Paleo Woman

TUDOR IS BETTING THE FUTURE OF HEALTH on a prehistoric diet. The health guru—and avid hunter—is among a growing number of nutritionists and athletes inspired by “Paleolithic eating:” abandoning grains, dairy and sugar in favor of meat, fish and vegetables to approximate what humans relied on for energy before the agricultural revolution. Her book Sweet Potato Power, released last spring, puts a twist on traditional concepts of the Paleo diet by advocating for “smart carbs” such as sweet potatoes, which Tudor calls “a powerful ally in our efforts to eat primal in a modern world.”

The San Francisco resident was named one of the city’s “Top Innovators in Health” by the mayor in 2010. Her passion for nutrition and the Paleo diet led to her lifestyle as an active hunter. “I love being connected to the ingredients that I use in my cooking, and hunting became a way that I could find the cleanest meat,” Tudor said in a 2012 interview with CBS San Francisco. As if becoming a field-to-table chef wasn’t enough, Tudor also found artistic inspiration. Her sculptures—bronze replicas of animal skulls cast into European-style mounts have garnered plenty of attention from the art world, the hunting community and mainstream media outlets. Each piece takes about three months to create. Melding the natural and organic with distinctly contemporary materials isn’t easy, but the end result reflects Tudor’s effort to inject primal aesthetics into modern living.

Tudor took up deer and bird hunting as part of her interest in field-to-table cooking.