A bit of folk knowledge that has been passed down my maternal line for generations and generations, is the love for nutrition. My great-grandmother passed this love onto my grandmother, who passed it onto my mother, who passed it onto me. For as long as I can remember, my mother has been slipping fluoride into applesauce, grass and spinach into smoothies, and eggplant into lasagna. I can remember oh too many times coming home from school, and taking in the mouth watering aroma of homemade bread or freshly baked cookies, and being sorely disappointed after taking a nibble and quickly noticing that my mom "accidentally" forgot to add sugar. Several times my father has brought home ice-cream, and after a couple sneaky spoonfuls, my mother would take it and flush it down the toilet, muttering things about "cholesterol" under her breath. This is only skimming the surface; there have been many (intense) dinner conversations about the Vitamin B family, and how important it is to have a balance of these B Vitamins. I bet you didn't know that if you are only taking Vitamin B12, that you will be depleting the rest of your B Vitamins, did you? Yeah well that's probably because your mom didn't forget that she has already told you that a thousand times. (Bless her heart).
I have heard everything, and I mean everything about every enzyme that exists in the intestinal tract, its chemical structure, the kinds of bonds it forms, and everything else you can possibly imagine. I have quickly learned to zone out when she goes off about how peroxisomes digest fat, and the best times to eat so that your body absorbs the most nutrition possible.
My mom's new item of interest lately has been all about beans. We probably have a thousand pounds of them shoved into every nook and cranny of our pantry, storage closet, garage, and shed. If you are walking through the kitchen and feel something uncomfortable under your foot, its probably a bean. She loves to cook them in crock pots, pressure cookers, and cast iron skillets. She just can't get enough of them and can't understand how our family just doesn't seem to share that same passion even though they are stock full of fiber and protein.
Although I may be negatively portraying my sweet mother's love for nutrition, I have to say that this folk knowledge is very positive and meaningful to me in my life as well. I love learning about herbs and natural remedies and the best way to balance my body. Nutritional knowledge is something that I know I will carry on to my children too--despite their groans when they push away their morning muffins and green smoothies.
On a side note, it seems like some of the grossest foods can be some of the most nutritious, and maybe--just maybe we should listen to those who have gone before us. Relating back to beans, the Japanese people have been eating a certain dish called Nattō for thousands of years (documented back to 10,000 BC)! Nattō is made by fermenting soybeans. It has a slimy texture, strong smell, and unforgettable taste. Although most "first-triers" consider it repulsive, Nattō has many medicinal purposes. It is a blood thinner, a dietary supplement, helps to prevent osteoporosis, suppresses excessive immune reactions, and has been said to lower cholesterol and even have an antibiotic effect. Anciently, it was used to treat dysentery. I will leave it up to you to decide whether or not these health benefits are worth it…I personally have chosen to leave it alone....
Researching Nattō, brought me to a new interesting discovery and thought--The ancient Greeks used a process of lacto-fermantation to (not ferment) but to perfectly preserve their fruits and vegetables. This is a natural process that is carried about by adding a small amount of salt, water, and spices which catalyze lactic acid to increase the fruit's or vegetables' nutrition content, increase digestibility, and preserve it perfectly--better than freezing, canning, or drying! Who would have known? Well that is my point--how could you have known? In this day and age, we have refrigerators and ways to store food so that this process is no longer "needed." Sadly, an increase in technology has caused a decrease in nutrition. For some reason we seem to think that we are much better off with our gizmos and gadgets and think we are smarter than our forefathers--but who knew that they knew SO much? Maybe instead of thinking we are so advanced, we might want to take a step back in time to re-learn what we have un-learned.
I'm not sure that technology is necessarily the cause of the general population's declining sense of nutrition...but I did really enjoy the part about how we're losing some of those ancient nutritional and preserving practices. Why use that complicated process when you have a fridge? I wonder if it still is in practice somewhere less developed...
ReplyDeleteI don't think that a decrease in nutrition could be pinned as a direct cause of increases in technology either. In fact, without modern technology, there would be no way to keep Americans as well-nourished as they are. How many urban centers in America produce as much food as they consume? None. They need to have their food brought in from rural farmers. Without modern technology for transporting and storing/preserving this food, urbanization would be impossible (not that urbanization is in of itself necessarily good).
ReplyDeleteWho says that lacto-fermentation "perfectly preserves" fruits and vegetables? Just like freezing, canning, and drying, it will not last forever. Barring some wide scale famine, we would only ever really need for fruits and vegetables to last for one year so that they can be harvested in their season annually, so as long as we have methods that last that long, does it really matter?
I should have been more clear: there is definitely a need for technology! And it has definitely helped our nutrition in many ways! Milk for example would go sour within a day or so without a fridge! So, like mentioned, lacto-fermentation is more specifically beneficial for fruits and veggies.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of this article is to point out that we are stuck in this mindset where we think we are better than our forefathers, and forget that they have so many neat practices that we can learn from that might actually be more beneficial than what we have (in some ways, of course). I am not saying "throw away your fridges!" But what I am saying is that maybe for certain things (like fruits and veggies), we can enjoy the health benefits by lacto-fermenting it instead of canning it! Unless of course, you don't like the flavor :).
Also, depending on the type of food, you can actually get it to preserve for many many years! Some say that their food gets better the older it gets!
Thanks for your post and your clarification Brenda. It's interesting how when a new technology develops and becomes socially implemented you lose another. They all have their pros and cons.
ReplyDeleteFLUSHING ICECREAM?!?! I hope I'm not the only one appalled by such a show of nutritional zealotism. Also, weighing in on the lacto-fermentation vs canning duel, I know that my grandmother has some canned goods that have been untouched for years. We even dare eat them occasionally. Granted, this is my grandma's work, and thus hailing from a past generation (maybe even from when lacto-fermentation was popular). My point is, you can get whatever food you want, and often keep it for a while. Nutrition is, as has always been, up to our own choices for what we eat. The only thing technology has done is make unhealthy choices easier to come by.
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