EATING ON THE WILD SIDE

Nature's Bounty, Photograph                                        © by Ruth Zachary

 

  The above photograph depicts the apples from the trees in back of my home in the city. They were not sprayed, but having been raised as a country girl, I had no trouble making delicious applesauce from their sometimes fruitful harvest. 

A Book Review of  Eating On The Wild Side by Jo Robinson.

            More has been learned about the actual nutritional values of foods we eat since the year 2000 than in the previous 75 years during the 20^th Century. This, among other recent books should be important reading on anybody’s list.

            Ms. Robinson explains the history of human diet in an overview covering the previous 10,000 years. The diet of early ancestral hunters and gatherers included fruits, vegetables and proteins that provided the original low glycemic diet our species thrived upon. Mankind has created foods we currently eat, selecting for sweet, starchy and high fatty content, and by planting and cultivating favorite varieties in locales close to home.

            The natural diet of hunters and gatherers included a great many wild foods no longer eaten by urban populations. Most were from three to ten times better for human health than the modified species we eat today.

            No other species has created foods for consumption and other animals are limited by available varieties and habitat, to eat certain foods that encourage their survival (except for domestic animals we have also modified by our selection)

            No other species has created foods for consumption and other animals are limited by available varieties and habitat, to eat certain foods that encourage their survival (except for domestic animals we have also modified by our selection).

            Recent patterns of food production and distribution have decreased nutritional value even more than choices for limited food species in the human diet. Species that produce more volume or flavor are encouraged, without selection for high quality nutrition. Methods of early harvest and distribution over great distances decrease the nutritional value further, as compared to products grown close to home. Our agricultural grand parents at least harvested and ate many of their fruits and vegetables a day or so later. Today, U-pick foods offer the best nutrition. Some foods are surprisingly higher in nutrition than others. It requires being educated about varieties of fruits and vegetables to manage to get the best food values in terms of both nutrition and cost.

            Knowledge of best methods of preservation, storage and cooking is also important. The idea that raw is always better than cooked is sometimes false. Berries, for instance, offer increased anti-oxidants by cooking. Re-introducing edible wild species into our diet offers new opportunities. Returning to species of weed plants, such as comfrey, purslane, dandelion, and lambs quarters, generally neglected as food,  might well improve the overall human diet. Who knew that Quinoa is actually the seed of lambs quarters, a common weed at the edges of gardens? Herbs known only as occasional cures for health problems seem to be coming back, used as staples for health. It is possible that foods will increasingly be seen in the same way as our ancestors saw them.

            This book reviews the healthiest fruits and vegetables available to human consumption. It offers charts for comparison, methods of growing, harvesting and best preservation of each food, so that the very best nutritional value is achieved. Recipes are included.

            I am convinced that anyone who follows this avenue of nutrition could avoid most diseases, including cancer, and live to a healthy and active old age.

            This book is organized with an overview and in two basic parts, the first dealing with Vegetables, and part two with Fruits.  Reviewed  © by Ruth Zachary