that form, there are several important categories: Native Healthy Microbes, Native Unhealthy Microbes, and Opportunistic Environmental Bacteria. What turns rotten meat into something potentially beneficial is an environment where the healthy microbes can thrive unaltered. There are so many ways indigenous people made high meat, but after a few months, it becomes something you could almost compare to a nice cheese.
This really isn’t something anyone should be doing at home. You can just eat some actual cheese like a normal human being. While it won’t be exactly the same as eating old, gross meat, some raw, grass-fed cheese will give you the Vitamin K2 you need in its MK4 animal form. And your friends, family, and significant others are less likely to call you insane.
Top Ancestral Indigenous Diet Fermented Options
Raw, Grass-Fed Cheese (Vitamin K2)
High Meat (Vitamin K2)
I Have to Eat What?!??!
I have some great news for you: We are no actually living in 40,000 BC and we don’t necessarily have to be eating rotten animal fat, raw lamb brains, or whole goat eyeballs to get by. I personally have tried all the wacky and weird things you could imagine. And I will continue eating brains, testicles, and other organs most people wouldn’t even touch. But that’s just me. What can ya do?
Funny story: The closest I came to dying was probably when I tried to swallow an eyeball whole. I figured, this way, I could get all the nutritional benefits without actually having to taste the thing. It was a great plan — until it got caught in my windpipe. After about 30 seconds of thinking, “Is this really how Frank Boy is going to die?” it popped out of my mouth. Lesson learned. I now thoroughly chew everything I eat — even if it tastes like eyeballs.
The Ancestral Indigenous Diet starts with a micronutrient priority. Get those vitamins and minerals in. You probably do need to eat some liver for Vitamin A. (It’s the only high-volume source unless your sucking down half a gallon of summer milk.) And salmon roe really can’t be beat for Omega-3s. (Although some salmon every week is fine.)
Once you have your Vitamin A, DHA, Vitamin K2, and Vitamin D3 accounted for, you can start moving down the list to the other main nutrients. After that, the goal is to get the proteins and fats you need. But we’re now starting to talk about meeting calorie and energy needs. The goal here is to get as much as you need without overeating (we still don’t want to get chubby) or promoting any inflammatory response.
Keep Getting Denser
To actually follow the Ancestral Indigenous Diet, you need to understand the importance of food quality. You will never achieve the nutrient density you need unless you get all the vitamins and minerals you need while cutting out all the low-quality foods that cause inflammation and other problems. And as we’ve learned, food quality and food sourcing are inherently linked. To get one, you need to get good at the other.
That said, this diet is different from many popular all-of-nothing eating trends. With the Keto Diet, you’re either in ketosis or you’re not. With Paleo or something like Whole 30, you’re either sticking to the approved food list or your not. The same even goes for Veganism, as horrible as that life choice is for your health, and Intermittent Fasting, which requires certain time intervals to be met.
I am definitely not suggesting that you only go halfway with my diet. You will get much better results and be much healthier if you strictly follow all the advice I am offering.
But you will also see benefits just by making the changes you can make right this moment. As you learn more about the different nutrients available in different foods — like how to get all the DHA you need without spending much — you will have no excuses. This book offers the basics you need, and my YouTube channel contains even more nuanced information on all sorts of topics related to food and health.
Keep learning more and more. You will find out that off-cuts of lamb or beef can be found at a price you can afford, for example. You should keep making sacrifices in other areas of your life so you can afford to eat better quality foods, including grass-fed beef. You can find different types of fish eggs available at the local Asian market that you had never even heard of (like monkfish, which isn’t a bad option). And, hopefully, in time, you will earn more money and certain things may become more feasible to buy.
Food sourcing is a journey. It is not something you will perfect overnight. Even after devoting so much time to this over the past decade, I have still been ripped off or wound up receiving farmed salmon that the purveyor promised was wild caught. It happens.
But even small changes will help at the beginning. Eating liver once a week and getting a decent cod liver oil supplement will instantly put key nutrients in your diet that you have probably been lacking for years. As you get more advanced and learn how different foods affect your stomach, mental clarity, and mood, you will only get better. You will begin to know what to buy and which expensive products simply don’t seem worth the money to you. You will figure out whether it’s even worth your time to find raw dairy or if those “farm-fresh” eggs are the real deal.
Make no mistake: I recommend jumping straight into the deep-end and radically changing how you eat. Get the best food you can and don’t be too worried about the initial price. You will be much better off for it and you will figure out how to cut costs without cutting quality in months two, three, and four. But if you do have to ease your way into the pool, you will still be much better off than you were just last week.
The most important practical information is to increase the amount of quality animal foods you are eating. It’s better to have oysters with cookies than cake and cookies.
Chapter 9
Food Preparation:
Cooking and Eating to Maximize Nutrition
I have already told you about my former life in the gym as a bodybuilder and many people already know me as a nutrition advocate on YouTube. But you might not know that much of my professional experience lies in New York City restaurants, working as both a bartender and waiter.
That is where Frankie Boy learned pretty much everything he knows about the culinary arts. I really did pick up so much along the way. It’s amazing what you see in some of these kitchens and steakhouses about how to prepare and perfect certain dishes. I’m a humble guy. But on top of my passion for learning about food from a nutrition standpoint, I like to consider myself as a pretty good cook.
I even made it on MasterChef to audition a few years back. My time there was unfortunately cut quite short, and the quick version is that I wasn’t exactly at my best during my appearance on the show. But I still think Frankie The Chef could stack up against the best of 'em if ever given another shot.
That’s another story though. (As is my brief stint working for internet legend Salt Bae when he launched his New York restaurant.) For now, I only mention it so you know I’m not just some filthy caveman who only spends his days gnawing on raw liver, sheep brains, and fish eggs then washing it down with a bloody Mary — made with actual blood.
I know what actual cuisine is, and I pride myself on my culinary knowledge. Just because I have limited my diet down to mostly the essentials — choosing most days to grill grass-fed steaks seasoned only with salt and a side of fresh organs — doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate great food.
But there is a big difference between how we should eat and how we do eat. And as discussed earlier when it comes to traditional grain preparation methods, there is a right way — and a wrong way — to do things if you want to cook for optimal nutrition.
The good news is that this isn’t exactly rocket science. There’s no need to break this all down into an instruction m
anual or cookbook. But I wanted to take a little bit of time here to clear up a few common misconceptions about how cooking affects nutrition and offer some handy preparation tips for any novices out there. Even you long-time grill-masters still have room to learn.
The following won’t give you a complete understanding of how to cook and eat food on the Ancestral Indigenous Diet. But these are some good starting guidelines that you can build on for the rest of your life. That way, you will have a diet that satisfies you in all ways, from nutrient density and culinary exploration to enjoying real flavor and getting that perfect sear.
Carnivore Cooking 101
The most common cooking methods you should get acquainted with are grilling, pan searing, and baking in an oven. Indigenous people would have done their own versions of these techniques as well as boiling, steaming, smoking, drying, pulverizing, and rendering fats.
To be sure, there really isn’t any wrong way to cook your meat. Different methods can affect the nutrient profile, but a lot of that will come down to raw vs. cooked. But before we get to all that, let’s just talk about a few simple aspects of cooking that will help you enjoy your meat a bit more.
Frankie Boy’s Signature Style
I cook almost every meal over a wood fire. What can I say? I’m just a sucker for the classics. Nothing tastes better. It’s also easier and doesn’t make a mess all over my stove.
I do, however, use a bit of an unconventional technique. Some people will tell you charcoal is the holy grail for grilling. But it takes forever to heat up. That just isn’t practical on a day-to-day basis when you’re always eating meat.
On the other extreme is gas. Sure, some pitmaster from Texas might say propane grills are an embarrassment and unfit for real meat lovers. Chill out though, guys. You can’t beat propane for convenience, and we all have a life to live.
To get something like the best of both worlds — primal nature meets modern ingenuity — Frankie Boy found some middle ground. I use a small, cheap gas-start propane grill that I’ve modified a bit to take seasoned firewood as well.