The Case for Real Food

Where it all began — a kitchen in Ayr

I grew up between two food cultures. My Scottish side gave me porridge, mince and tatties, oatcakes, and a deep suspicion of anything that came in a packet. My Italian side gave me fresh pasta made by hand, tomato sauces that simmered for hours, olive oil on everything, and the unshakeable belief that food is love, medicine, and social glue all at once.

Neither culture worried about macros. Neither counted calories. Neither demonised an entire food group. Both cooked from scratch, both sourced locally where possible, and both understood instinctively that the quality of the ingredient mattered more than any nutritional theory applied to it.

Thirty-seven years in health and fitness later, with a degree in developmental biology and thousands of clinical hours behind me, I've arrived at a position that would surprise nobody in either of those kitchens: real food, prepared properly, from good sources, is the foundation of health. Not supplements. Not elimination diets. Not whatever the wellness industry is selling this month. Food.

This isn't a nostalgic essay. It's a clinical argument — supported by testing, not ideology — for why some of the foods modern wellness culture has demonised are precisely the ones many of my clients need.

The dairy question — and why the answer is personal

Let me declare an interest: I've been a customer of Grahams Family Dairy for over twenty years. The family behind it are long-term clients. I feed their protein yoghurts to my dog Dexter (he's a fan). I use their milk, their butter, their cream. I do well on dairy. I'm not lactose intolerant, I don't have a casein sensitivity, and my IgG4 food sensitivity panel confirms it.

Which is exactly the point. I've tested it. I haven't assumed dairy is fine because I like it. I haven't assumed it's harmful because a podcast told me so. I've run the data.

What dairy actually provides

When dairy works for someone — when there's no sensitivity, no lactose intolerance, no casein reactivity — it provides some of the most bioavailable calcium in the human diet. Calcium from dairy is absorbed at roughly 30-35%, compared to 5-10% from spinach (where oxalates block absorption) and 20-25% from fortified plant milks. For bone density, dental health, and neuromuscular function, dairy calcium is clinically superior to most alternatives.

Beyond calcium: dairy provides complete protein with a high leucine content (critical for muscle protein synthesis), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) from grass-fed sources, fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2 (particularly from butter and cream from pasture-raised cows), and beneficial bacteria in fermented forms like yoghurt, kefir, and traditional buttermilk.

A1 versus A2 — does it matter?

The beta-casein protein in cow's milk exists in two main forms: A1 and A2. Most modern Holstein-Friesian herds produce predominantly A1 milk. Older breeds — Jersey, Guernsey, and many continental European breeds — produce more A2. There's a body of research suggesting that A1 beta-casein releases a peptide called beta-casomorphin-7 (BCM-7) during digestion, which may contribute to digestive discomfort, inflammation, and immune activation in susceptible individuals.

Is it definitive? No. Is it worth considering if you react to some dairy but not others? Absolutely. Many people who report problems with "dairy" are actually reacting to A1 casein, processing methods, or added ingredients — not to dairy as a category. Goat's milk, sheep's milk, and A2 cow's milk are frequently tolerated by people who can't handle standard supermarket milk. That's a clinically useful distinction that "just cut out dairy" entirely misses.

Raw versus pasteurised

This is where it gets politically charged. Raw dairy advocates claim superior enzyme content, probiotic benefits, and better digestibility. The public health establishment points to pathogen risk. Both positions contain truth.

Pasteurisation does reduce bacterial diversity and inactivate some enzymes, including lactase (which assists lactose digestion). Raw dairy from well-managed herds does carry a richer microbial profile. But the pathogen risk — Listeria, E. coli O157, Campylobacter — is real, not theoretical, and the consequences for immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women, and young children can be severe.

My position is pragmatic: Grahams dairy is pasteurised. I've used it for 25 years. Yes, raw dairy has theoretical advantages. Yes, the microbial argument is interesting. But for most people, high-quality pasteurised dairy from grass-fed herds is excellent nutrition, safely delivered. Test your response rather than assuming either way.

Organ meats — nature's multivitamin

Every traditional food culture on earth prized organ meats. Liver was given to pregnant women and growing children. Heart was valued for endurance. Kidneys were a staple, not a novelty. The idea that we should eat exclusively muscle meat and discard the rest is a modern invention — and a nutritionally catastrophic one.

Beef liver contains more vitamin A (as retinol, the bioavailable form) per gram than any other food. It's one of the richest sources of B12, folate, iron (as haem iron, absorbed 5-10 times more efficiently than non-haem iron from plants), copper, and choline. A single 100g serving of liver provides more micronutrient density than most people's entire daily supplement stack.

I'm not suggesting you need to eat liver three times a week if the thought makes you gag. But I am suggesting that the clinical obsession with isolated synthetic supplements — a methylfolate capsule here, a B12 lozenge there — when a single whole food provides all of these in their natural matrix, cofactors included, is a peculiar kind of modern blindness.

Cod liver oil — the original superfood

Before there were supplement aisles, there was cod liver oil. Your grandmother didn't take it because she'd read a systematic review. She took it because everyone in her family had taken it, and the children who didn't take it got rickets.

Cod liver oil provides three things simultaneously: vitamin A (retinol), vitamin D3, and omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA). This combination — in a single whole food — supports immune function, bone density, anti-inflammatory pathways, and brain development. The synergy between these nutrients in their natural ratios is something no capsule stack replicates exactly.

The caveat: quality matters enormously. Many commercial cod liver oils are processed to the point where natural vitamin content is stripped out and synthetic vitamins added back. Look for fermented or minimally processed versions where the vitamin profile reflects the original oil, not a manufacturing spec sheet.

Soaked grains, fermented foods, and the lost art of preparation

Here's something that drives me slightly mad about modern nutrition: we've simultaneously discovered that grains and legumes contain "anti-nutrients" (phytates, lectins, enzyme inhibitors) and concluded that they must therefore be avoided. What we've forgotten is that every traditional culture that ate grains and legumes prepared them in ways that neutralised these compounds — soaking, sprouting, fermenting, slow-cooking.

Soaking oats overnight reduces phytic acid by 30-50%. Fermenting sourdough bread breaks down gluten and phytate far more effectively than commercial yeast leavening. Soaking and pressure-cooking pulses and beans deactivates lectins almost entirely. These aren't health hacks. They're techniques that every culture used for thousands of years before we decided that convenience was more important than biochemistry.

The ancestral approach wasn't "avoid grains" or "eat unlimited grains." It was "prepare grains properly." That distinction has been entirely lost in the polarised modern diet debate.

Fermented foods — the original probiotics

Sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, traditional yoghurt, miso, natto, kvass, kombucha. Every food culture developed its own fermented foods, long before the word "probiotic" existed. These foods provide Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and other beneficial species in a food matrix that includes prebiotics, organic acids, and enzymes. They do what probiotic supplements aspire to do — populate the gut with beneficial organisms — but in a form the digestive system has evolved alongside for millennia.

I'm not anti-supplement. I prescribe targeted probiotics regularly based on GI-MAP results. But the foundation — the daily baseline of microbial support — should be fermented foods, not capsules. The capsules are the intervention. The food is the lifestyle.

The food philosophy that actually works

I've sat across from hundreds of clients. The ones who do best long-term share a common thread: they cook. They don't follow rigid protocols forever. They learn what works for their body — through testing, not guessing — and they build a relationship with food that's based on nourishment, pleasure, and practical sustainability.

The problem with modern nutrition isn't too little information. It's too much ideology. Carnivore versus vegan. Keto versus Mediterranean. Dairy-free versus raw dairy. Each camp has its zealots, its cherry-picked studies, and its absolute certainty. None of them are asking the only question that matters: what does your body actually need, right now, based on your data?

That's the test, don't guess approach applied to food. Run the blood chemistry. Run the food sensitivity panel. Check your nutrient status. Identify your Metabolic Nature. Then build a way of eating that's based on your biology, your preferences, your culture, and your practical reality — not on someone else's ideology.

Clinical partners — real food, real sources

Part of what I'm building with Detective Health is a network of businesses whose values align with this philosophy. Not sponsors. Not affiliates. Clients and colleagues whose work I know first-hand and whose quality I can vouch for personally.

The summary — in the spirit of test, don't guess

Real food is not a trend. It's the baseline. Dairy is not the enemy — it's a clinically valuable food for people whose biochemistry handles it well, and a clinically problematic food for people whose doesn't. The answer is in your data, not in a documentary.

Organ meats, cod liver oil, fermented foods, and properly prepared grains are not ancestral nostalgia — they're nutritionally dense wholefoods that address the exact deficiencies I see on blood chemistry panels every week. The irony of supplementing with synthetic B12, folate, iron, and vitamin D while avoiding the foods that provide all four simultaneously in bioavailable form is not lost on me.

Eat real food. Cook it properly. Source it well. Test what works for you. And stop letting ideology replace inquiry.

Your great-grandmother didn't need a food sensitivity panel because she ate real food, prepared properly, from local sources. You might need one because the food system has changed — but the principles haven't.

Stephen Duncan BSc (Hons) MSc FDN-P · Edinburgh · May 2026